?Adults were always saying that to me ?when I was a kid...?, says Roger Lang, and, boy, did it infuriate me.
When I became an adult, I fully expected never to encounter such crushing nonsense again.
Then, in 1984, I got my first job as a general manager by joining one of Britain?s leading Black theatre companies, Temba, where I found that many black performers, writers, directors and theatre companies were being told by funders and theatre managements, which were all white-led, that ?Black people can?t do that?. The expectation was that Black artists only created certain definable types of ?Black theatre?, and performed only in Black ?community? venues to Black audiences. So, you can imagine the horror from some quarters when Temba insisted that our work would also appeal to white audiences in major regional theatres.
Currently, I am Administrative Director of Pop-Up, which, as you all know, is the hottest property in children?s theatre(!).
Our young audiences come from socially, economically and culturally diverse backgrounds, as do the actors who perform our plays, our workshop leaders, and our writers. We have six full-time staff and all of us are white. Surely, something is wrong here! So sad, so true that in a country as culturally diverse as England, we have a theatre industry in which there is chronic under-representation of Black and Asian people at administrative and management levels.
So, what can Pop-Up do about it? When the Independent Theatre Council (ITC) approached us about having a Fast Track placement, we saw it as a positive and practical way to play a small part in creating an opportunity for a Black or Asian professional to develop the skills needed to achieve their ambitions in arts management. If ITC?s eight Fast Track placements work out, then the recruitment pool will be broadened and enriched in number and diversity, and this has to be a good thing for the arts in general and theatre in particular.
Staff at Pop-Up tend to stay for a long time, but we very much hope that when one of our number next moves on, their replacement will be more representative of the people who enjoy our work.
Our Fast Track placement, Harjinder Khara, joined us at a hectic time when our new show, ?Starry Starry Night? was in rehearsal prior to its current three week run at Plymouth Theatre Royal and a very busy national tour. We will do all in our power to help Harjinder gain practical experience and develop her management skills.
ITC and its project funders, the Association of London Government, are to be congratulated on providing this excellent initiative which seeks to address some of the imbalances in our industry.
As grown-ups also used to tell me when I was a kid ? I must do better!
Roger Lang is Administrative Director of Pop-Up Theatre t: 020 7609 3339 e: popup@dircon.co.uk