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

Dilys, session 1 group 3

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)

Question raised by host who lives in Pembroke Dock area, who had not previously been interested in theatre, and has now noticed that there are very few opportunities locally. In this area (as in many others) there are many non-theatre-going households and communities. However, theatre has the potential to develop community connections and change perspective of places that are perceived quite negatively. What can be done to encourage them to attend/engage/participate? As well as theatre influencing communities, communities can influence theatre.

Practitioners in the group had worked with youth theatres, created opportunities for children and young people, care homes and residential homes for elders, efforts to link younger and older people and different groups found to be very rewarding. Projects are often focused on young people and funding more readily available. Theatre projects/work can be something that presents an unexpected opportunity later in life.

Host was asked “what would you want locally?” and the obvious place to start seemed to be work within schools, where opprotunites for drama etc now very diminshed. Opportunities should not be limited to the young – so many move away for work as there are few jobs locally – this is a wider issue. Objectives for such work would be 1. to help participants work through problems; 2. Pride in/interrogate history of our communities – they have a valuable story too and should be seen as inferior. Local Facebook groups are a place of heated debate over the town/community they represent -can be a lot of negative feelings expressed very strongly, and this is hard to counter so overall it eats away at a sense of local pride and wish to engage.

Other advantages of local work
• is that people do not have to travel so ease of access; example of choirs where local groups meet weekly, then multiple groups meet monthly to collaborate on larger scale work – reduces the need to travel/commitment required
• can engage with production of work rather than passively watching something

A key point raised in the discussion was the importance of a legacy after the end of a project that has formed a community company for example. Welsh Language National Theatre projects particularly design projects in this way and offer long term mentoring to locals who want to continue their group in some form after the original professional project leaders’ involvement ends. It was felt that every community has local artists with the skills and passion to help with such groups but they need to be paid. There is a potential admin burden as groups become larger/more formal. Mentoring would help with this and support for/signposting grant applications etc. The professional/community roles are perceived as very distinct/community is inferior or subordinate to professional – can this be less rigid? NTW TEAM fulfils some of this function in the areas it works in. Welsh Language National Theatre have positive experience and help with grant applications, link up writers and work experience requests with local groups producing work, which progressed to them offering work experience opportunities in backstage roles and so developed pipeline of Welsh-speaking future professionals.

Would ACW fund a representative for each county/region to promote and support local groups?

Theatre of the Oppressed, distinction between actors and non-actors; perception of amateur/community work can be negative.

Two group members had taken part in Tide Whisperer. They were asked if they knew whether any effort made to attract participants who had no previous interest in theatre? The audience certainly included people who would not usually go to theatre.

Funding may be available for “community” projects more widely than “arts” projects. You’d have to set up a group first and then apply. The project may only be short term, but that is better than nothing.

The more traditional opportunities such as the school play and Eisteddfod are still a useful route in but have often fallen by the wayside or diminished in quality. People do have less free time/regular slots of free time these days. Old model of am dram groups Putting On a Play may no longer fit, and it was felt generally that more lasting/valuable projects can be workshops/role play sessions/devised work etc. However the old model is still what people expect when you ask them to join a community theatre project – it carries negative stereotypes, secondary to ‘proper’ professional theatre. Promote idea that participants can learn new skills (eg presenting, confidence, friendships, helping others) rather than just being designed to unearth a hidden talent (X Factor style...).

Harder than it used to be to initiate a group – you can’t just turn up in the community hall and invite local kids! Although they exist for very valid reasons DBS, Health and Safety, insurance, GDPR all make it hard to be spontaneous or experiment.

Theatr Clywd community project in Mold will go to the community using a caravan to overcome the barrier of going up the hill to the building. Lots of ways to engage.

Projects could involve local historians/heritage.