Re-imagining ACE

So the first step in re-imagining theatre post-COVID should be to reduce this London-centricity by insisting—yes, insisting—as a condition of their funding, not just encouraging, that those 'national' organisations which receive massive amounts of funding should take their work to the rest of the country, and that doesn’t mean one visit to each region every few years but proper tours, and not only to the big receiving houses which charge massive ticket prices and equally massive bar prices, but to more affordable venues.

And this must not be at the expense of local companies. Back in the '70s, I was Chair of the Trustees of a NE community / TiE company which, along with three others, lost its funding from what was then Northern Arts to subsidise a Royal Shakespeare Company season at Newcastle Theatre Royal. All year round jobs lost, performances in non-theatre venues, in schools, churches (yes, churches) and community centres, in the streets, in the pubs, in the working men’s clubs, right across the region, all gone, and in exchange we got a two-week season in one theatre in one city by a company which was already receiving a massive annual grant from Arts Council. That still rankles, more than 40 years later!

(It was many years before I could bring myself to go to an RSC production. A bit of cutting my nose off to spite my face, perhaps, but, I think, understandable.)

After all, it is the national (i.e. the whole country) public who fund these big London and 'national' companies through taxation or by buying Lottery tickets. Shouldn’t they get something back for their money? Why should the rural South West or the industrial North fund theatre in London with no expectation of ever seeing what they’re paying for unless they go to London and then have to pay exorbitant ticket prices (along with exorbitant transport costs, and hotel and food prices)?

And while we’re at it, let’s have a fairer distribution of funding. Why should London receive higher grant aid per head of the population than Nottingham or Truro, Sheffield or Southampton? OK, overheads are higher and London is bigger but nonetheless…

And yes, there are more creative organisations in London than elsewhere, but why is that? Could it have something to do with the fact that that’s where the money is? What might be the effect if funding was more evenly distributed across the country?

And let’s generously fund those venues which do more than simply put on shows. Let’s recognise those which are a focus for their communities, where outreach and involvement are as important as bums on seats for their shows, which have made going to the theatre as much a part of local life as going to the pub. In South Shields in the NE, for example, people talk about “our Customs House”—yes, they really do! Do Londoners refer to “our Royal Court”, “our Piccadilly Theatre”, or “our Royal Opera House”? Do they hell as like!

And while we’re talking about funding, let’s have a bit more transparency about why some places / events / projects are funded and others aren’t. A few years ago, I was part of the creative team of a WWII project which involved a cast of over 20 actors, aged between 8 and 73, from the local community, as well as a dance band specially created from local young musicians, working with a full professional creative team on a play created from the memories of local people, set in (and to be performed in) a local dance hall that was actually operating (décor freshened up but otherwise unchanged) during the War. Arts Council rejected it, citing “not enough community involvement” as the reason.

Had they even read the application?

And why not go back to the system of about 15–20 years ago when officers from Arts Council regional branches would talk to intending applicants for Grants for the Arts and guide them through the process? That’s how my company got its first Arts Council touring grant. Now it is all done online and is as transparent as a brick wall.

I have a playwright friend who rang the regional ACE office to ask for advice and was told, “sorry, we’re not supposed to speak to artists.”

Un-be-f*ing-lieve-able!

So Arts Council, let’s have more contact with the grassroots, less box-ticking and much, much more transparency in decision making. Not too much to ask, is it? Not if you are concerned about the health of the Arts throughout the country and not just for—and this is how people elsewhere really do feel—the Metropolitan élite.