When Rep Stripped opens at Dundee Rep next week, it will look a lot
different from the Tayside theatre’s usual programme. This inaugural ten-day
festival of new work won’t feature full productions as the company’s in-house
ensemble have done on the main stage since the company was founded. Instead,
under the curatorship of producer Carla Marina Almeida and director Jordan
Blackwood, Rep Stripped will see artists at different levels of experience
present a series of works in progress and Scratch performances at early stages
in development.
With the festival pulled together from an open call-out, the sheer level
of activity on offer is an impressively mammoth operation for Almeida and
Blackwood to oversee, especially given that both are themselves at the early
stages of their careers.
“It’s been a really long process to bring everything together,” says
Almeida, who for the last year has been Dundee Rep’s Stage One Regional
Producer, a UK-wide initiative for young producers. “It’s been going on since
June last year, and because it’s really different from what the Rep normally
does and because there are so many artists involved it’s taken a long time to
co-ordinate, but we’re really excited to be doing it. When we started I was
brought in as producer, and Jordan was brought in as director, but as soon as
we started it straight away became a much more collaborative process, and it’s
only now in the last week that we’ve gone back to our more regular roles.”
For Blackwood, who has worked as assistant director on Dundee Rep
productions as well as being co-founder of Glasgow-based new writing company,
In Motion Theatre Company, Rep Stripped, one of the surprises was the high
level of applicants.
“There were about 150 to 160 submissions,” he says, “and it was really
nice to see submissions come in, not just from emerging artists, but but from
people who are quite established. To have that range and diversity of artists
working alongside each other is really important in terms of balance, and it
means that people can support each other at different levels.”
Familiar names in Rep Stripped include Rep Ensemble member Emily Winter,
who will take part in events alongside input from Oliver Emanuel and Gareth
Williams, the team behind the National Theatre of Scotland’s 306 trilogy. There
will also be first looks at work from companies such as Blood of the Young,
Jordan and Skinner and Brite Theatre’s Kolbrun Bjort Sigfusdottir. Those taking
part in Scratch events include Dundee-based Nunah Theatre Company, Third Thread
Ensemble and a verbatim piece from the Shaper/Caper company.
Stripped Lates feature spoken-word artists Imogen Stirling and local
collective Hotchpotch Presents, while Rep Stripped’s Pilot initiative will
present work built up through residences by the likes of director Beth Morton,
working with producers Raw Material.
There will also be workshops and discussions hosted by the National
Theatre of Scotland’s Engine Room initiative, while Playwrights Studio Scotland
host Where are all the playwrights in Dundee, a discussion featuring the likes
of Jaimini Jethwa, Sandy Thomson of the Poorboy company, and writer of DUPed,
John McCann.
Rep Stripped was initiated by Dundee Rep artistic director Andrew
Panton, who approached Almeida and Blackwood to bring it to life. Part of the
impetus came from the success of Hi, My Name is Ben, a new piece of musical
theatre developed by the team behind the Noisemaker company with Dundee Rep and
the Connecticut based Goodspeed Musicals. The various stages of development for
that show had what Almeida calls “an open rehearsal vibe” which enabled
audiences to see part of a show’s development they wouldn’t normally be granted
access to.
This is something of a tend just now, and appears to reflect something
of a trickle-up effect of more grassroots-based activity by artists finding
different ways to work in cash-strapped times. With this in mind, Dundee Rep
isn’t the only theatre to put development programmes more public-facing than
they might once have done. While this in part reflects the current state of
arts funding, programmes such as Rep Stripped have gone some way to fostering a
looser-knit aesthetic that is crucial for participating artists. But what’s in
it for audiences perhaps more used to watching the Rep’s regular programme of
main-stage productions?
“I think the main thing for the audience I the chance to see work at the
beginning of its life and to influence how it develops,” says Blackwood.
What happens beyond Rep Stripped in terms of whether it becomes an
annual part of the theatre’s calendar remains to be seen.
“It would be nice to think that it could,” says Blackwood, “and this is part
of a big conversation we’re having right now. But whatever happens, I think
it’s important that the Rep should become more of a creative hub to develop
things throughout the year. It would be great if Rep Stripped became an annual
event, but there should also be space for directors and other artists to come
her throughout the year and develop stuff.”
Almeida agrees.
“It would be quite sad after such an amazing response to Rep Stripped
already if nothing else comes of it,” she says. “We’ve had lots of local people
applying to be part of something here for the first time ever, and we don’t
want to lose that.”
Rep Stripped - Highlights
The first big weekend of Rep Stripped features two Scratch nights, one
of new works by Scottish writers Sue Gyford, Isla Cowan and Gavin J Innes, the
other based around women writers, and featuring work by Rebecca Martin, Julie
Tsang and Kolbrun Bjort Sigfusdottir. There will also be work in progress
presentations of Caravan by Daniel Cameron, Belleville Rendevous by the Blood
of the Young company and A History of Paper by Oliver Emanuel and Gareth
Williams. Further works in progress follow by Third Thread Young Company, Nunah
Theatre Company and Scottish Youth Theatre. Another seven days of activity
follow.
Rep Stripped runs at Dundee Rep, April 18-27. For full details go
to www.dundeerep.co.uk.
The Herald, April 13th 2019
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