Royal Shakespeare Company Leaders Believe Young Directors Lack Training to Produce Shakespeare

The leaders of the Royal Shakespeare Company have spoken out about the lack of Shakespeare productions being put on in recent years. The Times reports that Tamara Harvey and Daniel Evans, the co-artistic directors of the RSC, claimed that younger directors need better training to be able to use Shakespearean “tools."

The pair also claimed that drama schools were performing fewer Shakespear productions and critics were less likely to travel for "another [Shakespeare] production."

“All of those factors have contributed to fewer chances for directors to cut their teeth on Shakespeare,” Harvey said. “We think it is infinitely possible to give the directors the tools they need to encounter these texts but it takes time and it takes resources,” she said.

Evans said the RSC needed to “collaborate [with drama schools] to ensure that these texts can live”.

Read the original story on The Times.

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratford-upon-Avon, and on tour across the UK and internationally.

The company's home is in Stratford-upon-Avon, where it has redeveloped its Royal Shakespeare and Swan theatres as part of a £112.8-million "Transformation" project. The theatres re-opened in November 2010, having closed in 2007.

As well as the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, the RSC produces new work from living artists.