Arc Theatre - Boy X by Clifford Oliver - Trailer

Peter Hulton - Commentary on Pact and Boy X by Clifford Oliver at Network Theatre this week!

Another Blog on the same day! Well that's a first. Arc Theatre had a great evening on Monday 21st February at the Network Theatre under Waterloo Station. I was just about to settle down to write my blog entry about it when I opened my email to find this message from Peter Hulton ( Director of Documentation and Archive at the Intercultural Performance Practice Centre, Exeter University) Peter has directed this message to the Royal Society of Arts and his perspective on Arc's work is interesting.So here it is:

"I am a life long fellow down in the south west, in Exeter actually - but the other day I was up in London and present at a most extraordinary event. It was held in a little known theatre started in 1939 by the amateur dramatic group of Southern Railways. It is now called the Network theatre and nestles under the arches of Waterloo Station. I myself have been involved in theatre for all my life but have never come across this space. Anyway, in this little theatre gathered officers of the British Transport Police, from the Metropolitan police, Home Office officials consigned to fighting knife crime, members of the black community in London, community leaders and one or two people like myself. Not a large audience I would say - about 80- the theatre is small. We had all gathered to watch a performance of two short plays performed by Arc Theatre - whose artistic director is a fellow at the RSA. The performance had been commissioned by the British Transport Police - the first commissioning venture of this kind ever undertaken by this particular police force I believe - and it is due to tour into schools both in London and nationally, as well as being taken up by police conference, probation service venues etc. It has seemed to me to be at its centre exactly what the RSA is about - an art form that has intervened in the attempts by both Government and Government agencies AND local communities to knit meaningful relationships for dialogue to occur. The play was a provocation, an embodied presence of issues of knife crime and what is called "snitching," when members of the public come forward to give evidence to the police. Not only were the performances - by young black and white people (professional actors) from the very communities that are experiencing such issues - moving and intelligent, but the ensuing debate between police officers, audience members (some of whom had had family members killed from knife crime), social workers and others was quite remarkable in its ability to speak from actual experience and its attempt to find a language which others would understand. Here we had, as I said, an art form that was a hard pearl of communicated experience which then prompted dialogue, a move towards understanding in an absolutely crucial social area - deaths from knife crime in London is a remarkable statistic- that went well beyond the value of the actual event, considerable though that was. A short documentary film of the performances and the thinking around them had also been made and this I am sure will travel far and wide - so, all in all, a real instance of value added, which is also what the RSA must be about, not simply repeating what is already being done."

Thanks to Peter for this thoughtful commentary. He has articulated here precisely the ambition of this project, namely to create a neutral and safe space in which to explore through a theatre narrative, the complex prejudices, stereotypes and mythologies that sit around issues of communication between the police, justice system, the community and young people specifically. There is a fundamental leveling that happens naturally in the presence of good storytelling, the shared experience that enables an authentic conversation to ensue, provoked by an attempt to come to terms with the often conflicting imperatives. One of our actors, Jordan Barrett, who plays the lead in both plays, often says that the relationship between young people and the police is much like any relationship, where conflict occurs when listening, empathy breakdown, in which the desire to "be right" outstrips the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes and seek understanding and possibly reconciliation. Good theatre has a way of reaching into the mind and soul and finding the commonality of human experience. It brings us together in a way that allows us space to understand and debate core values with each other. We may leave still disagreeing, but it allows us to so without the hear of violence and aggression. I believe there is a magic half hour following a performance when we are all transported somewhere else and which allows us to be open enough to ponder alternative perspectives, a prism of experiences.

Boy X and Pact are out on the road next week on a national tour sponsored by BTP in Huddersfield, Birmingham, Cardiff, Liverpool. Here is the link to the mini-doc about the project. Be great to hear what you think.
http://vimeo.com/20264551

Powerful Presenting Yakety-Yak goes public! What fun we had.

