Creative Strategy: Reconnecting Business and Innovation

THE ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY PROLOGUE

In writing this book we wanted to include a single case study to show how the different aspects of creative strategy connect together. In each subsequent section of this book we will consider how the Royal Shakespeare Company enacts innovative ideas, entrepreneurial attitudes, leadership positions and organizational virtues, and how these feed off each other both in the rehearsal room and the boardroom.

The case study derives principally from our observations of the company in rehearsal for a production of Richard III in late 2006, supplemented by interviews with Michael Boyd and Vikki Heywood in 2009 and observations and interviews from other theatre directors. The remainder of the case is presented in four sections or ‘acts’, each relating to a different aspect of creative strategy. These acts are located at the end of each part of the book. In this prologue section we will briefly introduce the case and its relationship to creativity and to strategy.

In June 2008, the Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Michael Boyd, outlined his approach to ensemble theatre in a speech at New York Public Library. In his speech Boyd commented on the values which informed a cooperative, collective approach to theatre (summarized in the box below). This approach had been applied both to the practical task of uniting a diverse group of actors over an extended rehearsal period working on several projects at once, and more broadly to the business ...