More About The Royal Court

How a Play is Chosen

All plays submitted to the international department are read in the original language by a team of appointed readers. The department then commissions translations of plays selected for further development.

The department has pioneered the use of theatre practitioners as translators and the integral involvement of the translator in the play development and rehearsal process. Many of the translations are eventually published.

International work at the Royal Court involves every member of the artistic team and many of the leading playwrights and directors associated with the Royal Court, from Martin Crimp, Rebecca Prichard and Stephen Jeffrey to Roxanna Silbert, Stephen Daldry and Phyllida Lloyd.

International Residency

The 2005 Residency was the seventeenth to take place. It involved 16 playwrights from 16 different countries.

The Residency acts as a springboard for all of the Royal Court's international work and very much reflects the ethos of the Genesis Foundation by nurturing and encouraging emerging artists.

The Residency facilitates the search for international plays, allowing the Royal Court to work intensively with promising playwrights and directors and developing long term commitments that will give mutual benefits to artists in both countries.

International Playwrights

The fourth International Playwrights Season took place at the Royal Court from February to April 2004. The season featured full productions of At the Table/Almost Nothing by Marcos Barbosa and Ladybird by Vassily Sigarev from Russia in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. Vassily Sigarev won an Evening Standard Award for his very first London presentation, Plasticine, which debuted at the Royal Court in 2002 in a Genesis-supported season; and his subsequent production Black Milk the following year, again supported by the Genesis Foundation, received further critical acclaim.

The 2004 season also featured two major events: Cuba Real, a week of rehearsed readings, music and culture from contemporary Cuba and States of Change, a series of short plays reflecting the world we are living in today.

Given the success of this season, and the Royal Court's continued focus on its International Programme, the theatre decided to produce the work of 'International Playwrights' more frequently and not to wait for a biennial season. The Spanish playwright Juan Mayorga's Way to Heaven and the Iranian playwright Amir Reza Koohestani's Amid the Clouds were produced under this new approach and grew from the work of the International Programme. Both writers were former participants of the Royal Court's International Residency.

International Exchange Programme

The Royal Court has a longstanding exchange relationship with writers and new writing organisations in several countries, with particularly strong partnerships forged in France, Germany and Spain.

From Germany, for example, there has been an exchange with writers running since 1992. The partnership developed with the artistic team of the Baracke Theatre who in 1999 moved to the famous Schaubähne in Berlin.

Four series of readings of German plays have taken place at the Royal Court and two plays Mr Kolpert and Fireface were given full productions as part of the International Playwrights Season in 2000. Ronald Schimmelpfennig's Push Up was produced in the 2002 season and his latest play The Woman Before was produced in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs in May 2005. Elsewhere, the Royal Court has collaborated with the Sitges Festival in Spain, and Juan Mayorga's short play, The Good Neighbour, was produced in the 2002 International Season, followed by a full production of Way To Heaven at the Royal Court in 2005.

International Play Development

The current play development programme supported by the Genesis Foundation focuses on particular countries where an energy for new writing has been identified and where there is a commitment to developing new work for the stage. Some examples of current Royal Court projects and continuing collaborations with Genesis are detailed below:

BRAZIL

Elyse Dodgson visited six cities in Brazil in March 2000 to lay the foundations for a new writing project. A three-year project with playwrights in Sao Paulo and Salvador took place between 2001 - 2004, which commenced with workshops led by Elyse Dodgson, Graham Whybrow, Roxanna Silbert and Carl Miller. In May 2002, readings of the new work took place at Centro Cultural in Sao Paulo and in January 2003 the Royal Court presented a week of rehearsed readings in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. As a result of ongoing work with playwrights and directors in Brazil over the last few years, a new company of young playwrights was formed in Sao Paulo where they regularly produce the work of the new writers.

