Impro without cock jokes

Convener(s): Roses Urquhart www.rosesurquhart.net

Participants: Kika, Clare Barrett, Jules, Alan, Guleraana, ‘Skylark’, two other women-sorry, I didn’t get your names before you left.

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

I love the practice and principles of impro but have been disappointed when I’ve seen it performed live; lots of machismo and going for gags.  I was interested in meeting people who related to this and perhaps finding a new community.

Discussion centred firstly on where good impro was happening. The group agreed on certain groups having a deeply entrenched culture of machismo, although others were now on an equal male/female ratio. It seemed like the group shared a sense of what ‘good’ impro was ie openness, honesty and a willingness to ‘fall in love, get into trouble, have adventures’.

The gender split in terms of impro practice was interesting.

The female members of the group either used impro exclusively as a devising tool, or no longer improvised because of an unwillingness to engage with the perceived ‘macho’ culture of performance impro.

All three of the men present were experienced performance improvisers- two in the trad performance impro troupe sense, one in a performance art sense.

In so much as the group drawn from D & D can be representative of theatre at large, it seems like performance impro could do with some more women.

Small, Brown and Stuck in Essex…Everyone’s Marginalised Somehow…

Convener: Guleraana Mir @g_ting

Participants: Zooby, Steve M, Chris, Imogen (briefly) and another lady whose name I did not catch- sorry.

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

Convener’s note- I chose Narnia as the place for the session as I thought it would be a quirky play on the idea that Essex is a little like Narnia. It proved to be a bit of a bad move as the area is secluded and I was worried no one would show up. However, the destination attracted attendees who were finding it difficult to hear and be heard in the main space and a fruitful discussion arose from the circumstances.

We began by speaking about internal marginalizations and how the labels/issues we give ourselves may differ from those that society imposes upon us. I mentioned that I was interested in creating a piece of work that dissected our perceptions of marginalization and allowed people to express the way that our own ideals and desire oppress us.

Chris talked about an LGBT film he had worked on in Suffolk, where the youth involved had chosen to turn stereotypes on their head. We agreed that this was the kind of thing that works well in breaking down barriers.

Steve offered a few examples of projects he had participated in, including AIDS education in schools (which was inept) as well as some of the prejudice he has encountered (even today) regarding his sexuality.

The rise of prejudice in 2012 (after a seeming lull) was discussed and I mentioned the EDL and how much hate from Brits I had witnessed on twitter just a few days ago. We agreed that the system is once again rife with hate and a question was posed-

How do we tackle it? THROUGH OUR WORK.

Why is hate rising again? Possibly fuelled by politicians talking about immigration, unemployment etc. Group mentality is overwhelming and we all believe that bad behaviours are learned behaviours. Therefore, youth who hear racism at home or in school adopt those vicious sentiments and continue to spread them…

It was offered that TIE is a useful way to tackle difficult subjects as teachers are under pressure to reach targets/top league tables and have no time to address humanitarian topics. Therefore dedicated artists should take on the role of educating the youth about certain issues….

Vulnerability was a big word and the importance of creating a space where it is ok to say, ‘that is really hurtful’. One has to be vulnerable and flag inappropriate behaviour and language in order to change things.

Dialogue was another big word.  We have to allow the people who are angry about immigration (and other things) the opportunity to ask questions and to learn about why things are the way they are. If someone is uninformed you cannot expect them to understand that their views are hurtful/wrong/outrageous. An idea that I simply adored was to allow neighbours to converse and to understand why they don’t speak the same language, how they ended up in this country and what they want out of their life here. One shouldn’t have to justify themselves, but often, for the greater good, it could be a good tool to strive for harmony.

In my head I saw a play entitled “Mummy, why do our neighbours speak funny?” It may have already been done (I’m sure I have heard that title before, but if anyone is interested on embarking on a project like this with me, please do get in touch- @g_ting).

Jeremy Deller was mentioned and we spoke a lot about his body of work and how he started out as an artist. The concept of re-staging and re-enacting significant events seemed to be a fruitful way of re-writing common knowledge from the perspective of the other and could be used break down barriers.

I was reminded of Pip- A Romany teenager who went viral this week by writing an open letter to Channel 4 regarding their ‘documentary’ My Big Fat Gipsy Wedding. He disagreed with the way his community was being represented and in fact said that it was being wholly unrepresented in comparison to the Irish Traveller community. He wrote how he has been bullied and attacked due to the negative connotations portrayed by the program. If we encouraged people like Pip to create theatre/film/art in response to mainstream programming then would we succeed in overturning stereotypes. Should communities portrayed by every mainstream national mockumenary be given the opportunity to produce a contrasting piece of art to allow the ‘real thruth’ to shine through.

(I would happily watch that. And I can assure you that not everyone in Essex lives for fake tans and vajazzles. There are parts which live below the breadline.)

Community TV (an initiative started by Channel 4) was mentioned as a example of this and someone else likened that process to youtube. We can make programs, films, theatre and broadcast it ourselves, setting in motion the change that we would like to see.

Other People’s Shoes was mentioned by Zooby- a play for young people about questioning your own ethnicity. The young people were asked afterwards- Where do you get your information from (parents/TV)? And how do you question it?

Y Touring put on a play about bullying which allowed students to text their thoughts to a character and the actor would incorporate what he received into the action through improvisation. Private thoughts being made public in a safe way. Isn’t this what we need?

