I write this fresh from auditions for our Young Artists Festival. We have had a great morning with some really talented, exciting actors coming in to meet us. I like to start auditions with a brief chat, just to allay nerves and for us to all get used to each other before I ask someone to engage in the rather strange and artificial activity of ‘doing a speech’.
The Dying of Today
‘Have you been here before?’ I ask. And time and again, the same light in their eyes. The size of the space has a lot to do with it of course; so close you can see every breath, every bead of sweat. The plays of our first season entitled Life in Close-Up were immediate and front-footed, and sometimes very shocking. The actors were extraordinary, fearless.
Blasted
But there’s something else, I think. The Other Room was built on faith, made possible by the passion and belief of an entire community. It is charged with that belief, brought alive by the electricity of a decision that Cardiff made, to build something new – a place to come together. In this bleak economic landscape and in a time when so many are motivated by fear and self-regard, what vision this city showed, what courage.
A Good Clean Heart
Obviously the sense of responsibility was huge. As I contemplate our ‘difficult second album’, it still is – perhaps more so. But the moments that defined Life in Close-Up – school kids turning up to buy tickets because Blasted was the talk of the playground, Simon Kane making us laugh – then cry, with his unvarnished and beautiful memories of his sister, Christian Patterson’s dignified clearing of his ruined shop in The Dying of Today, arguments about Barker between strangers in the Gents, and Alun Saunder’s vibrant, beautiful words brought to life by two amazing young actors and projected all around the walls in A Good Clean Heart, the house rammed to bursting – when I recall these things I know that I am not alone, and that together, we can do anything.
Thanks, Cardiff.
Kate Wasserburg, Artistic Director of The Other Room
Oh wow that sounds amazing, wish I could of been there, the write up and photos , evidence if an amazing evening, especially to see Christian Patterson, one of my all time favourite Actors
I will be at the next season. Exactly what Cardiff needs, a venue for all the talented actors & directors to gain experience.