How can we facilitate isolated pockets of vibrant cultural exchange between Birmingham’s numerous.
- Convenor:
- Katerina Pushkin
- Attendees:
- Lucy Poulson, Mike Tweddle, Seth, Therese Collins, Geraldine Collinge, Gill Adamson, Anonymous Lady
- Description:
Katerina: Since leaving university I’ve been based in Birmingham for six years embedded in a close-knit community of artists: DJs, music, film, bits of comedy and theatre. BUT there’s been practically no cultural exchange with other small-scale local ‘scenes’, either through collaboration or through sharing audiences. This is very frustrating and a great pity both for the audiences and for the artists who could benefit from sharing both audiences and skills.
Seth: Special Guests (Bristol) did ‘The Floor Set’ – trying to bridge that performance / music event crowd. Had some success but also diffictulties. Seeking the potential in younger groups – the cultural underbelly groups that are doing theatre but aren’t calling it that.
What venues can you do that in? Venues that put on gigs, stand-up, club nights etc will only let you soundcheck – a tiny get in even compared to theatres, and without an proper theatre lighting rig etc. Meanwhile, big warehouse spaces (like Boxxed) are great but often don’t have technical resources, and cost a lot because they’re big – you need big audiences to make it work artistically/atmospherically as well as financially. (Project X is quite successful at this – perhaps encouraging existing cross-cultural exchanges to include theatre might be a way forward?). Traditional theatre venues often put off the audiences who don’t go to theatre immediately, and often don’t have appropriate facilities / resources / atmosphere to create that fun, ‘night-out’ vibe (eg. Late license, dancefloors, covered smoking areas, etc)
Jamie Luck (RSC – there on Maternity Cover) has a great instinct for interesting / inventive / inclusive programming. He was involved in bringing World Champion Breakdancers to a Russian New-Writing event in the courtyard!
Midlands is getting better at bringing in popular culture – but often that’s on quite a large/mainstream scale, rather than focusing on what’s being created in non-theatre scenes locally. How can we encourage small-scale local-based collaborations like this?Manchester International Festival is doing a great job of doing it on a large scale: connecting different artists and artforms, using their joint marketing power to pull diverse audiences together.
Getting away from The Patronage Model: the strong idea that you come and consume – get something given to you and then leave. There are plenty of people who would never go to the theatre if it was called theatre.
Evenings of multiple cultural events – The Fun Nights Out Model!
Festival programmed across cultures where events are free? Artsfest – but it’s not having a positive effect, too big, wrong goals, no interest in development. A marketing event. Perhaps better to get Artsfest working better than start something new?
How about forging links with other small festivals? Flatpack, Flip etc presenting collaborations with theatre makers?
Will Theatre Birmingham unite isolated pockets?
Let’s have more fun!
What we need to do is take ‘poor theatre’ (which requires minimal technical resources) into comedy, music and other non-traditional venues in search of new audiences, freeing up space in well-resourced theatre spaces for the work which actually needs a big rig or complex technical facilities.
AFTER-SESSION FAG BREAK CHAT – Much better than the session!Problem is a misunderstanding of what small groups of the community want – typically offered issue-based theatre which highlights the negative aspects of their lives/community, and is also centred around young ‘disadvantaged’ groups / youth culture – we need to remember that Birmingham’s multifarious indigenous diverse cultures are the experts on what they need, and the city has a very unique makeup which arts managers from elsewhere can struggle to grasp. In listening to that we hear the rhythm of the heart of the community. ACCENTS: Birmingham awash with emerging and changing accents, these are a good place to start with finding complex / diverse communities.
What new audiences / non-theatre-going communities are looking for is a dramatic event which is:● Inclusive to all communities within that small locality / geographical community
● Pulls on the rich seams of stories / storytelling in that community
● A focal point, a spiritual, communal experience that validates their geographical community
● An opportunity to generally just hang out / hang around together / communicate – somewhere else to go than the pub.
● A space that belongs to everybody equally
● By saying that someone’s voice can take them to all sorts of creative/fantastical realms you offer an escape but can still provide a relevant and honest reflection of the people who create it – they often don’t want to hear any more about their problems
● Celebrate, imagine and explore the opportunity of change – brings hope
● Celebrate the unique energy of that diverse community, emphasizing then ever-changing, unique whole culture of that specific locality which results from its diversity, eg/ Smethwick, Balsall Heath.
● Creating a precedent of making and going to theatre which speaks to them, which they mightn’t have considered before. LISTEN to what the community want.