This October the Festival City Theatres Trust, which runs the Festival and King’s Theatres in Edinburgh, announced the appointment of the actors who will take part in the inaugural year of The Attic Collective. This is a new theatre company for emerging actors aged 18-26 working with Director Susan Worsfold and Cat Sheridan, Learning and Participation Coordinator for the Trust and Creative Producer for the Collective.
400 aspiring actors applied for the opportunity to join The Attic Collective, a unique, free talent development initiative offering professional training, industry access and performance opportunities. Following two rounds of auditions in September, a core company of 18 will be based at the King’s Theatre Edinburgh for the next twelve months.
The 2017 will launch The Attic Collective’s first ever season – with a diverse and vibrant programme comprising of –
Lysistrata by Aristophanes; Friday 27 and Saturday 28 January, King’s Theatre Edinburgh.
War in America (World Premiere) by Jo Clifford; May 2017.
The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht, September 2017.
The Edinburgh Reporter gained exclusive access not only to both Creative Producer Catrin Sheridan and Director Susan Worsfold but also members of the company in between very busy rehearsal schedules. All members of the Company responded to the questions individually.
TER. Can you summarise very briefly for us what The Attic Collective is and the impact it will have for actors in Scotland?
Catrin Sheridan. The Attic Collective is a new initiative from the Festival Cities Theatre Trust, providing unprecedented access to the industry for a group of 18 emerging actors. The core of the collective is about providing free opportunities in an industry that is suffering from austerity, cuts and rising fees in education.
Susan Worsfold. The Attic Collective is an ensemble theatre company for emerging actors aged 18-26. Through the performance of three main stage productions across one year, professional industry-led workshops and mentoring, the Collective offers unrivalled and free access to the industry for Scotland’s emerging theatre talent.
TER. How did you arrive at the rather bohemian-chic title for the Company?
Catrin Sheridan: The name was an easy one. After starting at the Trust I was shown an underused space in the King’s “attic”. It needed a bit of TLC but I was able to persuade the Trust that investing a bit of money and turning this carpeted fading room in to a black box studio complete with dance floor and production office was a good idea. They did and it became another working space for the Learning and Participation department. We knew we needed a dedicated space to run the Collective and this is very difficult in our theatres as the programme of work and the needs of visiting companies are always changing. Once we had converted the attic it was a no brainer. The Collective would be in residence in the attic and so the Attic Collective was born.
Susan Worsfold. Whilst the company works at both FCTT’s venues – the Edinburgh Festival Theatre and the Kings Theatre – it will be mainly resident at the Kings Theatre where the rehearsal space is a black box studio in the attic of the theatre building.
TER. The 2017 launch programme couldn’t be more diverse, drawing on over two thousand years of Drama. Three productions beginning with Aristophanes’ Lysistrata. His anti-war ‘Carry On (but certainly not up) the Athenian women polemic satire. What’s The Attic Collective’s take on this bawdy, ‘pricking’ the bubble of Dulce et Decorum Est?
Catrin Sheridan. We shall be drawing on the themes of Cash, Capital, War and Women, which connect the three productions in our first season. Lysistrata is going to be set in a non-denominated public space, in a modernised clean and sanitized world. With plenty of scope for us to make a mess. We will be pulling on the base comedy of the piece and contrasting that with the idea of high art and beauty.
Susan Worsfold. All our seasons’ productions draw on the topics of Cash, Capital, Women and War. Lysistrata certainly connects to all four! Our production is a contemporary take on the production, where clean aesthetic lines offer space to make a mess. Aristophanes ‘low comedy’ ethos of ‘if it makes ’em laugh, do it!’ is welcomed with open arms. This heightened hilarity highlights the darker streams running through the play, namely the de-voiced slaves that have a silent and significant presence throughout and the ultimate aim of sacrifice at all costs for the sake of peace. Gary Cameron’s compositions sweep through and punctuate the story, sung, played and performed by the cast.
TER. You will have seen David Greig’s Lyceum production of Suppliant Women, resonant with contemporary themes of war refugees, female enslavement, he nevertheless kept to a translation of Aeschylus’ text. Its power was even greater. What was your rationale with your interpretation on Lysistrata and can we have some sneaky tidbits?
Susan Worsfold. It’s interesting to remind ourselves that the Peloponnesian War, which lasted for 30 years and which most of Aristophanes plays are either evaluating, criticising or trying to offer an alternative against, was between two states that were culturally very similar and with roughly 130 drivable miles distance between them. That’s just under the distance between Edinburgh and Inverness!! So there might be some of that in there.
TER. Was the play a new experience for the younger cast?
Catrin Sheridan. Our emerging actors are thrilled to be doing Lysistrata. Susan and I were both fans of the piece already and aware that it isn’t as widely known as some of Aristophanes’ other pieces. But after reading it the Collective couldn’t wait to get their teeth in to this script. There is a huge amount of fun to be had and we are relishing the challenge.
