|
What happens at a
selection?
In
that brief moment between the house lights going down and
the show beginning, in the quiet darkness, every audience
hopes for the wonderful. We want to be surprised, we want to
be challenged, to be held captive for the duration, and then
emerge changed in some way. I never feel this more
poignantly than when I see a show entered for the NSDF.
There is everything to hope for, and feel excited about: I’m
having a sneak preview of the future of theatre.
After
the show, the twenty minute talk with the company allows me
an insight that other audience members won’t share. I have a
chance to ask how the show was created, the journey its
conceivers have taken, how they felt it went on the night
and, often most informatively, how they think it can be
improved. It usually starts as question and answer but will
often open up into a discussion, which allows me to offer up
criticism and praise.
As
selectors we ask a lot from a company: we want you to have
enough faith in your work that honest feedback doesn’t
damage you, but more importantly, we want your faith to be
robust enough to absorb the negative with the positive and
use it to get better. Selections aren’t always easy on us,
or on you, but they should be a positive experience that
leaves all of us charged to keep asking questions of
ourselves; to continue engaging; and to always be working.
-
Jenny Whorton
|
