Arts Council England's Theatre Assessment 2009
Last year Arts Council England (ACE) embarked on a Theatre Assessment to gather an up-to-date picture of theatre in England. In particular, they looked to identify changes that had occurred in the theatre sector and its environment since the Theatre Review of 2001 and the additional £25 million that ACE invested in theatre organisations from 2003 onwards.
The findings, based on a consultation led by Anne Millman and Jodi Myers (to which the Writers' Guild Theatre Committee contributed), have now been published as ACE's Theatre Assessment 2009.
Emerging themes
The report identifies several emerging themes for ACE's attention including risk and innovation, talent development, diversity and touring:
"The development of a new approach to touring is a major priority to ensure that audiences countrywide have access to high quality work, touring companies and venues are able to plan ahead strategically and our investment is applied where it has most impact." (p5)
Though new forms of theatre have developed over the past decade, the Theatre Assessment is clear about the value of the written play.
"Traditional playwriting and theatre-making attract large audiences and English artists are rightly world renowned for their work. We gave grants to new writing of nearly £12 million through Grants for the arts between 2003/4 and 2007/8 and will continue to place a high priority and offer high levels of support to text-based work." (p11)
New writing
The consultation process revealed a number of concerns about new writing including:
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the increasing difficulty in putting on new writing
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the shortage of writers being supported to create work for bigger stages
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a continuing lack of opportunity for second productions of contemporary plays
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the difficulty playwrights face in earning a living wage
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continued lack of female playwrights
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producers intervening with rather than supporting the writing process
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lack of support for new writers of musical theatre
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the difficulty in making Grants for the arts applications.
The section of the report dealing with new writing (p75) explores many of these concerns in more detail.
For example:
"There was a widespread view among practitioners that while there had been a growth in development of writers there had been a reduction in the amount of work commissioned and produced. This was particularly linked to changes in the touring circuit, and perceptions that it had become increasingly difficult to place ‘straight’ play."
And:
"Respondents observed that a focus on process rather than outcome has left some writers out in the cold, without support to draw them into the collaborative approach. On the positive side, respondents identified the development of individual skills through collaborative working."
Work for children and families
The report states that "there was much agreement that progress had been made in a number of key areas" in work for children and families. (p79)
Developments have included:
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more good work for young audiences
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more confidence: work for young people and families was more respected
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much greater investment in work for early years and teenagers
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repertory theatres started to embrace work for young people.
However, concerns remain, including:
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lack of work for 7–12-year-olds
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work for children and families being squeezed out of venues focussing on income generation
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an emphasis on well known titles and big brands, especially for commercial touring
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continued lack of coverage in national newspapers.
Following the publication of the Theatre Assessment, Barbara Matthews, Director Theatre Strategy, Arts Council England said: “The Theatre Assessment has enriched our understanding of the English theatre sector and will help us determine our future strategy, inform our investment decisions and focus our development capacity.
“We want our theatres to be bold and ambitious. This assessment has shown us that the additional confidence and resources the Theatre Review generated enabled many theatre organisations to do exactly that. The task facing us all is to keep making progress, in spite of the economic recession, and to ensure that as many people as possible are able to enjoy the results.”
David James, Chair of the Guild's Theatre Committee, adds:
On 27 July, the day before the Assessment was published, Carl Miller and I, on behalf of the theatre committee, met with Barbara Matthews, head of Theatre for Arts Council England, for a preview.
It is her belief that the purpose of the Assessment is to make sure that ACE is asking all the right questions, rather than the report offering solutions in itself. As you may be aware, ACE has also commissioned a report specifically on new theatre writing and how writers work in the theatre (To be ready next month). Together, these two studies will shape future policy on developing new theatre writing.
As you're probably also aware. ACE is restructuring yet again. Of course, this will be disruptive, but there does seem to be sincere planning going on as to how to make ACE both leaner and more effective. One objective is to lead more and prescribe less. Another is that ACE wants to 'join up' the agency across the arts community (This includes preparing a comprehensive 'Arts Strategy' above a 'Theatre Strategy', a 'Dance Strategy', a 'Music Strategy' etc). A third objective is to be more pro-active in encouraging best practice and excellence. (One of the findings of the Assessment was that theatres with 'courageous leadership' are more successful). This also includes offering active guidance for the self-assessing of theatres and for the better selection of board members.
Carl and I had already read the report when we met with Barbara, and we raised many of our specific concerns, most notably the difficulty for writers in maintaining careers into maturity, how writers are perceived within the theatre workplace, and the woeful lack of national touring. We also stressed to Barbara that the theatre committee of the Guild would be happy to work in active partnership with ACE to address any of the issues raised by the Assessment.
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