feature

An Invitation to D&D 11

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If you are a dreamer, come in
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar,
A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer…
If you’re a pretender, come sit by the fire
For we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come in!
Come in!

Improbable Theatre’s Devoted and Disgruntled (D&D) events bring to mind this poem, Invitation, by American poet Shel Silverstein. They’re open to absolutely anyone with an interest in theatre or the performing arts, whether you are devoted to and/or disgruntled by them or not. Are you a theatre maker? A teacher? An am dram enthusiast? A theatregoer? A student? It doesn’t matter whether you work in the performing arts or not, there is a place for you at D&D and you will be welcomed with open arms.

Though I’d known about D&Ds for a while and they’ve been happening for over a decade, I finally plucked up the courage to attend my first D&D last year. I felt uncertain and vulnerable, like a fraud sneaking in somewhere she’s not supposed to be. I was about to return to theatre after a career break working solely in education, but was worried that because I hadn’t been a practitioner for several years, I wouldn’t have anything to contribute or gain at the event.

I was about as wrong as I could possibly be. I left D&D 10 feeling confident, motivated and welcomed back into the industry. Despite being a person who can feel extremely uncomfortable in new situations and around people I don’t know, the open space format of D&Ds gives participants the freedom to participate as much or as little as they please. D&Ds are warm, inclusive, and empowering to the individual. It’s not a networking event. It’s not a conference. It’s a space to meet other passionate people to discuss issues in theatre and the performing arts. It’s a place to think and reflect. It’s a time to plan. Or, you can just be in the room and listen.

So, come along. D&D 11 is at Birmingham Rep next weekend and there are still tickets available. If you’re not sure about how it works, have a rummage through Improbable’s website dedicated to D&D. Ask questions in advance on twitter or facebook or email, and if you’re still feeling nervous on the day, look for the lovely people with heart badges who can give you the support you need.

You see, there’s a lot to that needs doing in theatre and the performing arts, and the best way to cultivate change is to facilitate a bunch of passionate people coming together. There’s no predetermined agenda, but a question: What are we going to do about theatre & the performing arts?

It’s up to us to find the answers together.

The Play’s the Thing UK is committed to covering fringe and progressive theatre in London and beyond. It is run entirely voluntarily and needs regular support to ensure its survival. For more information and to help The Play’s the Thing UK provide coverage of the theatre that needs reviews the most, visit its patreon.

Feature – Should Bloggers Strive Towards Income?

Money has always been an issue in the arts, and artists have stereotypically always been poor. Post-recession, this issue has worsened to such an extreme that the possibility of earning a living wage from theatre has become nearly impossible. Opinions on the issue vary from Douglas McPherson’s right wing tirade against government arts funding and Jonathan Jones bizarrely comparing crowdfunding to The Crusades, to Lyn Gardner’s examination as to just how badly paid we are in theatre and Equity’s “Professionally Made, Professionally Paid” campaign. Those who work in theatre believe they should be paid fairly, or at least this is how I assumed everyone thought about their time. On Tuesday night, I discovered a sub-group of people in the theatre industry where a number of them don’t believe they deserve to be paid for what they do, or think that pay is ever going to be a possibility – theatre bloggers.

Whilst taking part in a twitter chat for a fellow blogger’s MA dissertation research, my response to the question, “Where do you see the future for blogging in regards to West End theatre? Grow in popularity, decline, more impact, etc.,” agreed with another comment about how blogging is rising in popularity due to the fall in printed media. I then posed a question: if blogging is becoming more popular, what can bloggers do to generate income from their writing, or what changes can be made in the system to open revenue streams?

And, then it all exploded. I discovered my desire to earn a living from my reviewing is not only rare, but incredibly controversial, at least within this particular group of bloggers. It hadn’t even occurred to me that others would have such conflicting thoughts on the issue. Surely everyone wants to be paid for the time they put their skills and knowledge to use? A few agreed that money would be nice, but that it would never happen. Of course the likelihood of becoming a paid critic is incredibly slim, but so is making a living in other areas of theatre. What I found saddening is the certain belief that being a paid critic is utterly impossible. Others believe that complimentary tickets are payment enough.

One point that several people made repeatedly was that they didn’t initially go into reviewing to make money. Honestly? I didn’t either. I wanted to see more theatre, but couldn’t afford to do so. I thought it would be a good way to put my education and years of working as an actor/director/producer to good use during a career break that, at that time, I thought was permanent. Just because that was my original intention about three years ago doesn’t mean that my writing and career goals cannot change. I have always viewed myself as a theatre professional, so why can I not see my writing the same way? The opinion that another couple of bloggers shared was that we shouldn’t expect to be paid because there are so many of us. Does that mean actors should not be paid either?

