Only Connect! E.M.Forster
For me, this is the very definition of theatre. That powerful, intimate connection between actor and audience member is what keeps me writing - and I suspect it’s what keeps all theatre practitioners doing what they do. One group working particularly hard to make that connection are our rural touring theatre companies. When they take a show on the road, they pack their lives into a van and travel hundreds of miles through all kinds of weather. Every day starts and ends with a journey, and every show is a one-night-stand involving a full get-in and get-out, but they carry on: under-valued, under-reviewed - and now under-funded.
In April this year, Arts Council, England withdrew all funding from over half of the rural touring theatre companies it supported. One of those is NTC – Northumberland’s own rural touring theatre company.
NTC is all about making connections. First of all, there is a strong connection between the company and the communities it visits. In the last ten years, NTC has travelled almost 200,000 miles to bring theatre to theatre-less zones. It has given over 1250 performances to more than 101,000 people: most of them in village halls. There is something genuinely magical about the way the company transforms such familiar surroundings for a night, and also about the way in which the community responds. The people of Northumberland find a connection to the subject matter often explored in the plays; they feel pride as their own history is remembered, validated and given meaning. For audiences everywhere, there is an appreciation of the way NTC always finds the universal truths and contemporary comparisons beyond a more personal story or particular history.
Secondly, NTC enables writers to connect with audiences. The company has commissioned nineteen world premieres since the year 2000 and has a national touring profile of over 50% for new writing. They are an invaluable conduit for an emerging writer; I know this, because I’ve been there, feeling both nurtured and challenged as they guided me through drafts, workshops and rehearsals with my early commissions.
They mentor other theatre practitioners too. Their InterACT scheme, offering a year’s practical apprenticeship to emerging actors, directors, stage managers, lighting technicians and costume designers, has been hugely successful, with 88% of their former trainees currently working in the Arts or related industries.
And, finally, what about that connection between the actor and the audience? I’ll finish with two very personal anecdotes.
NTC were performing my play Get Up & Tie Your Fingers in a community hall. A teenage girl came along with her friends, just for a laugh, because she was bored, and because there was nothing else to do that night. She came back after the interval, and stayed to the end, and cried with the women grieving onstage. I believe she left with a new understanding of what theatre is about.
I also remember a little boy who became so involved in the magic of an NTC production of my Christmas play, Alex and the Warrior, that he stood up in the middle of a scene and told The Warrior what to do to save the day. Because he was sitting on a mat at the feet of the actors, he became part of the show. His magical theatrical experience cost his family £5 and a walk down the street from their home to their village hall.
NTC are still out there on the road, only now it’s not only the weather they’re battling: the fight is on to find alternative funding. If you see their van, give them a wave, and if they come to a village hall near you, go along. Make the connection. You won’t regret it.
http://www.northumberlandtheatre.co.uk/
For Ann's plays published by Oberon visit http://oberonbooks.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=ann+coburn
