Royal Shakespeare Company Look East
Michael Boyd, the Artistic Director of the RSC, has announced the company’s plans for the next three years.
The company will follow its recent three year histories project with work that will investigate Russia and the soviet bloc. It will be called’ Other Russia’ and will feature revivals of classic Russian plays as well as contemporary writing from the former USSR and British writing on the region.
This new ensemble company will also perform Shakespeare plays such as ‘Romeo and Juliet’, ‘King Lear’ and ‘Antony and Cleopatra’. It will feature 44 actors who will be on 30 month contracts.
Boyd said that this new ensemble principle will affect all of the RSC’s work. There will be a greater focus on development work and training
“to create a protective umbrella underneath the repertoire of Shakespeare for genuine experiment, genuine development, genuine testing work out, which will not always be hugely commercial but will be where Peter Hall wanted the company to be in 1961, which is a developmental company, as opposed to just a kind of Harvey Nichols of all that was best in British Theatre.”
The RSC will also stage a World Shakespeare Festival as part of the Cultural Olympiad in 2012.
Michael Boyd emphasised that he wished the RSC to engage more with amateur companies and hoped to see festivals of amateur productions of Shakespeare in Newcastle, Stratford and London as part of the Cultural Olympiad.
The RSC’s ambitious plans are certainly going to ensure that buying theatre tickets for one of their productions will give audiences a night to remember.
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