The most extreme opinion came from one writer who adamantly insisted that any surplus funds in theatre (Ha!) should go to emerging companies and artists because they deserve it more. She finds it heartbreaking that fringe companies often operate at a loss. Even if bloggers are provided with press tickets, the time spent writing our responses operates at a loss. How is this not equally heartbreaking? An actor can no more pay their rent with an unpaid performance than a blogger can pay their rent with a review. If a critic thinks of herself as not deserving of payment, or less worthy than the artists who make the theatre, what can we expect the rest of the industry and its audiences to think we are worth?

The Play’s The Thing UK is an independent theatre criticism website maintained voluntarily. Whilst donations are never expected, they are hugely appreciated and will enable more time to be spent reviewing theatre productions of all sizes. Click here to make a donation with PalPal.

Feature – Redefining “Emerging”

When I think of the word “emerging”, I picture the finite stage between pupae and butterfly: a damp, crumpled creature working it’s way out of a safe, confined shell, in a completely different form to what it was previously. Within that set time frame, the butterfly must climb upwards and into the sunlight so its wings can straighten and dry out. If it fails, it will not be able to fly and fulfill the potential of its adult form. The time in which the emerging must be accomplished is set; at the end it has either succeeded or failed and there is no going back.

“Emerging” is a commonly used theatre term used to categorise those that have finished their training and are in the process of finding their feet within the industry. It implies they haven’t found success yet, but it is a definitely achievable point in the not-so-distant future. “Emerging” indicates transition and must be completed within a determined time frame, after which “success” is reached. Many actors have a concrete idea of “success” at the onset of their careers and say they will give up if they haven’t “made it” within three years/five years/by the time they’re 30, and so forth. Of course, the reality is far different. This definition of “success” is often reconfigured as they navigate working in the arts. The problem with using the words “success” and “emerging” in such a fickle industry is that the elusive “success” “emerging” hinges on is unlikely to be achieved at all, let alone within a predetermined time. Also, an artist’s definition of success is likely to be reconfigured time and time again as they grow and change. They easily could, due to the realities of the business, be in a state of emerging forever.

In theatre, “emerging” also usually applies to those under twenty-six or more rarely, thirty. The general use of the term means an early-to-mid twenty something who completed training within the last few years. Until recently, the now-no-more IdeasTap briefs were almost exclusively available to artists in those age brackets. After enough feedback from members, they began to lift those age ceilings to allow their ageing membership to participate more widely. (Then they closed because the costs of running the organisation were no longer being met.) This is rare, though. I still widely see grants, internships, and participation programmes limiting ages. I even see jobs that are exclusively open to those under 26 and unemployed. What about the unemployed 28-year-olds? Or those even older?

I am most certainly not saying that young artists don’t need and deserve support, but that older artists do too. They may still be in the state of emergence, having never reached that elusive “success” even after many years in the industry working for free or low-paid. Or, they may have entered the profession at an older age. I have met numerous people (usually actors) that changed careers and began working in theatre and film in their 30s, 40s or even older. Last year I met Hugh Hemmings, who became an actor after he retired. There are also people in theatre who start working in one field, then moved to another. A common transition I have seen is from actor to director, or actor to producer. Other people straddle several roles within the industry. They were emerging too (and still may be), and deserve the support of any other emerging artist, even if their emergence does not fall into the general understanding of the word.

What that support looks like may be radically different from people in their early 20s. I recently wrote about the issue of childcare in the arts, which applies to artists at all stages of their careers, but particularly those that are not yet “successful.” Housing, particularly in London, is a primary issue for working artists. Why should any working adult have to live with their parents in a perpetually infantilised state in order to pursue a career? It’s now depressingly commonplace for young people to be living at home into their 30s if they work in low-paying fields. Over all of this is availability of funds, courses and programmes that are designed to support artists’ work, but as previously mentioned, these often come with an age limit.

So, let’s collectively re-examine our mindsets. Arts organisations and funding bodies must learn that “emerging” includes all ages and does not indicate how long someone has worked in the industry. It can include those who have taken career breaks, or changed their career path within the industry. In this precarious time of funding cuts, the last thing we need is to pigeonhole those that need support as “established” or “successful” when that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The Play’s The Thing UK is an independent theatre criticism website maintained voluntarily. Whilst donations are never expected, they are hugely appreciated and will enable more time to be spent reviewing theatre productions of all sizes. Click here to make a donation with PalPal.

Feature – Working Artists Far Away from Family: How Do You Start a Family of Your Own?

Lyn Gardner is calling for childcare reform in the theatre industry. In an article in The Guardian, she points out the need for childcare in the evenings to enable those working in theatre to do their jobs. As a parent herself, she states she, “would probably have dropped out too if I hadn’t been lucky enough to have willing parents nearby who could help out.” Natasha Tripney wrote a response in The Stage, interviewing two women working in theatre. The first quickly gives all the credit to her parents. The second, who co-runs a theatre company with her husband, also has childcare support from her parents. What also helps is that both women are established enough to be able to afford nannies and a couple of days at nursery. Parenting whilst working in the arts is clearly a possibility, particularly if you have family willing to share the responsibility of childcare and you are established in your. But what about those that do not have local familial support and do not have consistent work and income?

