Applied Theatre Futures.

It's been a day of meetings and scheduling for some of the Applied Theatre projects coming up - really useful but ultimately a bit daunting. First up a draft look at the Richmond 110 project. Eleanor and I spent some time revising the initial model which seemed to me to focus too much on scriptwriting and not enough on gathering material. The meeting gave me a chance persuade the creative team at the theatre to think about the development of the work as a series of dynamic waves rather than the building block approach of first research, followed by interview, leading to script. We'll have to keep leaping forward and pulling back in order to uncover the best shape and material.

The danger is that if we close the door on any single part of the process we'll miss some very profound or beautiful observations. I'm all for leaving the structure to the last minute and recognise that progress is a layered rather than a linear concept. Eleanor seemed happy enough with this.

This afternoon I met each of the Drama in Community sub teams for initial briefings and setting parameters. It's hard to define roles when we're not sure of the scale of the participation, but I think everybody left motivated and geared up for action.

Finally Stef came round to talk about Sarajevo. She's been interviewed in The Stage this week and given the work a brief mention. She's also been making overtures to Sean Holmes at the Lyric, Hammersmith to see whether there'd be any interest there in developing the project. I worked briefly with Sean about ten years ago and I think Stef and him see things in similar ways, so I'm pleased the contact's been made. It could be another stepping stone for her.

I'm aware that there's only so long we can spend on it as a hobby and without some additional support or funding we'll quickly run aground. For now though we're trying to arrange a series of meetings with Bosnian theatre groups in the hope of finding some allies as we take the piece forward.

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