Full Version: Cultural Olympiad
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7597460.stm
So the RSC have their next festival sorted!
ENO and NT will commission some Olympic themed piece and so will every other rep theatre in the land ...
I am wholly resentful of the Olympics people appealing to my baser side and managing to get me enthused about something relating to the Olympics.
But my resentment does not mean I will be boycotting the Shakespeare fest on principle. I just ain't that good. ;D
But my resentment does not mean I will be boycotting the Shakespeare fest on principle. I just ain't that good. ;D
I wouldn’t have an issue with the Olympics if cash wasn’t getting diverted from other projects
I hope Heather Small, some guitarist, a crappy looking London bus and Boris Johnson (with or without unbuttoned jacket) are ditched during this cultural renaissance
I hope Heather Small, some guitarist, a crappy looking London bus and Boris Johnson (with or without unbuttoned jacket) are ditched during this cultural renaissance
What the heck has Heather Small got to do with anything?
QUOTE(Haz @ Sep 4 2008, 02:19 PM) 
What the heck has Heather Small got to do with anything?
Heather Small was either in the handover ceremony along with Beckham and the National Youth Theatre
Or on one of the stages in the UK during the handover with Will Young and no doubt some left overs from Child’s Play
I am surprised the RSC are involved, it is after all the LONDON Olympics, not the Stratford-on-Avon Olympics, it would have been better to choose a company with some sort of London base to run the theatre part.
Oh, so this makes up for closing down the countless smaller theatre companies, and raping of most low-profile arts funds in favour of sport.
Ah, but it's arts funding from across the whole country that is being squandered on the Olympics. (I know what your point is actually trying to say, I'm just not going there... again)
I too will abandon my principles of course, and lap up the Shakespeare fest (assuming it's actual plays, and not just Patrick Stewart waving atop a routemaster as it travels down the M40).
Edit to add link- http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/art/2008/09/cu...l_olympiad.html
QUOTE(Jan Brock @ Sep 4 2008, 03:50 PM)
I am surprised the RSC are involved, it is after all the LONDON Olympics, not the Stratford-on-Avon Olympics, it would have been better to choose a company with some sort of London base to run the theatre part.
Ah, but it's arts funding from across the whole country that is being squandered on the Olympics. (I know what your point is actually trying to say, I'm just not going there... again)
I too will abandon my principles of course, and lap up the Shakespeare fest (assuming it's actual plays, and not just Patrick Stewart waving atop a routemaster as it travels down the M40).
Edit to add link- http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/art/2008/09/cu...l_olympiad.html
The Globe is going to be staging all 37 Shakespeare plays in one month to be performed by foreign theatre companies in a variety of languages.
This was announced by Dominic Dromgoole on Newsnight:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm
This was announced by Dominic Dromgoole on Newsnight:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm
37? Which one are they leaving out? I know some of them have questionable authorship, but if I'm going to see all of 'em one day, then it doesn't do to have those problematic few skipped willynilly. 
I wonder if I'll go mad if I attend the whole month?
(Wouldn't it be nice if the one they're skipping was 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'? I loathe that one.
)
I wonder if I'll go mad if I attend the whole month?
(Wouldn't it be nice if the one they're skipping was 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'? I loathe that one.
)
Can't seem to find the story through the link, but if they're doing 37 my guess would be the First Folio 36 + Pericles, i.e. leaving out The Two Noble Kinsmen, Sir Thomas More, the disputed Edward III and the even more doubtful Cardenio/The Second Maiden's Tragedy (which is in most people's opinion NOT Cardenio, though a few claim that it is under an alternative title).
QUOTE(David @ Sep 4 2008, 08:42 PM)
Ah, but it's arts funding from across the whole country that is being squandered on the Olympics.
But London residents are unique in being charged a levy on their council tax to pay for the Olympics, so I think the Arts events should benefit London. It makes more sense (except artistically) for the Globe to be the focus - is their 37-play initiative being set up in competition to the RSC one which was announced, or what ? At least the Globe has guaranteed access to a London theatre to stage their plays.
I get the impression that these events are being coordinated so that the Globe, RSC and NT are acting in cooperation.
There was a snippet in the Guardian today saying that the RSC's events would be divided between London, Stratford and Newcastle, and that the Shakespeare Festival would begin on 23 April 2012.
There was a snippet in the Guardian today saying that the RSC's events would be divided between London, Stratford and Newcastle, and that the Shakespeare Festival would begin on 23 April 2012.
QUOTE(Jan Brock @ Sep 5 2008, 08:24 AM)
But London residents are unique in being charged a levy on their council tax to pay for the Olympics, so I think the Arts events should benefit London. It makes more sense (except artistically) for the Globe to be the focus - is their 37-play initiative being set up in competition to the RSC one which was announced, or what ? At least the Globe has guaranteed access to a London theatre to stage their plays.
I won't deny that Londoners are being robbed blind, moreso than the rest of the country, but everyone is paying in some way for the Olympics.
The RSC/Globe/NT working together will be interesting, and it's good that they're splitting it between London/Stratford/Newcastle, rather than focussed on just one spot.
