Two long-cherished projects about creating an interactive human library and reconstructing a raucous 1970s debate on feminism, in which Norman Mailer sparred with Germaine Greer, will be realised after two of Scotland's most promising young artists were announced as the winners of the Arches Award for Stage Directors 2008.
Artists Sacha Kyle and Nic Green will see their ideas transformed into fully funded theatre productions and debut at the Glasgow arts venue's Spring Performance Festival next year.
The award, in conjunction with the National Theatre of Scotland and Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre, was given to the "most dangerous and brave" projects, according to the new artistic director at The Arches, Jackie Wylie. "It is important that the award supports artistic visionaries," she said. "We are taking a chance in some ways, but our remit is to support artists based on their potential bravery."
Green, who Wylie described as "the most exciting young artist working in Scotland ... a genuine radical", plans to restage a famous 1971 feminist discussion, with the audience playing the part of the enraged crowd, which included Susan Sontag.
Working from the DA Pennebaker film of the event, Green's play, Trilogy Part Two, hopes to recreate its rowdy nature which saw Norman Mailer play devil's advocate with four leading feminists: Greer, journalist Jill Johnston, literary critic Diana Trilling, and president of National Organisation of Women, Jacqueline Ceballos.
"There was an amazing politicised, raucous energy that existed at that time," she said. "The work will try and recapture that sense of political engagement and standing up for what you believe in. I feel we live in an age of apathy. We're politicised, but there's something missing. I'm drawn to recreating this moment of history and to feel like we're part of that."
In contrast, Kyle's play takes its inspiration from the rather more sedate surroundings of libraries. Her last work in the Arches, Lost Property, involved guiding an audience through the warren of spaces in the venue.
For this new piece, The Library, she plans on recreating one in the Arches, but instead of books lining the walls, it will be people.
"I'm fascinated by the idea of how libraries can be a place for refuge, knowledge and a place for escape," she said. "Both books and people have something to say. If you were to open up anyone on the street they would contain a wealth of stories." Kyle will work with writer Alan Bisset on the piece.
The Arches Award for Stage Directors began in 2002 under the venue's founder Andy Arnold. This is the first awards since his departure for the Tron.
Previously entrants were asked to be "a director committed to theatre", but in a bid to change the award's ambition and direction, this year Wylie asked for entries from "artists committed to experimentation".
"The direction I see this award going in now is for someone who has a vision for creating a piece of art and exploring what theatre might mean now, and what new forms of theatre, about innovation and experimentation," she said. "And I think that Sacha and Nic, in very different ways, are exploring new, experimental ways to make theatre. It's not necessarily about theatre, it's about the life-changing potential of art."
The winners receive a £6000 budget, plus access to rehearsal space and technical support at the Arches, Ben Harrison from Edinburgh's Grid Iron Theatre Company as a mentor, and a week-long NTS workshop.
At the moment neither project has a script, something which excites Wylie.
"My role is to help them develop the project so it is as dangerous as possible," she said. "It makes it sound like I'm sending them off over the cliffs into the unknown. But maybe that's the point."
