Profile on: Martin Danziger

From early to present days

Director Martin Danziger studied English and Drama at Edinburgh and later trained at Circomedia in physical theatre and circus skills.  Martin's interests have, in his words, 'tried to span these two extremes ever since'.  He tries to find a style of theatre that can have 'the intellectual punch and emotional clout' of the literature and theatre that he studied at university, and 'the excitement and engagement that street theatre and circus-based performance can give'. While at Edinburgh Martin was also heavily involved in the Beltane fire festival.  This opened his eyes to large-scale events, something he has remained interested in.

After training Martin took up the role of drama outreach worker for Eden Court in Caithness. This led to a real interest in community and youth theatre – how to engage and excite the widest community in theatre. This lead to the creation of several large-scale events in Caithness such as Carmen (1998), a reworking of the opera for 400 community performers and professional musicians in an old bus depot in Wick. In 2003 Theatre Modo returned to Caithness to create Assipattle, the largest project to date.

Martin was Artistic Director of pan Highland 2000, the Millennium project which gave skills and experiences to thousands of young people and adults across the Highlands.

Since then he has worked for a number of companies, including The Arches (winning the first New Directors Award in 2001 for Dead Pan), Borderline, Fablevision, and the Working Party, as well as continuing his role as Artistic Director of Theatre Modo. In addition he has directed and taught at a variety of drama colleges, including directing three shows for the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

In July 2004 he was appointed Associate Director at Dundee Rep Theatre where his production - a new translation of The Visit - opens on 16 March 2005. Martin has worked extensively on the continent, directing shows and leading projects in Germany, Italy, France, Poland and Norway. He is also an Associate director for the International Theatre Festival in Grenoble which he has been involved in for 8 years.

Approaches to work

His main interests divide between his work with professional theatre and community theatre. He does, however, observe a clear link in finding approaches to engage people with theatre. 

Professional theatre

'In professional theatre I have focussed mainly on reworking of classic texts'.  He tries to find 'a new way to imagine the piece that frees it for a modern audience'. But it is also about an attitude – 'I want to find a way of working that celebrates what theatre has to offer; the immediacy and the onus on the imagination and involvement of the audience'.  The aim: to 'not allow the audience to retreat into the passive receptiveness that recorded media so often allows'.

'I hate to describe my work as physical theatre, because all theatre is physical'.  He continues, however, to point out that he is 'certainly very interested in how the physical and visual elements of a piece can create meaning and not just compliment the text'. Through finding new or different contexts to present work, he hopes to 'shake the balance between performer and spectator, to impose a certain responsibility for the show onto the audience'. Tied in with this is an interest in actor training – and developing styles of theatre with the actors'.

Community theatre

'In my community work the focus is inevitably different'.  The challenge is to engage the widest community in creation – not just those already interested in performance. Over the years this has developed into a style of work that brings to bear a number of disciplines, acting, dance, circus and music.  Each of these seem to attract a different range of participants, and a style of creation and performance that is deliberately lo-tech. It engages the participants in all stages of the work, and seeks in some ways to demystify the process. By using a bold simple style it allows everyone to feel a part of the process rather than unwitting volunteers. But it also seeks to involve people who would not necessarily want to perform but are still keen to be a part of something they see as celebrating and developing their community.