National tour first – then half-way around the world for Hullabaloo (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

National tour first – then half-way around the world for Hullabaloo

12:10pm Friday 25th September 2009

• Print
• Email
• Share

THIRTY years is a good innings for a provincial drama company, but a comparatively young age for someone to be its creative producer.

The 30th anniversary of the Darlington company which used to be known as CTC – newly-styled as Theatre Hullabaloo – has coincided with its chief executive, Miranda Thain, arriving at the same landmark birthday.

“I actually celebrated a few days early knowing there would be no chance once rehearsals started,” said Ms Thain, as she embarked on bringing the company’s most ambitious project to date – a collaboration with a Canadian theatre company – to fruition.

Beneath the Banyan Tree, the much-loved story by Emil Sher, will be performed at Darlington Arts Centre on October 9 and 10 before setting off on a national tour, the first in the history of the former Cleveland Theatre Company, which is the region’s only specialist producer of theatre for young audiences.

The collaboration has involved working with a renowned South Asian choreographer, Lata Pata, who was recently appointed to the Order of Canada.

The project came about after a visit by the director of Theatre Direct in Toronto to the Take Off Festival at Darlington Arts Centre two years ago.

She was delighted by the CTC play Five, aimed at five-yearolds, and invited the company to perform it in Canada.

“I suggested they should bring a piece to us and this is the result,” said Ms Thain.

Beneath the Banyan Tree fuses theatre, traditional Indian and Western dance, movement, puppetry and music to enable young audiences to explore their understanding of themselves as young people in a culturally diverse country.

The story is about of an aspiring dancer, Anjali, who travels between the cold reality of life in the UK and her imaginary world of colourful animals from the Indian fables of The Panchatantra. The richness of her culture, the strength of her family and the gifts of imagination and dance enable her to find the courage to be herself.

Working with a company so far away involved strategic difficulties, but ultimately the script was rewritten and four English actor/dancers were engaged. “We are two organisations, but there is so much in common between us which made it easier,” said Ms Thain, “though flying over people and bits of sets was particularly hectic.”

Behind-the-scenes preparations took two years before rehearsals began in mid-September – the day after Ms Thain’s 30th birthday.

Her aim is to make beautiful theatre for the early years age range. She feels there is a particular sophistication in the work of the company’s Canadian counterpart in relation to identity, culture and diversity, and issues of immigration.

Originally from Norfolk, Ms Thain now lives in Durham.

Her father was born and brought up in South Shields, so she feels a connection to the North-East.

After graduating in English from York University, she established a theatre company to stage classical plays in unusual venues, then studied for a master’s degree in applied theatre at Manchester University, with a research interest in drama for ethical education.

In 2003, she joined Konflux Theatre in Education as company producer and later worked for companies in West Yorkshire before joining CTC Theatre as general manager in 2007.

She became its creative producer and chief executive in April last year and led this year’s rebranding to Theatre Hullabaloo.

Already on the cards is another ambitious venture – collaboration with a Tasmanian playwrite in an operetta, My Mother Told Me Not to Stare, based on Grimms fairytales, which will take the company to Sydney Opera House in 2012.

Rehearsals for that will start in February. In the meantime, tour dates for Beneath the Banyan Tree, which is for children aged seven and over, include Middlesbrough Town Hall, The Crypt (box office 01642-729729) on Monday, October 19, 10.30am and 1.30pm; Queens Hall Arts Centre, Hexham (01434- 652477) on Thursday, October 29, 2pm; and The Arc, Stockton (01642-525199) on Tuesday, November 10, 10.30am and 1pm.

Tickets cost £5. Book for Darlington Arts Centre performances at 10am and 1.30pm on 01325-348843 or www.darlingtonarts.org.

• Print
• Email
• Share