Dartington College of Arts

FOR THE ATTENTION OF:
Professor Dai Smith,
Chair, The Arts Council of Wales
__________________________________________________



Dear Professor Smith,

RE. CENTRE FOR PERFORMANCE RESEARCH, ABERYSTWYTH

We are writing with regard to ACW’s recent decision to withdraw revenue funding from the Centre for Performance Research (CPR) in Aberystwyth. We are disappointed and shocked by this decision, and urge you to reconsider it without delay, with a view to returning the CPR to ongoing revenue funding. Without such continuity, the infrastructure which supports its work risks being severely compromised and ultimately irreparably damaged.

For many years, the CPR has been one of Wales’s core cultural hubs creatively and intellectually, with an international reputation for dynamic, challenging and innovative projects and programming. It is a unique point of congruence and exchange between practice and scholarship, and between traditions, forms, languages and cultures. Furthermore, it is recognised as a highly respected and active contributor within a world-wide network of performance makers and scholars, and it remains instrumental in the development of new work both in practical and theoretical contexts.

Its record speaks for itself, and is unsurpassed. Over the past 30 odd years since its beginnings in the Cardiff Lab, countless practitioners, scholars and students have travelled from all over the world to take part in the CPR’s workshops and conferences, and to consult its remarkable archive.

During this period, it has brought to Wales some of the most important practitioners in theatre, dance, new performance, and world theatre, including e.g. (to name just a few): Jerzy Grotowski’s Teatr Laboratorium, Eugenio Barba and the Odin Teatret/ISTA, Akademia Ruchu and Gardzienice (Poland), Forced Entertainment, Goat Island and the SITI Company (USA), Victoria Theatre (Belgium), Theatre Bazi (Iran), Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Rachel Rosenthal and Anna Deavere Smith - as well as performers from Southern Indian Kathakali, Balinese Topeng, Peking Opera. In addition to the highly influential ‘Giving Voice’ and ‘Magdalena’ festivals, it has organised symposia and masterclasses through its prestigious ‘Points of Contact’, ‘Past Masters’ and ‘Summer Shift’ programmes of events. In 1999, it hosted the major international conference ‘Performance Studies International’ (PSi5). Furthermore, it has been instrumental in the dissemination of new performance work and scholarship through its diverse publications, including 12 years of the international peer-reviewed journal Performance Research (Taylor & Francis/Routledge), and the recent publication of A Performance Cosmology (2006). In short, the CPR has brought into Wales – and into contact with Welsh practitioners - literally hundreds of practitioners and academics at the forefront of developments in performance making and scholarship internationally.

Crucially, and invariably, all of this work has involved opportunities and support for Welsh performance makers, writers, and other practitioners and scholars, in terms of providing platforms for the creation and showing of work, for cross-art form collaborations, international connections, training and professional development. It has elaborated a vibrant model of congruence between professional practice, higher education (through its relationship with the University of Aberystwyth), and public and private enterprise. The integrity and continuity of its commitment to Wales is unquestionable. On many levels, it offers a core element of the prototype of a non-building based ‘national theatre’ in Wales.

On behalf of the staff and students of Dartington College of Arts - for whom the CPR has been and remains absolutely crucial in the continuing development of performance making and scholarship in Britain, as resource, opportunity and stimulus - we urge the Arts Council of Wales to review its decision, and to return to full revenue funding support for the CPR.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Simon Murray,
Director of Theatre
Dartington College of Arts

Professor David Williams,
Associate Director of Theatre
Dartington College of Arts

Professor Claire Donovan, Deputy Principal
Professor Antonia Payne, Dean of Research
Catriona Scott, Associate Director of Theatre
Misha Myers, Snr Lecturer, Theatre
Simon Persighetti, Snr Lecturer, Theatre
Joe Richards, Snr Lecturer, Theatre
Misri Dey, Snr Lecturer, Theatre
Dr Joanne Whalley, Snr Lecturer, Theatre
Sue Palmer, Associate Lecturer, Theatre
Paula Crutchlow, Associate Lecturer, Theatre
Jerome Fletcher, Snr Lecturer, Writing
Deborah Price, Snr Lecturer, Writing
Dr Mark Leahy, MA Programme Leader
Dr Trevor Wiggins, Director of Music
Sara Reed, Director of Choreography
Rob Gawthrop, Director of Art