It is our contention that a consultation process should draw on the experience, aspirations and views of arts practitioners and all those people who have an interest and involvement in drama in Wales. By the end of the consultation process everyone who would wish to participate in the debate on the future of drama in Wales should have had an opportunity to do so.
We believe the current ACW consultation process has demonstrably failed to deliver on the principles (above) and, together with an unrealistic timetable has contributed to the belief that the process has been driven through to meet first year economic targets set out in the ACW Draft Corporate Plan (1999/2000 – 2001/2002). The level, nature and scope of the consultation has been insufficient, resulting in the exclusion of many groups, organisations and individuals from the process and consequently the findings cannot truthfully reflect the range and diversity of voices and creative statements of people in Wales.
Joanna Weston, ACW Chief Executive, made a headline statement in ACW`s (latest published) 1997/98 Annual Report, which read: "ACW looked forward to engaging in debate about cultural policy with clients, media and with the new National Assembly for Wales". Even though Joanna has referred in public statements to the current consultation process leading to "a radical and far reaching strategy…" the new National Assembly has been excluded from the debate.
The failure of ACW to establish a timetable to enable the new National Assembly for Wales to participate in the consultation process is a serious concern.
Having received the ACW Draft Drama Strategy Consultation Paper, Theatr Powys has been involved in a complex task of attempting to extract the necessary detail and information from the Paper to inform our response. Further questions have been raised, letters and faxes sent to ACW Officers….. and we are still left with unanswered questions, inaccurate and misleading information.
The Consultation Paper has lacked the necessary level of detail, quality of information, accuracy and analytical integrity. This has prevented the Company from making the quality of informed and authentic response to the draft proposals that it would have wanted to make.
We seriously question the integrity and competence of the ACW drama consultation process, and believe that it would fail to satisfy public scrutiny if subjected to independent examination and audit.
THEATRE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
ACW intends to offer four time limited franchises to be introduced (by public advertisement) in Autumn 1999 with "all-Wales" coverage but no assumptions are made about precise geographical or physical siting It is difficult for Theatr Powys to respond effectively or in any great detail on such poverty-ridden proposals for the future of Theatre for Young People. The proposals are supported by a lack of reliable evidence, information and analysis. The following Company resolution was endorsed by its Management Committee on 17.2.99: In support and recognition of a 26 year historical development of excellence in Theatre in Education provision,
Theatr Powys has resolved and recommends to its Management Committee:
TO OPPOSE THE PROPOSALS IN THE ACW DRAMA STRATEGY CONSULTATION PAPER TO ESTABLISH FOUR TYP FRANCHISES FOR WALES WHICH WILL EFFECTIVELY ABOLISH THE EXISTING MODEL, COMPRISING A NETWORK OF EIGHT TIE COMPANIES AND THREATENS TO ERADICATE BEST TIE METHODOLOGY AND PRACTICE IN POWYS SCHOOLS.
TO CONDEMN THE REQUIREMENT PLACED UPON THEATR POWYS TO RESPOND TO THE ACW STRATEGY PROPOSALS IN RESPECT OF TYP, WITH NO CLEAR DEFINITION AS TO THE NATURE AND TYPE OF FUTURE FRANCHISES.
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Theatr Powys recognises the need for ACW to respond to changes in the funding of theatre in schools following the introduction of LMS, the National Curriculum, and Local Government reorganisation in Wales; however, we urge ACW to develop proposals which support this change through an adequately resourced, indigenous, revenue-funded professional TIE and community touring network of Companies in Wales.
This network would be able to deliver work of quality, variety and distinctiveness on a sustainable basis, in accordance with ACW Corporate Plan principles, policies and objectives.
The Company is committed to establishing a three or five year Service Agreement with annual review, as a rolling contract with ACW. The strategy proposals are likely to de-stabilise existing Local Authority partnership funding arrangements for TIE provision in Wales and, with its intention to implement policies which threaten the future of Local Authority run direct arts provision, raises serious concerns about the ACW`s public role and accountability.
In the Consultation Paper it is stated that: "ACW intends to negotiate with existing local authority partners immediately". This is an extraordinary and arrogant position for ACW to take. At a time when Companies are being threatened with closure, ACW are negotiating funding partnership agreements behind their backs to support and define franchises in advance of the conclusion of the consultation process.
