January 2011 Archives

When I was a secondary English teacher pupils often asked me for advice about performing arts careers. They knew that I write for The Stage (as I have been doing so for the best part of twenty years now). They came hoping for some sensible, impartial, informed thoughts, since typically careers advisers and teachers know little about it, parents rarely want you do it and school drama departments tend (understandably) to be unreasonably prejudiced in favour.

So what did I tell them? “If this is your dream and it’s what you really want, then I think you should have a go — because otherwise you’re going to regret it for the rest of your life,” I would say. Then came the parent-appeasing ‘but.’ But, I told them as firmly as I could that I thought they should also make sure they were developing another reasonable means of earning a living at the same time. I recall one student mentioning, for example, that she had a lifeguard qualification and did holiday work at the local pool and another who was working for a qualification as a tennis coach. Both useful sources of top-up income.

Another obvious way of making sure you can always pay the bills - without having to resort to bar or call centre work - is to get some sort of teacher training qualification along the way. That way you can always supplement your income by sharing your performing arts skills with children and adults. I frequently pointed this out to potential drama students in my informal careers counselling sessions - and sometimes to their parents.

And now Stagecoach Theatre Arts, which has just launched Stagecoach teacher training, could be a useful way of adding another string to the bow for some of such students or professional performers.

The Associate Diploma in Performance Arts (ADPA) has been developed by teachers working with young people in part-time performing arts schools. It’s an international qualification awarded and conducted by Performance Arts Awards, and taught by Stagecoach Theatre Arts plc.

The intensive course is taught over 10 days and offers a minimum of 60 hours contact time with tutors. Unit One is about lesson planning and delivery and Unit Two focuses on Assessing and Observing Teaching Practice. Anyone without teaching experience must show evidence of 20 hours experience before being allowed to progress to Unit Two. At the end of Unit One candidates are assessed on all the components of the course and interviewed by an examiner. The Unit Two examination lasts about two and a half hours and includes both practical work and discussion with an examiner.

There is a fast-track option for anyone with a strong background in teaching for which the overall fee is £225. The fee for the full course is £1050. The next full course begins on 28 February (with further opportunities in April and November). The next fast-track course also starts on 28 February with another option in December.

The application form is - incidentally - so straightforward that it would be a pleasure to fill it in. The course is open to those aged 18+ and I would certainly be pointing my “thespy” sixth formers in its direction if I were still teaching. It would, for example, be a sensible ‘gap’ year project before drama school because you could then teach part-time during your training. But, of course, it also has plenty to offer performers who are already launched but wanting, or needing, to diversify.

Interesting things are happening at Little Angel Theatre (possibly my favourite London venue) tomorrow, 28 January, where Hands On: Symposium in Applied Puppetry runs from 9.30am to 7.00pm at 14 Dagmar Passage, London N1 2DN. And it promises to be a day laden with learning opportunities.

Little Angel Theatre is in its tenth year of producing participatory puppetry projects in different educational and community settings. The idea of the symposium is for participants explore the use of puppets for a purpose”. It is aimed at people who are curious about the potential of puppetry in community and education settings, including teachers, health service providers, puppetry practitioners and academics interested in applied puppetry.

“The day will begin with a keynote speech by Matt Smith, Senior Lecturer in Applied Theatre (specialising in puppetry) at Portsmouth University,” Anne Mayer, speaking for Little Angel, told me, “and will be followed by a selection of breakout sessions (a combination of roundtable discussions and workshops). The day ends with a performance of Little Angel’s production of Alice in Wonderland, directed and designed by Peter O’Rourke.”

The specialised sessions are:

• An illustrated talk and discussion on using puppets to teach literacy in the primary classroom (presented by Sarah Schofield, Education Officer, and Chloe Purcell, Puppeteer and Workshop Leader, from Little Angel)
• A training session showing how puppets and objects can enable storytelling in early years settings (presented by Rachel Riggs, Director of Imaginary Leaps)
• An illustrated talk and discussion on puppetry and its developing role in psychotherapy (chaired by Integrative Arts Psychotherapist Sian Jones, with guest speaker Felicity Aldridge, Lead Art Psychotherapist with Brighton CAMHS an another guest speaker tbc)
• A round table discussion on the development of applied puppetry in hospitals and healing (chaired by Cariad Astles, Senior Lecturer in Applied Puppetry at Central School of Speech and Drama, with guest speakers to be announced)
• A round table discussion on the dynamic use of puppetry when working with children with Special Education Needs (chaired by Tim Webb, Artistic Director of Oily Cart) So there really is plenty going on. This is the first symposium of this sort which Little Angel’s energetic Education Department has mounted. It is part of the theatre’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

You can find out more (including whether there are any places left) from education@littleangeltheatre.com. Booking is through Little Angel Theatre Box Office on 0207 2261787. The cost is £50 full price or £30 for registered students, OAP’s and those claiming income support. Refreshments and the Alice in Wonderland performance are included in the price.

