Over the last month or so, I’ve been getting ready to visit Iran as part of a group of theatre producers/directors invited to do so by Visiting Arts. The intention was to visit the Fadjr Festival organised by the Dramatic Arts Center in Tehran. The Fadjr Festival is the largest drama festival in the Middle [...]
Strategy… schmategy…
This blog has not managed much examination of theatre itself yet – in fact, I’m thinking of calling it a “theatre-ish” blog – but I can’t avoid re-visiting the so-called Theatre and Drama strategy for one last time.
As I pointed out before, it may have an eye-catching centrepiece in its proposal for a new national [...]
Notional theatre?
Compared to what is happening with Arts Council England, The Arts Council of Wales has been enjoying a less controversial time of late. Since the arrival of The Welsh Assembly Government, it has been dogged by a lack of political capital, on the one hand, and the scepticism of a long-suffering arts community, on the [...]
ACE in a hole
A friend of mine tells me she is going on a training course organised by Arts Council England in the next couple of weeks. Its title is “Personal Presence and Emotional Literacy.” Given the current row which threatens to decimate a fifth of its clients, the words “stable door” and “bolting horse” spring to mind…
Quants
I was interested to hear on the radio recently an item about “quants.” Apparently, “quants”, or “quantative analysts” to give them their full title, represent a relatively recent phenomenon whereby mathematicians are employed by banks to come up with complex statistical models that are supposed to help hedge fund managers, investment bankers and others predict [...]
Bed blocking
On Friday, The Western Mail featured yet another profile on Dirty Protest in anticipation of its third night of new writing next week. Given that Dirty Protest has two ex-Western Mail journalists organising it, it’s fast becoming a regular fixture in the arts pages. There’s no doubt that Dirty Protest is “a good thing” in [...]
