Some thoughts about recording your session

What is the title of your session?

Experimental, radical and like no one’s ever seen before.

What is the name of the person who called the session?

Rhiannon White

Who attended the session? (You can pass this piece of paper round and ask people to write their name on it.)

Summary of discussion: (Notes, ideas, further questions, conclusions, recommendations for actions to take, contact details of relevant people / organisations etc)

There needs to be ways that allow experimental, radical work to flourish – through education, funding and breaking the idea of waiting to be asked for permission.

The words radical & experimental mean different things to different people – no one should be excluded in these definitions. The lines should be blurred between art forms.

Its all about who is willing to take a risk. From the audiences, to the producers, to the funding streams – we need to be prepared to allow risk to happen, for things to fail – for things to get better.

We have to challenge traditions and ways of creating – ways of being. We need to see more work that challenges these traditions.

In turn we need a brave curriculum that celebrates risk taking as a way of creating – we want to see work championed by NTW and other radical theatre companies, see it embedded in the curriculum, in schools and universities.

We also have to celebrate and remember our theatre/ cultural heritage the work of radical theatre companies/ minds that have come before. This isn’t new, find a way to adapt and build on the work of Joan Littlewood, 7:84.

TEAM is in danger of acting as a barrier – as it could be seen as a paternalistic way to nurturing talent. It needs to be different.

If we don’t change the voices who have power that we won’t change anything. Those who speak the loudest, have the networks are the ones calling the shots.

DISSENT is positive.

NTW is not the first to be experimental or radical, experimental work has been happening in Cardiff for years.

Could NTW support a fund for new talent development? A fuck it and do it fund – or a it doesn’t matter fund where artists are given time and space to be creative?

Young artists should not wait for permission. You don’t have to wait for funding to be an artists – its about how you use your time, people work and create as a hobby this is seen as amateur – how do we support those coming through? Is it a conversation with employers to support those in employment to take time off? Times have changed, societies changed – you can’t be on the dole anymore and be an artist – that means only a certain type of person gets to enter the arts. What can replace this? Can NTW have an equivalent that allows people to have support?

The ecology of funding reinforces who gets to be an artist, who gets to experiment. There’s a lack of fight – instead the fight becomes about fitting into someone else’s funding objectives – how we bend to fit into the funders aims.

ACW should look at a more equitable way of distributing funds.

Radical has become a set of rules – you have to break things – you have to fail. If you say the wrong thing you are shut down, excluded from the conversation. Remove judgement. We have been dampened down, people are too afraid to say the wrong thing.

Scrap all the touring restrictions between Wales & England it’s not working, its too hard – we want interesting work to come here. We want the new Growtoski’s to visit Cardiff we want to learn from them. Can we invite International artists to work with us – workshops, residencies, shows. Collboration is at the heart of Radical/experimental. A twinnig with other countries/ cities with British Council – without having an outcome and then finding a way to pass it on to others.

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