2024
Goldsmiths
This was quite a year for many of those working at Goldsmiths, University of London. Compulsory redundancies, strikes, structural change, the retirement of ICCE founder Gerald Lidstone in August, a new convenor of the Masters in Arts Administration and Cultural Policy (MAACP, on which I mainly teach) – Aleksander Brkic, and the coming merger of the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship (ICCE) with the Institute of Management Studies (IMS) into a new School, one of four planned as part of Faculty Two... As the MAACP is so successful in its student uptake, my position has not been under threat; and with the retirement of the (irreplaceable) gaffer and the end of this year coinciding with the culmination of our Italian adventure, I aim to help Alex and colleagues with the continued growth and success of the programme.
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The Fence network
To expedite future planning The Fence made two small grant applications for funding: to the UK 4 Nations International programme (unsuccessful) and the EU Culture Moves Europe programme (successful). Metaphora was a small pilot project The fence undertook in February around train travel across Europe (from Sweden to Italy), as a creative stimulus to us all reviewing our flight options.
In March we made 2 Fence-led EU Erasmus+ bids under the Vocational Educational Training (VET) strands. One focusing on dramaturgs, the other on playwrights. Both were unsuccessful, but as a first attempt they yielded useful learning which will enable us to take the next steps on our journey to better know and serve our Swedish hosts.
In February I was in Leuven (Belgium) for Shakespeare is Dead, new writing festival then in May in Pristina for Polip and Graz for Dramatikerinnen to talk about the Collective Bargaining project and to start to forethink the Graz May 2026 network gathering, which is due to happen in partnership with Uni-T (Edith Draxl) and the EU Creative Rurope funded Future Narratives for Planet Earth project - in which a number of other fence network members are also involved.
Two Projects directly involving The Fence started in October /November (also funded via EU Creative Europe):
Drama of Small European Languages (DoSEL) 2024-6 on which The Fence is an Associate Partner, is dedicated to the cultural and linguistic diversity in the European cultural space, and in particular to improving conditions for international collaboration, translation and the staging of European drama written in smaller European languages. The DoSEL project is a continuation of the work that began in 2021 in the frame of the development grant from the European Theatre Convention (ETC) that was awarded to the consortium of Prešeren Theatre Kranj (Slovenia), the National Agency for the Performing Arts (Malta) and the Slovak National Theatre (Slovakia). With the successful application for the Creative Europe tender in 2024, the consortium of the DoSEL project expanded, including Arriaga Theatre (Spain), Sala Beckett (Spain), HNK Zagreb (Croatia), Estonian Theatre Agency (Estonia), National Theatre Kosovo (Kosovo) and Ivan Vazov Theatre (Bulgaria), with the intention of permanent change of the structural condition in the European theatre sector and an increase in the accessibility of drama of smaller European languages to a wider range of European and world audiences.
The Legend of Europa
2024-6 is a collaboration between 5 theatre organisations from 4 countries, employing innovative approaches of collective creation to develop a new play in response to the founding myth of Europe itself. This will directly address the development and promotion of European cultural and linguistic diversity and heritage, questioning narratives that regard these as exclusive, and demonstrating the centrality to Europe of migrant communities and cultural minorities. Three, 9-day devising workshops, one each led by Border Crossings, Teatro Dell’Argine and Theatre du Soleil, will involve the core devising team from each partner organisation. Dramaturgical methodologies developed by The Fence will help bring together the materials generated, culminating in a showcase of the work, at Riksteatern in Stockholm. Riksteatern will also develop a green future touring model for the prototype co-production: attracting invited presenters, theatres and festivals.
In planning (for submission / re-submission to EU Erasmus+ programme)
2D, 3D, 4D
Drawing on the International Dramaturgy Laboratory to connect dramaturgs, directors, playwrights, theatre makers, and thinkers around the topic: What does it mean to work dramaturgically across borders? I have been reworking the core elements of the project with its original instigator, Hanna Slattne. Centring on the dramaturg, we are re-scoping an EU Erasmus+ bid with Catherine Young Dance Company in Ireland, where Hanna is dramaturg – as well as with Katarina Pejovic in Zagreb, and with Edward Bromberg in Stockholm. We are reworking it around the interplay between text, bodies and digital, for re-submission in March 2025
All our Tomorrows
Drawing on the 2017 Ireland has struck oil, but will it be Norway or Nigeria? pilot, Gabriel Gbadamosi and I have been re-scoping an EU Erasmus+ bid with Irish dramaturg Pamela McQueen possibly with the Irish Theatre Institute, and possibly with Adriana Garbagnati at La Mama Umbria, which we will also rework for re-submission in March 2025, simplifying the project to focus on three key areas of playwright peer-to-peer training: climate justice, A.I. and Democracy..
