Sounding Board – Coping with funding cuts

Snap theatre company recently heard that it would not be funded from next April as part of a review of children?s and young people?s theatre in the East of England. Artistic Director Stuart Mullins describes his reaction.

Oh my, what a couple of weeks! After only three months in the job as Artistic Director my company, Snap, had its funding cut ? something that I was keen to keep quiet. So why stick my head above the parapet now? Mainly because I think it?s appropriate to highlight the positives that come from an Arts Council that is actually trying to act as a development agency ? prepared to be entrepreneurial, to back its own judgement and to trailblaze a good idea. At least this way it won?t have so much time to navel gaze.

So what?s the story? At the time that I was offered my job at Snap, I was aware that Arts Council England (ACE) was in the middle of a review of young people?s theatre in the Eastern Region. My own research had brought into question the quality and ethos of the work being produced by the two organisations which were regularly funded to produce work for young people in the region. So I decided that a place where one could make a difference was where I wanted to be. Perhaps, given the time and resources, I could have turned things around to prove that we could create great work for, by and with young people. However, I couldn?t do it on revenue funding of just £60,000 a year. That time was not meant to be. So within six weeks of being in post, my colleagues and I were summoned to the offices of ACE East and given the news that, along with Tiebreak, we were to have our revenue funding cut. However, and this is where it got interesting, the money would be re-invested in a new beacon organisation; one not in the mould of a traditional young people?s theatre company but one that was reflective of a ?creative producer? model, facilitating opportunities to improve the quality of the product available for young people, providing advocacy and leadership, evolving an ecology of makers of young people?s theatre.

Fortunately for us that?s what I came to Snap to do ? to be a ?cultural entrepreneur? for young people?s theatre. I had become increasingly frustrated by the way the sector had marginalised itself by not shouting loudly enough about the incredible work that was being produced. It took a theatre critic, Lyn Gardner, opening the Theatre 2005 conference to highlight the brilliant work of a company like Theatre Rites, ?one of the greatest theatre companies that Britain has produced in the last decade?, to make people agree and acknowledge the value of Theatre Rites, as well as Oily Cart, Theatre Centre and so many more.

So how could a new beacon organisation create a climate where great theatre artists are queuing up to create work for young people? Firstly this new organisation should be about encouraging the artist to be at their best. To do that you need to create an environment that enables this. Artists do not speak the language of ACE or the local authority, so this new beacon organisation has to have the ability to speak both the language of the artist and that of the bureaucrat. If partnership is the mantra, it has to be able to understand the needs of the regional theatre sector and that of the education sector. If we are to nurture a generation of creative thinkers, then the legacy of Creative Partnerships has to be understood and not undermined.

Secondly, it has to be allowed to be ?entrepreneurial?. This is not a dirty word anymore. For me, it means having the space to say two and two could make five if a strong enough case can be made for it. I suppose for me it?s getting away from the worthy and getting excited by the possibilities.

FInally, and this is the fun bit, it?s about creating such a strong vision that investment is never going to be a problem. It?s a Scandinavian concept known as ?Funky Business?, and I suppose easyJet and Ryanair could be described as ?funky? businesses. They are run by a handful of people and will, over the next couple of years, outgrow BA. They make a point of being different, of being reactive to a rapidly changing world, of being truly 21st century. It?s the difference between jazz and Wagner.

So the question remains: having decided to trailblaze a new idea, is ACE really looking for a revolution in cultural leadership, for a new model that produces ?rule-breaking? work for young people and seeks new ways to tell stories that, as Lyn Gardner says, ?reflect far more acutely the new world in which we find ourselves?? Will the new organisation be equipped to exist and flourish in a world where three-year business plans seem vaguely inadequate when you can download and listen to a thousand tunes on an iPod the size of a credit card? Will it be a case of ?funky? or ?funked?? In February 2006 we will know.

Stuart Mullins is Artistic Director of Snap Theatre
t: 01279 461607;
e: [email protected]