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Interviews
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Emily Gray - Leading Trestle in a New Direction Peter Lathan talks to Trestle Theatre Company's artistic director about leaving the masks behind and international collaboration. Emily Gray, who became artistic director of the Trestle Theatre Company in 2004, studied Theology at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and, while there, became deeply involved in the university's theatre scene, working with the ADC, Footlights and the European Theatre Group. She is particularly proud of being part of the first all-woman Footlights group which produced Daughters of England in the academic year 1989/90. But for her the most formative experience was the National Student Drama Festival of 1991 where she directed Cambridge's first physical, non-text piece, Goddess, under the auspices of Bats, the Queen's College drama group, as none of the university groups were willing to be involved in a non-text piece. "I got a lot of advice from John Wright," she says, and that set her off on the road she has since followed. Wright was the course tutor of the founders of Trestle (Sally Cook, Alan Riley, Toby Wilsher and Joff Chafer) who set up the company with Wright's help. Discovering physical theatre was a revelation. "I'd always danced but I knew it couldn't be my future," she says, but with physical theatre she was able to make full use her experience. After Cambridge she trained in directing at Central and in 1996 was awarded a Channel 4 bursary to work as associate director at Nottingham Playhouse where she gained valuable experience in all kinds of theatre, including Theatre in Education with Roundabout, the Playhouse's TIE team. In 1999 she became associate director of London's Unicorn children's theatre. "That was a fantastic experience," she says. "It was incredibly demanding, not least because the audience let you know in no uncertain terms what works and what doesn't!" From there she moved to TAG, a young people's touring theatre company in Glasgow. "So by the time I moved to Trestle," she says, "I'd worked on a wide range of different types of productions, including musicals, for ages ranging from very young children through teenagers and young people to adults." When she took over at Trestle, as the last of the founder members left, the company was approaching its 25th anniversary and just opened the Trestle Arts Base, becoming a building-based company for the first time. "There were a lot of changes going on and the company needed to diversify, to put more in our toolbox." The company was known for its mask work - and, in fact, was the UK's leading masked company -, but could it be stuck in the same niche for ever? "Niche can be a burden. We had to become a different kind of beast: we wanted - and needed - to offer more. But if we take off the masks, what comes next?" The answer included international collaboration. St Alban's, the company's home, is culturally diverse and she wanted to explore and connect with this diversity. "I was led by my experiences working in India and in dance, as well as by the very strong local Polish population." This led to a trilogy of international shows. Little India (2007) retold a classical Indian story of Shakuntala and used Kalaripayattu (an Indian martial art), Konokol (rhythmic patterns) and mudras (hand gestures), as well as Indian Music, whilst the 2008 production, Lola, created with Spanish company Increpación Danza, drew on Spanish dance. In 2009 she has gone to Eastern Europe - Poland - for the company's latest production, The Glass Mountain. "I'm particularly fascinated by the Polish vocal tradition, the way in which a company like Song of the Goat uses the voice as a totally physical instrument. It's incredibly provocative and very unlike Western music theatre. We connect with music in ur daily lives far more than we do with theatre so it is much moreimmediate. "We're not trying to emulate the Polish tradition but be inspired by it, bring a flavour if it into our own work, create a fusion of the two. We want to link it to the Western European tradition." Members of The Song of the Goat have been working with Trestle on the production which uses text, physicality and song. It opens in St Alban's on 24th September before setting off on a tour of the UK. "It's all coming together," Emily Gray says. "It's intensive and hard work but it's coming together. We're rehearsing it for four weeks whereas in Poland they'd probably take two years!" Will it come to London? "We don't know yet. The tour finishes on 14th November in Colchester. We'll see how it goes and hopefully will bring it to London later in the year." The Tour
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