Collective Bargaining
Led by Kim Komljanec, we have created a partnership of organisations linked to both playwriting development mechanisms and also to guilds / unions / associations
• Sweden (The fence)
• Kossovo (Jeton Neziraj and Qendra)
• Netherlands (Jibbe Willems and Auteursbond)
• Slovenia (Jera Ivanc, Kim Komljanec, and The Slovenian Association of Dramatic Artists (SADA)
• Scotland (Playwrights Studio Scotland - Sara Shaarawi and Louise Stephens)
1. to share practice and strategise around playwrights’ rights in a changing theatrical landscape.
2. then to meet with policy makers and funders.
We are working towards an Eramsus + bid, also for submission in March 2025
We aim to keep the Fence as informal a network as possible, as members have previously indicated this is the single most important attribute. We do, however, have a board, who contribute variously to the work we do: Oladipo Agboluaje, Edward (Buffalo) Bromberg, Duska Radosavljevic, Fred Fortas, Amelia Parenteau, Kim Komljanec, and Sara Shaarawi. Huge thanks to them for their continuing support.
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Thanks to Simon Liebesny, Since March 2024, I have been working as consultant with Robert Silman on The Bard of Pittsburgh Ltd
Vision At the core of the Bard of Pittsburgh African Legacy Theatre (BOP) is the genius of August Wilson, one of the great playwrights of history and deserving of an association that recognises his contribution to global culture.
Mission BOP Champions the genius of all great black playwrights of yesteryear, now and tomorrow. Much like the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) exists to promulgate the works and the genius of William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon - via production of his plays and those of his contemporaries - BOP’s mission is to transform August Wilson into a household name, via the production of his plays, as well as those of his contemporaries
I look forward to continuing this work in 2025 with Robert, and also Indira Etwaroo, CEO at Harlem Stage / BOP Inc.
https://bardofpittsburgh.com/BOPW/
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In January, thanks to Euradia, I worked on the copy editing of the Cooltour – Guidelines for Heritage Managers to foster participation and to better engage with millennials, an EU Erasmus+ funded project.
In November/December I worked with my next-door-neighbour: the playwright, director, dramaturg and Digital Theatre expert Beatriz Cabur on a translation of Mareas Muertos (Dead Tides) a play by Ana Diaz Velasco. Translation is always a dramaturgical process and this was certainly a fine example of why that is so much the case. I look forward to whatever happens next with the English script…
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In January 2025 I will be working as consultant with Gabriel Gbadamosi, Founding Editor of WritersMosaic, to examine the model he created, in all its modalities, and to help create a legacy of his work with the Royal Literary Fund
WritersMosaic, a division of the Royal Literary Fund, is an online magazine and developmental resource focused on UK writers of the global majority, reflecting the changing reality of contemporary Britain, from its past and into its future. The platform showcases writer profiles through authored talks, creative exchanges and interviews, using images and illustrations, commissioned by an editorial team of writers who bring their own blend of curiosity, excitement and deep cultural and critical engagement. The informal, multi-voiced, writer-to-writer recordings are complemented by themed Guest editions from leading publishers, writers, editors, thinkers and artists who reflect on their own thematic interests and insights across genres of literature and introduce us to new developments. With new author profiles published regularly online alongside themed Guest editions, we aim to give audiences a unique and in-depth insight into the lives and writing practices of contemporary writers who reflect the UK’s widening literary culture.
https://writersmosaic.org.uk/about-writersmosaic/
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2024 has been a year of endings: My Heart is in The East didn’t progress further because I was overwhelmed by the carnage wreaked by the Israeli government and I felt that amid this, the play could no longer speak to our times; or at least stand a proper chance of being heard. Chair didn’t progress beyond it’s table reading with Toby Jones; not because Yves Baigneres’ script isn’t a well-crafted, funny and viable play – which it is, but because we just couldn’t quite get it off the ground... I waited a year for the Crossing The Line (CTL) partners to work out what they wanted to do next, and then bade them farewell in August - as they hadn’t been able to generate forward momentum. COVID adversely impacted momentum with all 3 of these projects, but unquestionably sank the CTL partnership, which never really recovered from the blow of being unable to stage the second planned triennial CTL festival, as part of the European Capital of Culture in Galway, back in 2020.
In the first week of 2025, Debbie and I will bid farewell to Florence, where we have been based for most of the last 3.5 years, returning to London. Debbie has done some absolutely fantastic work with the cohort of 14 talented actors from across Italy that she has been training, with a small team of colleagues at L’Oltrarno. Florence has been an extraordinary adventure, which would not have been possible without the support of a huge number of family and friends. That we were able to host 84 of them during our time here, is but a small measure of our thanks.