Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/441179
II This Week maltatoday, Sunday, 4 January 2015 Their hopes for as we bid goodbye to 2014 and welcome the new year, we ask a number of local personalities involved in culture and entertainment what they're looking forward to in 2015, and what kind of developments they hope will take place in their given fields Kenneth Zammit Tabona Artistic Director: Manoel Theatre, Valletta International Baroque Festival My personal hopes for the coming year is a wish list that all emanate from the experience of being so heavily involved in the programming and the running of the Manoel Theatre; a theatre that is the oldest working national theatre in Europe; the contemporaries of which are more museums than working theatres. Last May the Manoel was voted one of the most spectacular theatres in the world by CNN. Yes this theatre, an historical and artistic monument, is occasionally treated without the respect and TLC that it deserves. Some of the theatre's programme needs to be of- f loaded to more state of the art locations; a drama theatre and an auditorium are the most urgent additions to our national list of cultural locations. It is only this which will relieve the pressure and enable the Manoel to offer programmes that are more commensurate with its venerability and its style. This of course does not depend on the theatre alone but on cooperation be- tween the Ministry and the major cultural entities and V18, which is duty bound to leave a legacy which goes beyond 2018. On a more realisable level it is expected that the Valletta International Baroque Festival will go from strength to strength and along with it the Valletta International Baroque Festival Ensemble which it is hoped will reach a level of excellence that will enable us to 'export' this ensemble to participate as Malta's cultural representa- tives in renowned festivals like Chaise Dieu and Ambronay where it is already part of its E-emerging Ensembles scheme. The theatre's and the festival's member- ship of The Association of Early Music of Europe and EFFE; Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe Association enhances the possibilities to achieve excellence by gaining and exchanging experiences. Very significantly, 2015 will be a year of important operatic decisions where we will have to determine whether we should establish a Baroque Opera Festival in March on the same lines as the January Festival, to have a home-grown opera as we have now but using more local talent and hence producing opera more com- mensurate with the Manoel's style and size or, simply buy productions from similar theatres overseas. Again we do need a larger staff compli- ment and to recruit handpicked staff of a much higher level of professionalism in our team which is small and miraculously effective but also needs to gain experi- ence in theatres like Versailles or Drot- tningholm which are now connected to us through the theatre's membership of Perspectiv; the European Association of Historic Theatres. Toni Sant Artistic Director, St James Cavalier My personal expectations for 2015 revolve mainly around the historical book I'm writ- ing about Rediffusion in Malta. In some ways this is a history of broadcasting in Malta until the deregulation of the broad- casting sector, but it's also an essential part of Maltese historiography, particu- larly because there is no written account of broadcasting in Malta in the English language. So as far as most people in the world are concerned there isn't a go-to place for even the most basic information about broadcasting history in Malta. This needs to be addressed urgently, and I think I'm doing just that with this book. Incidentally, 11 November 2015 marks 80 years since Rediffusion started broadcast- ing in Malta, so I expect to be involved in some sort of activity to remember this anniversary. There are already some great plans brewing for this... but there's nothing I'm able to confirm as yet. The local culture sector should see a noticeable step change in the preparations for Valletta 2018 in 2015, especially with Arts Council Malta serving as an umbrella organisation for all cultural initiatives funded fully or partially through public money. From the perspective of the Centre for Creativity at St James Cavalier, we're about to launch the first of a number of systematic calls for proposals towards our 2015/16 programme and beyond. This system in itself should give us a sustainable and more equitable way to ensure that the Centre for Creativity serves as a catalyst for the creative sectors of Malta and Gozo, while also reach- ing out to new audiences, especially through relatively new or emerging forms of creative expression. We're also particularly keen to see how the broadcasting and culture can come together in a more systematic way now that the public service obligation has been endowed appropriately not only financially but also in terms of top-level governance.