Prof. Geraldine Harris - University Of Lancaster

Dear Richard and Judie

I am writing you to offer what support I can in the face of the threat by the Arts Council Wales to discontinue CPR’s revenue funding. Please feel free to pass this letter on to the relevant person(s).

I have been a lecturer in H.E in Great Britain for over twenty –four years. During that period CPR has been, an extremely important, indeed an ‘inspirational’ institution. While deeply rooted in Wales and Welsh culture it is has functioned as the premiere organisation in Great Britain for creating, identifying, supporting and developing innovation in the field of performance. Throughout its history it has played a crucial role in bringing important and cutting edged artists from all over the world to Wales/Britain, whilst playing the role of ‘ambassador’ for Welsh/British performance on an international scale.

As an academic working in the field of feminism and performance, for me personally the work of the Magdalena in the mid 1980s –early 1990s was both a revelation and an enormously important resource, at a point when interest in women’s theatre practice was limited. The opportunities to encounter the work of international women artists at the Magdalena events, and as importantly, to engage with their processes, were virtually non- existent elsewhere and the experiences I took away from them shaped my subsequent career as a scholar and sometime practitioner.

In short, through its productions and performances, workshops, summer schools and other activities CPR has influenced and nurtured several generations of national and international practitioners and continues to do so.

It has also been absolutory fundamental in shaping scholarship in the field of performance studies. This is not simply rhetoric. Under guidance from Richard Gough Performance Research has become one of the most important and provocative journals in the field and as Director of CPR he played a major role in setting up and establishing the organisation Performance Studies International. In the 1990s Theatre Studies at Lancaster University ran two conferences in conjunction with CPR, a collaboration which changed our perception of what a conference could or should be and of the relationship that might exist at such events between scholars and artists. This experience shaped not only our structuring of all such future events at Lancaster but in many cases had an impact on our research methodologies. There is significant evidence of CPR’s influence on the shape of such events across Great Britain and in other countries.

Over time the name CPR has become a hallmark of passion, innovation and intellectual and artistic integrity. It remains a unique and dynamic force of great influence and importance. Surely the Welsh Arts Council realises the incredible value of an established and respected institution that so successfully operates in a manner that is at once intensely local’ and intensely international? Surely they would not risk jeopardising its future?

Yours sincerely


Geraldine Harris
Professor of Theatre Studies
LICA
University Of Lancaster