AnnualReport07-08

This year Pilot Theatre worked on several majorperformance projects including our biggest everevent – a multi media performance for theopening ceremony of the IIFA Awards –allowing us to reach our largest and mostdiverse audiences to date. Simultaneously wehave developed our digital and online strategywhich supports both our performance workand extended activities such as workshops andresidencies in schools.

In the next year we will continue to developnew work and partnerships, and to explore thepossibilities open to us as a theatre companyin the 21st century. For Pilot Theatre thisincludes the creative potential of digitaltechnology for live performance and as a toolfor building creative communities. We beganthis process with our nationally touringproduction of Looking for JJ, which integrateddigital technology in every aspect of theproduction. The success of this approach wasevident in the feedback we received from ouraudiences. Our presence on social networkingsites MySpace and Facebook, our Second Lifehub (the first from a UK theatre) and ourYouTube channel are now well established, andhave been a great way for audiences to interactwith us, but it doesn’t stop there.

We are looking ahead to the possibilitiespresented by the next evolution of digitaltechnology; it has become an intrinsic part ofcreativity and collaboration, particularly in workfor and with young people. It is alreadyenabling the development of our new work,including Lord of the Flies and Catcher in TheirEye, and we are so excited by the potentialacross arts organisations that we have createda forum for debate: Shift Happens, aconference in partnership with York TheatreRoyal and Arts Council England on 3rd July2008.

We’re confident that you can find a way toengage with us as a company in a way thatsuits you; we are always open to ideas. Socatch up with us onstage, ontour, and online.

Marcus RomerArtistic DirectorApril 2008

ChristinaBaily

inLookingforJJ,photographer:LouiseBu

ckby

Zoobin Surty and Yorkshire residents in IIFA Awards video sequence by KMA

onstage ontour online

AnnualReport07-08

sections productions international education digital strategy statistics

productions

Looking for JJ

By Anne Cassidy

Adapted and directed by MarcusRomer in partnership with YorkTheatre Royal and UnicornTheatre, London

���� Daily Mail

���� Evening Standard

���� The Times

“a gripping, unsettling play”The Daily Telegraph

IIFA Awards – Opening Act

Working with Yorkshire-basedperformers Pilot Theatreproduced the opening act of the2007 IDEA International IndianFilm Academy Awards Ceremony,hosted in Yorkshire by YTB withthe support of Yorkshire Forward.Directors: Marcus Romer and Kully ThiaraiSound: Kaiser Chiefs’ Ruby remixed bySandy Nuttgens and Johnny KalsiDrumming: Johnny Kalsi and The DholFoundationVideo: KMAMovement: Darshan Singh Bhuller andViva Aerial DanceWith pupils from the nearby PhillimoreSchool, Sheffield.

Raymond Briggs’Fungus the Bogeyman

Adapted and directed by MarcusRomer

A co-production with artsdepot,London

���� Time Out

“You will have the slime of yourlife at this fabulous show”York Press

“a gorgeous production” BBC

“This is a genuinely important piece of young people’s theatre, every bitas thoughtful and demanding as its audience deserves.”The Times

Joanna

SwaininFungus

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Looking for JJ, photographer: Louise Buckby

international

We are partners in Magic Net, acollaboration of European theatrecompanies funded by the EuropeanCommission under Culture 2000.Adopt a Soldier was devised byactors from HetMuz Theater,Zandaam; Pilot Theatre, UK; andTheater der Jungen Welt, Leipzig;under the direction of VivienneNewport, working from acomposition by dramaturgs RichardHurford and Eva K Mathijssen. Themultilingual piece was presented atthe Magic Net Annual Meeting inSchwerin and toured Europe insummer 2007.

As part of the Magic Net projectyoung people from six Europeantheatre companies met inSchwerin to devise aperformance; they chose toaddress the problems experiencedby migrants across Europe. Withmany people of variousnationalities collaborating, theworking process itself came toreflect a sense of a Europeanidentity and challenged theborders created by linguistic andcultural difference.

We also exchanged video postcardsonline in the Theatre for a ChangeInterACT! Project, which linkedpractitioners using interactivetheatre as a tool for HIV/AIDSeducation and advocacy in Ghanawith theatre companies in the UK:interactproject.blogspot.com

Our international collaborationscontinue in the year ahead with aCommonwealth YouthExchange with Malaysia, the MagicNet co-production One Day inEurope and the Youth Net meetingin Poland.

