Arrive early and leave something behind

The title of this blog post is a nugget of wisdom. One of many tiny jewels that we were lucky enough to be given at a meeting which marked the beginning of a very exciting relationship. Last  Friday Theatre Rush met up with the wonderful Mark Wallace, of Beaford Arts, and David Lane, a fantastic writer and dramaturg. It was the first time that all of us had been in the room together since the first murmurings of a potential creative relationship began back in July. Some of us were meeting for the first time. So there was a sense of..well... risk. No one really knew what to expect, or whether this would work. (And we can't know the answer to the latter yet, although we've got a pretty good feeling about it. )

We needn't have worried, as it soon emerged that we had a lot of shared interests and 'ways' of working. We had sent a hefty zip file over to David at his request a few weeks before, with a little bit of everything we had done as a company. Scripts, photos, questions we had answered, footage. Anything and everything. And it felt so unspeakably wonderful to discover that David had spent a great deal of time searching through this folder and responding to it. It felt like being 'studied', in the best possible way. David was able to hold up a mirror to some of the workings and ambitions of Theatre Rush, bit as individuals and a company, and whilst getting to know him, we felt like we were getting to know our company a bit better too. Something that really stayed was the notion that we make work that doesn't always completely know itself until an audience arrives. David's dramaturgy helped us to articulate this 'thing' that lies right at the centre of what we do. We kind of knew it was there, but hadn't really looked at it head on.

Three hours later, after "flexible preferred goals", hopes and visions, mirrors and Lionel Ritchie interruptions, we left the comfortable darkness of The Bike Shed Theatre and emerged, blinking, into the appropriately dazzling sunshine of a Devon afternoon and felt POSITIVE. Boy does it feel good to have a clear path ahead of us. Granted one with many crossroads and pitfalls and unknowns, but a path nonetheless.  I was moved to involuntary noises of excitement on a number of occasions during the meeting, inspired by the utter joy of possibilities. Without support, all those options can be confusing, limiting and overwhelming. But with Mark's guidance and David's dramaturgy and infectious enthusiasm, the myriad creative opportunities that are spreading before us feel a weeny bit like Christmas.

We haven't ironed out all the creases yet, but we can say that we will be working with Mark and David on developing The Lost Tales of Devon towards a potential Rural Tour, and we literally can't WAIT to get started.