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The whole artist team @TRPlymouth - a theatre I’ve had the honour to work with for 3yrs - are about to be made redundant. This won’t be the only theatre forced into this. UK culture is under threat, not for any reason but our politicians’ unwillingness to fund it properly (1/?) https://twitter.com/TRPlymouth/status/1275429331783823365
TRP gave me my 1st commission before I'd even had my first play on, after reading a sample of writing I'd sent. It was a lump of cash & an open brief (2/?)
When I asked ‘But…what do you want me to write?!’ Simon Stokes, the AD at the time, said ‘whatever comes out - the real point of this is to pay you so you can focus on writing what you want & not worry about rent’.
And I did.
(3/?)
And I did.
(3/?)
I stopped doing my ‘side-job’ & got my head down. Since then, due to TRP & various others taking punts on me, my career has begun. I’ve been able to make the arts my life (& live off the arts - touch wood). I’m working on projects & with collaborators I used to dream about (4/?)
The outcome of that open commission - a play called ‘How To Eat An Elephant’ (a story about a mother & daughter protesting fracking on the outskirts of Blackpool, & finding ways of building power in their own lives) - was supposed to go into rehearsals this summer (5/?)
I am obviously sad about the play’s cancellation, but I have faith that it’ll find its way into the world somehow
(Hayley the teen protagonist is f***ing fierce; she won’t something like this stand in the way of having her voice heard) (6/?)
(Hayley the teen protagonist is f***ing fierce; she won’t something like this stand in the way of having her voice heard) (6/?)
…But what I’m really sad about is what TRP’s redundancies mean for the region, & as a foreshadowing of what’s to come for other institutions, & the freelancers they might have supported. And what it shows about the gov's general disregard & lack of understanding for the arts 7/?
TRP is one of the most popular & best attended non-London theatres. They have been supporting early career writers for years. We need buildings like these, who are embedded in the community, with artistic teams focussed on growing talent, rather than making quick ticket money 8/?
The arts & people that create/produce it, make up a complex ecology which needs to be nurtured & grown. It cannot be turned on & off like a tap. It needs care & investment which is long term & far reaching, & gives makers space & resources they need to play/discover/evolve (9/?)
Institutions like TRP are not 'the arts', but they are the hubs, habitats, entry points & safety nets that support it. When buildings like these are forced to go dark, the people connected to them have a thread cut (sometime the only one connecting them to the industry) (10/?)
Our buildings are under threat. And our freelancers are already hungry. Let TRP’s redundancies be a warning sign for what’s to come if the government doesn’t take this seriously (11/?)
Please write to Oliver Dowden & to your local MP. Check out this brilliant thread by @Mich_Barnette about other things you can do to lobby and how https://twitter.com/Mich_Barnette/status/1275415191614820355?s=20
Connect up with #FreelancersMakeTheatreWork @FreelancersMake. And check out @culturaldemo for some ideas about how a radically different funding model for the arts could work, and how different things could be
