and watch the best street tango I have ever seen
and develop the idea for a new piece of work
whilst sitting in the square in Siena
and then under the buttresses of Tallinn
and staring out to the North Sea from Cayton Bay
and the South Atlantic from Montevideo
I realised that this is only the beginning…
Firsts for me this year…
Getting to go to South AmericaGetting this Posterous blog working
Getting a show up and running in Spanish in Buenos Aires
Getting the boat to Montevideo
Getting invited to speak at the RSA/ACE State of the Arts Conference
Getting a Tattoo in Buenos Aires
Getting to Wexford to speak at the Theatre Forum Conference
Getting my name on a poster outside a West End Theatre for The Fever Chart
Getting the TEDx Licence for York
Getting the potential of the artsfunding hashtag
Getting the artsfunding.ning.com site on the radar
Getting invited to speak at the ICA
Getting my son to his new start at University in the car
Getting a parking ticket for £120 quid on the same day whilst dropping him off at Uni
Getting my old office back after he had gone to Uni
Getting one of my plays translated and published in Germany
Getting that whole Shakespeare thing
Getting Roy Williams to write us a new play
Getting to go to Estonia for work
Getting a new hamster
Getting new adventure bangles
Getting a letter published in the Evening Standard
Getting Sir Ken Robinson to deliver a Keynote via Skype for Shift Happens
Getting inspiration from new collaborations and projects
Getting older – and liking it
Season’s Greetings to you all,
As 2010 draws to a close we sat down and started looking back on a fantastic year. We realised it had be a year of firsts for Pilot Theatre, and wanted to share them with you. Here are our top 20:
1. The first month in the West End with The Fever Chart
2. The first show in Argentina, in Spanish as well as English, with WC School
3. The first Pilot Platform 11+ International Festival of work
4. The first tour of Shakespeare for us – with Romeo and Juliet
5. The first full production of Catcher directed by Suzann McLean
6. The first theatre company to be a Trust Partner in a Secondary School (Don Valley)
7. The first artsfunding ning site with over 1100 members
8. The first member of the team, Mandy to study for an EU Cultural Diploma
9. The first artsfunding hashtag with a reach of over 500,000
10. The first Anthology of poetry published from our Open Minds project
11. The first Shift Happens skype keynote from LA with Sir Ken Robinson
12. The first research trip to Milan, by Katie and Richard for our What Light new commission
13. The first iTunes single and Album released for Romeo & Juliet show
14. The first EU youth exchange for Yorkshire students who performed in Estonia
15. The first visual arts residency in Portugal
16. The first new commission for Roy Williams for 2012
17. The first live performance at the York Festival of Food
18. The first Assistant Director to come from the Central School of Speech and Drama
19. The first Christmas Fayre with SlungLow, Unlimited and BeltUp Theatre Companies
20. The first skype Santa live to the world!
As we look forward to a New Year of new opportunities, may we wish you a fabulous festive season and all the best for 2011 – We’ll see you at the Unicorn in February for the re-opening of Romeo and Juliet.
From Marcus, Mandy, Sarah, Katie,
Bec, Marc, Charles and Jackie
The second annual State of the Arts conference, organised by the RSA and Arts Council England, brings together a wide range of creative voices to debate issues around resilience, audience and the value of arts and culture.
In a time of austerity, what are the priorities now? What is our vision for the long term? What imaginative and practical approaches are needed to sustain the arts through this period? What new opportunities are there to deepen the value of the arts to individuals, to society and to the economy?
Confirmed speakers include: Julia Peyton-Jones OBE, Michael Boyd, Tabitha Jackson, Miranda McKearney, Shreela Ghosh, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Marcus Romer, Josie Rouke, Alan Davey and Dame Liz Forgan from Arts Council England, and the RSA’s Luke Johnson and Matthew Taylor.
Join us in examining the role of the arts in building a strong future for the nation. Buy your ticket today via the booking page on Eventbrite for just ??100 excluding VAT.
The State of the Arts conference 2011 will take place on Thursday 10 February 2011, 9am-6pm, at Park Plaza Riverbank, London SE1.
Programme
8-9am Registration and coffee 9-9.05am Welcome from Alan Davey and Luke Johnson Session 1 9.05-11am Is there a vision for the arts beyond cuts? 11-11.30am Coffee break Session 2 11.30-12.30pm Parallel panel discussions Panel A: Where are the new audiences? Panel B: The arts: relevant or out of touch? Panel C: Will resilience get us through? 12.30-1.30pm Lunch Session 3 1.30-2.30pm Cultural question time Session 4 2.30-3.30pm Parallel panel discussions Panel D: The new giving: can individuals save the day? Panel E: Should the arts lead the Big Society? Panel F: Talent and diversity: are we doing enough? 3.30-4pm Coffee break Session 5 4-4.30pm Keynote session: What did art ever do for you? 4.30-6pm Panel discussion of keynote session Closing remarks
photoYep don’t climb up an antique is good advice
(Please click the image to see it more clearly)
As we hear the news from Barnet, Birmingham, Darlington, Somerset – this is the real threat to our cultural infrastructure, and only the start as we begin to discover which other Local Authorities are also cutting their Arts budgets.
Don’t forget the http://artsfunding.ning.com is a place to keep the campaign going and to share information.
Thanks
Marcus Romer
Artistic Director
Pilot Theatre
Marcus Romer's work & blog 