Susan Worsfold. This play would be a new experience for most casts and professional actors. Whilst Greek Tragedy is performed a lot and a well-known medium for most actors – referenced in training and by most producing houses – Greek Comedy is a much less worked form. Aristophanes is thought to have written 40 comedies, with only 11 surviving and these are very rarely performed in a professional capacity. On one level, they are much more difficult to get to grips with, with the specific comedic references being dependant on the minutiae of life and people living at that time. That being said, the form of the comedy, the gags, the pointing at politicians, the desire for peace and the ego of patriarchal power that brokers such wars are wholeheartedly clear and present and the cast have very much resonated with this – and had a lot of fun in doing so. Aristophanes speaks to our time, our next generation of young political thinkers and our Collective’s emerging artists.
TER. Do you intend to shock, titillate and agitate the delicate maiden aunts of polite society Edinburgh as equally as draw an older teenage audience and show them a thing or two?
Catrin Sheridan. Absolutely. There is no getting away from the fact that this is a brash comedy with scope for massive amounts of innuendo and absurdist comedy and we will be taking inspiration from Aristophanes himself by putting in as many styles of comedy as we can. However we will also be looking at how to contrast that with the political nods in the script. Watch this space…
Susan Worsfold. The Attic Collective absolutely has the ability to excite, provoke, entertain and broker new audiences of all generations. Our season’s theme is Classical Structure, Contemporary Voice and this relates not only to our productions but to the buildings we are creating in. The company are breathing their voices into these historic spaces and in doing so can re-ignite known classics whilst creating contemporary work with a fresh voice. We want to open the doors of the theatre and invite everyone in.
TER. We are familiar with Brecht/Weil’s brooding and prescient Threepenny Opera’s songs, what is The Attic Collective have up its sleeve apart from Mack’s knife, obviously?
Catrin Sheridan. We have plenty up our sleeves for Threepenny; not least our decision to relocate from SoHo London to Edinburgh’s own ‘pubic triangle’ in the present day, which will add a local twist to this classic. The Collective will be embracing the opportunity to show case some of our actor/musicians and play with the seasons key themes; Cash, Capital, War and Women.
TER. Jo Clifford’s world premiere of War In America, was this an Attic commission?
Susan Worsfold. This work was originally commissioned 20 years ago, in 1996, by the Royal Lyceum Theatre. It was not produced as at the time it was deemed ‘too offensive’. As with all her work, Jo Clifford is very much ahead of the curve as a writer and so we find that a play written two decades ago still rings true today as if it were written this morning.
TER. Early days indeed but are there plans to takes these productions elsewhere?
Catrin Sheridan. It is certainly a long term aim, but for now we want to focus on making our mark and our home on the FCTT stages.
Susan Worsfold. That would absolutely be the long term hope.
TER invited some of the first year Attic Collective burning tyros to lend their perspective on this exciting project:
Imogen Lucy Reiter
This collective is vital in my eyes because not only does it help develop skills and our craft but it’s a place that trusts us as young people and emerging artists to work. Anyone who works in the arts can tell you that trust and belief in you and your work is invaluable.
The fact that the AC has put resources and money into us, that they treat this company like a working company, is vital, in my opinion, to our confidence and development as artists.
There is nothing else out there that I know of that takes young performers seriously, that instead of treating our career aspirations as far-fetched, works to help us achieve them
Lewis Gribben
The Attic Collective is really needed in our industry because without it my voice could never be heard on a main stage like the Kings’. Attic Collective takes us seriously and is a place where we as a Company can gain training and mentoring to help hone our acting craft and gain confidence as actors without us being labelled as a ‘Youth Group or Youth Theatre.’ For me, no one has ever heard of anything like us. We are the first wave of unknown talent that AC put their money, and faith into. That for us it feels really amazing and humbling that we are the flag bearers for the AC.
Cait MacInnes Irvine
The Scottish arts scene is incredible, but being a small pool makes it difficult to break into. The genuine innovation of The Attic Collective – i.e. taking applications from anyone aged 18-25 with a passion for acting and a desire to train, grow and develop their skills, all without having to pay a penny – is incredible. You only have to look round the rehearsal room and in every face you see drive, talent and creativity.
Each member has come a different route to be here, and I’m constantly blown away by the group of people I’m lucky enough to be working with week in and week out. Additionally, as The Attic Collective is a part of the Festival City Theatres Trust, the reputation we are being entrusted with only adds to the fire in our bellies.
I firmly believe that if you believe in the arts, you have to believe in emerging artists. Opportunities like this are sadly few and far between, but I’m certain that the success The Attic Collective is going to carve for itself is going to pave the way for similar initiatives, and personally I think that can’t happen quickly enough. The Collective means the world to me, and I cannot wait to see what the rest of the year is going to bring!
http://www.edtheatres.com/lysistrata