The closure of four TIE Companies will have a damaging impact on the economy of Welsh communities and employment and training opportunities for professional arts practitioners in Wales. In a typical year, the approximate value of direct economic activity in Wales generated by Theatr Powys exceeds £30,000 – supporting shops, hotels, newsagents, garages etc. The Company has regularly achieved year-round employment opportunities for between 30 and 50 professional arts workers – on permanent, short fixed term and freelance contracts.
Theatr Powys remains committed to providing a free Theatre in Education provision for Powys schools, and a continuation in the development of best methodology and practice, as full day participatory programmes of work in schools in English and Welsh languages.
The Company have serious concerns about the competence of a consultation process in which (only) "over 50" copies of the `Professional Theatre for Young People in Wales` document was circulated nationally, and (only) a total of 37 written and verbal responses were received from the whole of Wales. That cannot be an adequate or reliable level of information exchange and consultation on such "radical and far reaching proposals".
We understand that no groups of young people or Officers from the youth provision sector in South and Mid Wales were involved in the consultation process.
We understand that no meetings of "sample teacher groups" took place in North or South West Wales, and only a total of eight covered the whole of Mid and South Wales. We are still unsure about the definition and nature of these "sample teacher groups".
We understand that only one respondent offered a formula on how to "Rethink TYP in new different ways", but ACW Officers are unable (or unwilling) to say whether this respondent specifically suggested franchising. We suspect that this Respondent did not suggest this option, and that franchising was the brainchild of ACW Officers determined to close 4 TIE Companies as an expedient to save direct costs (unsubstantiated "non-TIE element" = £169,000) and indirect costs (on potential Capital and revenue Lottery bids); that franchising was decided as an intended strategy proposal in advance of the consultation process.
From such a small and unrepresentative sample of responses, we have been subjected to distorted and selective analysis from ACW. For example: 33 out of 37 Respondents (9:1) were in favour of supporting fewer well resourced TYP Companies 31 out of (the same) 37 Respondents (5:1) were against rationalising the present provision This offers a confusing, contradictory and inconclusive picture! Such unreliable data (particularly expressed in the form of proportional ratios in this case) should not have been used to justify the "fund fewer better" option without some explanation of the data and statistical information in the form of a sensitivity analysis.
We have been informed that it is impossible for ACW to reveal even an approximate figure or percentage of Respondents who expressed "concerns about the shortness and timing of the consultation period and the need for future consultation to extend over a longer period". We would still be interested in finding out the level of this concern expressed numerically or as a percentage.
No real attempt has been made by ACW in the Consultation Paper to report on positive statements supporting the existing eight Company TIE model which was variously referred to by Respondents as: "One of ACW`s greatest successes…"; "The present network has developed an important skills base of actors, designer, writers and directors…"; "The TIE sector in Wales is delivering a service and meeting ACW targets every year and has been continuing to do so throughout its history"; "a unique network……greatly admired by colleagues in many countries"; "The status quo should be supported…and new resources must be found….". To quote ACW: "On the basis of current successes, (Respondents) argued that the present network should be strengthened".
Like many other Management Boards in Wales, members of Theatr Powys` Management Committee were not consulted prior to the publication of the draft drama strategy proposals. No consultation documents were sent by ACW to the Chair or other members of the Management Committee.
It is not difficult to find arts practitioners in Wales who are still unaware of the consultation process that has been taking place, or the existence of a Draft Drama Strategy Consultation Paper.
The Welsh TIE Conference, held in March 1998, recommended to Michael Baker (Director of ACW Artform Development Division) that a National TIE Conference be organised to enable people involved in TIE in Wales to have a voice and opportunity to contribute to the debate on the future of TIE/TYP . The response from Michael Baker was disappointingly negative: "I worry that some might fear that this (National TIE Conference) would have no greater effect than re-capitulating the benefits of past arrangements".
Strategy proposals in the Consultation paper reflect ACW`s intention of achieving pre-determined Corporate Plan economic targets as cost-saving expediency without proper consideration of the quality and distinctiveness of Theatre in Education and its artistic and educational value.
The ACW Draft Corporate Plan includes an allocation of £836,000 (including transitional costs) for Theatre for Young People in 1999/2000. This figure determined standstill funding for the first 9 months of the financial year for the 8 Company supported model, based on a total cost of £666,600 plus £180,000 for fourth quarter franchise funding (resulting in probable discrepancy in the ACW Corporate Plan allocation of £10,000!). The £836,000 allocation achieves a saving for ACW of £53,000 on the previous years funding of the 8 Company supported model and illustrates how strategy proposals are being economically driven on first year Corporate Plan funding targets. Why was it necessary to make a saving of £53,000 through the introduction of fourth quarter franchise funding, and where has this money been re-allocated?
