Malmaison shouts about its ‘Home Grown and Local’ Menu. How can we foster the same excitement..
- Convenor:
- Katie Day
- Attendees:
- Katie Day, Michelle Knight, Graeme Rose, Theresa Heskins, Samina Zahir, Orla O’Loughlin, Amanda Roberts, Alison Gagen, Paul Warwick.
- Description:
Malmaison shouts about its ‘Home Grown and Local’ Menu. How can we foster the same excitement and media-worthy-ness of home grown and local theatre.
Hotels as inspirational model? Malmaison’s menu championing local food is seen as news. Worthy initiative signifying best practice.
Versus: ‘Home grown & local’ when used in reference to theatre has traditionally negative connotations.
How can we shift this? Why is national/international seen as ‘better’ in theatre than ‘local’.?
Is this just a marketing thing/spin?
There is a rationale behind it.
e.g. Stan’s Cafe – lauded internationally but can feel relatively unknown in their home city.Carbon impact of theatre making is comparable to carbon impact concerns of food & local sourcing priorities of other industries.
Issue about importing theatre as well as exporting it.New Vic theatre in Stoke – because of its unusual design we talk about local & homegrown theatre a lot.
Are we really talking about the London centric issue? Does home-grown mean not in reach of London & critics, and therefore doomed to a lower profile?
Audiences in Stoke flock to work billed as locally created – even if its ‘lower quality’<- not less valid because of this.
Philosophy is valid. Angry when the philosophy gets reduced to just a marketing slogan.
Artists encouraged to have broad horizons, to look without, exchange. This goes against local. We may limit our horizons though by remaining ‘parochial’ but can be rooted in community.
What is the image of your locality? Wolverhampton – do you want to say you come from there? Do you choose to promote your location.
Reflecting local – a dangerous thing? Can be when you have BNP councilors, but can reflect & question the local.Is work sustainable if its just local for local audiences? Need to be co-producing and touring to prolong the life of the piece – finding a fit for collaborators.
Taking the local OUT – then you get local recognition. Forced to go out to get value locally.Would this conversation happen in London? Do they think of themselves as local to London or automatically as National.
Companies celebrated for themselves NOT lost in the Venue’s identity. – does this happen with BAC?
Identify yourself by what you’re NOT, eg. NOT London. Identify yourself by location.
More specificity to venue and programming in London.
Football Teams – people love their local team – even though they are actually full of international players.Mobility of Artists ->
can we claim a local identity if we’ve only been here 5 years?
Money (?) Diagram (below)
[ Can we shift value to these three?
Should we three all hold hands? ]Artsfest – is that home grown & local? Its FREE, but not Free for the Artists whose work is populating the programme.
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