So I thought I would give this posting thing a go in the hope of getting some response and thought I would try this on NTW community. I’m welcoming responses on this from people who feel the same or people who think they have proposals to offer.

I’m a Director, Choreographer and Performer, I co-run a company and also freelance, mainly working in Circus-Theatre and related areas. I want to make work, it is what I love to do. I like being in the room with performers and creating something new and exciting. Whether this is something that has a defined outcome or where you just step in to the room with very little idea of what is coming out of the other end.   This is my skill area, it is what I do, what I am trained for, have experience of, what I’m good at (of course subject to opinion).

What I am not trained for, not good at, have absolutely no desire to do is producing; it is a whole other skill, which takes talent and experience in this area. I am not a producer and yet on so many projects I find myself in this role, just so that the work has a chance to be made, so that I can get in a room with people and do the thing I love.  My directing is suffering from it. I recently was working on 4 different projects that overlapped and followed on from each other. This meant I had to act as producer on 3 other projects, whilst directing one, the producing does not go away just because I’m working on a different project. This is just not realistic as a prospect or sustainable. How can one immerse in process when there is someone chasing you for logistics? Why am I writing risk assessments instead of writing the script, budgets instead of reviewing the day’s work? And so on…

So that’s the basic outline, what’s my point? I would like to collaborate, starting with a producer, someone creative, who has ideas that they want to see made, who is interested in other’s ideas and wants to see those made too. From my experience most collaborations are between directors, choreographers, film makers and performers etc. in some combination.

I would like to try something new. I don’t want to employ a producer; someone disconnected who feels like they are just there to do the boring fund raising and office work. I want to collaborate with one. Cook up projects together and make them happen.  Use our unique skills, together, doing the things we are individually good at and enjoy, to make work, all kinds of work…

So at this point what I’m saying is: let’s talk, get together and see if we share some of the same ideas and interests in types of work, have a coffee…

To anyone in the same position as I am, let me know, do you fancy coming up with other strategies to deal with this problem? Do you have any thoughts on the topic?

In general I think that the industry is suffering because of this multi purposing of directors as producers, some talented producers end up directing and some talented directors end up producing and in some ways failing to do either to the best of their capability. 

I hope to hear from some people. My email is: aerialist.acrobat@gmail.com, in case you want to email rather than post a comment. 

All the best, thanks for reading

Paul

Also:

As an alternative way of meeting and getting to know some of what I do I have a showing of research work into Aerial and the Voice (Funded by The Jerwood Foundation), in NoFit State’s Four Elms building, Cardiff, on the 26^th September at 1pm. There are two parts to this:

• A factual exploration into the practicalities of putting aerial work and voice together, how this is achieved  (not just slamming them together and hoping for the best);
• And then the dramatic results/ propositions for future work, whatever these may be at this stage.

The work is research and process based, so aside from the basic concept of investigating how to truly put aerial and the voice together, there is no pre-defined theatrical outcome. The investigation looks at what is created through the experiment and is driven by the form to suggest its possibilities rather than shaping into a pre-defined concept.

It is a chance to get to know a few ideas about a project at a very early stage and say what interests you about the different options put forward.

If you would like to attend please email me as spaces will be limited (aerialist.acrobat@gmail.com).