| “You Need Regular Product, You've Got to Have Consistency” |
Arts Policy Report |
| Jon Gower Reporting , English Language Theatre , June 12, 2025 |
A review into English-language theatre was announced 29th September 2023. Jon Gower was selected to be its author. Apart from his many books, across fiction and non-fiction, his experience of theatre has deep roots. He was a director of the Wales Fargo Stage Company and on the inaugural board of the National Theatre of Wales. His reviewing of theatre dates back, on this site, to Brith Gof's “Hafod” in 1997. * * * * The recommendations of the report: 1: Enhance venue marketing capabilities. 2: Improve data collection and sharing. 3: Support opportunities for programmers to see work. 4: Establish specific funding deadlines for theatre production. 5: Create new theatre development fund for larger-scale work. 6: Explore repayable grants model for touring. 7: Support arts organisations to increase success rates with trusts and foundations. 8: Building on the work of Hynt, encourage venues to support performances adjusted for audience members who have access requirements that prevent them from attending ‘usual’ theatre settings. 9: Build on current practice, including Go and See fund, to ensure young people get early experience of theatre. Artists and Theatre Makers 10: Explore possibilities for directing opportunities to complement those currently available at Theatr Clwyd, the Sherman and at individual companies, with a focus on those with barriers to entry. 11: Support producer development with an initial 2-day producers’ event to address immediate training needs and create networking opportunities. 12: Build on good practice, such as Wales Millennium Centre’s creative apprenticeships and Open Book especially, to support a more diverse range of participants to enter and progress in the sector. 13: Ensure tracking of R&D, with increased assessment, possibly through mentors, in order to fully evaluate their value. 14: Establish network of mentors to assist individuals and companies to develop their work, including how they might play a role in R&D. 15: Signal the route for individuals to apply for Create funding more clearly, including for training and development. 16: Encourage development of R&D events that host a number of sharings at a time. 17: Establish a small-scale version of the New Play Commission Scheme, to be administered by the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain in Wales. 18: Establish The Plays of Wales series along the lines of The Library of Wales. Additionally, explore the creation of a digital library of plays, following the model established by Theatr Cymru. International Connections 19: Assess the merits of establishing more opportunities for Welsh theatre practitioners and venue organisers, such as the International Society for the Performing Arts Fellowship. 20: Evaluate Welsh presence and showcase at Edinburgh Fringe ahead of 2026, whilst identifying and evaluating participation opportunities at other festivals. Theatre Criticism 21: Support a development scheme for theatre critics. Youth & Future Development 22: Develop the ACW theatre strategy in collaboration with young people and key partner organisations working with children and young people. 23: ACW to meet WJEC to discuss mechanism for enabling Welsh plays to be considered for the syllabus. 24: Nominate one member of Arts Council of Wales staff to co-ordinate work deriving from this review and subsequently help support the development of an English language theatre strategy for Wales. 25: Establish a theatre panel, with diverse and truly representative membership drawn from both within Wales and outside, to oversee the implementations in this review, develop an English language theatre strategy as well as evaluate and advise on new funding * * * * The review took place between July 2024 and January 2025. Over 120 face-to-face meetings with a range of representatives of the theatre sector were conducted throughout Wales. Thirty responses came via a survey disseminated via the Arts Council of Wales. The review combined the input from direct interviews and the online survey. Topics included the blow to touring. "Given the hikes in fuel costs coupled with the cost-of-living crisis, touring theatre is particularly hard hit by the economic downturn. It’s a dilemma right across the board. Ben Pettitt-Wade, the artistic director of Hijinx Theatre suggests that touring is now almost impossible: “Especially now post-pandemic it's become an absolute nightmare – fuel costs, accommodation costs and the cost of making it.” He notes there is a notable difference in fees in the UK and in continental Europe: “You negotiate a fee with venues here on a tour, and their expectation is it's well below the actual cost of presenting that piece of work at their venue because they expect it to be subsidised. Whereas you take it outside the UK, they expect to not just pay the actual cost, but also pay in some way towards the creation of that piece. Where we might get £3000 from a venue in Europe, you're looking at fighting for £1000 to take it to a theatre in the UK.” Currently there is a lack of mid-scale English language theatre touring product available to venues in Wales. It’s a situation described by one venue as “almost impossible. We’re trying to continue a relationship as a steward of audiences, but in terms of English language work there’s very little on offer. And we can’t have a programme that will entreat an audience to discover works or continue the relationship