I am chatting with David, a box office assistant at a West End theatre, about the challenges of being a parent who works in theatre. Though he does not have the added complication of freelance work, shift work and late nights make childcare a micro-managed challenge. He says that as part of a small team, it can be tough to leave a shift even ten minutes early, but so far, he has not needed to make any major or last-minute demands. When I asked if parenting would be impossible without the routine of his partner’s nine-to-five, he replied, “Yes! Absolutely. Without the stability of one parent’s timetable to work around, it would be impossible for the children to manage all the changes shift work requires.”

David and his partner do not have a network of family to call on for childcare support. They rely on a good income and regular hours from one of them to enable the other to work in the arts. But what about the rest of us? Where are the freelancing couples that don’t earn enough to pay for childcare or have immediate family close by? This is a question I contemplate regularly as a thirty-something half of an arts working couple that would like to start a family, not one day, but soon. Sometimes I wonder if I’m fretting over nothing and if I should take the advice of well-intentioned friends and, “just go for it because it will all work out in the end.” Then I remember that my partner and I can’t even afford to rent a one-bedroom flat, let alone one large enough for raising a child. I cannot imagine my housemates would be pleased to share with a newborn.

Surely there must be others out there in similar situations. After a twitter and facebook callout, several responses reassured me that I wasn’t alone and reiterated a need for a cheap or free, flexible solution that those of us without family nearby can use without having to compromise our careers. I spoke to Laura, an actor in London and Sarah, an actor and artistic director of a company she recently founded in Manchester. Neither of them have children, but are in committed, long term relationships and hope to start families within a few years.

When asked what they would need to enable them to have children, Sarah immediately stated, “Access to free childcare! Regular free, or at least cheap, childcare!” Laura looks at the unreliability of her own income. She requires “a huge boost in notoriety…which would enable me to have a larger and more stable regular income or I’d have to give up my career for a family.” Money is clearly the problem. Cheap isn’t good enough, particularly in London with costs of living rising so steeply in comparison to wages. There isn’t much government support for self-employed people either, so financial support during maternity leave and early years is minimal.

What about taking a child to work with you? After all, the arts have the benefit of flexibility. Laura works a range of jobs to keep money coming in, including being “a massage therapist, science teacher, children’s entertainer, cabaret performer, corporate and events actor” in between acting roles. Looking at the responsibilities of these jobs, it’s clear that the majority of these roles would not suit having an infant or small child present. Of course, actors with financial stability and no need to day-job would be less affected by this. Sarah has her own company, but “I work from home…but I’m working, I can’t look after a child at the same time. I can’t be writing an Arts Council application whilst my 2 year old is downstairs putting their finger in a plug socket.” Something has to give, and it’s either work productivity or a level of attentiveness required from a parent.

Cameron’s government wants to increase the availability of childcare for working parents of three and four-year-olds. Whilst I question the sustainability of this in practice due to an already-stretched child workforce, this still doesn’t help aspiring theatre parents of children younger than three. What if you need someone to look after your infant whilst you pop to an audition for a few hours, but you can’t afford a babysitter, your partner’s working and your parents aren’t local? We may like to think we can rely on friends, but considering my own friends’ lives, they will most likely be working, busy or expect some sort of payment that I wouldn’t be able to afford.

Sarah imagines a formalized, local network of parents who work in the arts. When joining, you commit to exchanging free childcare services on an as-needed basis and sharing your contact details with everyone else. “For example, if you have a job last minute you could contact people on the list and see if they could mind your child for free whilst you took the work, then you would return the favour with their child.” There could be meetups, socials and so forth to add an element beneficial to the members’ creative work rather than just focusing on childcare. This model isn’t flawless in practice, however. Such a network would need to be large enough to make the chance of not finding anyone available incredibly slim. Parents would need to have contact details pre-programmed in their phones so they could send one text out to everyone, otherwise it could take up precious time needed to get ready and get to that crucial audition/interview/meeting. The network would need to cover a fairly small geographic area, otherwise the total travel time would become unworkable.

These issues return us to the root causes of this problem: the gap between the cost of living and childcare, and the generally low income of jobbing artists is widening. Government subsidies for the self-employed are not enough, either in quantity or flexibility. Artists who live near their families or earn enough to pay for childcare may not be in the minority of creative parents, but there is an invisible demographic of the arts world that want to start a family but their current circumstances make it impossible to do so without compromising their career aspirations. None of the artists I spoke to had any concrete solutions that would enable them to become a parent whilst maintaining a career in the arts, and neither do I. Meanwhile, I feel like my time to become a parent is rapidly diminishing in a world of ever-increasing financial instability. I therefore need to open the question outwards: what do we do about low-income artists that want to start a family and don’t have family able to assist with childcare?

The Play’s The Thing UK is an independent theatre criticism website maintained voluntarily. Whilst donations are never expected, they are hugely appreciated and will enable more time to be spent reviewing theatre productions of all sizes. Click here to make a donation with PalPal.