“This should give me a lot of confidence for the rest of the season.”Results from the $1.3 million Family Circle Cup (seedings in brackets):Women, Singles, Championship(2) Justine Henin–Hardenne (Bel) def. (1) Serena Williams (US) 6–3, 6–4Doubles, Championship(1) Virginia Ruano Pascual (Spa) and Paola Suarez (Arg) def. (3) Janette Husarova (Slovak), and Conchita Martinez (Spa) 6–0, 6–3. In the Royal Shakespeare Company governors’ report for 1962, Peter Hall and co-directors Peter Brook and Michael St Denis set out their vision for a new, cutting-edge theatre company It was based around three simple ideas.

First, the development of a place where artists could learn and make theatre at the same time, developing professionally as well as making better theatre. Second, the creation of a socially engaged and outward-looking artistic community, working together in a spirit of open enquiry, bringing a deeper understanding of Shakespeare’s achievement to bear on our lives. And, finally, a pledge to investigate new dramaturgy – new plays and new ideas – via the most successful dramatist in theatrical history. British theatre has fallen behind the novel, the visual arts, film, and contemporary popular music as an art form that can confidently capture what it’s like to be alive. What it needs at its heart now is evidence of a sustained developmental approach that aspires to a transforming experience for both audiences and artists. Since 1962, mainstream theatre has allowed the fringe to take over our duty to research, experiment and train.

Formal, physical, and intellectual rigour have increasingly become the province of alternative theatre under the patronage of an enlightened international touring circuit. Mainstream theatre, and the RSC with it, will become an unacceptably expensive periphery unless it reinvents itself to challenge the vivacity and depth of the other arts. The 1962 manifesto is a touchstone for me as I ask the simple question: “What is the RSC for? What is it that we could do that no one else could do, or do so well?”Some of our best and most recent achievements, despite the tumult of the last two years, contain two simple answers for the future that chime with the past. First, that we have more potential as a theatre collective, as an ensemble company, than anyone else.