Nancy Medina

The theatre she inherited

It’s impossible to ignore the fact that Medina is assuming responsibility of an arts organisation at a fragile time for the industry and that she is settling into the role on the shaky foundations of a nationwide crisis in theatre leadership. More than a dozen artistic directors have resigned in the past year alone – some after less than four years in post. “I can identify, from my point of view, that theatre may be in its worst moment financially than it has ever been,” she says. “There are things that I am facing right now that, pre-pandemic, my predecessors were not facing in any way, shape or form. The buoyancy for theatre and the richness of money and resources is not what I have not inherited. At the moment, the finances just look bleak.”

‘We are all culture. The rituals and beliefs and the way we work in society – that is culture’

Medina announced her first season in April and is now directing not only her first production as artistic director but also her first-ever main-house show at Bristol Old Vic. She has chosen Choir Boy by Tarell Alvin McCraney, who is well known for The Brother/Sister plays – a trilogy that includes the critically acclaimed hit The Brothers Size, which played at the Young Vic Theatre in 2018.

She has had the play on her mind for a while, drawn to it by what she describes as McCraney’s skill for platforming the humanity of Black people and bringing forth the multiplicity of their stories with his words. “The chance to witness love flow freely between young Black boys is sadly something we just don’t see. I think I’ve seen enough Black and Brown stories of trauma. I’ve directed enough of them. And they have their place,” she says.

But that’s not how Medina wanted to begin her tenure. “The way I choose plays is personal to themes I want to go deep into, and I am in a place where I really want to understand boys a little bit more.” Medina has two young sons, a fact that has inspired her directing choices, but she’s also interested in making feminist work. Most of the plays she has directed have been about men, which might seem counterintuitive to that aim, but she is keen to disrupt the outdated idea that feminism is only the business of women. “I think I am doing feminist work. It’s just a different kind.”

Q&A

What was your first non-theatre job?

Cleaner.

What do you wish someone had told you when you were starting out?

Learn how to value yourself. It’s easy to fall into other people’s expectations of what work should be. In theatre, so much of who we are goes into what we do, so it can be hard to separate the professionalism from who you actually are.

What’s your best advice for auditions?

Really interrogate the script. When asked: ‘What was your response?’, give your honest response. I am looking to see how a person’s brain works and what they’re passionate about.

If you hadn’t been a director, what would you have been?

A cultural anthropologist. 

Do you have any theatrical superstitions or rituals?

I am very ritualistic. They change all the time depending on what the project is. My last show was all about lavender, so I had a ritual with lavender. 

The traditions she’s challenging

Working outside of traditional expectations of what theatre should be is often deemed a risky business. Medina is not a fan of the discriminatory undertones associated with the term ‘risk’ – it’s no secret that it is almost exclusively used to describe work made by people of the protected classes.

“There was a time when risk was a positive, exciting thing, but now our definition of it is that it’s dangerous, it’s negative and it’s going to cost us money. I’m constantly trying to unpack why that’s a risk in the first place. Why is work from these artists not seen as financially viable? My fear is that we will always use that excuse, because, at the end of the day, we’re coming down to the bottom line and to money.”

She thinks part of the issue is theatres not creating the space to welcome new audiences, but she also has a wider question: “Why does it have to be a specific audience that’s going to come and see a show? It’s just the work of the human condition we’re putting up on stage. It should appeal to everyone. I can go to see anything and find a sense of humanity that I can connect with.”

The question of cultivating new audiences sits within a broader industry conversation about diversity, where Medina has noticed a worrying trend following the period of consciousness prompted by the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. “It feels as if artists and creatives are being suffocated by the antagonism towards the EDI [equality, diversity and inclusion] work.” She is aware of industry colleagues who have recently left positions because of a sense of ostracisation that arrived with the current backlash. “It reminds me of the way men felt when women first joined the workforce. ‘Oh, now we can’t say that thing. Now we can’t make those jokes.’ Why were you making those jokes in the first place? Why did you think it was okay? Can we talk about that?”

Many Black artists predicted this fallout from the jump, and Medina was among them. She saw what was happening as a panic to come up with a solution to fix the problem quickly without dealing with the root cause of it – “I think you have to deal with anti-Blackness first, because it intersects with everything.” 

The journey that brought her to Bristol

Medina grew up in New York and studied Spanish literature at the city’s Binghamton University, all the while harbouring a passion for theatre. Though she has been a director for two decades, “there was never an intention of having this as a career”, she says. “It’s really interesting talking to young directors who had just known that this was the thing they were going for, or people that know they want to be an artistic director. That was not my plan. I was living under the expectations and pressures of my family that I had to get a legit job to help pay for things in my home. So I always worked. And the expectation was that I would become a doctor, lawyer or teacher. There was a brief moment where I did try to rebel and was going to study film so I could be the Latin Martin Scorsese. But I quickly gave that up and decided to listen to my mum and try to get a stable job.” Over the years, she worked in various admin roles while nurturing her theatre interest in her spare time.

