The Stage

Brining sets out vision for West Yorkshire Playhouse

Published Friday 24 February 2012 at 10:50 by Alistair Smith

Incoming West Yorkshire Playhouse artistic director James Brining has said that he wants to make “world class local” work at the venue, reflecting the theatre’s home in Leeds but with potential for future life beyond the region.

Brining is currently artistic director and chief executive of Dundee Rep, a post he has held for the last eight years. The Leeds-born director will succeed Ian Brown and takes up his new role at WYP, which has a 750-seat main Quarry theatre and a second 350-seat Courtyard theatre, in the late summer.

He explained that his plans for the Playhouse break down into two main areas: the first is “about reflecting the lives and telling the stories of the people of Leeds” and the second is “about engagement on a national and international scale”.

“The quarry is - I would say - an epic stage, which is perfect for old classics and new classics,” he told The Stage. “It’s perfect for musicals - which I have a great love and affinity for - both existing musicals and new musicals. I think there are things to explore with commercial partners and other funded theatres to develop work together that we can make here and hopefully find a life for elsewhere. I would sum that up as ‘world class local’, so we make things in Leeds which reflect where we are, but don’t just speak to the people of Leeds… London is a key part of the equation, but it’s about a balance between those two things.”

During his time at Dundee Rep, Brining directed Proclaimers musical Sunshine on Leith and Sweeney Todd - both of which won best musical at the Theatrical Management Association Theatre Awards. Prior to joining Dundee Rep, he was artistic director of TAG Theatre Company in Glasgow, which specialises in work for children and young people.

“I love directing a show like Sweeney Todd, I love directing a show like Dr Korczak’s Example, which was a tiny little piece about the Holocaust for teenagers, I love the opportunities that youth theatre presents kids,” added Brining. “I’m interested in it all and to me that is the beauty of a place like West Yorkshire Playhouse. You’ve got stages that are big enough and important enough to achieve that kind of profile, but you’ve got the opportunity to work in all the other disciplines of regional theatre as well.”

Brining said that his first fully-programmed season was likely to be the autumn of 2013, but that he hoped to direct his inaugural show at West Yorkshire Playhouse in the spring of next year. He added that he was particularly interested in experimenting with the WYP’s second Courtyard space, which he wanted to become “a bit more of an experimental space” which could be used in various lay outs including in-the-round and traverse stagings.

“The challenge and excitement for me of working at the Playhouse is evolving the theatre in many different ways, so that it is operating on a number of different levels, serving a local audience and engaging nationally and internationally. But that has to be worked towards, relationships have to be nurtured and developed and you can’t expect to have that overnight,” he said.