There's no business like show business
- Joanna Trainor
- Feb 22, 2017
- 7 min read
Stage Door in London’s West End. Image by slimmer_jimmer on Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
After her explosive first year as artistic director, Emma Rice is currently preparing for her last season at Shakespeare’s Globe. The theatre board’s decision to return to producing traditional Shakespearean performances meant that Rice and her neon lights, mic’d up performances and Beyoncé dance parties would have to go.
News of her departure last October was a big blow to London Theatre. A survey by fundamental. has revealed that less than half of the capital’s key theatres, overseen by the Society of London Theatre (SOLT), have a woman in charge.
The problem isn’t just for women in directing roles; female playwrights are also hitting a glass ceiling. A report from SOLT and the British Theatre Consortium found that plays by women in 2015 accounted for only 31 per cent of new productions in the West End, and that year on year that figure is getting worse. It’s also affecting London’s fringe theatres. fundamental. was exclusively told by their former artistic director, Stewart Pringle, that The Old Red Lion Theatre in Angel received two applications from women when they advertised for their new AD. And 2017 was the first time in 20 years that a woman topped a list of the 100 most influential people in the arts industry, written by theatre newspaper, The Stage.
fundamental. are looking at what women can do to move up the job ladder in the theatre business, and make sure that next year’s The Stage 100 list isn’t 69 per cent male again.
Tip 1. Look at all possible avenues.
Pubic hair art, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons (a play, not a lot of fruit) and next month’s festival of sex; over the last three years Amber Massie-Blomfield has definitely made her mark at the Camden People’s Theatre. Unlike an artistic director, Massie-Blomfield has taken more of a business route to get to her senior arts position of executive director at the 60-seat theatre. She said: "There’s this idea of the artistic director having a singular vision that no one else can interrupt and I think that’s quite a masculine way of thinking about a leadership role. For me it’s much better when you take a step away from your vision, to understand the role your theatre has to play in the whole theatre ecology."
When Massie-Blomfield came in she wanted to do something about the lack of ethnically diverse companies using their performance space, and found that: "In this industry it doesn’t take a lot for you to make a big difference." Though not in the AD seat, she was still able to put steps in place that meant that, in 2016, the Camden People’s Theatre received more applications from black and minority ethnic artists than ever before, and were attracting a more diverse audience as well. "Being responsive to shifts in the theatre climate, but also being pragmatic in adapting to your circumstances; I think an executive director role might fit a more female approach to things," she said.
Massie-Blomfield’s suspicions are not unfounded, there are more women that hold the position of executive director at SOLT theatres. But what our survey did find was that only 40 per cent of venues with a male artistic director also employ a female executive, whereas over two-thirds of theatres led by women also have a female ED.
Freelance associate director, Rebecca Hill, found how useful chatting and working with other women in the industry can be, particularly if you share their caffeine addiction.
Tip 2. Talk to people who inspire you
Hill recently finished working with huge West End stars, Kerry Ellis and Ramin Karimloo, on the show Murder Ballad at the Arts Theatre, but when she first left university she was having to commute in from her parents’ house in Luton to see as much as theatre as possible. She said: "If I saw something I loved, I’d write to the person making it and ask if we could get a coffee and talk about their inspiration for the show." From such a simple idea, Hill made herself a bumper contact list, including the associate artist at the Almeida Theatre in Islington, Jenny Worton who was looking for a director in residence. "I chatted with Jenny about it, applied, went through the interview process and got the job," she said. Since Hill’s big break at the Almeida, she’s been working nearly non-stop in various directing positions.
Director of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, Ruth Mackenzie, is also a pretty great woman to have in your contacts. Arts journalist, consultant and co-artistic director of Incoming Festival, Eleanor Turney, has found it incredibly useful to have women in senior arts roles she can simply talk to. She said: "She’s always made it clear that if I have any questions or want to do a mock interview then her door is always open." Mackenzie might not be in the position to help find Turney a job, but she is a referee for her CV, and "if Ruth Mackenzie is your referee, you’re probably going to get an interview."
