March 2009 Archives

Over 700,000 people in the UK are enrolled on a creative or cultural course. But they are competing for a mere handful of new jobs: around 6,500 each year.

Aware that there’s a lot of doom and gloom around in this industry just now, Creative & Cultural Skills - the Sector Skills Council representing UK employers in advertising, craft, cultural heritage, design, music, performing, visual and literary arts - has come up with some high-profile experts to put things into perspective.

What is it really like to work in these industries? Seven experts spill the beans via C&C’s online TV channel. Now, it has to be said that Creative Choices is not the easiest of websites to navigate and I found it sluggish. Someone needs to sort out the jerkiness of the film too. After all if Creative and Cultural Skills can’t summon up a high calibre technician then who can?

Nonetheless there’s a lot of useful information here and the interviews make the seven speakers seem very human and approachable. They are - Sir John Hegarty (Worldwide Creative Director, Bartle Bogel Hegarty), Rob da Bank (Promoter, Bestival & Broadcaster, BBC Radio), Alex Proud (Owner of Proud galleries), Tony Hall (CEO, The Royal Opera House), David Kershaw (Chief Executive, M&C Saatchi), Nicholas Hytner (Artistic Director, National Theatre) and Wayne Hemingway (Designer). Women, I note, are conspicuous by their absence, which is a bit sad.

For four years in the 1970s I taught in a rural residential school for ‘physically handicapped’ (they wouldn’t be called that now) children. Most, in fact, also had severe mental disabilities. Many of our pupils were dying. But perhaps slightly ahead of its time - the school had an enlightened policy of taking the children out as much as possible so that they be exposed to ordinary life and experiences. Equal rights dominated the thinking. So I took my little class - usually with a one-to-one ratio of adult helpers - to all sorts of places ranging from the local town for shopping, the swimming pool, Windsor Castle and, occasionally to see some sort of performed show. And jolly rewarding it was too - for me as much as for the children.

I was reminded of all this the other day when I heard that teachers of a special needs group were roundly criticised by a teacher accompanying a mainstream group at a recent performance of Shakespeare 4 Kidz’s musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. One autistic boy, apparently, got so excited in the second half and was enjoying himself so much that he made a few of his ‘happy noises.’ The child is otherwise ‘non verbal.’ The suggestion was that the autistic child’s loud (?) reaction had spoiled other children’s enjoyment and that he should not have been brought to the theatre.

By golly, what a tricky issue. Everything in me that cares about equality, education and justice wants to shout from the rooftops that it’s a wonderful thing for all children (and adults) — irrespective of ability or disability — to learn and develop from live performance. I regard it as crucial to education. And yet… if one person’s learning and enjoyment really does detract from another’s, how on earth are theatre companies and venue managers to make sure that equality of opportunity works fairly for everyone?

It does in most cases, of course. You rarely, for example, go to a pantomime anywhere in the country without there being a group of mentally disabled adults in the audience having a ball (in their own way). Never in my experience though, does their presence adversely affect anyone else’s pleasure, possibly because panto is such an informal and interactive art form. There is no issue with ‘happy noises.’ What happens, however, it it’s a pin-dropping classical music concert or a straight performance of Othello?

The problem is a matter of perception - not to mention tolerance, decency, caring and commitment to getting it right. Somehow we have to distinguish between, and balance, apparently ‘disruptive’ behaviour and the rights of people to enjoy themselves as best they can. There may be a big training need here for many people working in the industry as well as for theatre and other audiences. But there are no easy answers.

Discussion might help, though. So do let’s hear your thoughts on, and experiences of, this sensitive matter.

Education projects run by venues and theatre companies tend, dare I say it, to be a wee bit samey. Not that there’s anything remotely wrong with bringing in a company of young enthusiasts and getting them to devise a piece of original theatre inspired by the professional in-house show with actor-run workshops and so on. It’s good, worthwhile, valuable stuff. It’s just that there a lot of it about because this is a field in which it’s quite difficult to be original.

So three cheers for York Theatre Royal which has come up with a scheme the like of which I haven’t come across before (although I’d love to hear about it if anyone else is doing something similar). For three weeks in late September/ early October YTR is to be taken over and run by young volunteers all aged under 26. They will assume the roles of Department Heads: producing and directing their own work, making decisions about Front of House management and even determining what food will be served in the cafe bar.

