Advisory Board Meeting in York
The British Pilot Theatre was the host of the Advisory Board Meeting, held on a sunny weekend in early autumn 2011.
The Pilot Theatre was formed in 1981. Its base is the York Theatre Royal, with whom it shares resources. Pilot recently, moved from a converted backstage dressing room to a new space in the historic building next door – De Grey House. The current Artistic Director, Marcus Romer was appointed in 1994, and from this time on, the company has focused on developing a national touring circuit, creating exciting and innovative work for young people.
The ancient theatre building, situated in the middle of the historic city centre, was the ideal place for the lively discussions of the European colleagues.
The artistic directors of all the part-ner theatres met in order to discuss the concept and organization of the Final Production as well as to talk about new innovations for the project and to gather ideas for the continuation of the project.
The delegates had a lot of vigorous discussions but they also had the chance to see two plays. There was a huge applause for the premiere of Alan Bennett’s play ‘Forty Years On’ which was directed by the Artistic Director of the Theatre Royal, Demian Cruden. The Tutti Frutti Company performed ‘The Hare and Tortoise’ by Brendan Murray for young children.
The climax of the meeting was the ‘Play Fair’, a staged reading of new texts from Platform 11+ authors which had grown out of the preparation for the common final production.