CUBA

The Royal Court's relationship in Cuba stemmed from an invitation in 2002 by the Cuban Ministry of Culture to Elyse Dodgson to visit a number new theatre companies. This resulted in a series of intensive residencies for emerging Cuban playwrights, led by writer April de Angelis and director Indhu Rubasingham, which culminated in six Cuban writers participating in the Royal Court's International Season, in London, in March 2004. Building on this success, they have started a second phase of work with a new group of 12 writers, again involving Indhu Rubasingham and Elyse Dodgson, as well as the exciting playwright Tanika Gupta.

The Royal Court has also established a biennial national playwriting prize for young unpublished writers under the age of 30. This consists of the publication of a play in English and Spanish.

In 2004 the prize was won by Ulises Rodriquez Febles and in 2006 by Lilian Susel.

INDIA

Over the last five years, the Royal Court has run a series of workshops with writers across India and Sri Lanka, including Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Bangalore. Directors such as Dominic Cooke, Ramin Gray and Hettie Macdonald have been involved in leading workshops and residencies with emerging playwrights, resulting in new writing festivals in Bangalore in October 2002 and Mumbai in April 2004.

In June 2005, four writers were invited to work with the Royal Court in London, in collaboration with the Tamasha Theatre Company. In March 2006, Phyllida Lloyd and Carl Miller returned to Mumbai to work with a new group of writers from all parts of India in collaboration with Rage Theatre.

MEXICO

In May 2004, a new project started in collaboration with the British Council and Teatro Helanico in Mexico City. 13 playwrights from all parts of the country took part in a workshop led by playwrights Simon Stephens and April de Angelis. All of the writers completed first drafts of new plays and in December 2004 Elyse Dodgson, Simon Stephens and director Roxanna Silbert returned to Mexico City to continue the development of these plays. This was followed by a third workshop with the writers in June 2005 led by Roxanna Silbert, Indhu Rubasingham and Elyse Dodgson, which also included work with a group of young directors.

As a result of this work, a week of readings of five of the plays took place at Teatro Helanico in December 2005. In January 2006, the Royal Court hosted Arena Mexico, a week-long celebration in London of new plays by emerging Mexican writers, with sell-out performances in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. Later this year, the Royal Court is planning a co-production with the Cervantino Festival.

RUSSIA

In March 1999, Graham Whybrow, the Royal Court's Literary Manager, took part in the first seminar on new writing in Russia, organised by the British Council Moscow and the Golden Mask Theatre Festival in Moscow. One project that emerged from this was Moscow Open City, which was performed both in Moscow and as part of the International Playwrights Season at the Royal Court in 2000.

Since then, the Royal Court has worked extensively in Moscow as well as in Siberia and the Urals. When four Russian playwrights worked in London with British actors and directors in 2001, it was the first time a British audience had the opportunity to see work emerging from post-perestroika Russia.

Recent productions at the Royal Court include Vassily Sigarev's Plasticine, Black Milk and Ladybird, and Terrorism by Oleg and Vladimir Presnyakov.

Current and future projects

My Name is Rachel Corrie: In September 2004, the Royal Court's International Department began working with Alan Rickman to form a play based on the diaries of the US activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed whilst protesting against house demolitions in Gaza in March 2003. My Name is Rachel Corrie, edited by Alan Rickman and Katherine Viner, was performed in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs in March 2005, and by critical acclaim, re-opened in the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs later in the year. In March 2006, Megan Dodds reprised her role as the play transferred to the Playhouse Theatre, London.

Royal Court's 50th Anniversary: The Royal Court is celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year. To pay tribute to this landmark in British theatre, the Royal Court has planned an enhanced artistic programme, which will include new work by esteemed playwrights such as Tom Stoppard and Terry Johnson and revivals of classic Court plays. The American playwright Christopher Shinn will have his new play Dying City staged in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs from 12 May until 10 June. There are also plans for public performances of the Royal Court's International Residency this summer as part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations.

Full listings and further information can be found on the Royal Court's website www.royalcourttheatre.com