At last the future is looking bright for Hull Truck

“It is a complete honour being asked to take over any company, but especially such a national gem as Hull Truck,” says Mark Babych, the theatre’s new artistic director who was appointed last month. “It is a jewel in the crown of Northern Theatre and I am really excited about leading the company into the next stage of its development.”

Hull Truck has had a fairly troubled recent past with the shock resignation in November last year of its chief executive Andrew Smaje who within months of taking up his post in July 2010 had announced the redundancy of the theatre’s last artistic director, Gareth Tudor Price. Babych acknowledges the historical difficulties and is mindful of the weight of expectation that is now upon him, but he is not intimidated by it.

“I do feel a huge amount of responsibility to repay the trust that has been placed in me,” he says. “But what happened happened and I wasn’t around. My job is to take the company forward, harnessing the goodwill and energy that surrounds it.”

Babych says that he has had “a huge amount of positive support” and is looking forward to working with the team to “make the theatre come alive again”. He is also aware of the theatre’s illustrious legacy – its reputation for creating exciting, original work – and he explains that Hull Truck was part of the reason that he became a director in the first place. Once he begins his tenure in just over a week, he will gradually start to put in place some of the ideas he has for the company.

“If I have an overarching vision for Hull Truck it is to create great theatre for the city of Hull,” he says. “For me it’s about understanding the people and the place and responding to that in the work. And it’s not just about the work on stage but also in terms of our outreach, creative learning and the opportunities for young creative artists – that’s very important to me. The company has got a really good track record on that and I want to see that grow and develop.”

For the past four years Babych has been working as a freelance director and prior to that he was the artistic director at the Bolton Octagon for 10 years. When we speak he has just finished directing Lee Hall’s Cooking With Elvis at Derby Theatre and will be directing the world premiere of a touring production of To Sir With Love adapted by Ayub Khan Din later this year. His freelance career has included stints in film and television, most notably working on Coronation Street, all of which he enjoyed he says, but “my heart was telling me to go back to the thing I love most.”

Another key part of his recent work has been the time he has spent directing young actors at some of the UK’s most prestigious drama schools including RADA, LAMDA, Bristol Old Vic and Manchester School of Theatre. “I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction out of helping other people to flourish,” he says. “I thought that if I can harness that and apply it to an organisation and expand the horizons of what a company can do.

“So when the opportunity to apply to Hull Truck came up I thought I might have something to offer that would be fresh and new.”

He says he is particularly excited about developing the relationship with Hull Truck’s associate company Middle Child, a young theatre company founded by former drama students at Hull University. “I want Hull Truck to be about growing people and ideas – whether that is a play or a piece of participatory work or developing partnerships with the city and the university. It’s about knitting the company more closely into the fabric of the city, but it’s also about recognizing that Hull Truck has a national profile.”

He is keen to build links regionally and will be talking to a whole host of other Yorkshire theatres. He wants Hull Truck to be part of the debate that explores what we mean by “Northern stage” or “Northern voice”. Although the first season of plays programmed by him won’t appear until April next year he hopes “to persuade people to try something different.”

He acknowledges that the next couple of years are not going to be easy, but he is more than ready to rise to the challenge. “There is no doubt I am going to have to sail the company through some choppy waters,” he says. “Really, though, it’s about making great art and taking that to as many people as possible. It’s about being inclusive and ambitious.”

It may be too soon to say, but in terms of vision, passion and commitment it looks as though the future of Hull Truck is in safe hands.

Mark Babych’s creative career

Mark Babych is an award-winning director who has directed a wide range of classic and contemporary theatre. His work has been seen throughout the UK and Europe. He has twice won fringe first awards at Edinburgh festival and several Manchester Evening News theatre awards. For 10 years he was the artistic director of The Octagon Theatre, Bolton where he directed over 47 productions including work by Arthur Miller, Shakespeare, Martin McDonagh and Alan Plater.

He has held senior posts at Oldham Coliseum, the Swan Theatre, Worcester and the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry.