The round-off of a brilliant week and a partnership that felt familiar from the get-go.

Taking it all in – the ‘peoples’, the partnership, the scale, the residency, our practice – reflecting and looking ahead, on what’s to come.

‘Emerging’ from the depths of one week deeply immersed in the project – from the ‘small’ universe we inhabited for a week and that created ripples across participants, partners, teams, audiences, industry – here and there!

We’ve just wrapped up the Playground residency – a week of exploration, collaboration across cultures, languages and borders, and sharing theatre. Sharing best practices when working cross-culturally.

It was a week of working in ways we’ve been doing for long time, but in a different way – in a different context; intense one-week residency rather than one-off workshops or our longform mentorship or MTW programmes, curating an exchange for residency playwrights as well as London team (actors, directors and organisers) – and our Playground partners.

It was a week that flew by – yet it was a moment that stood still; a space for theatre, translation and cultural and linguistic difference in the midst of an unsettling world.

A moment that stood out: twenty odd people, many being in the room together for the first time, “translating” Shakespeare collaboratively – actors, directors, organisers all working together despite their “given” role – think this moment illustrates the spirit of the residency: collaboration. It’s obvious, but in this moment it felt almost visceral.

Reflections about PAV (their founders, mission, etc) – out there in Europe – a sort of ‘sister company’ to FA.

Thinking about this women-led project (and companies) – empowering/supporting female creatives, done BY female teams – the dynamic, the ‘ease’ in the room.

Thinking resources (human, financial, time… ) our ‘expertise’ in welcoming, hosting and coordinating all the moving parts of the project & teams.

Complexity of teams – bringing together ‘new’ and ‘old’ FA people to the project.

The encounter with even bigger teams (the extended partners) – HA!

The exchanges in the room with all the creatives (Playground & London) and the richness of perspectives and experiences it brought to everyone

‘Home Sweet Home’ sign on the set – how it ‘mirrored’ the project feel at that moment 🩷

FA’s welcoming & inclusive practice – what it creates and allows – both professionally and personally/individually for everyone involved.

FA goes ‘beyond’ the professional exchange – the importance of people – people centre stage (it’s always about people and for people!) connections, encounters!

The energy and complicity of the 4 women in ‘Road Trip’. The stag!

Learning (always and each time) to embrace differences (different people; pov’s, ways of doing things, expectations, etc) and how that contributes to FA’s hosting & working practice and FA’s culture.

The beautiful reflections from the teams – playwrights, partners & creative teams on the ground.

The trust & openness of partners to include us in the consolidation of their methodology.

Truthfully – that we are really good at what we do … perhaps foolishness more than anything sometimes makes us dive head first into something new (on the surface the residency didn’t feel much different from other training programmes we’ve designed and delivered) without much fear.

The ambition – or maybe it’s the delivery – is always much bigger than what resources permit. And it does leave us exhausted after intense projects (but then again all of our projects are always intense as we throw ourselves in wholeheartedly).

The spaces we create and facilitate truly allows for people to step outside their comfort zones – artistically, creatively and personally. It’s something that we should be proud of and also cultivate. It is what allows us to navigate these culturally complex spaces.

It also brought up a recurring theme – due to capacity and resources, somehow the most obvious slip; we brought Jozefina at the last minute to enable us to bring the conversations to translation. Silly – as we are all about translation. Sometimes you’re so in the thick of it that you can’t see the forest for trees (is this the right saying?!)

The encounter with the full Playground team was truly unexpected – it was empowering to be let into their practice and learn about their overall project, the methodology and ambitions – and where we sat in relation to this Creative Europe project. Somehow being invited to reflect on their methodology illustrated how clearly defined our own methodology (mentorship and beyond) is … And how it is something to be shared more broadly.

The importance of these spaces for exchange and support for this kind of work to happen, and the value it brings to everyone involved. Carrying forward ownership of our work, owning our mistakes – honesty and authenticity. The signals – The Award & the partner’s true happiness on our behalf, the overwhelm of positive messages from colleagues, past participants, our communities, family, friends and strangers.

Hold onto the emotional worth and positive impact of the work!

How can we ‘marry’ the translation/ translators as part of the creative process more moving forward? How does/can the project evolve for a future edition more connected to both practices? How to bring our practices closer under the same project?

Camila

A sense of emboldened ambition (likely also due to the fact that we won The Stage Award the week before the Playground residency); a sense of clarity in our approach – our approach to facilitating culturally complex rooms; navigating several “types” of participants e.g. the playwrights were part of the Playground project; our team (actors and directors) were hired to deliver the work, but were nonetheless participating; the organisers (us, Playground main team and London collaborators); and the extended Playground team – we are all in the room with different intentions and purposes, and how do you make sure all “needs” are me?

Unfortunately also a sense of imbalance – imbalance between our producing practice and our artistic/creative practice. How can we carve or find more time that is focused on this, not as an after thought or moments caught in between producing tasks or early in the morning before the day has even begun? How can we value this work – this work that is process orientated rather than result orientated – especially in a world that favours outputs and results (a neoliberal society in late-stage capitalism – too much?!)

Trine