Old Vic / New Voices

Being the Anglophile that I am, I went to the US/UK Exchange yesterday presented by the Old Vic New Voices program that 'supports young and emerging talent'. My good buddy, Ari Edelson, has been running it for four years now, and of the ones I've seen, I think this was the best. In the past, they flew over only playwrights from London. This year, they decided to bring one individual from the four disciplines of the New Voices Club. This included an actor (Michael Cox), a writer (Joel Horwood), a director (Lucy Kerbel) and a producer (David Luff). When I attended The Exchange's Jump last week, I had the chance to hang out with all of them at the post-show booze-a-thon.

The two readings they presented were fantastic. The first was Megan Mostyn-Brown's Going After Alice. I had the chance to work with Megan last summer and I also saw a reading of hers at the Public that Meredith McDonough directed. FYI - This girl can write and she's hilarious. The second piece was Joel Horwood's Stoopid F*cken Animals. It's 'the first Western to be set in rural Suffolk'. It was that perfect British blend of darkness and humor. Very fun characters in a very f*cked situation.

As is no surprise, I'm all in favor of international exchanges, especially of young talent. I just hope we can broaden the playing field even more to include countries that don't speak English. It's not a shocker that the Yanks love the Brits. Time Out even declared that 'the Brits really are better'. If that's the case, there's an obvious reason why, which is tied into the culture, the government, the education and the tradition. It’s the kind of system that enables a theatre company like the Old Vic to sponsor this type of event. Can anyone name me an American company that flies four twenty-somethings over to London for a week just for the hell of it? I'm certainly glad someone is doing it, and it was a blast to be there.