Luke Owain Boult speaks with the new Artistic Director of National Theatre Wales, Kully Thiarai, about her recent appointment and her what she hopes to achieve with the organisation.
How are you finding your appointment as the Artistic Director at National Theatre Wales?
It has been an extraordinary and extremely busy few months with National Theatre Wales producing four new productions since I joined in May 2016. The range and diversity of the work has been wonderful. Productions have ranged from the emotionally charged and heartwarming play Before I Leave by Patrick Jones, inspired by the Cwm Taf choir in Merthyr to working with internationally renowned, Turner prize winning artist Jeremy Deller for We’re Here Because We’re Here; a UK wide memorial to mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. Wonderman in a collaboration with Gagglebabble took us to Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August and we made our biggest work to date City of the Unexpected in Cardiff in September. With over 5000 participants and wide-ranging partners the city of Cardiff was transformed into a place of magical mayhem to mark Roald Dahl’s centenary.
Such a busy period has enabled me to get to know the company well, meet and work with some great artists and community participants and begin to learn a bit more about all things Welsh. It’s great to see such enthusiasm from audiences for engaging with theatre and the performing arts.
How did you first become involved in the arts?
Accidently! Theatre in the Mill was a theatre venue on University of Bradford campus. It had a theatre group and I joined it for a year – I got to see loads of touring shows and met some fantastic people and that was the beginning of my involvement in the arts. I was training to be a Social Worker and had no idea that you could work in the performing arts.
What are you currently working on?
Reading scripts that have been submitted for the Wales Drama Award is my immediate focus. I’m also working closely with the team to work up a programme of work for the next couple of years, meeting lots of new people and visiting parts of Wales I have yet to discover.
Have you found any major differences between audiences in previous areas you’ve worked in and Wales?
I’m not sure there are huge differences between audiences in Wales and places where I’ve previously worked like Doncaster, Leicester, Leeds, Manchester. The differences really depend on the context: Where is the work taking place? What is it about? How is the community/public connecting with it? Who is the work for and with?
I don’t believe ‘audiences’ are in anyway generic. The motivations of individuals and why they come to cultural events are varied and complex.
There seems to be a huge appreciation and appetite from the public for the arts in Wales, matched by a strong commitment from Welsh Government and Arts Council Wales to ensure a thriving cultural ecology exits for everyone to enjoy and participate in.
What do you think the biggest challenges facing the arts in Wales are?
We are in a period of great change: socially, politically and economically. It brings with it significant uncertainty and like many sectors, the arts need to deal with that uncertainty by finding new and different ways to thrive and matter to the public.
How is National Theatre Wales adapting to the future?
We are still a relatively young organization, having launched in 2010. We are also a very small core team expanding as needed to deliver shows. The nature of our creative processes and the diversity and range of work we do means we are constantly renewing and refreshing ourselves as an organization, adapting and learning from one project to the next. So I feel we are instinctively adaptive and proactively seek out new ideas and new ways of doing things.
What do you hope to achieve at National Theatre Wales?
To continue to build on the brilliant work the company has already achieved. Be both radical and relevant, whilst creating distinctive and vibrant performance work that inspires and challenges us to think about our collective futures.