Community and Theatre - the Process Debate.

It was interesting to read Lyn Gardner’s blog in The Guardian today on community theatre and how we judge it, inspired partly by the fact that, sadly, she had not enjoyed NTW’s recent production De Gabay at all.

Her main question was whether we should judge community-based theatre differently because the show is only part of the outcome, and the benefits of the process to participants may have been equally significant. 

I think she is right in coming to the conclusion that the critic is there to judge the audience experience, not anything else, and that to make allowances based on presumed other benefits to the community would be inappropriate.

I do think there may be more layers to the argument than Lyn outlines.  We all ‘make allowances’ according to the situation in which a show comes into being.  We expect a different kind of experience watching a student production at RWCMD from a visit to the RSC, though in both cases we are probably hoping for excellence.  Similarly, some community shows may be the very first steps for the performers onto the stage, and we won’t be expecting great technique, though we may experience something extraordinary in terms of honesty and truthfulness.

At NTW, however, we’ve always been clear that, while our full-scale productions may sometimes involve highly trained actors at the pinnacle of their craft, and others times may involve untrained community members, they are all presented as high-quality experiences for the audience.  So, when we get a negative critical response for any show, as we did for De Gabay, we should, and do, take stock, ask questions about how we could have done better with that production, and hope to learn for next time. That’s how a company or artist grows.

What this doesn’t imply is that there is no means for evaluating the other aspects involved in community-based work, what Lyn calls the process.  In fact a really in-depth community-based project (and De Gabay was certainly that) will have a whole range of aspects that need to be considered, and ultimately evaluated.  What was the experience of making the work like for the people involved?  What impact has it had on those people in the longer term? Has the project helped to create new possibilities? 

De Gabay came about because, after a smaller project in our first year, The Soul Exchange in Cardiff’s Butetown, four young Somali poets who had been involved in that production, asked if we’d help them make a new show about their lives and issues.  They were soon joined by other members of the Butetown community, who also wanted to take things started in The Soul Exchange to the next stage. In terms of positive outcomes from a project, that sort of engagement is a big one, and we were keen to respond.  Following up after a community-based project and helping to make the next stage of work happen is a key factor in good participatory work. 

Along the way there has been a huge journey for everyone involved, including everyone at NTW, and there was a lot of excitement running up to the show itself.  There will be plenty more activity growing out of De Gabay (watch out for our Butetown WalesLab projects coming up next), and we’ll be evaluating all of that as well as the show – learning lessons from what went right as well as from any problems encountered.

So, yes Lyn, you can and should judge De Gabay as a theatre critic.  You’ve been a big supporter of NTW as well as sometimes our toughest critic, and we value that.  I would love every show that NTW makes to be a critical rave, but I think we take a few too many risks for that to ever be likely.  However, if we can continue to stimulate debate, generate excitement, and sometimes delight critics and audiences, we will be doing our job.

As for the process, yes it’s separate to critical reception, but it’s equally important.  And for a company like NTW, getting the process right will always be very important indeed.  So we should evaluate the process as rigorously as critics report on a show, but using different skills, and a different set of criteria.  I’m looking forward to this part of the follow up on De Gabay. 

In the meantime, it would be great to hear any thoughts and experiences other theatre-makers and artists have in relation to this debate. There’s a great tradition of community and participatory work in Wales, with significant things happening on all sorts of scales. What do you focus on when making work, and when you evaluate before, during and after?

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