Black Regional Initiative in Theatre

The Black Regional Initiative in Theatre (BRIT) is a key strategic fund of Arts Council England that aims at a more equitable black and Asian theatre in England. The work covers a number of strands, all of which come under the banner of BRIT:

The Eclipse Conference, Report and recommendations; seminars on positive action and equality of opportunity for regional producing, presenting and touring theatre companies; surgeries for theatre organisation to write Race Equality Action Plans; Eclipse Theatre to develop touring quality black work on the middle scale stages, linking with a range of presenting theatres; training opportunities, including Live and Direct for young black and Asian directors; audience development and marketing seminars; the network of BRIT venues across the country; direct positive action with a range of theatres; strategies to develop opportunities for BME artists with rural networks; strategies to develop opportunities for BME technicians in collaboration with BECTU and a pilot collaboration to develop new voices from new communities with BBC Drama Radio, Stages of Sound. 

BRIT works across regions and across departments within Arts Council England, particularly involving Theatre, Touring, Dance, Diversity, decibel and Audience Development Departments.

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BRIT - Nationally

A network of venues, developed since the mid-nineties, to assist new and aspiring theatre artists and companies in developing touring, form the basis of BRIT. The organisations involved are: Nottingham Playhouse; Haymarket Theatre, Leicester; The Green Room and Contact Theatre, Manchester; Hadawi Centre together with Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield; Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich; The Oval House, London; Kuumba together with Old Vic Theatre, Bristol, South Hill Park, Bracknell and a consortium of venues in Northamptonshire which includes the Northampton Theatre, Roadmender and The Castle, Wellingborough. 

Each organisation takes an entirely independent approach to the development of black and Asian work. This includes commissioning new work, developing artists, youth theatre, audiences and training, but together they form a connecting circuit across the country.

The Haymarket Theatre, Leicester has a focus on the development of Asian work and audiences and is the first regional repertory theatre in England to appoint an Asian co-Artistic Director, Kully Thiarai. In Huddersfield, the collaboration between a black arts centre and a regional presenting theatre has seen a range of culturally diverse programming and audience development initiatives, supported by an outreach worker. In Bristol, a similar collaboration has seen the development of black writers.

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BRIT - Locally at Nottingham Playhouse

- The face

Lisa Jackson is the Programme Producer for BRIT (maternity cover), working part-time at Nottingham Playhouse.  Her role is to:

1. Engage African and Caribbean communities with theatre in a holistic sense through activities (Nubian All-Stars youth theatre) and events (Femmes Fantastic) held inside the building and in other spaces (Nubian Clothes Map workshops)
2. Explore the possibilities of touring (China Black) small-scale professional work into the city
3. Support theatre artists (mentoring Lisa Jackson) (exhibition China Black – local Korean curator and African Caribbean artist) looking to progress their career

- Activities

• Nubian All-Stars (NAS) -youth theatre for 10 -16 year olds
  • These are aimed at young people of African heritage.  They are designed to give these young people access to theatre skills in an exciting way – through characters of African history and through elements of contemporary music and dance. 
  • NAS theatre takes place during school holidays for 4 or 5 day periods.
  • Dates of future NAS workshop weeks (venues TBC):
    • 31 May – 3 Jun 2005
    • 24 – 28 Oct 2005
    • 20 – 24 Feb 2006
    • 18 – 21 Apr 2006
    • 30 May – 2 Jun 2006
• BRIT Summer School (theatre inside-out)
  • 25 – 29 July
  • Venue: Nottingham Playhouse
• Nubian Arts Map – An African Caribbean women’s group are due to set up this Summer.  Meeting once a month, they will look at a particular genre on a quarterly basis – Creative craft, creative writing and a book club.
• Femmes Fantastic 4 March 2006
• People’s Bun’n’War (World War 2 reminiscence) TBC
• Mentoring

- Production – Lyrically Deep                                                24 October 2005

Picture this – the first half of this performance will involve young people of African heritage (including those from Nubian All-Stars) doing dance, doing theatre and doing performance poetry.  

- Partners

BRIT has worked with:

• ACNA
• Best Kept Secret
• Black Cultural Arts Service
• EMAG/Engage co-ordinators
• Black ONit

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Eclipse Conference and Report

Following the Eclipse Conference – developing strategies to combat institutional racism in theatre in June 2001, a partnership between Nottingham Playhouse, Arts Council East Midlands, TMA and Arts Council England, the Eclipse Report was published in April 2002. The report contains 21 recommendations. The recommendations focus on:

- Governance  -  Audience development  -  Employment & training -  Equality of opportunity   -  positive action  - programming of Black work -

Since the publication of the report, seminars and surgeries have taken place in every region for senior managers and board members of regional subsidised theatres, touring companies and a number of presenting theatres on Equality of Opportunity and Positive Action. This has started to see a range of activities and awareness being developed across the country.

These were followed in Autumn 2004 with regional seminars in collaboration with TMA for chairs of boards, and surgeries for all regularly funded theatre organisations on planning and writing Race Equality Action Plans. This work has been evaluated and fed into Arts Council England Race Equality Scheme.

In depth work is also being undertaken to develop awareness and touring of culturally diverse work to rural touring circuits and training needs of promoters in programming BME companies. This incorporates work with the Pride of Place companies, funded to tour to rural areas of England. 

Other work includes research, together with Equity, into the number of culturally diverse Equity members employed in the subsidised theatre sector; working with Creative People to research individuals aspirations to working in theatre; strategies, in collaboration with BECTU, to create opportunities for BME individuals in technical training.

Eclipse Theatre

The development of quality black work on the middle scale was one of the gaps identified through the Theatre Review. Led by Nottingham Playhouse together with Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich and Birmingham Repertory Theatre a consortium was formed to one piece of quality black work to tour on the middle scale on an annual basis. The producing theatres are joined by a network of presenting theatres, each one committed to programming culturally diverse performing arts. These venues are supported by Arts Council England Touring Department’s Promoter Development Fund, providing opportunities to share good practice, particularly in the areas of marketing and audience development.

The first production for Eclipse Theatre, MOON ON A RAINBOW SHAWL, directed by Paulette Randell, toured in the spring 2003.  The second production, a new adaptation of MOTHER COURAGE toured nationally in Spring 2004. The third production, SWEET LITTLE THING by Roy Williams will open at Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich in February 2005 before touring nationally.

Eclipse Theatre provides opportunities for training for individuals and black writers who wish to create work for larger stages, as well as developing and sharing audience development strategies.

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Contact

BRIT Programmer/Producer

Nottingham Playhouse

Wellington Circus

Nottingham

NG1 5AF

Lisa Jackson lisaj@nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk