In a recent article, David Edgar considered the pitfalls of the Arts Council's prioritisation of street arts and circus, with the implied suggestion that support of this sector was at the expense of new writing. But why does new writing feel it is excluded from outdoor performance? And is the street arts sector well placed to receive and nurture new writing?
Back in 2005, Lyn Gardner suggested: "Too often those working in classical or new-writing theatre and those writing in visual or physical theatre have viewed each other with distrust." I admit that, for a playwright, some of the historical "distrust" remains and there are challenges to creating text-based work for outdoor performance. However, one cannot ignore the growing amount of UK arts companies from both disciplines who are choosing to collaborate and produce work in our public spaces.
There are some established street theatre companies including Desperate Men who consider text as central to the "successful process and climax of good theatre". Two UK indoor companies have recently moved to the outdoor arena: Periplum and Metro-Boulot-Dodo. Both have playwrights/dramaturgs as artistic directors. Periplum have been twice nominated for the Edinburgh Fringe First Award for their innovations in text-driven performance. Both companies believe passionately that the street arts sector has more to offer them in terms of their artistic engagement with wider audiences.
Recent educational developments, such as the BA street arts degree developed by the University of Winchester and Hat Fair, acknowledge that learning the processes of creating theatre text and narrative is important to outdoor performance, whilst also understanding that strong skills in devising and collaboration have an essential role in our ability to tell stories.
Venues are also pursuing an active interest in street arts to complement their house programmes and to continue to innovate theatre in all its broad definitions. As well as the National theatre's highly popular Watch This Space programme, regional theatres including Taunton's Brewhouse and Manchester's Contact theatre have developed exciting programmes engaging with outdoor performance. The Contact theatre has a strong history of developing new writers from multidisciplinary backgrounds and as John McGrath states, "It is inspiring for participants to explore different mediums of delivering theatre, and utilising outdoor performance can create a world of possibilities." Robert Miles, director of the Brewhouse theatre, finds that: "New work will always be the lifeblood of theatre, and it will always be about telling a story, but it does not need to mean commissioning a writer to sit alone typing a play before any other work can start; let's see what we can create together."
Arts Council England's financial pot is limited and its change in priorities should not herald the demise of new writing, but refocus our efforts as artists and producers to think more innovatively about the markets we are creating work for and the environments in which we wish to see it produced. The street arts sector is well placed to deliver work to large audiences of non-theatregoers, and is more accessible than venue-based work and frequently free to attend. This industry provides a supportive environment for multi and interdisciplinary artists and needs investment in order to reach its full potential.
It can be understood from the growing support across the arts industry that street arts will not always be the most suitable medium for creating and delivering different genres and styles of performance. However, for those writers, dramaturgs and creators who wish to share their experiences, explore opportunities and collaborate with emerging and established street artists, the theatre doors can open to the outside world.
