It’s the end of my second year as a freelance creative director, and I am planning my freelance Christmas Party works ‘do’ – in actual fact I will probably have a cup of coffee in my slippers and a mince pie about 2pm today….Well I say that of course, but I have been invited to several ones at the places I have worked this year, but as I am doing all my admin and accounts at the moment I have had to give my apologies.
Going through the list of organisations I have had the privilege of working with this year – and what a year it has been, I have a lot of people and work colleagues to thank. It goes without saying that there has been a great deal of variety and travel. Yes lots of travel. 25,000 miles in the car and hundreds of train journeys – and my box of orange train tickets is overflowing on my desk as I write.
So in kind of date order in terms of working I would like to thank Theatre Royal Stratford East and the new livestreams we have created together this year, both with the in-house team but also with Ramps on the Moon, for ‘Tommy’, and also with Graeae and The Space for ‘Reasons to be Cheerful’ which will be released into cinemas in 2018. Still gearing up we will be livestreaming the TRSE panto, Rapunzel into Hospitals and Hospices on December 28th 2017.
I very much enjoyed working with the students at the University of York as I lectured and ran the practical sessions about acting for camera for the Theatre Film and Television cohort.
A thanks also to Creative England and the Eagle Labs team from Barclays in Brighton, and for all the new startups I worked with as part of the Flight programme. A big thanks too to Collusion in Cambridge, and the creative teams in King’s Lynn we worked with as part of the projection challenge project. Continuing the work with Collusion on their new challenge with the creative teams in Bury St Edmunds into 2018 is continuation of this exciting project.
Thanks also to all the Theatres I worked with, helping them to develop their digital plans and ideas for the next four years, these were Chichester Festival Theatre, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough, Harrogate Theatres, Theatre Royal Stratford East, and also Kettle’s Yard Museum and Gallery here in Cambridge. ‘Doing Digital Differently’ was the theme across all these organisations, and it was inspiring to work with the teams from each of those buildings across the country, and reminding me how much I enjoy working in those creative environments. As part of this work I was also asked to speak at two conferences in the UK about Digital and Theatre Design and VR in Scarborough and London.
I also got invited to speak and work in Europe, so a big thanks to the European Theatre Consortium for inviting me to deliver a keynote in Karlsruhe in Germany for their European Theatre Lab project. Also to the New Norske National Theatre in Oslo for inviting me to their away week planning session. Also to the Harstad Folkehøgskole for inviting me back to work with their students in the Arctic Circle once again.
More travel took me to Cardiff several times to work with National Theatre Wales and to help shape their NHS70 project which will run in 2018 as a 70 year celebration of the NHS.
The year also saw me back up in Yorkshire, working at Harrogate Theatre and working with the team there to help them deliver their new 4 year plan. I loved being back in Yorkshire again, and the team there are amazing, and work so hard to deliver an extraordinary programme.
Most recently I worked with the brilliant Coventry 2012 City of Culture team, as they prepared for their successful interview which resulted in them securing the UK City of Culture title for the City.
So from a year that started with me working in Norwich with John Knell and the Council team and all the cultural organisations, through to the forthcoming livestream from Theatre Royal Stratford East it has been a real privilege, and I have worked with some amazing people. I have learned loads and I look forward to continuing to make new connections and to tackle new challenges in 2018.
Thanks to all who have made this a stimulating and rewarding work year. I will raise a mince pie to you all in my slippers this afternoon.
🙂
Happy Christmas and See you in 2018
Mx
Marcus Romer's work & blog 