When Words Win: Notes from Rehearsal

Lucy: You're saying the line wrong. That's not how it's written. 
Graham: That's 'cos you've written it wrong. I'm saying it right.
Lucy: No I haven't! I can assure you it's right. 
Graham: It's wrong! People don't speak like that. 
Lucy: Graham. It's a transcript. 

...and that's why I love verbatim theatre. Quash the actor!

Getting Your Show Put On Ain't Always Easy - So This Is Nice!

As anyone who has met me, seen my facebook wall or follows me on twitter will know, I have written a play. A while ago now actually, a year ago, but I'm still going on about it. Sorry about that. It's a hazard of knowing someone trying to make their way in a profession like the theatre I'm afraid, we never really switch off, we yak on and on about what we're up to all the time in the hopes that we might wear you down to the point that you agree to actually come and see our shows. And from there we hope that you might actually like watching our shows and will, in turn, begin the yakety yakking to your friends. That, I think, is the basis of creating an audience for your work. Or it's something like that. 

Anyway, the play started as a bunch of interviews and slowly -very slowly, about two years slowly- became a 50 minute one-man play with no clear plan regarding what to do with it once I'd written it. Then an opening came up at the Edinburgh Fringe last year and, after a seven week whirlwind of rewriting, casting, rehearsals, set building etc., it debuted at the Fringe for a month. And it did pretty well. Obviously not everyone saw it, and not everyone who saw it liked it but it did well enough for us to have the newspapers say it, I and the actor all had promise and to build up a little gang of people interested to see us develop it and who sent us emails, tweets and facebook messages to prove it. We got invited to do the show in Dublin this year, so we did that. Then we popped on over to the Brighton Fringe which was a tremendous highlight of the adventure so far. 

But then I sort of stopped. I wasn't really sure what to do next. That's pretty unimpressive seeing as how I have an MA in Creative Producing for Theatre, but maybe that sort of mindset doesn't fly when you're looking at your own work. When you've done a show for a year and it hasn't made proper money or been offered a run at a real life theatre is it time to put it to sleep and pick up a new show? Or is that quitters' talk? Have I just completed all the preparation and workshopping of a play and am now at the appropriate point to give it a leg up to something bigger? How do you know if something's good enough? 

While I was mulling over these sort of chipper thoughts I got a reply to an email I sent a while ago, when I was mailing organisations that I thought might fancy seeing the show or publicising it to their followers, and the email invited us to put on a one-off performance of the play in London as a fundraiser for their organisation. Excitingly, the show would be at London's Central School of Speech & Drama and they would take care of all the theatre hire, tech costs and FOH shennanigans in return for the play and a brief Q&A afterwards. 

If you haven't tried to tout a play around theatres and to attract audiences, fighting the likely rejections, whilst maintaining your belief that it's a good piece of entertainment that is worthy of your potential audiences' time and money then you won't perhaps understand the little thrill you get when someone approaches you and says, "Hey, that sounds great. Do you want to come and do a show for us?" But for someone not quite sure where to go next it was a beautifully timed opportunity and a sign that the show quite possibly has quite a bit of life in it. 

So, as I climb back into my producery promotery shoes I'd like to invite you to come and see Rachael's Cafe at Central School of Speech and Drama Embassy Theatre at 7pm (Bar open from 6pm) on Wednesday 26th September 2012 as a fundraiser for arts based charity Gendered Intelligence. Another happy turn-up for the books is that tickets are selling well so please do snap yours up now: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/184947

Unpaid Work: How did such an oxymoron become the norm?

The topic of unpaid and profit share work in the theatre is a widely discussed issue and a contentious one at that. We might all go into this profession starry eyed and willing to live on beans on toast for the next ten years, but realistically most people cannot afford to work for free long term. Those who can? I suppose if you have a substantial nest egg, generous parents and/or an incredibly flexible job then you may well be prepared to work for nix. However, as Rupert Goold pointed out recently in a talk for Sky Arts, unpaid internships and work tend to attract a long line of privileged individuals which in no way offers a variety of experiences and approaches to our Arts scene. Now as companies such as Cheek by Jowl and the Old Vic are forced to suspend their unpaid internship positions are we any closer to achieving some potential of financial stability in this profession?

Recently I was asked if I'd like to co-produce an Edinburgh 2012 show. I was told the existing company would need no financial input from me, just lots of hard work both during the festival and for the two weeks rehearsal process. I liked the play and was impressed by the company's good reviews for some exciting sounding past shows.

Enquiring a little further into what my actual duties would be it occurred to me that they were looking for not only a co-producer but also a PR and marketing assistant. But this is Fringe theatre and I'm used to the need for people to fill multiple roles within a theatre company. Discussing payment naturally led to the Profit Share scenario. Whilst this offers money on the basis that the company make any, generally an Edinburgh show rarely ends up in profit. Although not ideal it's a situation we're all familiar with and, for the most part, understand the need to accept while we're making our way in the profession. However, to be part of the profit share payment list, I would have to also stage manage the show for two shows a day for the entire month. Sigh. Ok. It was still ultimately a cheaper and more involved way to experience the Edinburgh Fringe. 

Finally, just as I was ready to sign my summer away I was asked to prepay the cost of accommodation and travel on the understanding it would be paid back if they made their money back which was apparently very likely. I replied and said that I would fulfil all the above criteria but, keeping in mind I had been told that no financial input was needed from me, I wanted confirmation that I would definitely receive my full accommodation and travel payment back. This couldn't be done, my belief in their confidence wavered and so I politely declined to get involved.

This interaction really worried me. Once upon a time people developed skills that they could be paid for. Nowadays we seem to be paying for the opportunity to work. As a producer one could argue that if I did my job and secured a transfer for the show I could potentially eventually make my money back. But what about the actors? It turns out they are all working on exactly the same deal. What if the show transfers and they're replaced? Their financial input and unpaid performance in the show will have facilitated this company's success rather than their own. I know for a fact that one actor cast in the show had to turn it down as they couldn't afford to front the cash needed. The role was recast. So it's not the best actor playing the role now, it's the richest one. Is this the way we want to see theatre going?  Or is this nothing more than a glorified amateur dramatics outing? I might work on a profit share basis when I produce my own work but I can assure you that I would never expect my actors to pay for their own accommodation or transport costs. If I can't raise that cash, then the show doesn't go ahead. That's a producer's job. Isn't it?