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This year Peter Brook came to see my show at The Young Vic. I asked him what kept him going and why he bothered making theatre. His reply was that he wanted to be useful. That's all. He thought theatre could be useful. Edward Bond said the same when I met him.
We have an awesome New Works person here in Liverpool; when she got the job she said she was going to reframe the idea of a NW department away from "impress me" to "how can I be useful to the community and to artists" and it was the single best thing I've heard in a meeting.
The reason I love Middle Child so much is because they're trying to be useful to Hull. It's artists, it's residents, it's everything.
I guess if I've learned anything is that everything about theatre that is bad is about "power" and "status" and "heros" and "genius's" and everything that is good is about being useful, listening, growing, welcoming, empathy.
Not sure why this just sprang to mind really; think it's a good way to round off a year of tweets of variable quality; I think we should consider how we are useful to each other and most of that comes from listening.
Sustainability in a career about Art has to be about usefulness; being a genius is only applicable as long as your genius is in direct opposition to the status quo and that passes very quickly. Listening to communities and facilitating that dialouge is for ever.
