It will be the first British theatre group to have a board across the Atlantic
Posted in General on 26. Aug, 2010
It will be the first British theatre group to have a board across the Atlantic, and is likely to comprise industrialists and philanthropists, who can help to raise money. The RSC has already secured a £2m deal from a university in Michigan to help to fund the history plays currently being performed in London. In return, the RSC will run workshops and classes for poor children in Michigan as well as putting on performances there.Mr Wylie will be expected to make deals with publishers for RSC-branded books on Shakespeare and school texts. The company wants to expand its film and video-making capacity. Filming productions for the Net is likely to become routine.Mr Wylie said: “The RSC is a dynamic organisation with a unique cultural heritage arguably the most important of its kind in the world. It is an honour to be working with them, and to be able to help them realise their ambitions in the publishing world internationally.”. When Sir Peter Hall formed the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1959 he remarked that he had the three most saleable words a British theatre group could wish for: royal, Shakespeare and company.
When Sir Peter Hall formed the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1959 he remarked that he had the three most saleable words a British theatre group could wish for: royal, Shakespeare and company.Yet for much of the past 42 years the company has struggled from financial crisis to financial crisis, not just failing to turn its international prow- ess into hard cash, but not even thinking of doing so. Entrepreneurism was a distraction from the business of putting on plays.Others made films of Shakespeare plays, marketed videos and teaching materials to schools. The RSC stuck to the stage and continued to rely for money on the Arts Council and a national sponsor to augment the public grant.Now, the RSC’s attitude to getting cash and to exploiting its name is changing radically, not just in Britain but worldwide. The company’s artistic director, Adrian Noble, with his new managing director, Chris Foy, who came from the City and Unilever, are securing international deals with a bullishness city brokers would admire.The company is setting up a board in the United States to mirror its board in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Senior American business executives have already agreed to raise funds for the company and will serve on the board. They include Dana Mead, a former White House employee and retired chairman and chief executive of the multinational conglomerate Tenneco.Mr Noble intends to start new RSC productions in America, casting American actors alongside British members of the company. Hollywood stars with a stage background such as John Malkovich and Glenn Close could star in RSC productions. Morgan Freeman is said to be earmarked to play Othello for the company.Another side of the new bullishness was revealed by The Independent earlier this week, with the RSC saying it was prepared to knock down a tourist hotel in Stratford-upon-Avon and build a new theatre on the site. The company owns the freehold to the Arden Hotel, opposite the river Avon, and it is among several possible sites for a modern theatre to replace the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.Equally, in its recent negotiations with Channel 4 to screen a film of the RSC’s Macbeth with Antony Sher, the RSC took Channel 4 executives aback by successfully insisting on retaining the rights for any video or DVD deals.Much else is happening behind the scenes. The hiring of Andrew Wylie, a literary agent known as “The Jackal” for his deal-making prowess, shows the RSC belatedly realising it can cash in on its global supremacy as an authority on Shakespeare.A senior RSC insider said yesterday: “This is all about using the RSC brand.
Maybe he could do something with Dorling and Kindersley for a ‘Page to the Stage’ book; or an RSC-approved guide to Shakespeare We are going to make our name in the publishing world. We have this incredible brand, and we haven’t been exploiting it.”At the heart of the RSC’s new thrusting entrepreneurism is the unlikely figure of Adrian Noble, a multi-award winning director of some genius, but with a somewhat donnish persona, previously infinitely more at home in the rehearsal room than hustling in a multi-national boardroom.But Mr Noble was converted to entrepreneurism three years ago when the RSC was going through a fallow period critically and he felt under pressure. He decided on a new artistic approach, putting on more family plays to spawn successes such as The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and The Secret Garden.But he also decided a fresh approach was needed in branding and financing the RSC. He started travelling abroad to raise money and ordered his staff to explore the possibilities for publishing and film deals. A key moment that illustrates the new approach came over that production of Macbeth.
The production’s director, Greg Doran, brought the idea to Mr Noble, but said he wanted to play it in the Swan Theatre, which seats 500 people Before, Mr Noble would have said it was unaffordable. Instead, he went to Japan and promised Japanese producers that the production would tour there if they helped to finance it. The scheme worked and the production won plaudits and was broadcast on TV.The ultimate irony is that the RSC, now doing artistically better than for years, and securing new international deals has so impressed the funding body, the Arts Council, that its grant has just had an increase from £10m to £14m.But Mr Noble will never be content to rely on state funding He says: “I wouldn’t want to go back to the old way. Our new approach is exciting; it gives us opportunities for international collaboration, and it will make the RSC a global brand.”. Like many a Yorkshireman, Dickie Bird watches pennies so that t’pounds can look after themselves, and has been known to reverse charges when he calls Hodder. But with the success of his two books, he has just treated himself to a Jaguar.