Directors Program Online | 4 May 2020

Tuesday 5 May 
10am-12pm 
Zoom 

Stef O’Driscoll and Caitriona Shoobridge will be hosting an informal get together for creatives who identify as working class, benefit class, underclass or criminal class.  They would like to check in and see how you are doing during this time, where you are at and share any concerns or opportunities we all may be facing during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

Over the past several weeks as the Coronavirus Crisis has unfolded it has become clear that those from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds have been hit the hardest. From those working in front line jobs to the inequality of the lockdown experience, people from working class communities are more likely to be affected by the virus.  

The magnitude and weight of this pandemic only magnifies the physical, emotional, social and financial barriers working-class artists will face in theatre moving forwards - although there’s no reason it should be this way. 

Stef and Caitriona hope this collective conversation may inform further conversations with the sector to ensure that support for artists and class diversity is a part of our national narrative post COVID-19. We hope you will be able to join us. 

Please let us know if you would like to attend by signing up here. A Zoom link will be emailed to you a day before the event. If you have any access requirements please let us know. 

Thursday 14 May 
5pm – 7pm 

For both early career as well as mid-career Black* theatre-makers. This is an open forum for those of us who stage work (directors, writers, makers, solo performers, producers). In theatre, it can be hard enough finding the right people to come together and discuss practice with, especially when that practice is linked closely with who you are. That is made even harder when most groups in the industry are dominated by white voices. The nature of our current lockdown has exacerbated this, and we are already seeing theatre as an institution continue problematic practices of exclusion, inequality and lack of representation for artists and audiences at a distance (such as the type of content shown digitally). 

Black Theatremakers Group is a space for Black artists, both early career and established to speak about own artistic practice as well as the audiences we make it for. If the appetite for it is there this can be made into a regular event. 

In this session our focus is: where is Black theatre in the UK currently heading, especially during and after Covid-19 lockdown? What responsibilities do we have as artists, in what we make, how we make it and who for? What tools and advice can we share with each other to navigate and overcome the problematic elements of our industry?  

We will be joined by tiata fahodzi Artistic Director Natalie Ibu to chair the conversation, as well as contribute her own thoughts and responses. 

This will be a safe, informal and honest space where we can discuss all this and more. Whatever your level come with an open mind.  

If you would like to attend this discussion then please sign up here so we can get a sense of numbers.  If you know of other Black theatremakers please feel free to pass on the details and ask them to also sign up if they wish to attend. 

We will send out the Zoom link the day before the meeting. If you have any access needs please let us know. 

This is a peer-led project co-ordinated by Rob Awosusi. 

*for Black people of African and Caribbean descent