Play – My Mother said I never should, written by Charlotte Keatly. Skill - Acting
Practioner – Max Stafford-Clark. Role – Margaret
Section 1: -700
Max Stafford-Clark is one of the most influential directors to embrace British Theatre in the past 40 years. Nearly every play Max has directed is political, including themes such as Marxism (like Brecht), socialism, feminism, poverty and many more political themes. Max says he chooses to direct plays like this because “I am socially curious, and I take theatre as tool of investigating society” from his book Letter’s to George, which alone with Taking Stock, has documented his directing experiences of theatre and his life.
He co-founded Joint Stock Theatre Company, alongside Bill Gaskill. Here he developed his workshop theory, of working alongside actors, and new writers especially. Throughout his time at the Royal Court Theatre he directed plays such as Top Girls (Caryl Churchill) and developed new significant writers: Sarah Daniels, Jim Cartwright, by incorporating his workshop ideas into directing them. Max founded Out of Joint Theatre Company in 1994, it developed into a National and even International theatre company, which Max dedicated its work to the expanding and the production of new writing.
The workshop process was a new way of producing plays for British theatre. Max didn’t believe that there was a hierarchy between the writer, director and actors. He believed everyone was equal and the play would be developed by the whole group. The whole company would research the books and themes, developing ideas through creative workshops. Then the writer would go away and write first draft of the play, which would be rewritten several times by the company during their conventional rehearsal period. The principle of the workshop technique was to motivate the