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First
Director National Theatre of Scotland promises to "create life-changing
theatre for all to enjoy".
NTS Seasons' - the first richly diverse season commences in 2006
in detail.
The Article on the First Director of NToS.
EdinburghGuide.com's Theatre Editor's Reaction.
Reviews of New Director's previous work for other companies.
NTS creative team - Details.
The Board that appointed Vicky Featherstone Pictured back row left
to right: Peter Cabrelli, Maggie Kinloch, Dr Donald Smith, Anne
Bonnar, Allan Burns Pictured seated front left to right: Iain More,
Richard Findlay, (Chairman) and Claire Chapman. Who
are they?
© CentrePress 2004.
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Vicky
Featherstone, currently Director of Paines
Plough theatre company was appointed as the inaugural Director of
the National Theatre of Scotland. Chairman Richard Findlay announced on
29 July 2004.
She took up her post on 1st November as the director of The National Theatre
of Scotland (NToS). It will be a commissioning organisation and the Theatre
will, unlike most other national theatres, not be based in a specific
theatre building.
Dynamic theatre director Vicky Featherstone has an outstanding track record
in British theatre. She is definitely a champion of new and cutting-edge
writing, including several Scottish writers. This appointment signals
a firm commitment to new work, as well as established writers, by the
National Theatre of Scotland.
The recipient of 12 theatre awards in the past five
years alone, Featherstone is also well known for bringing a number of
critically acclaimed productions to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe over
many years - see EdinburghGuide
reviews. She is also known for her work with Graeae
Theatre Company, which presents productions by people with physical
and sensory impairments. More information about the new director considerable
achievements here.
Announcing the appointment at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and
Drama Richard Findlay said "I am delighted that Vicky Featherstone has
agreed to become our first Director. She is an outstanding theatre director,
is highly driven, and has a clear vision of what she wants to achieve
in the role. Vicky is rightly recognised as a major force in British theatre
and I am looking forward to working with her to bring inspirational theatre
to everyone in Scotland."
The Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, Frank McAcveety MSP, welcomed
the appointment, adding "The creation of the first National Theatre of
Scotland is testimony to our commitment to see the arts flourish here
in Scotland. We are aiming for world-class productions, which will make
a major contribution to our cultural life. I am delighted to welcome Vicky
Featherstone to the job of ensuring that the National Theatre of Scotland
is something that we can be proud of and that will make Scotland's mark
on the international cultural stage."
Vicky Featherstone said: "I am honoured to be charged with the historic
responsibility of developing and achieving the founding vision for the
National Theatre of Scotland. The company will build upon all that is
vibrant, dynamic and ground-breaking in Scotland and the Scottish theatre
scene, to create life-changing theatre for all to enjoy."
Jim Tough, Deputy Director, Scottish Arts Council also welcomed the appointment
and said: "Vicky Featherstone's international reputation as a producer
and director sets the tone for an outward-looking National Theatre. Her
energy and proven confidence in Scottish theatre artists
promises an invigorating and diverse National Theatre of Scotland. The
appointment of a woman to this senior artistic position should give added
encouragement to women artists, who are currently under-represented in
leadership posts in the sector."
Thelma Good Theatre Editor's Reaction. New director
achievements here.
Thelma's Reaction - We dour Scots have waited
with some trepidation to hear who was going to be our first National Theatre
Director, but now the news is out, words like terrific, imaginative and
inspiring are the reaction. Vicky Featherstone is a woman who rings the
right bells, far more important than ticking all the right boxes. Her
direction is crisp and clear, working with new texts and living writers
so the productions move and inspire. She also has a history of collaborating
with companies of imagination pushing at the boundaries who carry their
audiences with them.
While the proof of her appointment will be in the work she draws out of
Scotland and the people who find themselves living and working there temporarily
or permanently, there's no doubt this is a popular result in the Scottish
theatre community today. Her name is perhaps not so well known to theatre
goers up here but I'm confident that the first Director of the NTS has
the eye for a great script, fine actors, imaginative designers, and that
magic that is a well put together band of creatives. Her new role as a
commissioning director will undoubtedly enable her to increase her ability
in being a artistic marriage maker.
There may be some muttering in the aisles, in the bars and even in the
glens that it would had been nice to have appointed an entirely home nurtured
talent. But you'd have a fruitless search in our country to find a person
who so well matched in experience and talent to the design of this non-building
based theatre. And why is that?
Well, until recently the Scottish theatre scene, particularly but not
exclusively in building based theatre, has been log jammed with many Directors
who have stayed in jobs for 10 years plus. Some really not striking enough
to have justified any longevity - more a case of "holding on to nurse
in case of getting someone worse", others like the Triumvirate, Havergal,
MacDonald and Prowse always trying to aim high and extraordinary, and
quite often in this tricky art, succeeding. But the blocked directors'
seats meant theatre directing jobs which gave experience of running a
large organisation for new fresh blood or eyes became hard to get for
a long time. And there was the NTS board's problem, how to find someone
with the greatest breadth of experience who understood the strange beast
that is Scotland and the theatre today.
A decent number of years hence when she leaves, as she will for she's
a woman who clearly likes challenges and trying different work experiences,
I just hope that the Scottish Theatre scene will be that be bit more secure.
