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Salient. Official Newspaper of Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. Vol 40 No. 26. October 3 1977

Taylor

Taylor

Anthony Taylor has been artistic director of Downstage for about a year now. During this time we would presume that he will have created some changes within Downstage and exerted his influence in the artistic policy of the theatre. Andrew Dungan saw Taylor recently and interviewed him for Salient to try and find out what's been happening at Downstage over the past twelve months.

Salient: What changes have you made to Downstage during your first year as artistic director?

Taylor: I came in intending to present as many diverse types of drama inside the year as I possibly could. I think it's the responsibility of this theatre to cover as wide a range of drama as one can—that's what we tried to do and to a certain extent I think I suceeded in doing.

Salient: What about the Community Theatre project?

Taylor: The Community Theatre this year was enlarged so that it was not only theatre in education but also in institutions—places like old peoples homes. But the major thing I added was the youth theatre. That entailed the community company being involved every Saturday with young people and the final presentation of "Spring Awakening" with the full backing of the theatre.

That was probably the major change, but we have since made changes again in that because of the financial situation (in that we aren't really funded to run a community company at all). What I've introduced is the community company that takes over more than one aspect of the theatre. We hope that by combining these functions under one umbrella to make them financially viable—otherwise we would lose them.

This means you get the community company responsible for Halfway-Up; the workshopping of new plays; the instigation of productions which would come out of the company; all the other community work and hopefully, children's theatre as well.

Salient: You mention the workshopping of productions - what will this entail?

Taylor: I hoped when I came into the theatre, that I would see a lot more new drama come up than actually did. There's been a dropping off of plays in New Zealand. We found two that, we thought were worthy of being brought into the theatre. We are trying now, by saying there is an organisation inside the theatre that will work on productions, to work with the authors that way.

On the physical side, of course the major changes has been the acquisition of new rehearsal rooms and storage space. This has been of great importance to Downstage. We've been able to consolidate our facilities in two floors behind the theatre in Blair St.

Salient: How well has Halfway - Up worked?

Taylor: We were disappointed with the initial eight week season which we tried. One of the reasons this happened was the strain on the theatre itself which, I hope, by putting it into the hands of the community company, will be coped with. The people involved in Half-way Up were also involved in main-bill presentations—so that a person would be rehearsing two shows and playing two shows at once.

I'm still very happy that we started Half-way Up—I think it works as a space and it certainly works as far as the life of the theatre is concerned that there is a second auditorium.

The number of patrons was not great during the initial season. We're going to try something new with [unclear: Adolpht] we'll most likely be playing lunchtimes mid-week and late-night Friday and Saturday. So Half-way Up hopefully won't die.

Salient: Downstage has always had a reputation for presenting New Zealand drama. What proportion of plays presented this year were in fact indigenous.

Taylor: Well, practically all the stuff that went on at Half-way Up was New Zealand. There's only been two New Zealand plays as main bills this year. The main reason for this is that nothing else has come up—nothing that's complete and ready for us to do. One spends one's life, saying to authors, "Please please write something ", but it isn't the sort of thing you can force-feed. When a good play comes you've got to be ready to take it into your programme.

But we have no Robert Lord, who was fairly prolific—Roger [Hall] has gone off down to Dunedin and, although he's writing steadily, you can only turn out a play every so often.

Salient: During the past year you have made some changes to the system whereby actors are employed—could you explain these?

Taylor: The system that was operating last year and the year before was to contract actors on a full permanent contract basis for 12 months. I think this works against the life of the theatre. You have to have certain plays that fit your company—either that or have people sitting around doing nothing which is wasteful. It's wasteful for them too because they're not doing any other acting—radio or television. So the system I introduced was a totally variable one you could come in on either a one or two play basis—and then we let a couple of six-month contracts.

Salient: This enabled you to cut down your company when the Arts Council grant was cut earlier this year.

Taylor: Yes, it makes it variable. I was talking before about it being a wasteful system because if you wanted to do a small cast production before you would have all these people sitting around doing nothing and you'd be thinking "My God, what are we going to do with them". And so you'd be throwing things on without having planned them.

With the variable company, having already planned it through we knew that we could dramatically reduce the size of the company after "The Balcony".

The actors in Wellington being of a free-lance frame of mind have appreciated the system much more. They know that if they take up a one or two play contract then that's not their work for the year—one play out and they might be back in again. I think it's also helpful from an audience point of view—they see changing faces. Where we have people under longer term contracts we try not to bring them back in the same sort of role. We also try and make sure that not only there is a variety for them but there's a progressive ion in terms of extending their talents.

Salient: So what about next year—what about the future?

Taylor: I am not looking at 1977 as having set the precedent as how the next year will run at alt—we've got to keep looking for the right way to do things and we've got to keep a fairly fluid approach to what we're doing. Not saying, "Oh yes, we've got there—it's super", and sitting back and relaxing. The whole thing then becomes not only totally dull for the people involved but stultifying in terms of theatre. Constant changes in approach are necessary. Whether or not we can do this with the limited resources available is arguable.

We've adopted in New Zealand what you might call the British system of repetory, which means four weeks of rehearsal and then present the play. I don't think that's right. I don't think any director would if they looked into it deeply.

I would like to develop a system whereby you're looking at not just one play but a couple or three plays on a project basis that are linked in some way—and that we are able to spend much more time on them.

Salient: What sort of time-scale would you be talking about here?

Taylor: The slower the process the better, I think. I would like to think in terms of a minimum of two possibly three months work on the play. That's not counting, of course, the amount of background work you'd do. Whether one can indulge oneself to that extent is another matter—but I don't think it's just a matter of the director indulging himself, we would get out of it a much better product and a much more enjoyable product as far as the audience is concerned.

Salient: How do you view Downstage's role in the community?

Taylor: Down stage is the oldest and major theatre in the country and are responsible very strongly to the community. We are responsible to the whole spectrum of the population. We have to point out to them that not only are there different types of theatre but also that there are other life-forms, other ways of looking at things. This is why I think the community company is so important. It's the outrigger, as it were, of the company that goes out into society. That's why it's also important to keep prices down to retain access for all.

Salient: Other wise you could be accused of being elitist?

Taylor: You can say any theatre is elitist. It's nonsense to say you're not catering for a small section of the community, on the whole you are. After all, we're not rugby football, we're not catering for 50,000 in one performance—it would be ludicrous. So, the proportion of people really interested in theatre is relatively small—though still high by international standards.

Salient: How would you sum up this year?

Taylor: I'm reasonably happy with what we've managed to achieve. I really do feel a movement forward and I'm hoping that's not where it stops but that it goes on—and that the government allows it to go on.