Arts professionals, many of whom pride themselves on their liberal, "enlightened" attitudes and boast of their openness to new ideas, are also keen to think of themselves as risk-takers. Those assumptions deserve to be shaken today. The Sustained Theatre report (p1) is a cogent, well-argued and robust condemnation of English theatre's inability to address an increasingly multicultural society with anything approaching equity. The under-resourcing of BME theatre practitioners and organisations is not a new problem, yet the report does not actually read as a litany of past errors but more as a clarion call for a new approach, "...revitalising the very notion of theatre and injecting fresh ideas, traditions, innovation and practices into the bloodstream of the performing arts".
Admittedly, Arts Council England is castigated for poor data collection, a muddled approach to race, and a failure to offer proper professional development opportunities to BME practitioners. However, it is the sector as a whole that needs to take this report to heart. Baroness Young refers to a preference among those who pull the strings of mainstream theatre for "European/Western approaches and processes" and definitions of quality that are Eurocentric. This observation is as accurate as it is damning.
The report does not delve into the reasons why BME practitioners might encounter "systemic and institutionalised racism and discrimination" in the theatre sector but calls for change. It is right to do so, and yet not to examine the contributory circumstances is to miss out on some of the potential solutions. Historic underfunding of the entire theatre sector has led to risk aversion among decision makers - something that has stifled many practitioners, not just BME artists. At the same time, many theatres know very little about their audiences. The report refers to marketing departments' ignorance about BME audiences and yet there is a wider lack of understanding of audiences and, indeed, potential audiences, and what they want from their theatres. Addressing these issues would contribute greatly to the inclusive, collective, representative theatre and arts world we should all aspire to.
Liz Hill and Brian Whitehead
Co-editors