Director Mingyu Lin could be excused for feeling a little lonely as she prepares to bring an innovative show to the stage of York Theatre Royal. She has moved from rehearsing a community production company of 100 or more to A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction which has a cast of just one.
While cast numbers may be small, the idea and thoughts behind the project are big, not least the idea of generating power for the production using bicycles on a zero-travel tour. Or as the pre-show publicity puts it: “a bold experiment in eco theatre-making” which sees the play tour across the country while the people and materials do not.
York-based Ming, a resident artist at York Theatre Royal and a regular director of Channel 4’s Hollyoaks continuing drama (that’s soap to me and you), has been involved with the project from the start. She was working as a Creative Associate at Headlong when “the play passed my desk” and recalls that she and the rest of the team loved the play.
A Zoom meeting was set up with the writer Miranda Rose Hall, who lives in America and Katie Mitchell, who’d directed a version of the play in Switzerland, told how a play about sustainability could itself be sustainable. Pedal power, which has a team of cyclists generating electricity during the performance , was a big part of the answer.
Ming says: “I’m quite passionate about touring theatre and Headlong tours outside London so we knew we had to tour the play. And if you have a play that looks at climate change I’m against a play made in London going around the North telling us how to live our lives.
“What the tour does is use local talent and doesn’t all the things that are damaging where you spend lots of energy and resources when you move people from place to place which you don’t actually need to do because where you’re moving to has got those things already.
“What’s been done is find a way to be both sustainable and tour. The concept of the play never changes but the talent working on it changes at each venue. Cyclists are recruited at each venue to power the show. The only thing that’s moved physically is the technology which transforms kinetic energy into electricity – and that all comes in one big box.”
When Headlong was planning the tour, Ming knew she was joining York Theatre Royal as a resident artist so snapped up the chance to direct the production. “I knew I really wanted the people of York to see it. I knew York would love it in a theatre that’s absolutely unique and gorgeous. The play and the concept fits really well within the theatre and York itself is a cycling city.”
Ming needed to find an actor within commutable distance of York to play Naomi, the character in the one-woman play. That turned out to be Leeds-based Stephanie Hutchinson.
“With one person shows it’s difficult to maintain the energy and the engagement. You are really banking on performance charisma. We had to look for a very strong performer and there are a lot of them in the area. I hope that even if we don’t work with them now we will work with them very shortly because those we saw were of a high calibre.”
Theatre was “always the dream” says Ming who grew up in Singapore. “Growing up I was interested in stories and storytelling. I loved reading and in the world of literature everything is new writing. and worked as a stage manager there during the holidays. When I started doing A-level drama did I realised theatre is a great way of telling stories.
She studied English at York University, then trained as a director at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She now directs for stage and screen as well as being a founder member of BESEA (British East and Southeast Asian) advocacy group BEATS (Better Ethnic Access To Services). She’s also Reader for Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre and the Brentwood Prize.
“As a stage director what I’m really passionate about is advocacy. I want to affect society change with the work we do. I’m part of an advocacy group that campaigns for more South East Asian representation on stage, backstage, on screen and behind the camera. The genres I’m interested in primarily are new writing and adaptation,” says Ming.
“One reason I was drawn to A Play For The Living was because it deals with an urgent issue, something important, and features a wonderful way to get communities involved with the cycling. There’s also a volunteer choir involved.”
York Theatre Royal’s recent large scale production of Sovereign, staged outdoors with a 100-strong community company led by two professional actors, was “great” for her because “I’m very, very, very up for working with the community. That’s very important. You can make change doing that”.
Directing Sovereign – with two other directors – was definitely a challenge but, putting it in perspective, Ming refers to the scale of directing for television with a crew of 50 and cast of 20. Not the most stressful artistically perhaps but certainly in terms of the logistics and keeping on schedule.
“There was a lot of joy in the uniqueness of a community production like Sovereign. It was a challenge because most of the performers had never been in that situation before. With rehearsals they were learning new things and you were going on a journey with them, and that’s quite fun.
“There was a huge treasure trove of learning for me, especially working with Juliet (Forster, the theatre’s Creative Director) who has done so many large scale community productions. That was really helpful working with other directors. “One thing I loved about coming here was that I knew there were other directors in the artistic planning team and you get to work together”.
It’s a community of which Ming is now part as she and her husband, who comes from York, have moved to the city.
Directing Hollyoaks coincided with the arrival of the first South East Asian family – the first in a TV soap. It reaches a younger audience than most theatre shows. “So you’re not preaching to the same audience as in the theatre. You’re widening your reach. The show also covers a lot of important storylines which is what drew me to it,” says Ming.
Box office 01904 623568 | yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
Book your tickets to A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction now: coming to YTR 27-30 September.
