A Nation Vision

Atelier sat down with recently reinstated Artistic Director of Teatru Malta, producer and director Sean Buhagiar to find out a little more about his vision as the next chapter of Malta’s National Theatre company unfolds!

This is your second term as Artistic Director of Teatru Malta. Looking back, would you have done anything differently over the course of the first three years?

Of course I would have. We always said that we wanted to take risks, we wanted to make groundbreaking theatre, work which was not being produced on the island. That is risky, and when you take risks, you are bound to make mistakes too. As Bernard Shaw put it, success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same mistake a second time. Evaluating the choices we make is necessary and we owe it to our public. The mistakes we made will inform future decisions. But we will also keep making new mistakes. We cannot play safe, we are the ones who need to take risks, we owe it to our sector.

What I would not change is the vision. It takes more than three years to provoke a cultural shift and we are really very proud of what we have achieved in only three years. Teatru Malta has built a solid

reputation, but it would be very arrogant to say we had a perfect run. We have had very successful productions and less successful ones, but we have always produced work with integrity and with the sole objective of bringing quality theatre to our public. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Judging from our first three years, I think we will get better at it.

Describe a typical day in the life of AD of one of Malta's youngest PCOs

Oh boy. (Beatles fans will get this). Well, no day is really a typical day. It very much depends on the production. We could be brainstorming ideas on our new poster because we just scrapped the last version, we could be trying to see how over 100 school kids are doing running around rehearsal rooms for the first time, picking up and smelling a publication of new classic theatre plays in translation, consoling artists doing an outdoor theatre piece who just got to know it might be too windy. I don’t think we have typical days, It’s the unscripted part of making

theatre that is typical of our days. I could also say that everyday is a new opportunity and all that, but sometimes it’s also just another rehearsal.

What would you say is Teatru Malta's principal responsibility within the cultural sector?

We were established in 2017 as a project under the Arts Council Malta’s umbrella, a project which was meant to form a national theatre company. We decided that we would not be based in one venue, but would have a no-walls approach, and would produce different styles of theatre.

Now, there is a risk that questions like this get a lot of buzzwords as answers. I will try and avoid that. I believe we are responsible for making theatre part of the population’s wellbeing. We need to be a national theatre company which produces meaningful theatre which can have a significant impact on our audiences. This can be done in various ways.

Artistic Director of Teatru Malta, producer and director Sean Buhagiar

Who is the Teatru Malta audience member?

Well, if we are the national theatre company, my answer should be “everyone on the island”. This, to me, is an important part of my vision. I believe being national is a great responsibility, it means we are also a symbol in some ways. In simpler terms, we represent the country and I believe we need to engage the broadest possible audience. Or rather, audiences because I believe there are many different audiences out there. Just like our culinary and musical tastes vary, so will our theatrical ones. That is why our programme is so varied and that is why we produce a number of shows a year.

What can audiences expect to see from Teatru Malta in 2020?

For the sake of a dramatic ending, I would say expect the unexpected. But in reality it’s a leap year, so we should all just expect an extra rehearsal day. For more information on teatrumalta visit teatrumalta.org.mt