Since Turney and Hill received such great support on their way up, they both think it’s important to pay it forward. Turney’s Incoming Festival at the New Diorama Theatre in Euston, gives emerging companies space at the theatre for a week to produce their own shows. But even with this opportunity, Turney has still noticed a lack of women in directing capacities. "It’s about self-belief or ego, men are told they should give it a go. Women tend to be a lot more timid," she said.
This is a mentality Hill has experienced when she’s met with young female directors, who have told her: "I just need to remind myself that I’m allowed to have an opinion, and that I have something to offer." Obviously this isn’t how all female directors feel, but Hill does believe that they aren’t applying for those top positions because: "Women are more likely to stay freelance for longer so they feel like they’re totally qualified to take on the role of artistic director."
Tip 3. Boost your confidence
Artistic director at the New Diorama Theatre, David Byrne, noticed that: "A lot of male directors and producers have huge amounts of confidence, but largely have quite mixed abilities, whereas a lot of women are incredibly able, but actually have very low confidence in their skills and long-term ambitions."
He wanted to do something about it. As well as Incoming Festival, Byrne has also introduced a Female Leadership Fund as part of then theatre’s Artist Development Programme.
The money can go towards supporting the women in leadership courses, funding research trips, or investing in their company. The fund was only publically announced in February of last year, but Byrne has been overwhelmed by how popular it’s been. He said: "I think it’s a big confidence boost if an organisation says to you ‘we think you’re really great at what you’re doing and we’d like to put a few thousand pounds behind just you to go and develop that.’ It makes people think about themselves in a leadership role."
The fund will now be a permanent fixture at the NDT, and they’ve had interest from other theatres around the country who want to take it up as well. It’s that growth that’s key to making this idea work, because as much as Byrne wants to "bring about change to the wider theatre ecology," if they’re only able to support three women a year, and those women are only selected from the companies that the New Diorama work with then it’s not going to make the change they’re after.
Other areas of the arts industry attract more confident personalities. Theatre PR, Chloe Nelkin, has been running her self-titled company for seven years now and knows that having "the tiniest bit of doubt in what you’re doing will come across to the client." Nelkin has worked with her all-female team to help them improve their networking skills: "People in my team have done confidence master classes where they work with actors on their public speaking, but I think if you’re not the kind of person who wants to walk into a room and network then it’s never going to come, and maybe PR isn’t for you."
Tip 4. Decide whose opinions you want to listen to
Having confidence is particularly useful when "everyone and their dog has an opinion," as Eleanor Turney puts it: "You can’t please everyone and you shouldn’t try to."
Particularly those who come in to casting calls and wink at the associate director. Rebecca Hill made sure an actor didn’t get a part in her production after: "He came in, saw me, and relaxed. ‘Oh love, it’ll be fine,’ he told me. But sometimes the disagreements are on a creative level, and it’s really easy to say it’s because I’m a woman, but it might just be that they don’t agree with my notes. You have to be able to fight your corner."
Chloe Nelkin has a slightly more robust way of dealing with the 'big personalities', in the arts. "It’s taken me a really long time to be able to go ‘it’s just business, that person’s a twat’, so in that way I have a mental blacklist of people I won’t work with."
Tip 5. Just do it!
Amber Massie-Blomfield has a saying that working in the arts is "not hard, it’s just hard-work". So whether you deal with the punches like Nelkin or Hill, the consensus is just to jump in and do it. If you want to make theatre, or make it possible for other people then be ambitious, and get on with it.
After her explosive first year as artistic director, Emma Rice is currently preparing for her last season at Shakespeare’s Globe. The theatre board’s decision to return to producing traditional Shakespearean performances meant that Rice and her neon lights, mic’d up performances and Beyoncé dance parties would have to go.
News of her departure last October was a big blow to London Theatre. A survey by fundamental. has revealed that less than half of the capital’s key theatres, overseen by the Society of London Theatre (SOLT), have a woman in charge.
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre on the Southbank. Image by Martin Pettitt on Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
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