introduction
10/11/12/13
(p)review
is has been a momentous year for Pilot eatre - not only did we bring over our show WC School from Argentina, but we also extended our Platform 11+ work with new commissions, created our first ever Shakespeare tour of Romeo and Juliet and managed to secure a place in the new portfolio of arts organisations with Arts Council England. Our productions of Catcher, WC School, e Mystery of Jack and the Clones of Chaos, Romeo & Juliet, and Hansel & Gretel took our number of performances to 178, we have had 32 weeks on tour and reached audience numbers of 32,547. In addition to this activity on our stages we have also had activity online - including work on the artsfunding ning site and the use of Twitter hashtags during the last 12 months of change.
Our teams have visited Croatia, Finland, Estonia, USA, Germany, Portugal, Italy and France this year as part of our work, and we have made new International partnerships and been asked to present at National Conferences and events such as the RSA State of the Arts conference. We know that being a publicly funded organisation brings immense public responsibility and we are very aware of the times in which we find ourselves. It is vital that we continue to work collaboratively with our colleagues and audiences to ensure we continue to make and deliver great art for everyone across a range of platforms. We look forward to working on our new programme of work with new artists, and reaching new audiences. I want to take this opportunity of thanking the teams we work with, our Board and our Funders for their continued support in enabling Pilot eatre to move forward into its next stage of growth and development. Marcus Romer Artistic Director
people
Pilot eatre Team Marcus Romer Artistic Director Mandy Smith Producer Sarah Seddon Company Administrator Katie Posner Associate Director Rebecca Storey Press and Media Manager Marc omson Marketing Officer Mark Beasley Production Manager Charles Moore Finance Director Jackie Raper Finance Assistant Richard Hurford Associate Artist Tom Bellerby Associate Artist Helen Cadbury Education Associate
Production & Freelance Team Ilaria Ariemme Mark Lee Armstrong Smith Mary Browning Lisa Cameron Stuart Childs Lydia Denno Philip D’Orleans Louisa Eyo Ebony Feare Juliet Forster Bryn Holding Samantha Howard Richard Howell Richard James-Neale Katherine Jewkes Mitzi Jones Sam Krylonski Michael Lambourne Chloe Lamford Nick Lane Chris Lindon Celeste Martinez Suzann McLean Carl Moir Claire Morse Sandy Nuttgens Solange Perazzo Karl Andre Photography Dublinstones Photography Chris Randall Mary Rose Julian Sierra Robin Simpson Rachel Spicer Will Standish Ronan Summers Richard Taylor Will Travis Oliver Wilson
Board Members Tracy Cochrane Tim Evison Stephen Mason Dave Moutrey – Chair Kully iarai Jenny Ward Pete Whelan Ann Wishart Tina Wright
Patrons: Stan Barstow Melvin Burgess Anne Cassidy Judy Carver Dolly Dhingra Reece Dinsdale Johnathan Harvey Ayub Khan-Din Naomi Wallace Nigel Williams Roy Williams
by RICHARD HURFORD DIRECTED by KATIE pOSNER DESIGNED by LyDIA DENNO e Mystery of Jack & e Clones of Chaos was a play about the transition between the simplistic certainties of childhood and a more complex adult life just appearing on the horizon. It is Pilot’s national production for Platform 11+ and was developed alongside practical research with its target age group of 11- 15 year olds. As well as playing in schools and York eatre Royal it was also presented as part of the annual festival for the project in Palmela, Portugal. pERFORMANCES 10 AUDIENCE 1050
CATCHER by RICHARD HURFORD DIRECTED by SUzANN MCLEAN DESIGNED by LyDIA DENNO Catcher was first performed as part of the Shift Happens 2.0 conference as an R&D piece. A year later it was developed into a full length theatrical play and was staged in e Studio, York eatre Royal in May 2010 before a short tour to Ipswich as part of the Pulse Festival and then to the Croydon Clocktower. "Cunningly devised, taut little thriller" e Independent "Catcher is Pilot eatre at its best: provocative, thrilling, topical, challenging, dynamic, intelligent theatre, superbly performed and directed." e Press pERFORMANCES 23 AUDIENCE 1850
WC SCHOOL MADE IN ARGENTINA by CARLOS DE URqUIzA, GAbRIEL FERNANDEz CHApO AND LUz RODRIGUEz URqUIzA DIRECTED by MARCUS ROMER A co production with Argentinian Company eater UPB. WC School was performed in Spanish in Buenos Aires in March 2010. It played in York in the Summer 2010. 3 cutting edge tales about life in school, Buenos Aires style, the play was performed in England in both English and Spanish and presented in association with Platform11+. pERFORMANCES 3 AUDIENCE 75
