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A Study of the Royal Court Young Peoples’ Theatre and Its Development Into the Young Writers’ Programme

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A Study of the Royal Court Young Peoples’ Theatre and Its Development Into the Young Writers’ Programme Building the Engine Room: A Study of the Royal Court Young Peoples’ Theatre and its Development into the Young Writers’ Programme N O Holden Doctor of Philosophy 2018 Building the Engine Room: A Study of the Royal Court’s Young Peoples’ Theatre and its Development into the Young Writers’ Programme Nicholas Oliver Holden, MA, AKC A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Lincoln for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Fine and Performing Arts College of Arts March 2018 2 DECLARATION I declare that this thesis is my own work and has not been submitted in substantially the same form for a higher degree elsewhere. 3 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisors: Dr Jacqueline Bolton and Dr James Hudson, who have been there with advice even before this PhD began. I am forever grateful for your support, feedback, knowledge and guidance not just as my PhD supervisors, but as colleagues and, now, friends. Heartfelt thanks to my Director of Studies, Professor Mark O’Thomas, who has been a constant source of support and encouragement from my years as an undergraduate student to now as an early career academic. To Professor Dominic Symonds, who took on the role of my Director of Studies in the final year; thank you for being so generous with your thoughts and extensive knowledge, and for helping to bring new perspectives to my work. My gratitude also to the University of Lincoln and the School of Fine and Performing Arts for their generous studentship, without which this PhD would not have been possible. The foundation of this research was built upon the many interviews that I have conducted over the last three-years and I am indebted to the many theatre practitioners, directors, playwrights, and agents who have given their time so generously to talk to me about their experiences. In particular, I would like to thank: David Sulkin, for encouraging me to be passionate about my work from the beginning, Graham Whybrow for pushing me to be critical, and to those members of the Royal Court and most importantly its Young Peoples’ Theatre, who I have pestered for information, materials, and countless interview requests throughout the research process and beyond. My thanks also to the staff and archivists at Blythe House for their assistance particularly in the early stages of my research. I would also like to thank Dr Adam Rush, whose advice has been invaluable to me over the years and Dr Andrew Westerside, who has been an important mentor, colleague and friend. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Jonathan and Marion, and my Grandparents, Eric and Sybil, for being patient and understanding of my choices. And Harriet, you are my inspiration – thank you for your unwavering encouragement and support. This thesis is dedicated to those who have worked in the young peoples’ initiatives at the Royal Court and to the members of Young Court, who are building on the legacies of the past in the hope of making a change for the future. 4 Abstract The Royal Court Theatre has forged its reputation on its ability to source and produce some of the most important new plays of the last sixty years. Its long- standing identity as a ‘writers’ theatre’ has cemented the Court’s allure to playwrights from across the world. Indeed, it is due to the theatre’s, at times, contentious history and continuous dedication to the playwright that the Court has also received substantial academic attention, which has resulted in extensive scholarship and interrogation of the theatre’s work. However, very little consideration has been given to the Royal Court Young Peoples’ Theatre and it is through engagement with this initiative and its development into the Young Writers’ Programme that this thesis provides a long-overdue assessment of this overlooked strand of the Court’s work. This thesis presents an original account of the Royal Court’s history from the perspective of its work with young people and playwrights. Primary sources of material for this thesis are shared between information gathered from the archive of the Royal Court, housed within the Victoria and Albert Museum’s collections at Blythe House, and interviews conducted by the author with key figures from this part of the Royal Court Theatre’s work. This material is located alongside the changing contexts of education, politics, the Royal Court and British theatre more widely, between 1966 and 2007, and looks to assess how each of these areas came to inform and influence the policy of the Young Peoples’ Theatre (YPT). The thesis proposes that the YPT adopted an unusual and alternative approach to working with young people that was at times both radical in its practice and fiercely political. The nature of its work often saw the Scheme ostracised from both a growing theatre-in-education movement and the Royal Court itself, where its survival is often credited to the tenacity of certain individuals. Indeed, the thesis posits that the YPT, despite its breadth of activity, was most welcomed within the theatre’s eco-system during the periods in its history when it focused its policy on young writers and therefore fed into the Court’s fundamental identity as a writers’ theatre. 