In Battalions Festival

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