This included starting theatre companies with friends from the age of 18. At a youth theatre, she was exposed to the techniques of Brazilian theatre practitioner Augusto Boal, which helped her and her collaborators develop a signature style. “We were doing forum theatre and Theatre of the Oppressed, and that was really helpful to identify the voice I was interested in. We were political without saying we were political because we were just talking about our lives.”

She set up several theatre groups in the US, and it was at the last of those, Regroup Theatre, that she officially began to call herself a director. The company was inspired by New York theatre collective Group Theatre and was made up of her and two friends. Medina had previously discovered a love of interrogating text, so it felt natural that Regroup should focus on new writing, which to this day is what she loves to do. The company enjoyed success on the new writing festival circuits in New York and Santa Monica, but the three of them decided to close it before she moved to the UK.

‘I did try to rebel – I was going to study film so I could be the Latin Martin Scorsese’

After arriving in Bristol, it was not long before she started a company here, too, but unlike her ventures in the US, it was a solo endeavour. “It was called Corner Theatre and the whole premise was that I could show up on any corner.” She commissioned six writers from the UK and the US to each write a 10-minute piece on the headlines of 2011, which subsequently launched her freelance practice.

In 2013, Medina went back to school to study for that MA at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. But when asked if she believes an academic route into theatre is necessary, she quickly answers no. “There was a point in my life where I thought I needed [a degree], which is why I went to grad school. This industry works by recommendation so often, and it is about who you know. If you’re not exposed to those spaces, it’s difficult to get a foot in. You constantly feel like the outsider.” Her decision to go to drama school in Bristol was mostly motivated by a desire to meet more theatre people following her relocation to the city. “I thought that was what I needed, but actually what that school showed me was that I know how to tell a story. I was very good with actors in a room. I was skilled.”

Her big break came when she won the 2017 Genesis Future Directors Award. The award was held in association with the Young Vic Theatre, where she staged what she considers to be her first professional production, 2017’s Yellowman. She had been doing tours around the West Country but they were severely under-resourced and poorly paid. “Then, after [the Young Vic show], I was getting calls from everybody and all of these other shows started rolling in – it’s like you don’t get a look in unless you do a show in London,” she says.

In the years since, Medina has directed productions at several of the UK’s foremost producing theatres, including Strange Fruit at the Bush Theatre in 2019, the English Touring Theatre and Royal and Derngate tour of August Wilson’s Two Trains Running (after winning the RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award in 2018), and Alice Childress’ Trouble in Mind at London’s National Theatre in 2021. 

When Medina moved to the UK, she never imagined she would settle here in the long term. “I never wanted to be an artistic director here. In all honesty. I really wasn’t ready for it. I didn’t want the responsibility. I thought I was going to be here for a year, try it out, see if this relationship worked out [with her partner, who is a British sound designer, although they met in Los Angeles]. Fifteen years and two kids later, I’m still here,” she laughs.

Does she have an opinion on the ideal length of service for an artistic director? “I do think things take time. Especially if you’re completely changing the direction of the way a theatre has been operating. Ten years seems a good enough amount of time and then they should move on. But there are probably examples of people who have been in a position for a really long time and have really evolved in themselves and in their organisation, and in knowing what the company needs to continue evolving. I think that’s probably what we all need. And if you’re no longer doing that, well, then get yourself out.”

CV Nancy Medina

Born: New York, 1979
Training: Spanish literature (BA hons), Binghamton University, New York; MA drama directing, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
Landmark productions: 
• Yellowman, Young Vic Theatre, London (2017)
• Strange Fruit, Bush Theatre, London (2019)
• Two Trains Running, Royal and Derngate (2019)
• The Half God of Rainfall, Birmingham Rep; Kiln, London (2019)
• Trouble in Mind, National Theatre, London (2021)
• Moreno, Theatre503, London (2022)
• The Darkest Part of the Night, Kiln (2022)
Awards: 
• Emerging Director’s Prize, Tobacco Factory (2014)
• Genesis Future Directors Award (2017)
• RTST Sir Peter Hall director award (2018)
• Peter Hall Bursary, National Theatre (2020/21)
Agent: Davina Shah, TEAM

Choir Boy is at Bristol Old Vic from October 12 to November 11. Visit: bristololdvic.org.uk