Amy Bonsall, Bilimankhwe’s Associate
Artistic Director, attended the In Battalions one-day festival on the 4th July,
which was held as part of a three-day new writing festival at Drama Centre
London. The idea behind the festival, the brainchild of playwright Fin Kennedy,
was to bring together culture professionals (theatre-makers, journalists,
politicians and academics) ‘to share innovative ideas and practical ideas for
maintaining a vital theatre ecology in the UK’.
A tall order, given the current climate of
austerity and cuts in investment in the Arts, I would have thought.
Anyway. Here are Amy’s thoughts:
What an important day it was: emotional,
sometimes vicious, informed and enlightening. Firstly a huge thank you to Fin
Kennedy, co-Artistic Director of Tamasha and the creator of the In Battalions
movement, for his incredible work. What became clear as the day went on was
that cuts were deep and cuts were hurting. The state of new writing seems
perilous; without the nurture and experience of companies to encourage, develop
and produce new work we are risking losing a generation of plays.
The day began with the usual rather awkward
but rewarding ‘intro chats’ with new faces, those who seem familiar and those
better known. Indeed the event was very well attended and I was pleased to see
some Bilimankhwe friends there, including Rebecca Gould from the Soho Theatre
and later Stella Duffy. It was heartening to see theatres such as The Gate,
Slung Low, Eclipse Theatre, Theatre Centre, Northumberland Theatre Company,
Yellow Earth, Theatre 503, London Bubble, Theatre Absolute, Coney, Park
Theatre, Finbrough Theatre and Neil Darlison (ACE Director of Theatre) all
taking part in panel discussions.
What was a total disgrace however
(especially when you consider that In Battalions was born as a result of a
discussion about new writing with Ed Vaisey MP) was the significant lack of a
single solitary representative from ANY political party. Not one, not even
UKIP. (Cancelled the day before apparently). Now that speaks volumes as to
where the Arts are located on the Political Agendas.
The excellent Keynote speech by Taryn
Storey, The Arts Council and The Politics of Risk: Funding for New Writing in a
Neo-Liberal Age, was chilling. The changes in the function and the purpose of the Arts Council and its politicisation paved the way for the current funding
crisis; and as I heard time and time again, for many it is a crisis. This set the tone for the rest of the day.
The format was 3 rooms with 3 different panels in each one; attendees were able
to switch between any of them at any time.
Throughout the course of the day I attended
two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
The morning session, National Portfolio
Organisation Analysis was a fascinating discussion with companies who were new
recipients of NPO funding and companies who had been NPO funded but lost it.
During the morning I found myself pondering
various issues. Specifically: why is there no facility for Whistle Blowing at
the Arts Council, for people involved with projects/companies in receipt of
funding who are concerned at misuse of funds? Surely we must do all we can to
protect the small amount of public money we do have!
Even more importantly, I feel that there is
an argument that there is a creeping censorship by lack of funding to
particular groups. Not all artists from all communities are in a position to
‘make the work anyway’ and so those voices are essentially silenced.
There was still a sense from those in the
audience that the National Portfolio is still a closed ‘Club’ and that there is a significant
issue around Arts Council officers not being able to see artistic work.
During this session there was a comment
that minority issues being discussed did not include ‘women’. I feel it is
essential to include this in any discussion about contemporary Theatre and it
was sadly missed from the otherwise essential and engaging debates. I trust
that this will be rectified at the (fingers crossed) next In Battalions Festival.
Building the Battalion was a more
fragmented, but no less interesting afternoon. We heard from Maddy Costa and
Jake Orr, founders of Dialogue Theatre Club and the unstoppable Stella Duffy,
founder of FunPalaces (which will light up the Theatre landscape of Britain in
October 2014). There was much inspiration to be found; the message was to be
brave and to make work without funding and without mainstream approval. I don’t
disagree with this, but there has to be a balance in state subsidised artistic
risk-taking to promote a healthy and vibrant theatre and new playwriting
landscape. If artists cannot afford to live, then only those with ‘means’ or
those who are willing/able to subsist and make art will be the ones whose
voices have a chance of being heard and that neglects swathes of the general
population.
The day provided a unique opportunity for
individual professionals and companies to come together and discuss common
goals and issues as a collective. This is something rare in what is an
extremely competitive industry. There is a huge pool of business, funding and
management expertise within the industry and it was wonderful to see links
being made for the overall good of the profession.
I sincerely hope that this will become a
regular event, and that in future we will have the policy makers there as well
as the theatre makers. It is quite clear that we are not ‘all in it together’,
but we can all come together to find creative, innovative ways of carrying on
our work in this state-imposed ‘Age of Austerity’.
Notes:
The In Battalions report, published by
playwright Fin Kennedy and researcher Helen Campbell Pickford in 2013, received
widespread coverage and formed a significant part of the recent debate about
arts funding cuts, in particular around theatres' capacity to take risks on
developing new plays and playwrights in an age of austerity.
The 2014 follow-up, the In Battalions
Delphi study, brought together 36 innovative solutions to this problem, sourced
from and voted on by theatre professionals. These proposals suggest new ways
for theatres and theatre-makers to work with the Arts Council to protect
creative risk-taking on new work.
Read Fin Kennedy’s blog here:
http://finkennedy.blogspot.co.uk/
More information on the In Battalions
Delphi Study: http://www.writersguild.org.uk/news-a-features/theatre/492-in-battalions-delphi-study
