When Mayfest opens in Bristol this week with a pulse-racing programme of work ranging that offers fledgling local companies cheek by jowl with artists of international reputation, it will be a reminder of how far Bristol has come. It is increasingly becoming a magnet for young theatre-makers who see opportunities in a city where Bristol Old Vic is back in business, the Tobacco Factory has expanded to a second space, Helen Cole's Inbetween Time festival will take place in December, Circomedia has ambitious new producing plans for its beautiful Portland Square base, and organisations of real vision such as Watershed are exploring new opportunities in social media and digital technologies. Where graduating students once felt drawn by the magnet of London, increasing numbers are coming to the city that spawned the Residence companies, and which through the remarkable efforts of Theatre Bristol has a genuine sense of community and possibility for both practitioners and audiences.
That's not to suggest that everything is hunky-dory in Bristol after BOV's near-death experience, or that the situation isn't very fragile. It's important that both the city council and the Arts Council recognise Bristol's artistic potential, and do their best to support its continued growth. BOV still gets the bulk of funding, and as it announces its plans for redevelopment at a public meeting next Tuesday it will be more important than ever to extend a collaborative hand to local artists, writers, companies and producers. Gone are the days when a regional theatre building can swallow all an area's resources; BOV must see itself as part of a wider theatre ecology, not just as the biggest fish in the pond.
It could learn a great deal from Theatre Bristol, an organisation that celebrated its fifth birthday a couple of weeks ago, and that has acted as midwife to much emerging Bristol theatre. The great achievement of Theatre Bristol, and its departing director Seth Honnor, has been to look around and see what was already beginning to stir, and to gather together projects for mutually beneficial ends. It has also recognized that it is not top-down organisations, but communities and networks, that are the most creative. Ideas, projects and resources need to be shared and circulated like gifts, not jealously guarded and claimed and owned.
It's becoming increasingly clear that the theatrical health of a particular city or region needs to be measured not just by the success of its leading theatre building, but by the levels of activity that are going on around it, and the efforts it makes to encourage and support them. In the future, funders may well be looking not just for evidence of a theatre's dazzling in-house productions, but also its willingness to enable a wider theatre community, and harness the energy of artists and audience for the greater good of all.
One of the things that Theatre Bristol has done superbly is to create a space for real discussion and debate, to allow people to dream about the kind of theatre culture that they would like to see in Bristol. The buds are everywhere to see; let's hope they really get a chance to bloom. In the meantime Mayfest demonstrates the city's vibrancy, and its willingness to experiment and play.