Michael Baker has informed us that `transitional costs` refer to the balance of £170,000 as an allocation towards the setting up/planning costs of the 4 new franchises. It is an interesting idea to re-define fourth quarter franchise funding as `transitional costs` in this way.
A powerful contradiction appears to exist in the Consultation Paper in connection with the funding of TIE/TYP:
Para. 5.1 states: "ACW`s financial commitment to the new structure, and taking account of economies of scale will be no less than its support to the young people`s theatre/TIE element in the current eight company supported model".
Para. 5.5 states: "ACW intends to devise and advertise fixed term franchises for Theatre for Young People. Working to current budgets, it is anticipated that four franchises could be achieved at £180,000".
Between the two statements, there appears to be a gap of £169,000. This is the difference between £889,000 (total revenue-funding for the 8 Company supported model) and £720,000 (total funding of 4 franchises).
We are informed by ACW that the "TIE element" referred to in Para. 5.1 above is £720,000. This is a remarkable deduction as, to the best of our knowledge, the TIE funding element was never quantified in ACW revenue-funding agreements. For Theatr Powys, their revenue-funding agreement stated: "(the total grant award) is towards the cost of productions in the financial year ….. This grant includes a contribution towards the cost of touring your productions within Wales".
In a letter to Theatr Powys, Michael Baker has stated that: "the TIE/TYP element is under £720,000". Michael is suggesting that ACW are being generous in proposing a cut of £169,000, as it should be more! Further, Michael has stated that: "….the bulk of ACW spend on Theatr Powys enables projects other than TIE". We contend that it is impossible for ACW to substantiate elemental funding which was never quantified in revenue-funding agreements. It is pure fiction.
Theatr Powys challenge ACW to declare their evidence and analysis to prove the existence of a quantifiable TIE/TYP monetary element within the total revenue-funding of the 8 Company supported model, and individually for Theatr Powys.
Theatr Powys challenge ACW to declare their evidence and analysis in calculating the figure of £180,000 per franchise, and how they have quantified "the addressing of issues of production standards and delivery of work" in monetary terms.
Theatr Powys condemn the decision by ACW to put the eight Company supported model of Welsh TIE Companies on standstill revenue-funding for the first 9 months of the financial year 1999/2000 – a decision which could result in compromising their financial, contractual and constitutional positions and jeopardise their artistic planning and programmes of work.
COMMUNITY TOURING
Intended ACW policy is towards prioritised funding of drama in Wales through the establishment of "flagship enterprises" (WNPACs and experimental theatre) linked to the "status for Wales" and the drive to "increase exports of arts and cultural industries".
We condemn a policy which is being proposed at the same time as it is intended to de-stabilise and de-construct the existing model of community touring provision in Wales. "The strengthening of the economic base of the arts in Wales" should be encouraged through investment of ACW resources in Welsh communities and the indigenous revenue-funded companies, and not towards prioritised investment in prestigious flagship arts enterprises.
Funding would be allocated to allow for a varied range of short time-limited projects.
We condemn the shift of support away from revenue-funded Companies to fixed term project (and Lottery) funding and the creation of an unstable and insecure production base for community touring in Wales. This development contradicts the aims, objectives and principles set out in ACW`s Draft Corporate Plan which stress the need for "a sustainable array of revenue-funded arts organisations which can play a strategic role and deliver a consistent quality of activity". It also does not take into full account the ACW objectives and policies towards ensuring access and opportunity for the people of Wales to experience and enjoy the arts "within a reasonable distance of their home and at reasonable prices".
Project, and new initiatives funding should operate alongside, and not replace, a well-funded array of revenue Companies producing work in English and Welsh languages, which is the model by which we believe ACW goals of "promoting a long term view" through the production of "high quality work on a sustainable basis" can be achieved.
We demand that ACW incorporate and enforce conditions of project funding which require Project Managers to engage workers on Trade Union contracts, and on at least the minimum Trade Union rates of pay.
It is vital that production projects are anchored to an audience development policy.
ACW appear to be abdicating any direct responsibility for audience development. There are no creative ideas, new initiatives or prioritisation of resources in the Consultation Paper for the development of drama audiences – just a philosophy of `leave it to Companies in the market place`.
