Interview | Artistic Director, Nikolai Foster

Recently I had the opportunity of chatting with Lighting Designer, Ben Cracknell about his fascinating career and role within the theatre. It received lots of praise and I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to get an insight into his role. This time around you’re going to read about Nikolai Foster, one of the most influential people in theatre right now, particularly at Curve Theatre, which resides in my hometown of Leicester.

If you are a stranger to Nikolai’s role, he is Artistic Director of the Curve Theatre. Recently they’ve been making huge movements with online productions; Sunset Boulevard over the Christmas period and later in February/March with The Color Purple. Both productions are performed and filmed within the Curve Theatre, if you haven’t booked your tickets for The Color Purple yet, I would encourage you to do so!

Can you start by introducing yourself and letting us a little bit about what it is that you do? 

I am the Artistic Director at Curve theatre in Leicester. The role of an Artistic Director is beautifully chaotic and varied, with no two days ever being the same. At Curve, I work alongside Chief Executive Chris Stafford and ostensibly, our role is to provide artistic leadership for the organisation and curate a programme of work which entertains, challenges, and inspires our diverse communities in Leicester and Leicestershire. Sometimes we produce our own work, notably at Christmas. These Made At Curve productions often tour both within the UK and internationally. Another large aspect of the work is programming the shows that tour to Curve, and ensuring that there is a broad canvas of different work to engage with and speak to our diverse communities. 

How did you get into directing shows and what hurdles have you had to overcome along the way? 

I got into directing almost by chance and on a whim. Like many young people interested in the theatre, I assumed I wanted to be an actor. When I visited theatres as a kid growing up in Yorkshire, I never imagined there were roles such as Directors, Lighting Designers and Stage Managers. You saw actors on stage and I guess that was the thing I most related to. 

I trained at Drama Centre London, which used to be one of our leading drama schools and had a reputation for tough love and celebrating actors from working-class and diverse backgrounds. Famously, at the end of the second year, students who the Principal Christopher Fettes didn’t think were good enough would be thrown out. During my second year, I began unwittingly to assume the role of Director, writing scripts, organising rehearsals and leading on things within my year group. Consequently, my focus on my acting work became limited. My mum had maxed out all of her credit cards in order for me to train in London. It was not something we could afford, and even back in the day when tuition fees were much lower than they are today, it was well above our means. The idea of being sent back to Yorkshire, rejected at the end of my second year, was terrifying, and I didn’t want to let my mum down after all she had done to make drama school a reality. So when Christopher said I was being thrown out, I took a moment – and to this day I am not sure where my response came from – however, I said I’d like to come back in my third year and train as a Director. I wanted to learn what Christopher did so brilliantly and work alongside the other leading theatre Directors who came in to teach at Drama Centre. After a long, painful pause Christopher capitulated and in my third year I was very fortunate to assist a wide variety of Directors. It was also during this time I took on a work experience role at the Queens Theatre in Hornchurch as a rehearsal assistant.  

Whilst at the Queens, there was an advert for the Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme. I thought this looked interesting and as though it might be able to help in this new dream of becoming a Director. If I realised what a prestigious award scheme this was, I never would have applied. After several interviews, I was dispatched to the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield where I trained under legendary director Michael Grandage for two years. It was an astonishing time and from this I was able to start carving out a career as a Freelance Theatre Director. I worked as a Freelance Director for almost 20 years, before settling down in Leicester to work at Curve. 

You’ve done some amazing things with your career, both nationally and internationally, what continues to motivate you to make something new and exciting when deciding on what shows to put on the stage? 

Very simply, I love theatre. It is my entire life and is all and everything I ever think or dream about. Working on any show is an incredibly exciting process, collaborating with so many different people. 

At Curve, we are always interested in starting relationships with our communities and future audiences, who may historically not have had a relationship with us. Therefore, one of the most exciting aspects is working with playwrights on new stories they are keen to tell. One of the highlights in recent years was working on the world premiere of Riaz Khan‘s Memoirs of an Asian Football Casual. It was so exciting to see a local story told with a local audience and we hope to do much more of this in the future. 

Recently you’ve done amazing work with Sunset Boulevard in Concert at Home and recently announced The Color Purple will be coming in a similar format in February. What made you choose those shows in particular? 

