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Dateline: 30th April, 2009
RSC Journalist Bursary Scheme The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is on the look out for up and coming arts journalists to join its annual Arts Journalist Bursary Scheme with a special event in Stratford-upon-Avon on Saturday 13 June.
The Scheme, inaugurated in 2006 as part of the Company’s Complete Works Festival, aims to give six aspiring journalists unique career development by giving access to its productions and practitioners with a view to placing features in areas of the media not always reached by the RSC – especially in the minority ethnic and youth media.
The ongoing scheme runs from August to August, and has so far worked with over twenty journalists from around the UK who have placed RSC stories in a diverse range of online, print and broadcast media and who have also enjoyed an invaluable opportunity of being paired with a mentor to help hone their skills and advise on developing their career. The mentors, all from leading national or regional media, have included arts editors of the Birmingham Post, Evening Standard and The Times as well as theatre critics from the Daily Telegraph and the Observer to name but a few.
The Bursary scheme cannot offer payment (apart from the reimbursement of any out of pocket expenses), so ideally applicants will have an ongoing career in journalism, however embryonic.
Susannah Clapp, theatre critic for the Observer newspaper and a first time mentor in this year’s scheme said, “Working with Amardeep Sohi has been like taking an extra pair of eyes to the Stalls. Looking for a range of things to see has brought home to me the terrific span of today’s theatre and Amardeep has written reviews of a large proportion of what we’ve seen together: She’s come at things from a fresh angle, which has been stimulating for me; she’s been very responsive to suggestions on what she has written, and is now also interviewing dramatists and actors. The thing I’m most looking forward to is reading her diary of the year. She’s been keeping this with zest and my hope is that when she comes to read it through she will be surprised not only at how much she has seen and thought about, but how much her style has sharpened and her views expanded. She’ll also have a chronicle of twelve months which this theatre critic has greatly enjoyed”.
Karla Williams, RSC Bursary Journalist 2008 – 2009 said, “I joined the Royal Shakespeare Company Bursary Scheme with optimistic expectation and it has indeed turned out to be one of the most worthwhile and enjoyable experiences in my career as a journalist. I found the team at the RSC to be incredibly accommodating and always happy to assist me in my requests. The scheme also provides plenty of opportunities to meet different divisions of the Company from directors and actors, to movement co-ordinators and dramaturgs. Since taking part in the scheme I have had the pleasure of interviewing the Olivier nominated playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney who I have admired greatly since seeing his play The Brothers Size.
“Each scheme member is also paired with a mentor from a national newspaper and I was put with Fiona Hughes at The Evening Standard. I have found this pairing highly beneficial as it has helped me come to a greater understanding of arts journalism and allowed me to make well informed decisions about my career as a journalist. I cannot praise the scheme highly enough and would definitely recommend it to journalists with a keen interest in theatre and the work of the RSC”. The RSC Arts Journalist Bursary Event is on Saturday 13th June from 2.30 – 5.00pm at the RSC Offices, 3 Chapel Lane, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warks, CV37 6BB.
To register (the deadline for registration is 11th June and there is a £5 fee) call Uchenna Izundu on 07734 986359 or email mediachisolutions@googlemail.com, or apply in writing (application forms from www.rsc.org.uk/jobs). The deadline for written applications is 6th July.
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