Increase flexible funding opportunities for a range of time-limited projects through increased funding support to the projects scheme
It is not clear what the actual level of funding for the `projects scheme` will be, or whether there will be a net increase in funding for the `Night Out` scheme in 1999/2000 compared to 1998/99. Is any increased funding for performing arts touring schemes coming from a re-distribution of the unsubstantiated £169,000 being removed from the existing 8 Welsh TIE Company supported model? It appears likely that there will be less overall funding available for community touring in Wales. We condemn the ACW intention to remove the unsubstantiated £169,000 "non TIE (community touring) element" of revenue funding, and the lack of any clear indication of where and how this money will be used.
Current ACW support for Hijinx Theatre will no longer be supported at revenue level.
We condemn this proposal from ACW. In view of the nature of Hijinxs` work in the field of special needs this proposal contradicts stated ACW policy and objectives on access and equal opportunities.
GENERAL RESPONSE & CONCLUSIONS
The new strategy will be funded from within current levels of support to drama
Professional theatre may receive the highest amount of ACW spending, but that is an extraordinary and unsupportable argument for standstill funding of drama in Wales. The ACW Draft Corporate Plan recognises that "the erosion of the funding base ….has caused problems of sustainability, particularly in the performing arts" and goes on to state that "the Plan has to ensure the delivery of high quality work on a sustainable basis".
We contend that the draft strategy intentions will not deliver unless the 2.8% increase in funding to the arts in Wales received by ACW from the Welsh Office is applied equally to drama.
Welsh National Performing Arts Companies (WNPACs)
The location of both English and Welsh language WNPACs in North Wales creates a geographical imbalance in the location of drama production in Wales. We question the considerable disparity in funding between the two WNPACs implying a lower status for Welsh language theatre work.
Building based producing theatre and New Writing
There is a lack of clarity about the future development of the Sherman Theatre and how its proposed strategic role in the development of new writing as a "safe house" will be realised.
With reference to the future role and development of the Sherman Theatre, the statement in para. 6.1.6 that "(the) proposals are deliberately open ended to allow for full consultation" is a damning admission by ACW that it set an unrealistic timetable for the drama consultation process. The consultation timetable should have taken account of arts policy and development plans currently being developed by Local Authorities and specifically, the new arts development plan for Cardiff with the inclusion of the new National Assembly for Wales in the debate.
There are no clear proposals for the development of new writing in Wales, just a re-statement (re-labeling of producing venues) of the current position, and the assertion of a `no assumptions are made` philosophy. Theatr Powys and other small/middle scale touring producing theatre Companies have played a significant role in the development and commissioning of English and Welsh language new writing in Wales. New writing has been central to these Companies` artistic policies. ACW intentions to close these Companies threatens this position, with a potential reduction in opportunities for the commissioning and production of new writing work in Wales.
Training
It is not clear how ACW strategy proposals will address training issues.
Revenue-funded, small/middle scale touring producing theatre companies have been major contributors to the employment and training of new and established arts practitioners in Wales. We condemn ACW intentions towards closure of these Companies which will result in considerable loss of long term employment and training opportunities. Arts practitioners in Wales will be denied access to work in Companies with policies and commitment towards investment in people and training, and inevitably this will lead to an insecure, lower paid and lower skilled workforce.
Intentions in the ACW Draft Drama Strategy fail to recognise and respond to ACW Corporate Plan Principles, Policies and objectives. Clear definitions and funding of strategy proposals are more likely to be found in the ACW Draft Corporate Plan, or in extensive follow-up correspondence with ACW Officers than in the Consultation Paper. In an open consultation process, this situation is unacceptable.
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APPENDIX
1. The importance and value of Theatre in Education
CONTRIBUTION BY THEATR POWYS TO AN ARTICLE ENTITLED "the next generation: theatre for young people and theatre in education" PUBLISHED IN PROMPT (the magazine of the Theatrical Management Association)
Actor: What is nature ?
Jonathon: All living things.
Actor: (picking up stone) Nature is living things only ?
Jonathon: Living things use other things in nature to live.
Actor: With my hands and with my feet I clear stones, little bits that the mountain spat out in her temper and they fall, here and here…..all day every day, me….and my child in the shadow of the mountain.
Jonathon: She is a stone woman! The mountain gave her only stones. There is a stone in her……
The exchange occurred between an actor, Jonathon (age 9 years) and his class in a rural school in mid Wales as part of Theatr Powys` Theatre in Education (TIE) programme `The Picture Writer`, touring Primary schools within Powys in March this year. Jonathon went on to grapple with the living experience of the `stone woman` in the drama; to identify her social being in an extremely sensuous and intuitive way. The class as a whole were achieving a very profound insight into the relationship of human beings with nature. This was Theatre in Education in practice.
