Getting Old(er) in the Arts
I’m writing this blog the day after Dame Maggie Smith has died. One of the great actresses of stage and screen throughout her long career. One of our ‘national treasures’.
This has led me to ponder the value of experience in our industry and that I feel learning from and appreciating our ‘elders’ of theatre is largely unfashionable at the moment. Of course, the rare few ‘treasures’ are celebrated, but what about the others who also made pertinent contributions to the industry? What about the majority?
UK theatre has made great leaps in terms of diversity and inclusion, yet inclusivity for middle aged and older artists is not on the agenda.
The arts have always celebrated the ‘bright young thing’ and maybe, to be fair, when I was younger, I didn’t notice so much… but where do we stand on artists ‘earning their stripes’?
Working at our craft, learning and developing, with the hope that eventually, there’ll be some sort of career progression that rewards that?
(Of course, hugely reduced funding of the arts in this country means there are few places to develop ones craft now, but I digress…)
I started out as a young actress, then director, in awe of the detailed work of Howard Davies; how, in his hands, every word of a play, every second on stage, felt true and nuanced. I also remember the thrill of Robert Lepage’s work and his skill in incorporating dance and film. His first foray into the story of Hamlet was in a production called Elsinore in 1994. He played every character.
Jump to 2023 and we had the one man production of Vanya with Andrew Scott. The Evening Standard said it created ‘something new’, The Guardian said 'it is to be commended for its innovation’. Whilst I don’t want to take anything away from that production, why this insistence to say an old idea is new?
I’ve seen many productions incorporating elements of physical theatre described as ‘groundbreaking’ and sometimes I can’t help but wonder if they’d say that if they’d seen the work of Shared Experience or Complicité decades before, both pioneers in that field.
Shared Experience was founded in 1975 and Complicité in 1983. Nancy Meckler, once Artistic Director of Shared Experience, was the first female director to stage a production at the National Theatre, in 1981.
Shared Experience lost all of its Arts Council funding in 2011. Of course the Arts Council can’t keep funding the same companies ad infinitum and nor should they. The purse is not large and we need to make space for new. We need to challenge and stay pertinent.
But I do think we need to learn from what’s gone before.
Mid career colleagues tell me of conversations they’ve had with Artistic Directors or Producers, which left them feeling ‘you’ve had your time, move on’. So what happens when those saying (or thinking) that, also age by 15 or so years? They’re meant to move on too?
What does this mean for our growth as an art form? To me, it suggests we will learn little and develop even less.
If we cease with this illusion that everything exciting on stage now is ‘new’, perhaps we will place more value on what’s past. If we learn from it, then there is potential to create something truly innovative by standing on the shoulders of our predecessors rather than knocking them down.
ABOUT KATE SAXON
Trained as an actor, Kate moved into directing opera and theatre and now works across the disciplines of theatre, television, video games (garnering several BAFTA wins), VR and film.
Having directed over 35 theatre productions, personal highlights include working with John Fowles on the world premiere of The French Lieutenant’s Woman at The Fulton Opera House, Pennsylvania, which later transferred to the UK for a number 1 tour; Tom Stoppard on The Real Thing for Leeds Playhouse and ETT; and with Iraqi-American playwright Heather Raffo, developing Nine Parts of Desire with The Public in New York. Kate was Chair of Stage Directors UK from its inception, for 6 years, until 2020.
In 2017-18, Kate was selected as one of only 15 UK female screen directors for BAFTA Elevate and additionally for the Directors UK High End TV Drama Scheme. For Television, credits include Grace, Endeavour, Silent Witness, Call The Midwife, Casualty and Eastenders. In Film, Kate was Voice Director on Paramount’s Animated Feature Film, Capture The Flag, which won the Goya Award for Best Animated Film 2016. She’s now in pre-production for a feature film, To The River, due to film in Thailand in 2023.
Kate is also a Performance and Cinematic Director for Video Games, and has directed 100’s of games. Credits include the twice BAFTA nominated Mafia III; 2016 BAFTA winner Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture; 2015 BAFTA winner Alien: Isolation - and Witcher 3, the most nominated game in the Game Awards 2015.