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Comment by Simon Coates on October 3, 2014 at 5:27

This week we've announced new new development opportunities. Take a look!

Artists Huddles: to support the development of skills contributing towards professional lives of artists, beyond the rehearsal room

Assistant Directors: for Welsh and Wales based directors ready for the next stage of their development

BOOM! Enjoy.

Comment by Chris Bennion on September 29, 2014 at 8:45

For DGW2014 - it's been alluded to by a couple of others including Carmen but thought I'd add my voice to the 'ex-pat' writers question.

As a London-based Welsh writer (who sadly can't attend on the 12th) I suppose my selfish question would be...

-What is being done/what more can be done to engage with Welsh writers outside of Cardiff? Outside of Wales? (outside of UK??)

(or to flip the question - what more can Welsh writers outside of Wales do to engage?)

A follow up question to that might be - should theatres/companies in Wales have to engage with writers outside of Wales at all?

Hope that makes sense (and it suitably provocative...).

Comment by carmen medway-stephens on September 29, 2014 at 1:28

Its sad news today to hear of the death of Dannie Abse an inspiring welsh writer whose novel 'Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve' was part of my rites of passage as a young reader and 'would be' writer. Its made me think about access to writing of all ages especially capturing their imaginations as soon as children can write. My school didn't really push the writing (why??) but we did read great books. I found myself on this journey of writing late - at University. We had an inspirational tutor Kaite O'Reilly who encouraged us in our first year. Dannie has made me think about are we doing enough to develop young writers of all mediums in Wales. We talk a lot on here about New Writers/Writing perhaps we should be thinking of capturing our audience sooner - from Primary/Junior/Secondary, introducing young people to writing as we know it can transform their lives and open their worlds. In doing so we may be helping them gain insight into theatre, start them young, build this generation and maybe we will begin to get young new audiences interested in theatre. I remember there were writing squads? Are they still running? Can we and should we do more? How can NTW nurture the little one's too? Before they possibly end up in another career because their talent has laid undiscovered?

Comment by Othniel Smith on September 27, 2014 at 22:24

Dirty, Gifted and Welsh vlog post.

Comment by carmen medway-stephens on September 27, 2014 at 22:06

Dirty Gifted/Fun Palace.

All good things highlighted in the list for debate/discussion, some other ideas..

* The writers I teach and meet/work with who are not 'Cardiff centric' would like to know how best to break into this scene 

* 'Women in Theatre' for me as a practitioner and mother, I have noticed how we could benefit from thinking about for both for Mothers/Father's childcare/approach to creating a more encompassing rehearsal room...this obviously may not work for a big theatre company's and some might say that 'we don't take children into the office' but as struggling writers/directors etc...who can't pay for early childcare  as it would be not worth working, it would be good to debate this. In an ideal world a creche in Chapter would be brilliant and there is one particular independent company take their children into rehearsals and it works brilliantly for them but I feel perhaps a discussion on how we approach working in theatre as 'Mums and Dads' is worth looking at...I know many people have been thinking the same...

Comment by Lisa Parry on September 27, 2014 at 3:45

I wholeheartedly agree and want to see it on the list of top funding priorities. I just know it isn't now and hasn't been, despite the equal ops act. Things do seem to be moving in that direction in England though so hopefully Wales (with a bit of pressure) could follow suit.

Catherine - I shall message you! x

Comment by Guy O'Donnell on September 27, 2014 at 3:33

Hi Lisa

I personally don't think its acceptable for ACW or any organisation to state gender equality is

"not on the list of where they currently channel resources and they're up against it with cuts"

 If ACW are not channeling their resources into supporting the work they fund to be more equal/fair/representative of our society today than this seems simply wrong.

Comment by Catherine Paskell on September 27, 2014 at 3:29

So we have a few topics confirmed for DGW debates and talks:

- The place of women (writers) in theatre
- Writing after the Scottish referendum
- Audiences and new writing

What should our other topics be?

Who wants to be the provocateur for a topic that's close to your heart?

Comment by Catherine Paskell on September 27, 2014 at 3:23

Hi Lisa - great suggestion! I wonder if you'd like to lead the discussion at DGW? It would be brilliant for someone with knowledge and passion for the subject -i.e. you! - to introduce the debate and then everyone else can join and participate. What do you think? There's obviously loads to explore here, it's a rich and pertinent topic for the day. Have you talked in-depth with Lucy about the Tonic project? I met her for a research project I was doing at the beginning of the year for AHRC and learned a lot about the Advance Project to feed into my research. Happy to share my thoughts, learning and experience from that, because I think we do have a different context and system in Wales, meaning that there is room not to copy Advance but to find our own way x

Comment by Lisa Parry on September 27, 2014 at 3:19

Hi Guy,

It's not listed as such. When that act came into force, it was expected there would be legal consequences for funded theatre companies - equal casting etc - but only Sheffield has so far said it would do that. And that's quite recent. I was living in Cambridge when the act came out and was told by a local ACE officer there that they had no plans to collect data to check that the act was being complied with and that things would 'work themselves out in time'. Again, it wasn't on their funding priority list. I'm not saying ACW don't see it as an issue - they have funded Agent 160 a fair bit, for which we're really grateful - but it's not on the list of where they currently channel resources and they're up against it with cuts etc too. I think you're right re Wales though - the barriers may well be different. But without properly funded research, it's just speculation and leads to comments like 'Oh it's all fine because of so and so', but the trouble is the stats we loosely collected from a few emails a while back do show it's not equal and without a study, we don't know why or if it's likely to level up. And theatre companies aren't under any pressure to bear gender in mind either.

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