In Theatre in Education the real world is fictionalised artistically, for and with the child. In good Theatre in Education the fictionalised world incites interest, provokes evaluation, stimulates concern and responsibility and in the end invites an intervention. Within the safety of the drama the children intervene – they take action, socially to transform the world they are exploring. The children exercise power.
Fictions presented for young people seldom demand this journey from interest through evaluation, concern, responsibility and on to social action. Certainly within a child`s experience of the curriculum, feeling, understanding and action seldom exist in a unity. The essential defining feature of a child`s experience of theatre-in-education is precisely this unifying of feeling; understanding and collective action.
Theatre in Education, as distinct from `Theatre for Young People` or `Childrens Theatre` is a discrete methodology, born in the UK, and now in the period of achieving its maturity, strangled and transformed almost beyond recognition. Whilst much work is done with young people using the theatre form, little theatre-in-education remains.
Wales, within the UK still supports a national network of eight full time TIE Companies, revenue funded by The Arts Council of Wales (ACW). These Companies have regularly been producing over 30 original theatre-in-education productions/programmes to over 60,000 children in Wales every year. The Local Authorities have made a substantial contribution to ensuring a sustained, coherent, and strategic level of Theatre in Education which, until very recently has been a source of considerable pride and strength within the complexity of Welsh drama provision. Eight Companies providing Theatre in Education to the schools in their areas, developing relationships that allow an ongoing provision within the child`s educational experience and not simply an experience or exposure to `theatre` that can be `checked off` against curriculum requirements.
This potential is now seriously threatened. Faced with the continued removal of Local Authority funding and with continued cuts to budgets the `effectiveness` of the current model of TIE provision within Wales is to be `reviewed` alongside existing programmes across art forms, presentations and participation by The Arts Council of Wales.
We will witness a desperate struggle to re-define terms, and restructure the actuality of the work on offer to deliver "best value" in the face of contracting resources.
This is not a unique or new story. The same intensely cynical exercise has been conducted everywhere that re-divisions of the spoils have been enforced. The providing of powerful educational experience, the training of practitioners, the maintenance and development of theory and practice that meets the growing needs of young people; all these things become subject to the `lottery culture`.
In a speech to the Welsh TIE Conference on Friday 3rd April 1998 Bryn Davies, Secretary of the Powys Association of Primary schools in Wales, said:
"…TIE is valuable in that it is a process that happens with children….not for them. The experience often creates a sort of tension which takes the child close enough to the precipice so that it catches a glimpse of the reality of the situation but at a level with which it can cope. A very important part in the process of bringing the inner child out. That is education."
Bryn is talking for Jonathon and his class. He is not talking for the companies, for individual practitioners or their jobs. He is an educator who over a sustained period of years witnessed the contribution that a properly resourced TIE provision can make to the educational and life experience of his students.
It is not inevitable. It is not too late. We as adults need to recognise that the `real world`; the market; the changing situation that we accept as inevitable is only a fiction – that we have accepted without adequate evaluation, concern, responsibility, and social action. For failing to challenge this imposed reality we are sanctioning the destruction of TIE and acknowledging that the children must accept it too. I doubt Jonathon would agree!
TMA, the Funders, the Unions – can act socially, freely in order to confront this destruction of proven TIE provision. To quote Emyr Jenkins, the out-going Chief Executive of the Arts Council of Wales: "Theatre in Education is important and exciting; let`s work together to keep Wales`s unique Theatre in Education service."
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2. PRINCIPLES OF THEATRE IN EDUCATION
The images of theatre endure in the mind when facts are long forgotten.
In the school curriculum feelings, understanding and action are rarely united; in Theatre in Education they are.
Theatre in Education insists on the centrality of imagination and creativity in human development. Play is a serious activity for children;
Theatre in Education knows this. When children participate in Theatre in Education they exercise power.
Theatre in Education treats education as a process and children as active seekers after truth.
Theatre in Education is invisible to those who go to the theatre, visible to those who do not. Minds in action are better than bums on seats.
Children are not undeveloped adults, but people with specific experiences and concerns that go to the heart of being human; Theatre in Education acts on this recognition.
Theatre in Education is the unity of culture and the young`s strivings for a better world.
The general conclusion of Theatr Powys is that the ACW Draft Drama Strategy proposals lack artistic integrity and vision; they are "unworkable and will not deliver".
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