The Royal Court Theatre runs long-term theatre development projects in several countries, stimulating new writings and bringing many writers and playwrights to London for further work, and sometimes to produce. The International Department works with dozens of playwrights through specific projects. Long-term theatre development relations now exist through projects and exchanges with playwrights from Brazil, Cuba, France, Germany, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, Georgia and seven countries in the Middle East including Palestine, where the A.M. Qattan Foundation, the British Council and Royal Court Theatre collaborate to run the programme, targeting emerging Palestinian playwrights. The programme usually consists of several intensive stages. At each stage, writers are given sufficient time to develop their scripts under the supervision and assistance of the Royal Court Theatre team, and other local playwrights working with them.
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre has worked on many different new writing projects in the West Bank in Palestine since 1998. Many Palestinian playwrights took part in the international residencies in London. In 2014, the Royal Court Theatre produced the play “Fireworks” written by Dalia Taha during her writer’s residency. This new project aims to build on the work done during the project we ran between 2013-2015.
The Royal Court Theatre works with hundreds of playwrights across the world. All projects developed by the International Department are funded by the Genesis Foundation and the British Council.
The British Council
The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international organization for cultural and educational relations. Our goal is to build mutually beneficial relations between people in the United Kingdom and in other countries and to increase creative ideas and achievements appreciation in the UK. One of the great strengths of the Performing Arts in the UK is the development of contemporary playwrights and new writing. The theatre project is a joint initiative between the British Council, the Royal Court Theatre and the A.M. Qattan Foundation with the aim of establishing relations and opportunities for collaboration between writers, playwrights, publishers and translators in Palestine and the UK.
A.M. Qattan Foundation
Through its Culture and Arts Programme (CAP), the A.M. Qattan Foundation works on a number of initiatives aimed at developing the field of Performing Arts in Palestine by providing various forms of supports to individuals, artist groups and institutions. This support comes in various forms, notably: Study Grants for music, theatre, dance and circus; Performing Arts Grants to develop the technical and professional capacities of performing arts professionals, increase production in this field and improve its quality. The Programme also provides support for projects and performance events including festivals, various performance shows, workshops and others.
CAP through the Performing Arts Summer School (PASS) initiated in Summer 2007, in partnership with the Royal Flemish Theatre – KVS and the Belgian group Les Ballets C de la B has also organised many training programmes which aimed to develop new young capacities in this field. In its fifth round in 2010, PASS focused on playwriting, and for many years the Foundation has organised a Young Writers Award in the field of playwriting.