with the established audience without the work being available.” “One weakness in Wales is not having English language companies such as Pentabus or Farnham Maltings that are geared up to doing studio-scale work. What we haven't got is an English version of Theatr Bara Caws. Which would be ideal.” * * * * The lack of liking for large audiences and box-office receipts was articulated by Gary Owen. “The mindset of our subsidised theatre companies is that putting on a show is only ever a cost, and never an opportunity to make money and grow the sector. No successful theatre culture works this way. If you look – for example – to the National in London, to the RSC in Stratford, it is a routine part of their strategy that some shows will cost money, some shows will break even, and some shows will go on to generate income for the company, often for many years into the future. An unnamed contributor: “Building audiences takes time, and you need regular product, and you've got to have consistency in order for people to get used to coming to drama, you need that consistency, you need enough offer for them, so having one play a season, and they can take or leave it, that's not enough, you need a broad offer.” Author: “Access and affordability remain key challenges for audiences and go some way to explaining their slow return.” This is not evidenced in theatre in England where strong product has created strong audiences. * * * * Direct quotations included: “I don't think it's been clear for years whether (ACW) is a monitor of grants or whether it's what it says it's on the tin, which is an arts development agency… It's kind of being instrumentalised and had its funding cuts at the same time.” “It felt like a few years ago, there was definitely a much more collegiate approach between the Arts Council and the sector. In the last few years it feels like that has been sliced down the middle. The relationship now feels transactional at best. It feels very much like they are only a funder.” “There is absolutely a difficulty internally. We have lots of people in the Arts Council who like theatre and go and see stuff (but) don't have an overall portfolio lead.” Dead sloganising language was admitted in very small doses. “Theatre and the wider arts is [sic] core to well-being and can and does [sic] play a part in our health by bringing connection, community and expression.” “The Welsh Government is investing in a new curriculum which is potentially world leading, where the expressive art is key and links everything together.” “A national company that genuinely embeds in communities or offers support to communities to make work or bring work into Wales.” This kind of language has already uniquely destroyed one national theatre. Against the radical: “For me, it's the humour point. The reason that panto is the most commonly attended form of theatre for families in the UK is not just because it tells fairy tales - it's because it makes us laugh. It's what makes us human. It's the same reason that Gavin and Stacey is by far and away the most successful Welsh TV series. Welsh people are amongst the most naturally funny I've ever known. So where is this on stage? “If there is an answer, ironically it's probably in the Welsh language work being done by Theatr Genedlaethol such as Rhinoseros, Parti Priodas or their "Ha ha" development scheme. So, let's take a leaf out of their book! Commission Welsh comedies. Encourage cross-art form projects with stand-ups, clowning and TV comedy writers. Develop community workshops in slapstick. Allow project funding to include sketch groups performing in pubs and clubs, not just plays on stages. “Humour is escapism. It's silliness. But it also has the ability to soften us, whilst highlighting the injustices and hypocrisies in our society more sharply than any straight play possibly can. If ACW can make it clear to its artists that it champions Welsh humour as highly as any other art form - then I believe we will see a seismic shift in how audiences engage with English theatre in Wales. The theatre symbol has two masks. It would be a tragedy to forget the comedy. FUND THE FUN.” * * * * Appendix four listed the recipients of funding for theatre-making and presentation with funding in 2024-2025. Aberystwyth Arts Centre 531,012 Arad Goch 343,247 Awen Cultural Trust 243,750 Blackwood Miners Institute 128,018 Canolfan Gerdd William Mathias Cyf 79,409 Canolfan Ucheldre Centre 74,446 Chapter Cardiff Ltd. 390,000 Creu Cymru 73,125 Cwmni’r Frân Wen 341,250 Disability Arts Cymru 195,000 FIO 214,500 Galeri Caernarfon Cyf 312,918 Hijinx Theatre 390,000 National Youth Arts Wales 438,750 Pontardawe Arts Centre 62,534 Pontio Arts 277,178 Re-Live 78,000 Sherman Theatre 1,114,180 Small World Theatre Ltd 58,500 Tabernacl (Bethesda) Cyf 121,875 Taking Flight Theatre Company 287,625 The Riverfront Theatre and Arts Centre 73,125 Theatr Bara Caws 302,740 Theatr Brycheiniog 192,565 Theatr Clwyd Trust Limited 1,784,047 Theatr Felinfach 59,557 Theatr Cymru 1,018,761 Theatr Iolo 254,055 Theatr Mwldan 265,068 Theatr na nÓg 312,775 Theatrau Sir Gâr 48,750 Torch Theatre Company Ltd 633,750 Volcano Theatre Company Ltd 207,009 Wales Millennium Centre 3,500,788 Ystradgynlais Miners Welfare 92,625 The report can be read at https://arts.wales/news-jobs-opportunities/arts-council-wales-publishes-report-and-action-plan-boost-theatre-sector A guide to the sequence “Arts Policy Report" can be read in the first link below. |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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