Secure so that theatre directors can move around more freely to enrich
themselves with new situations and keep them from that dullness that longstanding
director can develop. Then more might create at the top of their field,
still invigorate by the art and variety of theatre, an energy which would
bring enrichment to them and to us as we go to see what they have garnered.
Then there could be a plethora of experienced lively directors or producers
trying become her successor. With quite a number of recent changes in
the leaders of building based theatre if not major touring companies here
it could happen.
Thelma's reaction © Thelma Good 29 July 2004 - Published on Edinburghguide.com
More about Vicky Featherstone - During Ms Featherstone's
7-year tenure as Artistic Director of Paines Plough, she is credited with
having catapulted the company into its current position as one of Britain's
leading theatre companies. Major productions that Featherstone has directed
for Paines Plough include: On Blindness by Glyn Cannon, The Drowned World
by Gary Owen, Tiny Dynamite by Abi Morgan, Crazy
Gary's Mobile Disco by Gary Owen, Splendour by Abi Morgan; The Cosmonaut's
Last Message To The Woman He Once Loved In The Former Soviet Union by
David Greig, Crave by Sarah Kane; Sleeping Around by Stephen Greenhorn,
Hilary Fannin, Abi Morgan and Mark Ravenhill; and Crazyhorse by Parv Bancil.
The spread of the writers speaks of her range and ability. EdinburghGuide
Reviews of her work here.
Next year, Ms Featherstone
with Paines Plough is due to launch a season "This Other England"
of four world premieres at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London by Enda
Walsh, Philip Ridley, David Greig and Douglas Maxwell. David Greig's and
Douglas Maxwell's plays are co-productions with The Tron, Glasgow, and
Dundee Rep respectively and will be seen in those theatres. Also starting
next year is the off-Broadway production of Abi Morgan's Tiny
Dynamite, also directed by Featherstone, and a children's opera, developed
with Improbable Theatre.
Awards
- Ms Featherstone's recent awards include two prestigious TMA (Theatrical
Management Association) Awards in 2001 for Best Play and Best Director
for Splendour;
and three Fringe First Awards - in 2003 (The
Drowned World), 2001 (Splendour) and 1999 (Riddance).
Vicky Featherstone spent much of her early childhood in Scotland, attending
primary school in Alva, Clackmannanshire, before moving to India with
her family. She has worked in Scotland for a significant part of her career
and has spent many years forming fruitful relationships and collaborations
with established Scottish writers such as David Greig, Douglas Maxwell,
Gregory Burke, Mike Cullen, Stephen Greenhorn, David Harrower and Linda
McLean, to produce some of their most exciting work.
Ms Featherstone is also well known as a champion of other world-class
writers, including Mark Ravenhill, Sarah Kane, Abi Morgan and Gary Owen.
Her extensive international work includes international tours with Paines
Plough and master-classes for foreign companies visiting the UK. She recently
directed Caryl Churchill's A number for the National Theatre of Slovenia
and has worked in Mexico, Finland, Sweden, Italy and Lithuania.
Vicky Featherstone before she took up her appointment with NTS was the
Artistic Director of Paines Plough. At that time she was on the board
of Graeae Theatre Company and Frantic
Assembly, was an Artistic Associate for The
Lyric, Hammersmith and was on the Drama Advisory Panel to Nicola Thorold
at the Arts Council of England (ACE), as well as part of the Theatre Writing
Strategy group for ACE. Vicky was on RTYDS as Assistant Director and then
Associate Director at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and Resident Director
at Bolton Octagon.
Funding totalling £7.5m for the National Theatre of Scotland over
two years began on 1 April 2004. These funds will be disbursed by the
Scottish Arts Council over the two years to 31 March 2006.
The Board of Directors of the National Theatre of Scotland were appointed
on 1 April 2004. The members include Maggie Kinloch and David Smith and
Richard Findlay Chairman of the National Theatre of Scotland was appointed
on 1 December 2003
The Bridge Cultural Campus in Greater Easterhouse has been identified
as the preferred location for the National Theatre of Scotland's administrative
office. Interim premises for the National Theatre's office are currently
being identified in the centre of Glasgow, to be used until The Bridge
is complete, probably some time in 2007.
Some of material © Thelma Good. The bulk was provided by the NTS press
release.This article slightly reworded in 2005 to take account of a few
changes.
Who are on The Board of the NTS? - Anne Bonnar,
partner, Bonnar Keenlyside cultural management consultants; Allan Burns,
Joint Executive Director of Diageo Scotland and Director of Global Procurement;
Peter Cabrelli, former Group Human Resources Director of HBOS; Claire
Chapman, Head of Production at Scottish Screen; Professor Maggie Kinloch,
Head of Drama, Queen Margaret University College; Iain More, founding
partner of fundraisers Iain More Associates; and Dr Donald Smith, Chair
of the Scottish Storytelling Centre and former Chair of the independent
working group which advised the Scottish Arts Council on the structure
of the National Theatre.
The Article on the First Director of NToS.
EdinburghGuide.com's Theatre Editor's Reaction.
Reviews of New Director's previous work for other companies.
NTS season's details, the first season is 2006.
Theatre Editor, Thelma Good's e-mail is
thelma@edinburghguide.com
Although every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the
information presented in these pages, no responsibility can be accepted
for any errors or omissions.
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