Review by Andrew Breakwell, Director of Roundabout & Education, Nottingham Playhouse.
(Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2001, ISBN: 1 85935 064 X, £13.95 [£17.00 inc. p&p]*)
I liked this book. It records an action research project undertaken by staff of West Yorkshire Playhouse in Ebor Gardens, a nearby housing estate.The research was undertaken as an integral part of the project and asks fundamental questions that many regional theatres and those responsible for urban regeneration programmes grapple with on a daily basis.
It records the feelings of artists, administrators and the members of the community that they set out to serve and highlights very positive ways for other organisations to grasp similar nettles. Most importantly it stresses the necessary and most vital links between personnel, process and product.Theatre professionals will also be glad to hear that one of the most significant outcomes was a very measurable increase in attendance and the sale of tickets!
The book is set out accessibly with an Executive Summary, short concise chapters detailing background, process, analysis and implications. Good use is made of quotations from participants and the photographs cover a range of activities that were undertaken. It is significant that many of the elements of the programme (not always artistic in nature), were already in place but that participation was given new impetus by the partnership.
As Dick Downing records: ?Before this project no one was excluding the residents of Ebor Gardens from the Playhouse. It might even be said that the residents were excluding themselves, but there is very little distinction between being excluded and excluding oneself.?
By going out and listening, helping, and sharing, the Playhouse staff learnt new meanings to notions of community, participation and ownership.
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