Interview - Damian Cruden: Seagull will help student actors earn their wings

I KNEW back in 2004 that Damian Cruden was not like other artistic directors.

The man in charge of York Theatre Royal does things differently and, in an interview six years ago, the director made that abundantly clear.

At the time, he said: "Yes, I'm an idealist, I'm also a socialist and I apologise for neither of those things."

In the past six years, Cruden has been putting his money where his mouth is.

Last year, when the Arts Council announced its commendable scheme to give away free tickets to under-25s, theatre fans around the country applauded and artistic directors were concerned about balancing the books.

Cruden, once again walking his own path, thought about what the A Night Less Ordinary project meant.

It was about getting young people into the theatre. He could give away free tickets, sure, but he decided, instead, to hand control of the theatre to a group of young people, and the Takeover festival was born.

Cruden's been at it again with the theatre's latest project.

It is currently staging The Seagull, the Chekhov masterpiece.

Clever programming. It is often on the syllabus and because it is one of the most important plays in theatre, it will always get an audience.

Which is why the theatre is taking the apparent risk of casting the play with a mixture of professional and soon-to-graduate actors.

"It's an idea that's been knocking about for a while between us and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD)," says Cruden.

"And now that it's finally happening, I think it is going to be really exciting for the audience."

The idea is that the production, a full, professional, York Theatre Royal production of The Seagull, features seasoned actors and some actors who are in their final year at the RSAMD.

"It gives them an opportunity, before they graduate and go off into the professional world, to have the experience of being in a professional company," says Cruden.

"All actors have to, at some point, step onto a stage for the first time. Why do we have this strict policy of that only being after someone has graduated? Are we saying that once they have graduated that's it, they are finished training and are now the finished article?"

Cruden's constant challenging of the system and questioning why it exists and how it can be improved is to be applauded, but what about the audience?

Do York's theatre-goers pay less for the tickets because the cast is made up of six professionals and eight students?

"The audience will not be seeing a worse show because of the involvement of the students, absolutely not," says Cruden.

"The production is being created to exactly the same standard as if it were a regular York production. It's just that this is also giving the next generation of actors a leg up into the industry."

The Seagull, York Theatre Royal, to May 1.