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Battersea Arts Centre announce their plans for 2015 and beyond.
by Eva Jackson
PostScript attended the inaugural BAC press breakfast this week to hear about what the coming year holds in store for the venue that The Guardian has previously dubbed 'Britain's most influential theatre'. That's a lofty title to bestow and a difficult one to uphold, but the announcements made by artistic director David Jubb on Friday suggest that the BAC are entering 2015 in superb and fighting form.
February 27th marks the fifteenth anniversary of Scratch, the BAC's revolutionary approach to the development of works-in-progress, and a model that has nursed to full term shows as diverse as Stewart Lee's Jerry Springer The Opera, 1927's The Animals and Children Took To The Streets, and Kate Tempest's genre-defining Brand New Ancients. The concept of 'scratch nights' have since taken on a life of their own, with numerous theatre companies across the capital offering one-off programmes showcasing short excerpts of work from emerging artists and playwrights. Scratch's birthday edition of Freshly Scratched will be the biggest event of its kind to date, with six or seven performances per night from 30th March - 2 April 2015, all from artists whose work is currently unknown to the BAC, and all Pay What You Can.
The journalists present were among the first to discover that in spring 2016, the BAC and the Wandsworth Museum plan to unite as one organisation, with the aim of creating 'a brand new home for culture and heritage in South West London'. The transition will begin with the museum's staff relocating to the BAC's beautiful home in the former town hall on Lavender Hill in March of this year, and the teams will then join forces to explore new and exciting ways of interpreting the museum's collections and performing the social, political and cultural history of the borough.
This was not the only partnership announced that morning. The BAC are teaming up with Queen Mary University London in order to create the 'university of creativity', a new learning hub that will be housed at the back of the Lavender Hill premises and act as the HQ for the BAC and Manchester's Contact Theatre social enterprise initiative The Agency, which helps young and underprivileged local entrepreneurs to develop and fund ideas for sustainable businesses. This new collaboration provides a wonderful backdrop for March's Hourglass Festival, a six-day festival presented by the Young Producers on BAC's Homegrown scheme (a equal-opportunities programme established to 'nuture the next generation of artists, producers and performers'.)
Much progress has been made in the last few years in efforts to export some of London's brightest and best cultural events out to the rest of the UK, with initiatives such as National Theatre Live working to break down geographical boundaries and broaden the demographic of theatre-goers. However, it seems harder to gain traction in the opposite direction, with very little attention or coverage given to the incredible work being done by smaller regional companies operating far from the capital. At a time when ideas of devolution and decentralisation loom large, not enough work is being done to lessen London's perceived monopoly on excellence in the arts. BAC seek to redress this balance, and will begin by teaming up with the Guardian to present A Nation's Theatre, 'a year-long part-season, part-campaign and part-debate series' that aims to 'shine a light on the breadth and depth of theatre across the UK'. This will feature takeover performances throughout the BAC's facilities from more than thirty regional theatres and theatre companies, including work from Ipswich's critically-acclaimed physical dance theatre company Gecko and Birmingham's Chris Thorpe with his Fringe First-winning show Confirmation.
This programme will be augmented by the continuation of the excellent work by the Collaborative Touring Network, which has created biannual theatre and performance festivals in six regional locations in the UK for the past two years, with a particular focus on areas and communities that are often neglected in a traditional touring model due to having no existing cultural infrastructure.
April and May will see the spotlight shone on politically-charged performances, as the Taking A Stand season presents twelve shows that challenge ideas about democracy and freedom of speech ahead of the general election. Of particular note is The Siege, The Freedom Theatre's brand new production inspired by the siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem at the height of the second intifada in 2002. BAC will be The Siege's London stop on the largest UK tour ever mounted by a Palestinian theatre company. Jess Thom's Total Theatre Award-winning show about living with Tourettes, Backstage In Biscuit Land, is also set to be one of this season's hot tickets. I would recommend booking for The Money by Kalieder - although whether you choose to become a Benefactor or a Silent Witness is entirely up to you.
Creator-inventor Jim Whiting will be coming to the BAC in November to mount his first work in the UK for over two decades, playfully reinterpreting the very fabric of the building as it enters the final phase of its architectural redevelopment. This restoration and reinvention process aims to render the BAC (in the words of the lead architect), 'one of the most radical arts buildings in the world', and will include the creation of an adaptable outdoor performance space.
The building itself is in many ways a fantastic metaphor for the work of the Battersea Arts Centre, the organisation's philosophies made flesh in its physical space. It is a creative hub at the heart of the community, featuring studios for small businesses, bedrooms for artists, a play space for children. It hosts weddings, conferences, coffee mornings, and £1 social dances for the elderly. The hugely diverse programming announced on Friday is only too fitting for an innovative and inclusive organisation that is very far from being just a performance venue. Theatre is just the beginning.
Find out more at www.bac.org.uk
@PostScriptJour
