GWENT THEATRE PRESS CONFERENCE 12 NOON, TODAY MONDAY 25TH OCTOBER 1999 TRANSPORT HOUSE, CARDIFF
To be attended by
Don Touhig, MP for Islwyn
Llew Smith, MP for Blaenau
Gwent John Griffiths, AM for Newport East
Chris Ryde, Equity
Mick Morden Chairman of Gwent Theatre,
18 Members of Gwent Young Peoples Theatre
Gary Meredith, Artistic Director of Gwent Theatre
Julia Davies, Administrator
Alan Tudor Jones, Head Teacher, Glyncoed Comprehensive School, Ebbw Vale
The Welsh Assembly and Parliament are being called on to investigate the Art s Council of Wales funding of theatre for young people. The move follows the failure to award the franchise for the Eastern Valleys to Gwent Theatre which has served the Greater Gwent area for more than 23 years.
Gwent Theatre had opposed the Arts Councils new drama strategy whic h has cut the number of theatre companies for young people from eight to five. Gwent Theatre, based in a large drama complex in Abergavenny with the suppor t of five local authorities and many town and community councils, has been excluded from Arts Council funding in favour of the Cardiff-based company Theatr Iolo.
The Chairman of the Board of Gwent Theatre, Mick Morden, describes the decision as perverse. The Board is calling on the Welsh Assembly and Parliament through the Secretary of State for Wales, Paul Murphy, to investigate. Gwent Theatre has served notice on the Arts Council of Wales that it will formally appeal against the funding decision and is also seeking advice on a possible legal challenge.
A scheduled meeting of the Board of Gwent Theatre took place within 24 hours of the Arts Council announcing their decision.We were astonished that, having decided on a policy that could possibly destroy the company, the Arts Council failed to send a representative to the meeting.
Gwent Theatre provides theatre productions and educational support to nearly 19,000 children a year in Blaenau Gwent, Caerphilly, Monmouthshire, Newport and Torfaen and also the borders of Powys and Herefordshire. More than 200 young people are also involved in regular youth theatre activities and the Drama Centre provides an excellent resource to a wide number of organisation s. We will not allow the Arts Council to dictate arts policy that fail s to engage local communities, says Mr Morden.
Gwent Theatre enjoys tremendous support and is recognised nationally as a centre of excellence. Mr Morden said the Arts Councils announcement disguised the fact that funding of theatre for young people will be cut and more young people will b e denied opportunities in the future.
The company believes that the Arts Councils Drama Strategy for Wale s is seriously flawed and had appealed against the decision to cease funding the current eight Theatre in Education companies and to reduce it to five fixed-term agreements. Although the appeal was rejected the Arts Councils own Appeals Committee had warned of the danger of collateral damage caused by implementing the new strategy.
Mr. Morden commented that, unless overturned on appeal, the Arts Council's decision would not only cripple Gwent Theatres ability to provide t heatre in education services to the five local authorities in the Greater Gwent area, but also place at risk all of Gwent Theatres other activities, incl uding its highly acclaimed youth theatre, the Gwent Young Peoples Theatre. The Arts council state in their Corporate Plan a provisional target of reaching 57,000 young people a year in all Wales by 2001/2. This represents half the number of young people who currently benefit from professional theatre companies operating in Wales.
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Note for Editors: The Arts Councils own Appeal Committee stated that: In implementing the Arts Councils strategy of moving from eight young peoples theatre companies to four, it may prove difficult to avoid collateral damage to those additional artistic initiatives, and other funding additional to the present Arts Council grant that have accrued to successful enterprises such as Gwent Theatre by virtue of their location. These give rise to rich local activities, the loss of which may be of concern to other elements of Councils policy than that strictly covered by the theatre for young people strategy. Subsequently the Arts Council increased the number of companies from four to five.
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