decibel pitch led Tara Arts to critically acclaimed UK tour
Published 2 November 2010
For the last month Tara Arts has been touring People’s Romeo around the UK, to critical acclaim. The production employs Pala Gaan (popular Bangladeshi street theatre) to retell the classic tale of Romeo and Juliet. Here, Jonathan Kennedy explains why their pitch at decibel 2009 was crucial to securing the support of venues for a tour that enabled many regional audiences to experience for their cross-cultural theatre for the first time.
“An utterly absorbing piece of theatre” The Stage
“It's a very simple show, but an effective one that suggests that such cross-cultural experiments can deliver theatrical dividends.” Lyn Gardner, The Guardian
Tara applied to decibel PAS 2009 in order to promote a production, People’s Romeo, which we had been developing at our Studio in south London.
At the Pitch session in Manchester I aimed to secure sufficient interest from theatres in order to ensure a tour of the production could be developed for 2011. Before this, the production of People’s Romeo had been given scratch performances at our Studio. The performance includes Pala Gaan specialists (popular Bangladeshi street theatre) and the next phase of the projects development enabled further dramaturgical work on the show using Shakespeare’s verse.
The Pitch session received immediate and positive responses from programmers and in so doing raised the profile of Tara and the emerging Pala Gaan artists to the theatre sector. As a direct impact of the Pitch session at decibel 2009 I secured partnerships for touring weeks with Greenwich Theatre, Plymouth Theatre Royal and Hull Truck. These dates where critical to underpinning the tour for autumn 2010. Other touring dates where secured further to decibel but the three venues above were instrumental in making the tour feasible.
Whilst Tara has toured extensively for over 30 years, the showcase opened up the production to new regional theatres and new audiences. Tara had not toured to Greenwich Theatre, Plymouth Theatre Royal or Hull Truck before decibel 2009. The showcase opened up this opportunity for collaborative working with these key regional theatres in London, Yorkshire/North East and the south West.
Over the last month, the performance and supporting engagement programme have enabled audiences to experience our cross-cultural theatre, many for the first time, re-inventing Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet mixed with emerging Pala Gaan artists in Plymouth, Hull, London, Birmingham, Darlington, Crawley.
Reviews:
The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/oct/01/peoples-romeo-review
The Stage http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/29570/peoples-romeo
Tour dates and venues:
Thurs 09 & Fri 10 Sep
TARA Studio
Tue 14 - Sat 18 Sep
Greenwich Theatre
Tue 21 - Sat 25 Sep
The Drum, Plymouth Theatre Royal
Tue 28 - Wed 29 Sep
Arena Wolverhampton
Thurs 30 Sep
Hawth Crawley
Fri 01 Oct
Asia House
6th - 16th Oct
Watermans
Mon 18 - Tues 19 Oct
Hull Truck
Thurs 21 Oct
Darlington Arts Centre
Fri 22 Oct
Drum, Birmingham (Sampad)
