By James Hadley in London

Greetings reader! This blog is a chance for you to vicariously explore some of London's creative landscape of theatremaking (hopefully with the odd glimpse of the wider UK industry too) - from the perspective of a visiting NZ theatre-maker. Each week I'll keep you informed of theatre I've experienced, theatre-makers I've met, and general perceptions of the way the industry works in London (basically anything that might be of interest to someone involved in the performing arts.) Everything is very much my own personal opinion - though I'll aim to keep it informative with links to websites and pictures.By James Hadley in London

Greetings reader! This blog is a chance for you to vicariously explore some of London's creative landscape of theatremaking (hopefully with the odd glimpse of the wider UK industry too) - from the perspective of a visiting NZ theatre-maker. Each week I'll keep you informed of theatre I've experienced, theatre-makers I've met, and general perceptions of the way the industry works in London (basically anything that might be of interest to someone involved in the performing arts.) Everything is very much my own personal opinion - though I'll aim to keep it informative with links to websites and pictures.I'm ready to be a theatrical sponge on this overseas experience. Having drifted back round this side of the planet, I plan to soak up all I can of what's going on in this much larger theatre industry, and through its wider spectrum gain a greater sense of where I want to stand as a theatre-maker. Not geographically. More in terms of where I fit in within the various traditions of theatre-making, and where I want to stand in the future. I guess the question I'm asking myself is what's the particular theatrical territory that I want to carve out for myself, or in other words, what's my theatrical turangawaewae? In New Zealand's theatre industry, we seem constantly to be inventing new roles for ourselves, in order to create a career where there are no established paths to follow. I'm at a crossroads in my career, getting ready to clear a new path and persuade some collaborators to follow it with me. Seems like the ideal time to look at what others have done in similar territories over here where the paths are more established.

In recent years, I've been drawn to making theatre that more actively facilitates a sense of community through shared experience. I've made two site-specific promenade theatre productions which I've found very creatively rewarding, and that's led me towards the desire to establish a company primarily focussed on making what can be termed 'participatory theatre' events. I first got excited about participatory theatre when I read the excellent book 'Engineers of the Imagination' (Methuen, 1983, revised 1990, edited by Baz Kershaw and Tony Coult), on Welfare State theatre company. In part due to their trail-blazing activities, I've heard the South West corner of England is home to quite a few participatory theatre-focussed practitioners, and hope to meet some of them while I'm here. (More about that in future blogs!) So there are specific creative investigations I want to pursue, but I'm also wanting to investigate business models in this larger and longer established theatre industry. How do some of the independent practitioners and collectives in the UK stay afloat financially? It's a different funding and business landscape, but I'm sure there are things I can learn from looking at the wealth of examples to be found here.

In the UK there are public walkways that go through private property but, because they've been walkways for hundreds of years, you can still follow the path that people followed when it was open countryside, instead of someone's back garden or paddock. It would be nice if a similar thing existed in the theatre industry here, but instead there are lots of doors to try to get through in order to learn from those reinventing the paths of theatremakers in Britain. How I get on knocking on those doors is the adventure that I'm inviting you to follow in these blogs. And some weeks there won't be any open doors, so I'll also be describing what I see through the windows!

Feel free to get in touch with any questions (or if you're planning a London visit and want some theatre recommendations) to jamesstuarthadley@gmail.com

Use the comment box below

07/07/08