The new Deputy Director of the RSC Erica Whyman talks about gender balance, geographical spread and “the other”.
It should come as no surprise that the job Erica Whyman seriously considered before becoming a theatre director was that of philosopher. Thoughtful, articulate and supremely comfortable discussing abstract issues, Whyman is a model of well-expressed, joined-up thinking. How fortuitous, then, that she has landed a role at one of our key cultural institutions, the Royal Shakespeare Company, taking the post of deputy artistic director to boss Gregory Doran after seven years running Northern Stage in Newcastle.
Her RSC remit centres on the company’s new writing, a decidedly mixed bag in recent years. Specifically, she says with a smile, her focus will be “the other”, not least overseeing the relaunch of Stratford’s much-missed studio space The Other Place.
“I’m interested in making sure we broaden the conversation and remind ourselves as an organisation what ‘the other’ might look like. Who are our ‘other’ audiences, what is our ‘other’ work beyond the classical repertoire and what is the ‘other’ within the classical repertoire... Keep reading on The Independent
It should come as no surprise that the job Erica Whyman seriously considered before becoming a theatre director was that of philosopher. Thoughtful, articulate and supremely comfortable discussing abstract issues, Whyman is a model of well-expressed, joined-up thinking. How fortuitous, then, that she has landed a role at one of our key cultural institutions, the Royal Shakespeare Company, taking the post of deputy artistic director to boss Gregory Doran after seven years running Northern Stage in Newcastle.
Her RSC remit centres on the company’s new writing, a decidedly mixed bag in recent years. Specifically, she says with a smile, her focus will be “the other”, not least overseeing the relaunch of Stratford’s much-missed studio space The Other Place.
“I’m interested in making sure we broaden the conversation and remind ourselves as an organisation what ‘the other’ might look like. Who are our ‘other’ audiences, what is our ‘other’ work beyond the classical repertoire and what is the ‘other’ within the classical repertoire... Keep reading on The Independent