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Interviews
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Deborah Shaw - Festival Success Is a Shaw Thing Steve Orme talks to Deborah Shaw, director of the RSC's Complete Works Festival, about this massive feat of organisation. For the next 12 months lovers of Shakespeare's works will probably make the quaint yet entrepreneurial Warwickshire town of Stratford-on-Avon their second home. The Complete Works Festival will last a complete year. Cynics may think that's a long time to stage 37 plays, a couple of long poems and the sonnets. But it doesn't tell the whole story. The festival also takes in new writing, talks with Shakespeare experts, film and contemporary music. The Royal Shakespeare Society will be staging fifteen productions, other companies described as "some of the UK's most exciting theatre artists and interpreters of Shakespeare" will be making guest appearances and international artists will be putting their slant on the works of the greatest writer in the English language. The RSC will be using half a dozen different venues for the festival and there'll even be an open-air theatre for amateur and student companies who want to play Stratford but can't be accommodated on the main stages. It sounds like a massive organisational feat. Most of it was down to Deborah Shaw. Two years ago the RSC gave her the job of director of the Complete Works. She'd held the posts of artistic director of Chester Gateway Theatre and associate director at Watford Palace Theatre before taking over the Bath Shakespeare Festival. She was responsible for visiting other theatrical companies to talk to them about what they wanted to do and how they would interact with the RSC. "Probably every single production that's visiting has got a different set-up," she explained. "Kneehigh for example (recognised as one of Britain's most innovative theatre companies) are rehearsing Cymbeline, performing it in the open-air in Cornwall initially and then coming to Stratford for two weeks, rehearsing in our space and then taking it into the Swan. "Every single production is different and has its own structure. That's in the mix of the RSC doing fifteen main shows and probably about another ten smaller projects across three (main) theatres where we usually do it across two." Deborah pointed out that all the visiting companies retain their individuality even though they are performing in spaces usually reserved for the RSC. "We've bent over backwards - we're trying to meet them halfway and we're working out how two different ways of working can fit together. It's been a really interesting journey and everyone across the RSC has had to deal with a new way of working - technical department, press, marketing, sponsorship. It's been incredible." Although there are several exciting guest companies showcasing their work at Stratford, the RSC will, of course, have a major presence and RSC productions will have the longest runs. Deborah revealed that the RSC shows created the initial template and then other productions were slotted in around them. "We obviously have to do a certain number of productions throughout the year. We have the normal runs of several months, then in amongst that will be visitors who come for a week or two weeks. "Sometimes companies are coming into the small studio space for a couple of performances. There are some one-off projects that are very much work in progress. You can only do that once. You can't recreate a showing of work in progress night after night. "We're trying to give insights into the creative process from the beginning right through to the end. It wasn't quite as cold-blooded as choosing shows that are going to have longer runs." There was no shortage of companies wanting to make Stratford their temporary home and, according to Deborah, no one they approached turned down the RSC. "It's been fantastic. We weren't able to put certain companies in because their timetables didn't fit in. People have really responded to the idea of the Complete Works Festival because we're not galloping through the plays - it's actually a real exploration and we're taking audiences on a journey." In fact, a number of semi-professional or small-scale touring companies thought the festival would be like Edinburgh and were dying to show what they could do. But the festival "isn't that kind of set-up," said Deborah, "in that we've got a very specific brief of the 37 plays and the major poems and the sonnets. We're not inviting people in to lots of empty spaces." But the RSC hasn't dismissed the enthusiasm of anyone who wants to take part in the festival and has built a small, open-air theatre, The Dell, in the RSC gardens. "When companies said they wanted to perform, we've said they could have a slot in The Dell. But we can't host every single company in the country that wants to come to Stratford, as much as we'd love to. "We've got a formal programme of the invited companies and we've got an informal programme of amateurs, students and some small companies. I don't want to have any kind of artistic overview of the amateur and student companies who want to come. I'm just trying to create a framework for them to work in," explained Deborah. The Dell is one the unusual venues for the festival. Another is Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare was baptised and is buried. It will host Henry VIII and The Phoenix and the Turtle. And Cardboard Citizens will be performing an unconventional version of Timon of Athens in the Shakespeare Centre on Henley Street. "We're taking advantage of the town really," said Deborah who pointed out that everything was within walking distance: "You've got that route along the river and it's like a natural campus for us to play on." Deborah's passion for the festival is inexhaustible. There's not a single thing about it that disappoints her, although some people aren't too happy that certain plays will be performed only a handful of times. "It's not as if we won't carry on doing Shakespeare at Stratford. I had a letter the other day from a gentleman who had been so looking forward to seeing All's Well That Ends Well. He got quite cross because there's only one performance in the Swan. "I explained to him that we'd had a production with Judi Dench quite recently so the RSC wasn't ready to do it again. We were delighted when the Royal Scottish Academy of Music said they'd like to do it as part of the drama schools project that we're doing. "Five drama schools are cutting down five plays. The Royal Scottish Academy are doing All's Well. That will be performed around schools in the region and then go into the Swan for one performance." Although the RSC brought Deborah in to run the festival, her work will continue after next April: "I'm already looking at strategic things for the next few years. "I never have a minute to think 'what am I going to be doing next?' because I'm already on the next thing. It's a very exciting time to be working with Michael (Boyd) and his vision for the company. "A lot of the things that come out of the Complete Works Festival, like international relationships, how we use Stratford, how we do research and development - all those things have come up quite naturally. Thinking strategically about those things is going to be on my plate for a while."
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