The Royal Court returns to Tbilisi for final workshop with Ukranian and Georgian writers

Thursday, 28 June 2012

The Royal Court’s groundbreaking International Department, supported by the Genesis Foundation, returns to Tbilisi for its final phase of work with a group of 12 emerging playwrights from the Ukraine and Georgia. Director Caroline Steinbeis and playwright/translator Rory Mullarkey join the Royal Court’s Elyse Dodgson there from 28 June to 4 July.

After research visits to both countries in 2010 and early 2011 organised by the British Council, 14 promising writers were chosen to take part in this pioneering project.

The first workshop took place in Tbilisi in May 2011 and was led by playwrights April De Angelis and Nick Payne with Elyse Dodgson. It was the first time the team had worked in three languages within one workshop – Georgian, Ukrainian and Russian – and they discovered that this brought an incredible richness to the work. Each writer proposed a new contemporary play and 12 of the 14 writers were invited to Lviv, Ukraine in December 2011 to work on their drafts. For the second workshop, Elyse and April were joined by director Ramin Gray.

Elyse Dodgson says:

“This is our first attempt to work with two countries in one long term project and the commitment and friendship that has grown within the group over the last year has been inspiring to all. We are hoping to do staged readings of some of the plays at the Royal Court in March 2013 and cannot wait for British audiences to know about this work.”

To read more about the Genesis Foundation’s relationship with the Royal Court Theatre, please click here.