Editorial

Feature in Issue 13-1 | Spring 2001

Welcome to the first issue of Volume 13 of Total Theatre Magazine – and the number is anything but unlucky. As I write, Theatre de Complicite have just guested at the National Theatre and Shockheaded Peter is playing to packed and appreciative houses in London's West End. It can only be a good thing that shows so imaginative and rich are being seen in 'mainstream' venues by new audiences. You never know, they might develop a taste for the kind of performance that most members of Total Theatre Network are already experiencing or creating.

Circus seems to be going from strength to strength, and this issue starts with Dorothy Max Prior's report on the 2000 CircElation project. Circus also features in one of the two Critical Practice debates covered in this edition; the other one deals with the role of the director. Dick McCaw takes a look at how physical theatre workshops can get people to learn mentally and physically, and Dymphna Callery meets The Right Size, who are performing their first devised show since Do You Come Here Often?. In contrast, Foursight's Naomi Cooke has written a diary of the rehearsal process of the company's first non-devised show in its fourteen years of existence – a new translation of Medea.

Also in this issue, Anthony Dean writes about last year's international puppetry symposium; there are reports on directing a physical version of Waiting for Godot in a foreign language (now there's a challenge) and on the British Council's overseas touring seminar; and Enrique Pardo of Pantheatre answers the questions in our regular My Theatre questionnaire.

And that's it from me, your guest editor for this issue. My thanks go to John Daniel, Annabel Arndt and the magazine's editorial group – and especially to the new editor, Dorothy Max Prior – for all their help and support.

This article in the magazine

Issue 13-1
p. 3