The Road to Hell…
The road to hell, they say, is paved with good intentions. When I set up the BTG Blog I was, indeed, full of good intentions: it would be updated at least every week, probably every day, and would be full pertinent, timely comment on the state of British theatre.
Ha! How long is it since my last post? Weeks, not days. So now I am driven by guilt - not that I am arrogant enough to think that the theatre world is waiting with bated breath for the pearls of wisdom that may fall from my lips but because I failed to keep my promise to myself - to write something today.
It’s not just guilt, though: there is something I want to say and that is “kudos to the TMA for doing what it can to focus the attention of the theatre world on regional theatre. All too often regional theatre gets news mentions because of something bad - usually loss of funding putting a theatre or theatre company at risk (the continuing saga of the Derby Playhouse is an example) but, thanks to the TMA, this week we have had our attention brought to the work of the unsung heroes of theatre, those involved in administration, marketing and customer relations in regional theatres.
The TMA Management Awards - like the organisation’s Regional Theatre Awards - recognises the work which goes on day after day throughout the country with very little publicity outside of the local area. How many people outside of the South West know of the work of the Hall for Cornwall? How many people outside of Wales (or even outside of Cardiff) know anything about the Wales Millennium Centre, except for the controversy which surrounded its building? How many people, even in Salisbury know of the 42 years service which Alan Corkhill has given to the Playhouse?
The answer to all of these questions, of course, is “very few indeed”, but, as I have said so often, the regions are the bedrock of British theatre: without the work that goes on there, without the experience that actors, directors, playwrights, tech crew and everyone else involved gains, the West End and the major companies would not be able to achieve the standards they do.
Kudos, too, to the Scottish critics whose Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland bring to wider notice the excellent work that goes on north of the border which, let’s be honest, tends to be forgotten about eslewhere in Britain once the Edinburgh Fringe and the EIF are over.
This is why at the BTG we have weekly reports from the Midlands, the North East and the North West (and would have more from elsewhere if we had the staff) and why we give equal space to reviews of work from even the smallest companies and theatres in the regions.
That’s why, too, we report on and review the London fringe theatres. A play at, say, Theatre 503 may not have the glamour of something in the Olivier, but the work that it (and the Finborough and the Arcola and the Bush and the Blue Elephant and… well, I could go on and on!) does is vital for the theatrical health of the UK and enables British plays to dominate Broadway’s biggest awards, the Tonys. Six nominations, for example, for a production which began life not in the West End or at the National but at Chichester, a regional theatre.
So let’s celebrate British regional theatre!