“I personally made many good friends, learnt many new things aboutEurope and maybe even myself. Danke schön, Magic Net.”Henry, Pilot Theatre’s Youth Exchange representative

VickyWesselinginAdopta

Soldier

Ship of Hope, a Magic Net Co-production

education

One of the country’s leadingcompanies dedicated to theatrefor young people, Pilot Theatrecreates work that is alive to theissues and possibilities that weface while growing up. Ourproductions are supported by aprogramme of educationresources for teachers andstudents.

You can find out more aboutthese resources on our websitewww.pilot-theatre.com or emaileducation@pilot-theatre.com.

In the summer holidays weworked with York Theatre Royalto give three groups of youngpeople the opportunity to workwith professional artists toproduce a Play in a Week.

Having taken Looking for JJ astheir point of departure, participantsdevised their own narratives,developing their ideas throughdifferent media includingphotography, motion graphics, linedrawing and graffiti. Thesecombined with the performance onstage to produce a piece ofcompelling and remarkable theatre.

Participants in Play in a Week, masks and photography: Mo at Moenipulation

“The workshop leaders inspired the students and got them thinkingabout theatre in a highly creative and imaginative way”South East Essex College

statistics

Performances: 173Total audience members: 45,737Education sessions: 68Education participants: 1453Website visits: 492,316YouTube Channel: 21 videos;

22,486 viewsActors employed: 24Freelance staff employed: 40Work experience placements: 11

Looking for JJPerformance weeks: 13Number of shows: 90

Fungus the BogeymanPerformance weeks: 8Number of shows: 76

Adopt a Soldier:Performance weeks: 2Number of shows: 6

IIFAPerformances: 1Audience members: 15,000 live

500 million global TV audience

digital strategy

forth

coming

By arrangement with Robert Fox Ltd. and Faberand Faber Ltd., Pilot Theatre in association with

York Theatre Royal

By William Golding adapted for thestage by Nigel WilliamsDirected by Marcus Romer

William Golding's Lord of the Flies,one of the most disturbing andcelebrated novels of moderntimes, is vividly brought to life inPilot Theatre’s award-winningproduction.

“terrifying and exhilarating”The Guardian“William Golding meets QuentinTarantino” Financial Times

EbonyFeareinFungus

theBo

geym

an,photographer:PeterB

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PaulMilleratshootshoot

Pilot Theatre in Second LifeGetIntoTheatre.org movie image by Kit Monkman at KMA

Our digital and online strategy isone of Pilot Theatre’s keydevelopments. We haveestablished a presence onYouTube, Facebook, Bebo,MySpace, iTunes (podcasts), andSecond Life, as well as extendingthe web 2.0 and feedbackcapabilities of our own websitewww.pilot-theatre.com. Theproliferation of user-generatedcontent sites means we haveshifted from a ‘read-only’ cultureto a read/write culture that allowsusers to respond and create.The great thing about this is the

opportunity for participation andcollaboration. The resultantunlocking of creative potential isnot only liberating, but essentialto the cultural health of ourtheatre ecology. To bring life tothis idea we are developing aTheatre 2.0 project with ourAssociate Artist, Richard Hurford- visit our website to find outmore and get involved.

Pilot Theatre also took advantageof the creative capacities ofdigital technology in workingwith KMA to produce a

promotional film for thegetintotheatre.org website runby the YPPT ACE project.

Shift Happens: 3rd July 2008at York Theatre RoyalA one-day event looking at thepotential of digital technology forarts organisations.

www.shift-happens.co.uk

Shift Happens is a partnership event between PilotTheatre and York Theatre Royal, funded by ArtsCouncil England.

Pilot TheatreYork Theatre RoyalSt Leonard’s PlaceYorkYO1 7HD

tel: 01904 635755email: info@pilot-theatre.comweb: pilot-theatre.com

Registered in England Number 1956167Registered Charity Number 1003677

Marcus Romer Artistic DirectorMandy Smith Administrative ProducerSarah Seddon Company AdministratorKatie Fathers Projects Co-ordinatorCharles Moore Finance Director

Tracy Cochrane Marketing ConsultantRichard Hurford Associate ArtistJames Molyneux Production ManagerHannah Priddle Education AssociateHelen Cadbury Education Associate

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This brochure is also available in large print and at www.pilot-theatre.com.Please call 01904 635755 or email info@pilot-theatre.com if you require another format.