David Berthold has been announced as the new Artistic Director and CEO of La Boite Theatre, replacing Sean Mee, the outgoing Artistic Director. Berthold is one of Australia’s most prominent theatre directors and was Artistic Director of Sydney’s Griffin Theatre Company between 2003 and 2006.
Berthold lived and worked in Brisbane in the early nineties when he was the Artistic Associate at Queensland Theatre Company. ourbrisbane.com called Berthold to find out how he felt about moving back to Brisbane.
What attracted you to come back to Brisbane?
I’m very fond of the city … it gave me my first professional opportunities. And I’ve long been aware of La Boite’s fascinating history. The challenges it faces now - especially with a new and bigger theatre space at Kelvin Grove - were particularly attractive to me. I enjoy challenges.
What’s your vision for La Boite?
I’d like La Boite to be a theatre of engagement. Engagement with local artists, engagement with wider parts of the community, including regional communities, engagement nationally and internationally, engagement with business, engagement with other grammars of performance, engagement with younger audiences, engagement with ideas. Any theatre is dead if it doesn’t engage. La Boite has done much of this well in the past, but we need to make the place sing.
What do you like best about Brisbane?
It’s a place of possibilities. That’s reflected in its burgeoning younger population. Over the last five years, Sydney has lost 11,000 people in the 15-34 age group, Perth has gained 4,000, Melbourne has gained 10,000, but Brisbane has gained over 30,000. That’s phenomenal. We talk a lot about Queensland’s history, but history is being written now with a new kind of pen.
La Boite has a history of doing new Australian work – is this something you’d like to continue? What are your plans?
I can’t think of an Australian theatre company that doesn’t prioritise new Australian work in some way. All the state theatre companies do new work, for example, as does the mid-tier. I can’t imagine La Boite ever not doing new Australian work. But we may find that a wider diet is desired and required. More varied foods on the table. And naturally I’m interested in collaborations with other companies, here and elsewhere. The world is a big and exhilarating place, and now more available to us than ever.
What are the biggest challenges La Boite faces?
The same as those faced by many theatres. Deeper engagement. Filling its space – the new theatre is twice the size of the old venue. Connecting more directly with the world and its possibilities.
What do you love most about theatre? What keeps you doing it?
Are you satisfied just downloading a song, or would you rather see the band live? In many ways, the time is ripe for theatre. Much of our time these days is spent with our ipod, or writing our blog, or with stuff we’ve downloaded - things done mostly while alone. Yes, we have our online communities, and they can be very satisfying, but it probably means that being in a room with others feels more special than it may have done ten years ago. Theatre is an active, communal experience requiring not so much a suspension of disbelief as a conspiracy of belief. We enter a pact with the actors. No such pact is required in film. I love that.
I’m one of many theatre lovers in Brisbane looking forward to seeing what David Berthold brings to La Boite …