These two musicals were part of our socially distanced season, which also included Memoirs of an Asian Football Casual. Chris and I felt they were a trio of productions that represented the ambition and eclecticism of the work we do in Leicester. All three shows are award-winning, and were brought together by incredible actors and creative teams. In different ways, each show represents resilience and triumph over incredible adversity. We felt these were very powerful ideas for this present moment. Clearly Covid has stopped us performing the shows to a live socially distanced audience, but with Sunset at Christmas, the archive recording of Memoirs, and now our streamed version of The Color Purple, we are proud to present the shows in a different, but no less thrilling way than we originally intended. 

What have been the challenges of putting on those shows in the current climate? 

There are unforeseen and new challenges with every single show one works on, regardless of how long you’ve been doing it! These productions have been no different and I’m really happy to say that so far, the challenges have only been artistic and around the creation of the work. When our actors and crew arrive at the theatre, they have already been tested ahead of time. When entering the building, an automatic camera immediately takes their temperature and they then visit a nurse, who performs another Covid test. All of this is done wearing face coverings and with social distancing. The only moment the actors remove their face coverings is when they are on stage, performing and this is also done with social distancing. This might seem like many challenges to consider, but once you’ve gone through the process a couple of times, it feels second nature and is certainly not a challenge. We all feel incredibly privileged to be able to go into a rehearsal room at this time and to create work for our audiences. Especially when it’s a piece as important as The Color Purple.  

What has been the best part of creating these shows in the current climate? 

It has reminded us what it was like creating theatre back at school or playing in our respective youth theatres when we were kids. There were times last year, when we weren’t certain we would ever open the doors to our theatre again and the prospect of not creating shows was truly heart-breaking. So when we got back into the space with Sunset Boulevard, it was truly electrifying. Hearing the orchestra, watching the crew build the lighting rig and seeing the actors inhabit those roles was all thrilling. And just today, watching the crew kitting out the space for The Color Purple has been deeply moving and humbling. Being reminded of what a unique industry we are all part of, its beautiful complexity and the astonishing skills all required to put on a show, has been the most enjoyable aspect of creating during this time. I cannot fully express how much it is meant to me. 

You work really hard to put Leicester on the map for fantastic regional theatre, why do you think that’s important? Why should people invest in coming to the Curve? 

Quite simply, because Curve is an incredible venue, where astonishingly talented technicians, marketeers and producers work every day. It is right that the theatre is recognised in this way. We are always striving for excellence and to do the very best we can and it is wonderful to have this investment and vote of confidence from our communities and audience. I know Leicester people are very proud of Curve and it is wonderful that this theatre and the city of Leicester is regarded as a centre of excellence across the world. When we talk to colleagues in Singapore, Australia, South Africa, Germany, New York and Los Angeles, they all know about Curve and the incredible talent that Leicester has. 

Is there one moment in your career that you’ve stood back and thought, wow!? 

Not massively to be honest. I always like to keep moving forwards and I’m not very good at reflecting or looking back. However, when we first worked on Annie at Leeds Playhouse, and saw the astonishing affect the show had on audiences, bringing many of Leeds’ diverse communities together, I remember feeling the significance of that moment and how vitally important theatre is and the positive effects it can have on people’s lives, bringing us all together. 

What’s been your favourite production to do as of late? 

I don’t really have favourites, as everything is so varied. I felt West Side Story was very special, as, like Annie, it really brought our communities together in their local theatre. It was entertaining, but also had a lot to say about the world we live in today. 

Have there been some lows in your career?  

2020 has definitely been a low for all of us working in the creative and hospitality industries! But with those challenges, we are more resilient and more determined to create great theatre for our communities once again, as soon as it is safe to do so. 

Whilst working on a show that isn’t landing with an audience is very challenging and comes with many, many pressures for the director, these all inform your practice and has made me better as a director. As hard as it has been, learning why things didn’t work and taking that forward constructively, has been really helpful. 

Do you have one show in mind you’d really like to do more than anything that you haven’t done yet? 

Yes! And we will be doing it next summer in Leicester, at Curve. Watch this space! 

Are there any other Artistic Directors out there that really inspire you? 

There are many wonderful Artistic Directors fighting the good fight, curating astonishing programmes of work, and engaging the communities they serve with vibrant and innovative participatory programmes. I sincerely hope we all inspire each other, and one of the positives from the last twelve months has been working much more closely with colleagues across our incredible regional theatres. 

To keep up to date with what’s going on at the Curve Theatre, head over to their website.