About this website: On the 26th and 27th of November 2009, a group of people came together at the Crescent Theatre in Birmingham to begin to answer the question "How do we create a better future for theatre, here, in the West Midlands". This website holds the notes from the sessions held over those two days, and allows anyone (whether they were present at the event or not) to continue the conversations from the event. You can read Alison Gagen's full invitation to the event here

Improving Quality

Convenor:

Liz John

Attendees:

Suzan Spence, Thomasina Coyle

Description:

Need to know about and be able to access existing resources/skills in region
Pooling resources

Rehearsed readings/script in hand/workshops – writers need access to actors plus free/cheap venues, maybe an audience for feedback (depending on stage of development)

Mentorship/access to critical friends

Script reading – who is reading (eg directors?), are writers wanting critical feedback or using script to get other work – willing to pay but maybe a more bespoke service – what does writer want from the reader?

Developing good calling-card scripts
Seeing lots of productions/supporting others’ work, giving critical feedback

Initiatives and new groups often don’t last – this might simply be due to minor problems – need to plan better to overcome these.
Also, after a scheme/initiative, then what next?

Better networking – means we can access other people’s skills and opportunity for making new creative partnerships – eg speed networking
Recognize weakness in skills and collaborate/delegate to solve this.

Need to recognize when work is truly ready for a production – maybe it should be a script-in-hand performance first…