A TV Channel in Romania allowed any and everyone to enter the studio and broadcast. It made for supremely boring television. Thus the realization emerged-

We have all the technology to say things, but need someone to say them in a captivating and appealing way-

THE ARTISTS. Yes, it’s all down to us folks.

Sir Ken Robinson was briefly mentioned. I urge everyone who has not seen his TED talk (Schools Kill Creativity) to do so. Watch it once and then watch it again with the RSA illustrations. It changed my life.

Imogen joined the conversation and stated, “This country needs to be educated about its history” meaning colonization. It was discussed how many citizens of the UK do not know about England colonizing the Indian Subcontinent or even Ireland, which is so much closer to home. How much does this lack of education contribute to the racist/extreme nationalist sentiments floating around today? Could we alleviate some of the issues if we only took the time to explain to our youth our history with other nations?

What would be helpful to organize all these ideas?

A list of good projects that have been implemented throughout the UK so that other practitioners can emulate them.

As we had spoken a lot about working with school groups in order to change views before it’s too late. It was stated that taking youth out of the school environment is more transformative as it strips away the ‘group mentality’ and cleanses all the tediousness associated with the classroom.

Rod Dickinson was bigged up and I just thought I should mention that as it may help alleviate his grumpiness.

Thank you to all who participated in this session.

If you have ideas about devising colonial history workshops to work towards understanding and educating people (youth) about the state of the UK (and immigration today), I would love to hear from you.

Guleraana :)

Do we need a more diverse pool of critics?

Convener: Amardeep Sohi  @AmardeepSohi1

Participants: George Mann

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

We need to see a diversity of opinion and criticism if we are to reach the widest audience possible.

Discussion threw up some interesting points about:

The current pool is made up of white middle class critics.

Do we receive criticism from an ethnic perspective?

Why are there are no Black or Asian theatre critics?

Shouldn’t we be making the most of our cultural diversity?

Is there anyone to blame?

Are we making theatre less accessible if the same people are writing about it?

What role do national newspapers play in giving a platform to new voices?

The inclusivity/diversity thing – why are women so often excluded when we’re trying to be inclusive/diversive?

Convener: Stella Duffy

Participants: Sarah Dickenson, Sarah Sansom, Laura MacDougall, Rajni Shah, Amy Ip, Leyla Asadi, Emily Hodgson, Mandy F, Kate Maravan, Angela Clerkin

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

-       how/why has female/women become a box-tick in the list of diversity? Women are 52% of the population, not a minority and part of every minority that exists!

-       funding cuts affect women more, stats showing 72% of current cuts directly affect women

-       nobody checks which box you’ve ticked, it’s enough to be ‘diverse’

-       we live in a box-ticking culture

-       it’s not enough to put on seasons of plays where there are loads of writers of colour, if none or very few of those writers are women – if it’s about diversity, that diversity needs to include women writers

-       many lit depts. now needing/wanting companies to come to them with packaged shows, ie, other money, producing in place, this can favour men makers/writers if they have their own companies more than women – also means is harder for theatres to commission lone writers/makers, if the theatre is needing them to come with support

-       women need/can/should/will (?) support other women more

-       there has been a time of developing young women writers, many of them out there now, but no continuity to support them, and harder in a time of recession

-       men more likely to send in a first draft, to put up with rejections, to come back for more – women, conversely, more likely to send in a finished/nearly-finished article – while this has benefits, it can mean that a theatre that likes to be involved in development doesn’t feel there’s anything for them to do.

-       we’re so grateful about getting anything (esp as gay/queer/people of colour/disabled etc) that we don’t want to be seen to rock the boat by demanding even more

-       more honesty would help, so many of us are terrified of losing funding, losing support, that we take – gratefully – what we’re given and fail to fully question things we find upsetting/inappropriate. Honesty is a catalyst for change

and so what can we do?

-       as with the Women on Top discussion, we need to be thinking more consciously, in all decision-making. (eg, if we’re programming a race/ethnicity-identified season – or merely trying to be more inclusive - to be sure we have women writers and makers in that season too)

-       it might need us speaking up, not being afraid or ashamed to call ourselves/our work feminist (as women AND as men)

-       stop apologizing

-       be upfront (on race/ethnicity/ablism concerns as well as sexism)

Being a Minority in Theatre

Participants: Leviathen, Amardeep, Guleraana, Angie, Eduardo

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:

`Overall, the discussion managed to attract a rather wide array of participants from various cultural/artistic/theatrical backgrounds. The first issue to really be broached was the word ‘minority’ and its use as a term of identification, and ultimately, what came about was the question, “Is using this term as a means to identification hurtful`?

Acknowledging the hard facts about the commercial theatre industry as a whole within the western world, it is traditionally-speaking male-dominated, and shown through history, has an under-representation of non-white performers, writers, directors, designers, and producers. In regards to solutions, people expressed a great need for the emergence of/nurturing of work created by artists of various cultural/artistic expression and background.

This led to the issue of theatres which structure themselves around a specific community and how sometimes, they face the issue of only ever really exposing their work to people within that given community. That is a sense of exclusivity comes about, not necessarily intentional, of course. This gave way to question of how do we learn to cross cultures and share with other members outside of our given community.

Additionally, it led to the question of how an audience sees things, and if theatre is supposed to be a projection of that which is relevant, then why are certain provincial frames of mind still in place`?

Additional Questions:

What would help to improve the situation within the next five years?

For theatres, which create work geared towards a particular community, how do you bring in people from outside of that given community to learn/share?

`Is it really ever possible to represent all members within a given community`?