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Dateline: 14th March, 2006
New Writers at the RSC RSC Artistic Director Michael Boyd, along with Literary Manager Jeanie O’Hare and Associate Director Dominic Cooke, has created three separate projects for new writers during the next two years. Four writers have been invited to work with the company, all with the same brief - to bridge the gap between the writer and actor and to create new work inspired by working on Shakespeare’s texts.
International Writer in Residence
Michael Boyd has invited the US writer Adriano Shaplin to take the newly created post of International Writer in Residence for the company on a two year contract. The post, beginning in the summer of 2006, will include working closely in rehearsals with Michael Boyd’s cast for his productions of Shakespeare’s History plays, at the same time developing his own play ideas for the same ensemble of actors, many of whom will be working together for the most extended period of their careers. He will be able to write for a specific grouping of actors if he so wishes, writing to their strengths and particular skills. The aim is to restore the severed link between the writer and the ensemble. “Adriano is a writer, director, a theatrical entrepreneur in charge of his own ensemble (The Riot Group) just as Shakespeare was," said Michael Boyd." He writes with a density and lyricism of language that require those rhetorical skills an actor in an ensemble can offer. “
Adriano was commissioned on the strength of his play The Pugilist Specialist which garnered critical acclaim and an extended run at the Soho theatre and on Broadway in 2003/4. His post is jointly funded by the RSC and Warwick University where Adriano will also lecture and hold workshops.
RSC Literary Manager Jeanie O’Hare says of the project, “This project is important for the company and for the writer himself. At a time when the film and television feeding frenzy starts to erode the work of many of exciting playwright,s we will be able to create an environment in which Adriano can focus solely on his work for theatre. Within the embrace of the RSC a long term project like this can foster a deeper piece of personal work, encouraging that work to emerge, unhurried. Adriano will be developing three streams of work; his writing for an ensemble, his directing of new projects either devised or written, and to develop his already sophisticated approach to dramaturgy collaborating on the vision that Michael Boyd will bring to the Histories.” Read Philip Fisher's 2004 interview with Adriano Shaplin. The Pearson Writer in Residence
Following in the distinguished footsteps of writers including David Greig, Lee Hall and Liz Lockhead, Sean Buckley will take post as the RSC’s Pearson Writer in Residence in March 2006. Sean, who trained at Ecole Jacques Lecoq and co-founded Quiconque, won the Verity Bargate Award in 2003 for Matches for Monkeys. His play Stone Baby was recently produced on Radio 4.
Jeanie O’Hare says of him, “We will encourage Sean to look at Shakespeare’s own development as a writer, at his practice as a man of the theatre who wrote for an ensemble of actors he knew, for deadlines that were tight and for a box office which had to make money. The RSC is confirming its commitment to the ensemble and Sean will have the challenge and the possibility to write for particular actors within the company. As we are about to present all 37 plays, all the sonnets and the long poems within the next year during the Complete Works Festival, it’s fair to say that this period is a gift for a young dramatist”. Long-Term Writer Dramaturg Project
Two other distinguished writers are to join the RSC over the next two years. The long term aim of this project is to bring back the writer’s voice to the rehearsal room, and to re-establish the idea that the text is alive with a potency that can be released by the writer’s instinct.
Sarah Phelps, known to many as the ‘queen of EastEnders’ for her acclaimed and sometimes epic storylines for the television show, will join the RSC to work on The Tempest in the Complete Works Festival. Sarah has also written plays, including Modern Dance for Beginners and television series, including No Angels.
Moira Buffini will also be a Writer Dramaturg in this year’s Complete Works Festival. Her recent play Dinner enjoyed a successful run in the West End in 2005. Her last work for the RSC was Loveplay which played in The Pit as part of the RSC’s This Other Eden season of new work in 2000. Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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