productions
productions
THE MySTERy OF JACK AND THE CLONES OF CHAOS
HANSEL & GRETEL
ROMEO & JULIET
ADApTED FOR THE STAGE by NICK LANE DIRECTED by AMANDA J SMITH DESIGNED by LyDIA DENNO
DIRECTED by MARCUS ROMER AND KATIE pOSNER DESIGNED by CHLOE LAMFORD
is production of an untraditional telling of the well known fairy tale was originally presented in summer 2009 at York eatre Royal and then was transferred to the Byre eatre, St Andrews for a summer run in August 2010 . A high energy and engaging show for families and schools “I have seen many performances at the Byre but nothing as energetic, funny and uplifting as Hansel & Gretel.” St Andrews Citizen pERFORMANCES 28 AUDIENCE 1589
by WILLIAM SHAKESpEARE
ese violent delights have violent ends. And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, Which as they kiss consume Pilot eatre’s first production of a Shakespeare play, this was a coproduction with York eatre Royal that toured for 22 weeks throughout Great Britain. e production had its own dedicated website – youkissbythebook.com and made use of the hashtag #kissbythebook to engage audiences and continue debate on Twitter.
With a dedicated team of educators following the production around the country and the introduction of Skype conversations with students unable to attend Post Show Discussions, this production rolled out the way Pilot intends to continue to make the most of the technologies available to us through social media platforms to reach those people who may not be able to visit us at a theatre venue. is is not reverent Shakespeare, although there is clearly affection for the language, but Shakespeare played to be understood and enjoyed” A Younger eatre pERFORMANCES 114 AUDIENCE 27,983 EDUCATION SESSIONS 41 pARTICIpANTS 1148
“We believe that Shift Happens provides a unique sharing of thoughts and ideas, and brings to York a unique set of thinkers and creative participants into the same room to address the possibilities and challenges that face us all" Marcus Romer, Artistic Director ALT/Shift was Pilot's third annual Shift Happens conference held at York eatre Royal in July 2010. It focused on Arts/Learning /Technology.
is two day event looked at the latest developments and applications in digital technology, exploring their use through workshops, inspiring case studies and helped create partnerships for future collaborations. Attention was given to how working digitally can open up new areas of funding and sustainable working for organisations. As well as the 270 delegate places, 8 bursary places were offered at a free or reduced rate for students. Speakers at the conference included Sir Ken Robinson, Alice Greenwald (Director of the 9/11 Museum) and Johnathan Harris (Number 27.org) CONFERENCE SESSION 5 ATTENDEES 278
Marcus attended the TED conference 2011 in California in March and has since been invited to attend the 2012 conference in Palm Springs. Marcus was selected by Arts Council England to be one of the Creative Producers Team 2011 visit to South by SouthWest Festival (SXSW), Texas as part of the Pervasive Media Studio, Bristol Initiative.
conferences
conferences
SHIFT HAppENS ALT-SHIFT
TEDxyORK
SHIFT HAppENS FOUR – A NEW HOpE
7TH JULy 2011
IN COLLAbORATION WITH yORK THEATRE ROyAL, SCIENCE CITy yORK, yORK UNIvERSITy & yORK ST JOHN UNIvERSITy. is will be the fourth installment of our annual conference which will be presented together with satellite events via the CAV network and a full programme of activities across the year. A range of speakers, events, skill sharing and training opportunities will provide inspirational thinking and idea generation across the sector building a network of arts leaders who value sharing their knowledge and skills for the benefit of all. It will be an international beacon of digital excellence.
THE RON COOKE HUb, UNIvERSITy OF yORK SCIENCE TECHNOLOGy ENGINEERING ARTS MATHS - STEAM A new STEAM age We will be looking at how the Arts can make a creative impact within the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subject areas to deliver a new STEAM Age of innovation and creativity is event will be run by Pilot eatre and has been supported by Arts Council England, York City Council, Science City York, University of York and York St John University. Speakers at the event, which sold out in 25 minutes, include Mariéme Jamme, Bill ompson, Peter Gregson, Kristin Alford, live from Adelaide and Yatterbox.
