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Description: | The year 1990 was the fourth year that BAC offered a chance for young theatre directors to show their talents and to obtain training in their chosen profession. Miss Ciniewicz, 26, was 1990's only winner, winning an Arts Council training bursary and the opportunity to direct a production at BAC. Miss Ciniewicz had gained a degree in Drama and English at Bristol University. She was general manager and interim artistic director of the Gate Theatre at Notting Hill, where she directed her first professional show. For her choice of play she had decided on Chekhov's 'Three Sisters'. She believed that she won the Young Director's title partly because ''she took risks in her actors' workshop, taking an irreverent, comedic, non-naturalistic approach to the 'Three Sisters' ''. For her winner's show she chose 'Homework' by Franz Xavier Kroetz. This controversial German play was staged in Germany in 1970 provoking demonstrations on the streets. Ciniewicz's production was the first time that the play was exposed to British audiences.
The lack of formal professional training for theatre directors meant that they had to learn on the job. This, in return, caused great competition over opportunities such as the Young Director's Award. As Penny Ciniewicz put it ''What it's done for me [i.e. the Young director's Award] is to provide an opportunity to spend nearly all my time in the last six months thinking about directing. It's what all young directors want and what very few of us get - you have to spend too much time trying to earn money elsewhere'. | Subjects: | the winner of the 1990 Young Director Award (YDA). A photo of Penny Ciniewicz | Source: | Battersea Arts Centre | Identifier: | http://www.bacarchive.org.uk/items/show/... | Language: | English | Go to resource |
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