It sounds like the work experience opportunity of a lifetime. If you are under 26 and interested you can get an application from General Manager Vicky Biles: vickyb@yorktheatreroyal.co.uk. But don’t dilly dally. YTR is already open for applications and I bet they’ll be snowed under.

Meanwhile it occurs to me that although there will, of course, be costs, this scheme cannot be particularly expensive to run. So why don’t more performing arts organisations consider doing something along these lines? It ticks all the education and community boxes.

I also wonder how many people out there now working professionally in the performance industries found voluntary work experience a useful stepping stone to becoming established? Your stories, please!

You are reading this blog so you don’t need to be introduced to The Stage - published since 1880 and still owned by the Comerford family whose ancestor founded it.

I am astonished, though, how often I meet people (outside the performing arts industry) who look very blank when I mention thus unique specialist weekly. And I had a distinctly surreal conversation the other day with a primary school head teacher I met at a conference. My name badge said ‘The Stage’ so, looking very puzzled, she asked me which stage I was on and what part I played. We talked at cross purposes for quite a while.

Anyway all this set me thinking about how people find The Stage and what part of their education it forms. I suppose if you come from a theatrical family it is simply part of life like The Guardian and The Sunday Times or any other newspapers your parents buy. And many schools have it in their libraries for performance-inclined pupils to read.

If there is an arts organisation working within the performance industries which does not have some form of education programme or provision I haven’t heard of it.

Theatre companies and other organisations are falling over themselves to get involved in education and there must now be more provision than at any time in history.

As Richard Morrison has commented in the The Times it would now be quite difficult to reach the school leaving age, especially in London, without having been given a free ticket and or opportunity to participate in workshops and the like. Initiatives, projects, programmes and schemes are everywhere.

And Paul Reeve, Director of Education at Royal Opera House (ROH), points out that when, 25 years ago, ACE called a meeting of arts company education staff they all fitted in one room. Today it would need the Royal Albert Hall.

And one newish development is teaching education skills to professional practitioners as part of their continuing professional development (CPD). Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) for example now offers a post-graduate diploma in education skills for its ensemble actors.

So there’s a lot of it out there. Good thing? Well yes, of course, but surely we mustn’t let the tail wag the dog? The ROHs and RSCs of this world are not education services and resources are finite. They exist primarily to produce performances for paying adult customers. Anything else is a bonus. And it would, in my view, be silly to lose sight of that because professional shows are the basis for anything else such a company might do.

I’m at Polka Theatre in Wimbledon enjoying a performance of The Jolly Postman, adapted by Polka’s own Jonathan Lloyd from the book by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. As usual at Polka the show is exquisite and the children - it’s almost a full house - are having a whale of a time.

But there is something odd about this audience and the more I look round the more aware of it I am. Most of the children are aged 4-7 ish because that’s the group the show is billed for and there’s no school today so many are in groups with a couple of mothers. But for every little boy present there are at least ten little girls.

Why? Could it be that there’s something in the water in South West London which means that ten times as many girl are born as boys? Seems unlikely. There are bound to be families where there are only daughters - as in Bob Geldof’s brood - but equally, there are always other families like the Beckhams which produce only boys. Logically you’d expect it to balance out in a theatre audience.

I recently heard Paul Rummer, principal of Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, say publicly at a conference in London that schools need to provide much better advice to their students about careers in the arts - especially, by implication, theatre and performance arts.

A few days earlier I was at a meeting with Robert West, Education and Curriculum manager at National Skills Academy for Creative and Cultural skills (what a mouthful!) and Martin Penny principal of Stratford-upon-Avon College. Both were critical of the quality of information given in schools to youngsters by people who, they said, know little or nothing about the industry.

When, a year or two ago, I interviewed Tony Hall, Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House and Chairman of Creative and Cultural Skills he too told me that young people report all the time that the performing arts are rarely represented at generalist careers fairs.

So the same message seems to be coming from all directions - that careers teachers and advisers are selling performance industry inclined young people short possibly (probably?) because they simply don’t have the information or knowledge.

Seen an opera lately and read those projected surtitles which tell you, in your own language, what’s going on? Many of us have been at, or taken part in, shows which are audio-described, signed and more recently captioned to make them more accessible too. So why isn’t the management and development of these services a routine part of technical training?