I had such a great day today - it was our very first FREE public speaking training day for our new company Yakety Yak, held at North Weald Golf Club. What a lovely and peaceful environment to hold an event in, worth checking out http://www.northwealdgolfclub.co.uk. Tim, the Manager sponsored the event by giving us their beautiful first floor conference rooms for our event.  Olly, Natalie and I worked with thirteen participants from a very wide range of organisations, all wanting to spend the day working on their public speaking and presentation skills. From the beginning of the day, everyone was on board, ready to share and learn. Music, flowers and fruit set the atmosphere we wanted, and the sunlight streaming through the window was just lovely. Creating a safe space to learn is essential to get the best out of any programme. The commitment and energy was great, lots of laughter as people made up stories on the spot, worked physically on voice, breath and body. Its probably no surprise to anyone that in the UK public speaking is the second most feared thing, after spiders! Often people have an unconscious belief that they can't stand up in front of others, and guess what, that belief easily becomes a reality! Today we explored how a thought about something, anything, sponsors the emotional reaction which in turn sponsors the physiological response. We have a great knack of convincing ourselves that"such and such" is true, only to discover that we do indeed have extraordinarily powerful imaginations. Today we focused on where we place our mental attention, and how this in turn impacts directly on our whole systems. Learning to go into the "presenter" state was key today, encouraging peripheral vision and awareness brings us into the zone, which allows us to access with ease all that we know. I love the idea that everything we have ever done or ever learned is simply sitting there in our unconscious minds, and it really is only a matter of finding the key to unlock the treasures. Today I shared a new technique I have developed ( very simple and easy and only took 30 years to discover) called the Finger Stickies!  By the end of today's session everyone had found their own way of using the technique and making it their own, and by 4.30 everyone had created their 5 minute presentation without notes and shared it with the rest of the group! What a great joy it is to see people having fun and enjoying standing up in front of others and sharing themselves. Thank you to everyone who came from Bishops Stortford, Cambridge, London.  I will post forthcoming programmes shortly and if anyone is interested in 121 coaching just give me a call on 01371 878315.  It was wonderful to be in concert with such a great group of people today - so now I can enjoy the weekend with a big smile on my face!

A Call to do things differently in a time of austerity!

Surviving and thriving as a business in the arts for over 25 years we  learned  early on in our life that we had to constantly reinvent ourselves. We set up Arc in 1984, through the Enterprise Allowance Scheme , brainchild of the Thatcher Government.  And just this week I was tracked down by Toby, a young journalist who wanted to interview me about our experience of it. He told me that a similar scheme is about to be launched by the Government. The cynical bit of me chuckled with Toby as I remember thinking that this was yet another way to disguise unemployment. To set Arc up through the In 1984, we had to find £1000 to invest and this was matched by £1000 from Government and then an unrestricted payment of £40 per week (the same figure as supplementary benefit as it was known then). And it worked for Arc, it gave us an entry into business, green as we were at that stage!  I hope this new modest scheme works for young people this time round, given the chronic challenges they have getting into the workplace, not withstanding the cut in EMA and increase in tuition fees.  We need to encourage entrepreneurial skills, start -up businesses and tap into the imaginative capital that is alive and kicking in our borough!

Twenty-seven years on Arc is still a going concern and a primary contributor to the arts in the borough, in spite of the challenges and difficulties faced in funding, particularly at the moment.

We are lucky that in Barking and Dagenham there is an appetite for reinvention, perhaps out of necessity, but the option for standing still is not one we can contemplate.  Our demographic is changing faster than ever, and the pressure on our council to maintain quality services is greater than ever with the cuts in public spending driven by central government. Never have we needed to be more imaginative and willing to harness the collective creativity and inventiveness of our community. It is a time to think of new ways of doing things through greater collaboration, merging resources, helping each other out, personally and in our businesses. The arts play a central part in this, not least because we have had to relentlessly recreate ourselves in order to survive. The skills needed to create new pieces of art are precisely the same skills needed to vision new ways of working.  Creative thinking leads to action which in turn leads to the manifestation of new projects, new buildings, new services.  We face some stark choices now, serious challenges to the Welfare State as we have known it, an invitation to embrace Cameron’s Big Society.  Whether we like it or not this cannot be achieved without a healthy partnership between commerce, public funding and philanthropy.  I am certain that our Council does not want to make many of the cuts we are facing, committed as they are to the value and importance of local services and the building of social wealth.

Councils are already the most efficient part of the public sector – a point recognised by the Treasury, Audit Commission and the prime minister – and have been leading the way in trimming the fat over the past few years by sharing services, reducing costs and making the money they do get from government go much further.

There is no question that we are into a period of austerity for the next few years, but perversely this also gives us the opportunity to forge new relationships and to work collectively to deliver even better quality  by being smarter and more creative about what and how we do it. 

The arts are not heavily subsidised in Barking and Dagenham , we expect to pay our way at the same time as attracting investment for activities that enhance people’s lives in the borough.  A small amount of strategically placed support pays dividends and makes a contribution to the overall well-being of our residents,  after all “Man cannot live by bread alone”! The arts are not just something for the elite, they are a fundamental part of being human.  Lets talk!

Carole Pluckrose is Artistic Director/CEO of Arc Theatre based at the Malthouse Studios, Abbey Road, Barking. www.arctheatre.com 0208 594 1095