Nightclubs aren’t usually my scene but here I am in the semi-darkness of Sound in Leicester Square. But I’m not here to dance and drink. It’s Saturday morning and I’m at the Surviving Actors event at the invitation of organiser Felicity Jackson, herself an actor. It’s an opportunity for actors to make contacts and learn more about how to manage their careers. And it’s free.

There are a number of information stands, a very popular seminar programme and pre-bookable independent advice sessions. Across the hall, The Stage has a stand on which it is offering discounted subscriptions, a draw for a free subscription and information about our popular jobs app.

Aimed firmly at professional performers, Surviving Actors is run by actors for actors. The purpose, as Jackson puts it, is “to give you helpful tips on how to sustain all aspects of your career.” And that includes finding a congenial, flexible ‘in-between job’ or meeting a company you can work with.

Wherever I turn at the moment I seem to stumble across fine training and development opportunities for young or inexperienced playwrights. It must be the time of year. Take the Tamasha Theatre Company. In collaboration with Mulberry School for Girls in east London, where Fin Kennedy is playwright-in-residence, it is inviting applications for eight playwrights for a pilot attachment scheme running from February to May 2011.

“This is an opportunity to create a new piece of writing and develop practical workshop skills in a school environment,” says Kennedy, who is also a Tamasha Associate Writer. The involvement of Tamasha Associate Film-maker Tanya Singh will mean that multimedia performance ideas can be developed too.

Participants will be well placed to develop a relationship with both companies, learn some practical workshop skills from experienced practitioners, and develop a new piece of writing (10-15 mins long) for and about a specific inner London community. A small bursary and some training will be provided.

For the full brief and application forms please email admin@tamasha.org.uk or contact Felicity at the office on 020 7633 2270. This is open to artists from all cultural backgrounds and the deadline for applications is Monday, January 31 at 5pm.

Then there’s the Emerge season at Unicorn Theatre, a new writing programme run in partnership with Birmingham Rep. It aims to identify playwrights who can write new plays with a child’s or young person’s perspective suitable for Unicorn’s Weston Theatre and Birmingham Rep’s new auditorium.

Selected participants get the opportunity to develop their work at Unicorn for up to two weeks. You can get all the details from the Unicorn theatre website or email emergeproject@unicorntheatre.com. Applications deadline is 5pm on January 28.

Or just imagine how it would feel to be still at primary school but to see the play you’ve written performed by professional actors. Quicksilver Theatre has been making this happen regularly for some time.

This time, ten plays written by Camden children are to be performed by Quicksilver in its Primary Voices Showcase at the New Diorama Theatre. Performances run from Thursday, January 27 to Wednesday, February 2. Weekday shows are at 10.30am and 1.30pm and on Saturday at 2pm and 5pm.

“Whether they are fantastical plays about ghost, goblins and talking fish, street-cred gangsters or real life dramas, the integrity and imagination of the child writers shines through,” Katie Boon of Quicksilver told me.

She continues: “Children are just as concerned as adults with the epic matters of life - friendship, family, power and betrayal - and in this showcase they are all on show. The plays are the culmination of our playwriting workshops with actors, a director and a writer in local primary schools.”

More details from Katie Boon on 020 7380 6445 or katieboon@quicksilvertheatre.org.

As I say, there’s a lot of it about. And if it helps to ensure the emergence of the next Harold Pinter, Philip Ridley or Fin Kennedy that can only be a very good thing.

Are you an amateur singer or a professional or semi-professional in need of some top-up training? If so, as long as you can get to Greenwich and Chalk Farm, I may have found just the thing for you.

Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is inviting adults of all musical abilities to take part in a choral singing project starting in February. Over six weeks, participants will work with vocalist Kerry Andrew to form a new World Choir. Then you get to show what you can do at a concert at the Roundhouse at Chalk Farm in north London, on 27 March.

Throughout the six weeks Andrew, a vocalist and composer, will teach the newly formed World Choir to sing English, Scottish and American folk songs by ear. Singers will learn to use layers, looped vocal riffs and experiment with unusual vocal techniques. Drawing on her expertise in contemporary vocal music and musical theatre, as well as pop, jazz and folk, she plans to lead the singers in performing innovative vocal pieces.

The project, Trinity Laban assures me, is open to anyone with a passion for singing - regardless of previous experience - so it could be a good opportunity to dip a toe in the water and/or to try something different.

Rehearsals begin on Wednesday 09 February and run from 7.30pm - 9.30pm at Trinity Laban’s Theatre Studio in the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London. The other five rehearsals take place on Wednesdays 16 February and 2, 9, 16 and 23 March.