by RICHARD HURFORD WITH GIUDITTA MINGUCCI DIRECTED by KATE pOSNER DESIGNED by ILARIA ARIEMME 2061 and it’s a whole different world. No school, no shops, no internet. No escape from the rain that keeps falling. No way out of life filled with fear and hate. Fourteen year old Sid wants to know why Grandpa hates the world so much, but Grandpa keeps his secrets. en one day Sid meets a girl with blood on her hands and everything begins to change. Together they discover that life wasn’t always like this and find out what really happened to all the bright lights and good stuff. Working with students from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. What Light is one of the new plays commissioned for young people as part of Platform 11+, a European Culture 2008 project with 12 countries across Europe. #whatlight
DANIEL CAMERON
LyNSEy-ANNE MOFFAT
CHRIS TOWNER-JONES
SEAN WILDEy TOUR DATES e Studio, York eatre Royal 11th -21st May Elsinor eatre, Milan 6th -7th June eater Junge Generation, Dresden 15th -18th June
current
CO-pRODUCTION WITH ELSINOR THEATRE, MILAN
CAST:
productions
current
productions
WHAT LIGHT
pILOT THEATRE & yORK THEATRE ROyAL pRESENT
bLACKbIRD by DAvID HARROWER DIRECTED by KATIE pOSNER DESIGNED by LyDIA DENNO Why now? Why here? What does she want from him? He was 40. She was 12. It wasn’t right, but despite what they said he was never ‘one of those’. Ray has done his time. Now, 15 years later, he just wants to get on with his new life. But today she has come and found him again. George Costigan (Emmerdale, Rita, Sue and Bob Too) takes on the role of Ray in this unflinching portrait of two people trying to make sense of a painful past. Winner of the 2007 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. “Neither condoning nor condemning, Harrower has produced a fine, thought-provoking piece on a taboo subject.” e Independent ‘Blackbird is a drama that mixes guilt, memory and desire into the most potent of theatrical cocktails' Daily Telegraph
CAST: GEORGE COSTIGAN AS RAy
SARAH qUINTRELL AS UNA
TOUR DATES e Studio, York eatre Royal 21st October – 12th November Tron eatre, Glasgow 15th - 19th November Mercury eatre, Colchester 23rd - 26th November Northcott eatre, Exeter 29th November - 3rd December Oxford Playhouse 6th - 10th December
in development
ROy WILLIAMS
THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER CO-pRODUCTION WITH yORK THEATRE ROyAL by ALAN SILLITOE A NEW ADApTATION by ROy WILLIAMS DIRECTED by MARCUS ROMER Working with our patron Roy Williams, we will bring this searing text of class, the criminal justice system and race to the stage in a stunning new production for the Olympic year of 2012. Touring Nationally. Set in the real time of a long distance race, we follow Colin Smith, a defiant young rebel who inhabits the no-man’s land of an institutionalized borstal, as his steady running rhythm transports him over a harsh frost bitten earth. During the race we will find out why, for whom and for what he is running…
With an exciting design and stunning visuals from KMA we follow Colin’s race, we unpick his thoughts and become part of his journey. #longrun2012
DRAMA ON DEMAND
DIRECTED by HANNAH NICKLIN MUSIC by SIMON GOFF e Umbrella Project is about interconnectivity, strangers, storytelling, the murmurings of a city, and the glimmers of human kindness reflected in the puddle of a rainy day.
AND THE LIvE-STREAMED READINGS pROJECT
e Umbrella Project will gather stories from all acrossYork, it will then bring these stories together to find a voice for the city ; recorded via umbrellas in the rain. Sound experiences that anyone can contribute to, left behind as traces in the rain. Umbrellas handed out to strangers in need of them and then passed on. What do you have to say?
ese new delivery mechanisms incorporating visuals and audio text enable access to drama in theatre foyers, libraries and schools and develop a new drama experience.
More will be revealed about e Umbrella Project later this year. You can follow @umbrellaproject on Twitter
CO-pRODUCED WITH MEDIAMILL, MEzzO AND REvOLUTION SOFTWARE A series of interactive dramas made available in eatre venues and other public spaces.
Newly commissioned work will sit alongside existing works including My Name is Rachel Corrie. Pilot eatre will work with Kinura to develop new new distribution models and methods of Digital Amplification.