Then when 2012 is done, they can get their thinking caps on for 2016. What kind of a knees-up should we have for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death?
QUOTE(Duncan @ Sep 5 2008, 11:08 AM)
Then when 2012 is done, they can get their thinking caps on for 2016. What kind of a knees-up should we have for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death?
A years moratorium on any production of his works ? Or, if you insist on staging some, only directed by Philip Prowse so that everyone is dressed in black.
It'll make a change from the recent 'Romeo & Juliet' and 'Troilus & Cressida' where everyone was dressed in white, at least. 
Heather Small was in London, Leonie Lewis in Bejing, Reich.
O plueeze, can't we just stick to a Dream in the Park and a Hamlet with whoever is the latest super boy on the street by then? Betcha that's what we'll get.
O plueeze, can't we just stick to a Dream in the Park and a Hamlet with whoever is the latest super boy on the street by then? Betcha that's what we'll get.
QUOTE(Reich @ Sep 4 2008, 02:43 PM)
Heather Small was either in the handover ceremony along with Beckham and the National Youth Theatre
Or on one of the stages in the UK during the handover with Will Young and no doubt some left overs from Child’s Play
Or on one of the stages in the UK during the handover with Will Young and no doubt some left overs from Child’s Play
Yeah, because she did a couple of yukky excruciating songs about searching for the hero inside yourself, and doing something today to make you feel proud, which is taken as being "inspirational" in a lame, twee sort of way, so I imagine some giggling pinhead in a planning meeting said, let's get that hero/proud singer woman with the high hair, she'll do.
Perhaps for the Shakespeare celebration they can get Cleo Laine to sing that daft song made up of all the Shakespeare play titles.
According to: http://www.shakespearepost.com/2008/09/05/...tural-olympiad/
QUOTE
Of the RSC’s participation in the Cultural Olympiad, Michael Boyd, Artistic Director said,
‘We are very lucky to have been given this major opportunity. A challenge that faced us after The Complete Works Festival 2006/07, was how to build on the excitement and relationships established during that very successful year. The World Shakespeare Festival gives us the chance to harness the legacy of what we achieved and go much deeper in our search for better and fresher ways of sharing Shakespeare’s stories with the world.
It proved impossible last time to collaborate with some of our most important colleagues in the UK, and already for the World Shakespeare Festival we will be joined by the National Theatre and Shakespeare’s Globe, which will be producing an ambitious international project as part of the Festival.
We are helping to make the Cultural Olympiad a truly national celebration by working out of the three homes of the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon, Newcastle upon Tyne and London.
The ideas that are guiding our preparations for the Festival are simple:
- Shakespeare is no longer the cultural property of the British, and has become an extremely valuable and often urgent meeting place for humans to recognise each other from across the world.
- One of Britain’s great strengths has been its history of absorbing people, their language, and their cultures from all over the world. Our Festival will use Shakespeare to look at the life of the many nations now represented within Britishness.
- The World Wide Web is challenging our distinction between professional and non-professional in many areas of culture and the World Shakespeare Festival will bring our great native amateur theatre movement into an unprecedented dialogue with professional practice. We are all participants.
- British Theatre is in great health and there couldn’t be a better time to be showing the work of our industry to the world.
- We believe that an early and active engagement with Shakespeare’s plays is an empowering educational experience. The success of our Stand Up For Shakespeare campaign suggests that a lot of people agree with us. Our work with teachers will sit at the heart of the World Shakespeare Festival, and we will give students and teachers the chance to exchange work with their peers internationally.’
‘We are very lucky to have been given this major opportunity. A challenge that faced us after The Complete Works Festival 2006/07, was how to build on the excitement and relationships established during that very successful year. The World Shakespeare Festival gives us the chance to harness the legacy of what we achieved and go much deeper in our search for better and fresher ways of sharing Shakespeare’s stories with the world.
It proved impossible last time to collaborate with some of our most important colleagues in the UK, and already for the World Shakespeare Festival we will be joined by the National Theatre and Shakespeare’s Globe, which will be producing an ambitious international project as part of the Festival.
We are helping to make the Cultural Olympiad a truly national celebration by working out of the three homes of the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon, Newcastle upon Tyne and London.
The ideas that are guiding our preparations for the Festival are simple:
- Shakespeare is no longer the cultural property of the British, and has become an extremely valuable and often urgent meeting place for humans to recognise each other from across the world.
- One of Britain’s great strengths has been its history of absorbing people, their language, and their cultures from all over the world. Our Festival will use Shakespeare to look at the life of the many nations now represented within Britishness.
- The World Wide Web is challenging our distinction between professional and non-professional in many areas of culture and the World Shakespeare Festival will bring our great native amateur theatre movement into an unprecedented dialogue with professional practice. We are all participants.
- British Theatre is in great health and there couldn’t be a better time to be showing the work of our industry to the world.
- We believe that an early and active engagement with Shakespeare’s plays is an empowering educational experience. The success of our Stand Up For Shakespeare campaign suggests that a lot of people agree with us. Our work with teachers will sit at the heart of the World Shakespeare Festival, and we will give students and teachers the chance to exchange work with their peers internationally.’
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