THE appointment of Jackie Wylie as artistic director of the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) is an exciting one. Here is someone with a reputation for nurturing new, young talent taking the helm at a theatre company renowned for taking groundbreaking productions to all the airts and pairts, to halls, concourses, ferries and forests.
A Scot and an avowed internationalist – at present, and perhaps always, the national ideal – Ms Wylie was for seven years artistic director of The Arches, that characterful and much loved Glasgow venue that closed after licensing problems wrecked its financial base. The loss of The Arches has, in an unexpected twist, become the NTS’s gain.
After The Arches’ closure, Ms Wylie was determined to continue its work without a building, taking her clearly into the ambit of the NTS’s “theatre without walls”, a creative enterprise forced by its very nature to reach out and engage. So, each with fine reputations before them, Mr Wylie and the NTS look like a fine fit.
There will be challenges. Where The Arches could be cheerfully avant-garde, the mission of the NTS is to reach the widest possible audience (while still being cutting edge). She will have to heed the warning of former artistic director Laurie Sansom about not becoming a “National Theatre of Glasgow”. She will have a new HQ, Rockvilla, to run. She will have to respect the canon and bring forth new work.
But she knows the challenges, including concerns across the arts world about funding. Unlike her predecessors, she is not a director but sees herself more as a creative producer. What, then, will she bring forth? Vicky Featherstone’s tenure was marked by Black Watch, Laurie Sansom’s by The James Plays. What will be Ms Wylie’s defining show?
It will be exciting to find out. Already Jackie Wylie has been something special for Glasgow. It is time now to be something special for all of Scotland.
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