Ranan Theatre Company, India

Dear Richard and Judie

It is with great dismay and astonishment that we heard of the Arts Council of Wales' decision to withdraw revenue funding from CPR. We visited Aberystwyth as a company in 2005 for the Summer Shift and it is difficult to conceive of a programme as detailed, varied and overflowing with creative possibilities for all concerned. Regardless of the group who attended our workshops and shows, we left after a fulfilling week that has inspired many of our ideas since then. And these are not ideas for performances or productions, but ideas of what it means to be active in the realm of performance, what it means to contribute to the growth, development, evolution and sustenance of the performing arts locally and globally. Many of the directions that Ranan has taken as a responsible and concerned member of the precariously placed performing arts community in Calcutta and India have been greatly influenced by all that CPR signifies, embodies and does.

CPR is not about dreaming up, presenting and conducting a range of exciting
projects: it is about a vision for, a commitment to and an involvement in performance. All of these require much more input away from the public eye, away from the immediate work of projects - but inputs which are, in the long run - far more valuable, inputs that effect every visitor and participant in CPR programmes often insidiously, but irrevocably.

We often walked up the hill to CPR after the daylong workshops to look through the books in the library and watch some of the films on offer. It would easily take us a year to plough through the archival material that CPR has collected over the last 30 years - and this is excluding the detailed documentation of CPR's own programmes. At the most obvious level - how is such an archive to be maintained and added to if one does not provide the basic infrastructure for it, does not provide the mental space and resources for those concerned to constantly revise and update the material as sources of information, history and inspiration. Many of the books and videos we came across there are extremely difficult to procure - and it is speaks volumes of how uniquely CPR is placed in the world of performance that they are able to source them.

One could write reams and reams about every aspect of CPR, but the essential approach is outlined in the name itself - it is a centre for RESEARCH with performance as the focus area. It would be inconceivable for any institution at CPR's level engaged in such research in science, technology, genetics and so on to have the funding that allows them to exist, experiment and extend the horizons of their field suddenly withdrawn, offering instead the ridiculous carrot of project funding. Projects necessarily have a quantifiable goal that may be measured against the amount of resources put in - though this is a very corporate (and extremely limited and limiting) way of looking at the world, about looking at investments and deliverables.

Dedicated research in any field defies this tabular logic, and yet there is no danger to the funding of research bodies in the fields mentioned above.

Why then for Performance Research? Is the ACW then advocating that there is no need for such research, that this parallel work that underlies and necessarily directs all the unique programming that CPR is known for is totally redundant? What is the message the ACW is putting out? That performance is all about product and nothing about process, or thought, or - yes - research? Not a living - or dead - soul worth their salt as performers or artists or sensible human beings can ever agree with such a position.

As Ranan - whom CPR has inspired in so many ways - we lodge our protest and pledge our support to you and the invaluable space you have created, occupied, developed and expanded over the last 30 years. There is nothing that can or will replace your contribution to the world of performing arts.

With great concern and justifiable outrage,

The Ranan core group - Debashree, Vikram, Anubha and Amlan (along with all the others who visited Aberystwyth in July 2005)