The full course fee is £50. That includes six rehearsals, the Roundhouse performance and a ticket to see BBC Radio 3’s The Choir to be broadcast on 27 March at 18.30 from The Roundhouse before the World Choir Concert. Optionally, the course costs £45 excluding The Choir ticket. It sounds unusually good value to me.

You can book your place or find out more by contacting Katie Winsor on 020 8305 4378. Or email ed.comm@trinitylaban.ac.uk.

It’s not so long ago that degrees were rare among performing arts practitioners. Now — partly because of the cock-eyed way the training is funded — first degrees are commonplace and large numbers of participants also have post-graduate qualifications such as masters’ degrees.

But a doctorate in performing arts? Well yes, that does seem rather novel.

Four years after the creation of its research department, Central School of Speech & Drama (CSSD) has awarded its first doctoral degree. The graduate, Dr Broderick Chow (pictured), presented his research in performance comedy. His thesis is entitled How to Do Things with Jokes: relocating the political dimension of performance comedy.

“This marks Central’s maturity as a fully-rounded higher education institution and a centre of expertise in research into contemporary performance,” says Professor Andrew Lavender, Dean of Research at Central.

A PhD is, of course, the highest level examination in the university system, and this announcement means — as CSSD is quick to point out — that it now has students graduating across all levels of higher education: undergraduate, postgraduate and research. In Central’s field, I’m told, practice-based research has become an important means of developing knowledge and understanding in the performing arts.

Chow, also an alumnus of Central’s MA Advanced Theatre Practice, works as a stand-up comedian, writer, visual artist and lecturer. His practice-as-research project examined the potential of performance comedy - that is, stand-up, sketch and improvised comedy, as opposed to what you get in narrative plays.

He says: “I am honoured to be Central’s first PhD graduate. Doing a PhD is an incredible, but often frustrating and lonely, experience. It can be very isolating, focusing on your chosen topic for three (or more) years.”

There are other PhD students in the pipeline and CSSD is expecting to award more doctorates in the future.

Let’s hope so - but not too many, please. Research and knowledge is, obviously, vital but as soon as you award a qualification to large numbers it becomes debased. “When everyone is somebody, then no one’s anybody,” as WS Gilbert put it with his usual perceptive flair. We must not let the doctorate become the new masters’ degree — in performing arts or any other subject.

I’m sitting in an office in a vast former Edwardian bakery, south of Albert Bridge, drying out after a (very) wet walk from Sloane Square. The indefatigable Jon Bromwich, executive producer of Youth Music Theatre UK, is my host. He has just shown me round YMT’s part of the building which includes a useful 40-metre long rehearsal space - where the baker’s ovens once were - and introduced me to most of his nine staff.

YMT UK reaches over 1000 young people a year with projects at various levels. Its inclusive Music Theatre Summer Skills, for instance, are action-packed musical theatre summer camps for 11-21 year olds. Many of the participants are referred by agencies such as Barnado’s, Young Carers and refugee charities. Others come through schools or they simply sign up.

Last year Summer Skills ran in seven venues from Edinburgh to Salisbury and this year Bromwich and his colleagues are planning ten or eleven. At least two or three places at each Summer Skills course are delivered free to those in need. For three years the former Department for Children, Schools and Families funded these places. Now there is a private sponsor.

I often write about, and visit, full-time stage schools - establishments in which under-16s are educated in mainstream National Curriculum subjects as well as receiving intensive pre-vocational performing arts training.

Many such schools do an excellent job and large numbers of their former students go on to vocational training and careers in the industry. The problem is that they are few in number and most are in the south east.

That means families from wider Britain having to board quite young children, which may be pastorally unacceptable and prohibitively expensive.

Good news then that plans are afoot to open one in Manchester although as yet it’s all at the planning stage. There are, as yet, no definite premises and no agreed start date. The driving force is Tracey Bell. Will she become the Sylvia Young of the north?

Well we’ve arrived in this brave new world of a bleak new year. Cuts, closures and changes look certain to be the flavour of the months to come as far as education in the performing arts industries are concerned because, apart from anything else, it’s such an easy target.

Sometimes, though, lack of money and resources can have a silver (ish) lining because it forces organisations to be rational, to cut waste and to ask themselves if there might, just might, be a better way of working — even if it calls for some radical thinking.

I hope, for example, that everyone involved with National Council of Drama Training, Conference of Drama Schools and Council for Drama Education and Training is asking him or herself that question right now.

Before the brickbats start arriving, yes, I know as well as anyone that these three organisations were set up for different reasons and that they all fulfil different functions. It is quite wrong of me to lump them together, I shall be told. Well, actually, I think the best thing to do would be just that. It is time for NCDT, CDS and CDET to merge.