5 Building the Engine Room: A Study of the Royal Court Young Peoples’ Theatre and its Development into the Young Writers’ Programme Contents Declaration p. 3 Acknowledgements p. 4 Abstract p. 5 Contents p. 6 List of Abbreviations p. 8 List of Figures p. 9 Preface: A Forgotten History p. 10 A Note on Terminology p. 19 INTRODUCTION ‘The Solution Lies in Schools’: Young People and the Royal Court 1956-1966 p. 20 CHAPTER ONE ‘The Lunatics Have Seized Power’: Early Tensions and Conflict in the Schools Scheme 1966-76 p. 46 CHAPTER TWO A Garage Full of Activists: Expansion, Politics and Radicalism in the Young Peoples’ Theatre Scheme 1976-1980 p. 83 CHAPTER THREE ‘A Space in the Community’: Place, Sponsorship and Playwriting Pedagogy in the Young Peoples’ Theatre 1981-1991 p. 124 6 CHAPTER FOUR ‘An Extraordinary Success Story’: Policy, Geography and a focus on New Writing in The Young Peoples’ Theatre 1992-1998 p. 162 CHAPTER FIVE A Place for Playwrights: The Young Writers’ Programme 1999-2007 p.193 CONCLUSION A Recovered History p. 232 APPENDICES A) List of Interviewees p. 239 B) Timeline: The Royal Court’s Work with Young People 1956-2007 p. 241 C) Archive Information relating to YPT, YWF and YWP p. 251 D) Young Writers’ Festival List of Productions 1975–2007 p. 256 E) Jerwood New Playwrights Scheme: List of Recipients and Productions 1994-2007 p. 262 BIBLIOGRAPHY p. 264 7 List of Abbreviations ACGB – Arts Council of Great Britain CAF – Charities Aid Foundation ESC – English Stage Company ILEA – Inner London Education Authority JNP – Jerwood New Playwrights PVEPF – Preventing Violent Extremism Pathfinder Fund RAA – Regional Arts Association RBKC – Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea RC – The Royal Court Theatre TiE – Theatre in Education YC – Royal Court’s Young Court YPT – Royal Court Young Peoples’ Theatre YPTS – Royal Court Young Peoples’ Theatre Scheme YWF – Young Writers’ Festival YWP – Young Writers’ Programme 8 List of Figures Fig.1 A YPT warm-up, Parish Hall, Sloane Square, 1972 p. 70 Fig.2 Production still, 1975 Young Writers’ Festival p. 78 Fig. 3 Programme for David Lan’s Not in Norwich (1977) p. 100 Fig. 4 YPT ‘Make a Play Weekend’, Bristol, 1980 p. 112 Fig. 5 Rehearsal still, Primary Sauce (1982) p. 139 Fig. 6 Royal Court Young Peoples’ Theatre, 309 Portobello Road p. 146 Fig. 7 Poster for the 1992 Young Writers’ Festival p. 172 9 Preface A Forgotten History An Unexpected Study The original intention for this PhD was to map and critique the practices of the Royal Court’s Young Writers’ Programme (YWP). I anticipated a thesis that would engage with almost twenty years of Royal Court history from 1998, when the Programme was founded, up until the present day. However, in the initial months of research for the project, it became clear that a much broader history of the theatre’s work with young people existed that spanned far beyond the inception of the YWP. These endeavours operated out of a specific initiative for young people at the Royal Court known as the Young Peoples’ Theatre (YPT) and it was out of this institution that the Young Writers’ Programme had evolved. On further investigation, it became clear that the YPT had been given minimal attention in the existing scholarship on the Royal Court and it was out of a desire to rectify this exclusion from the historical record that this thesis originated. The project continued, therefore, as an opportunity to map this aspect of the theatre’s history and present it alongside an existing and well-defined history of the English Stage Company at the Royal Court. In bringing attention to this under-appreciated area of the Royal Court’s work, greater consideration can be given to the reason and context of the development of the Young Writers’ Programme – an initiative that has garnered huge attention on the British theatre landscape in the 21st Century. Indeed, as the project expanded so too did the timeframe of investigation and the study now envelops the entire history of young peoples’ work at the Royal Court from the English Stage Company’s occupation of the theatre from 1956 up until 2007. 10 Following the model set by existing accounts of the Court’s history, this thesis is organised chronologically into chapters that are framed by what I consider to be defining eras in the Young Peoples’ Theatre’s history.1 This thesis was initially organised by the YPT’s directors, adopting the notion expressed by Little and McLaughlin that ‘the Royal Court is often defined in terms of its artistic directors.’2 But, as my research progressed, it became clear that the Young Peoples’ Theatre’s existence has been defined and influenced by its geography as much as it has by its directors.
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