HASHTAGS AND GLADRAGS IN DEvELOpMENT FOR pRODUCTION IN 2012 / 2013 In R&D in 2011, this will be a new writing project using the Twitter platform. Led by Dan Rebellato and Daniel Bye, this will be a completely interactive performance project, written over 9 months, reflecting the events and stories of that period and using the input of both on and offline audiences, this project will tour Nationally.
in development
in development
THE UMbRELLA pROJECT
URbAN GRIMSHAW AND THE SHED CREW
bLOOD, SWEAT AND CHOCOLATE
by bERNARD HARE ADApTED FOR THE STAGE by KEvIN FEGAN IN DEvELOpMENT FOR pRODUCTION IN 2013/ 2014 Acclaim for the novel:
THE ROWNTREES STORy
'A compelling piece of ethnography, but it is also a deeply personal memoir . Moving but never sanctimonious, it is another City of God, this time for Britain rather than Brazil.' (Observer ) 'A damnation of British society that is both violently shocking and laugh-out-loud funny, reading somewhere between a pre-teen Trainspotting and a northern-English equivalent of Larry Clark's Kids . . . a memoir with attitude' (Big Issue )
WRITTEN by MIKE KENNy CO-pRODUCTION WITH yORK THEATRE ROyAL AND SLUNGLOW IN DEvELOpMENT FOR pRODUCTION IN 2013 / 2014 A new commission sharing York's place in history, exploring social welfare reform over the last 100 years and tracing the history of a World War 1 chocolate tin through four generations. is project will build on the partnership delivering the York Mysteries 2012 and coincide with Centenary of WW1.
LOS CARTONEROS CO-pRODUCTION WITH THEATER Upb bUENOS AIRES AND yORK THEATRE ROyAL IN DEvELOpMENT FOR pRODUCTION IN 2014 / 2015 Los Cartoneros ‘Cardboard People’ will build on the relationship formed during our 'Made in Argentina Project' (2010). Creating a new dance/music /theatre piece for Young People set in a dystopian world with actors and artists from Argentina, Brazil and the UK.
Skype sessions, post show discussions, blogs and other forums, alongside free online resources allow both an evaluation of our practice and an ongoing commitment to give our audiences as much information as possible about our processes of making work. Educational projects over the last year have included; Extensive practical work in schools accompanying our production of Romeo and Juliet, when over the course of our 8 month tour our creative team delivered workshops to schools, colleges and youth theatres across the UK. Summer schools at the eatre taking themes from e Mystery of Jack and the Clones of Chaos to put on a play at the end of a week
A 10 day European Youth Exchange to Tallinn, Estonia with 8 Youth eatre members and 3 staff - see tallinn2010.posterous.com A year long programme of activity with 4 Yorkshire Schools culminating in the devising, writing and production of 4 new plays by young people for our Platform Festival in May 2011. eir shows, What Goes Up, Dami, Hush and Time Flies explored the same themes of hopes, imaginings, future and responsibilities as What Light. In 2010/2011 we ran 112 sessions involving over 3412 participants /attendances.
platform 11+
engagement
Pilot deliver a varied and extensive engagement programme working with school students, teachers, young people and adults on a range of activities from conferences to training to practical workshops to residencies.
is year has seen an intensity of activity with meetings across Europe and artist exchanges with Estonia and Italy. We have co-produced with Elsinor eatre in Milan, run a Teacher Development weekend in Portugal, planned in Berlin, taken a group of young people to Tallinn and toured to Italy and Germany.
A book is published with extracts from all the new texts written so far from the 13 participating countries both individually and in collaboration with others in the coproductons, to inspire and provide a great resource for others working for and with this age group.
Its about exchange on so many different levels, not just of skills but of ideas, thinking, language, interests - all linked by passion. Passion for working with theatre, with young people and passion for learning. ( Julian Ollive, Workshop Leader for Teachers Meeting)
We then look forward to creating our final production involving all the companies and presented first in Pilsen, Czech Republic – European City of Culture 2012, before traveling to all partner countries.
is year Platform11 + will hold its annual festival in June with a showing of all the project’s co-productions in Dresden at eatre Junge Generation together with a multi media display of the associated school and youth groups’ creative work.
For further thoughts and feelings about Platform 11+ see platform11plus.posterous.com Pilot's Producer, Mandy Smith, has used the work on Platform 11+ as a central part of her project for her European Diploma in Cultural Management, to be completed in Delphi, Greece in June 2011.
Pilot eatre York eatre Royal St Leonards Place York YO1 7HD pilot-theatre.com info@pilot-theatre.com 01904 635755
is brochure is also available in large print and at pilot-theatre.com. Please call 01904 635755 or email info@pilot-theatre.com if you require another format
Registered Charity Number: 1003677
Registered in England: 1956167
www.anonymousdesign.net
contact
Follow us on Twitter @pilot_theatre Become a fan on Facebook – Search Pilot eatre