Bob Frith's VEIL BLOG SEPTEMBER 2007

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Later on the 21.9

Roddy Gauld telephoned from the Arts Board in Manchester to tell me that we will be receiving an offer of funding for the touring of Veil.

I realised immediately that I hadn’t been expecting this – I really had convinced myself that it was going to be another ‘no’; perhaps the final ‘no’ for Veil.  As I rang around and emailed friends and colleagues it did seem unreal. After all this time waiting…but Helen was delighted when she rang me in the office; her painstaking application must have been a really good one. Katherina reminded me of what Faliha had seen in the coffee grounds – money! Of course! Iraqi coffee….

So it’ll be a good weekend, one to relax a little and slowly absorb the news.

21.09

Woke at 4am this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. Today we should know about the touring grant. Yesterday pm Helen (who is on holiday this week) texted to ask if I had heard anything. She had picked up a missed call from the Arts Council. No, I haven’t heard a thing.

Yesterday Alison and I went to doo-cot’s workshop, off Chester Road in Manchester. They have lost their funding and as a registered charity their chattels have to be passed on to similar, charitable, organisations – like Horse + Bamboo, in fact. Nenagh Watson, their co-Artistic Director likened it to picking over the carcass. I did feel rather like a vulture. Especially I felt for Nenagh, who was nevertheless putting on a highly positive face. What was shocking is how the basic decencies can collapse in this situation. Nenagh explained to us how she has almost no access to, and absolutely no control over, what happens to the work she has created over the last few years, as it’s all seen as the property of the company. Neither does she have the ability to keep the name of the company.

15.09

OK, so next week we should know the outcome of our bid to tour Veil. If we receive the grant it will go ahead; if we don’t it will come to an immediate halt.

Of course we’ve held a series of meetings to plan what to do if the result is a negative. There will be an immediate change of direction. Loz Kaye, our MD is arriving for two weeks composition work on Monday 24th, just 3 days after we think we’ll hear the result of our bid. He’ll either be sitting down to develop the ideas for Veil that have already been thought about and worked on over the past year OR he’ll read a new story idea and start developing that. If it’s a negative then we’ll also immediately inform the 20 short-listed performers that auditions have been cancelled. The artists who have been working with me to develop Veil will either spring into action (time is now short), OR turn their attention to other projects - or perhaps finding new work. Alison and I will either continue making the masks, staging, puppets, and props that we’ve been working on for the past 6 months and which now dominate our workshops OR we’ll clear our worktables, store away or break up the half-finished objects, take a deep breath, and then start developing the new play-script.

I’m sure we won’t rant or rave, whatever the outcome. We’ve lived with this uncertainty for too long. The panel that make the decision will just be doing their job – taking difficult decisions with less money to distribute than ever – thanks to the decision to shift money from the arts to sport in order to fund the London Olympics.

But there can be no doubt that a very serious problem exists with regard to the funding of touring theatre companies in England. Lyn Gardner’s blogs on Guardian Unlimited spell out the situation very well. Venues are choosing to join with other venues and use their funding to produce their own productions rather than collaborate with touring companies such as Horse + Bamboo. This week we saw this in action – we’re developing a potentially fruitful partnership with a publisher and looking for a three-way relationship with receiving theatres. After initially positive soundings from one such theatre we received an email a few days ago announcing that they have decided to develop partnerships with other receiving theatres instead.

Whether we hear good news or bad news the fact remains the same. Well intentioned ideas from the Arts Council are not working out the way they had hoped. This, in conjunction with the 35% cut in Grants for the Arts has led to a crisis among touring companies. I’m also told that sorting the mess out remains a long way down the Arts Councils list of priorities. With the Treasury settlement about to be announced and rumours and hints of a significant cut in funding right across the arts, who can blame them.

 

7.09

The last week Alison and I have grabbed whatever time available to work through the Veil script in detail. Starting at the Second Act because it always feels that in the many previous discussions by the time we’ve arrived at the 12th scene – the start of the Act 2 – the inevitable drain on inspiration has perhaps affected our ability to think as clearly as we would like - or at least to be on absolutely top form. Actually we’ve only been able to look at 4 or 5 scenes at a time this week, due to the pressure of other work, so the whole process has been undertaken with relatively unencumbered and creative minds.

Now the staging is partly built and the costume-making is underway, it’s somehow easier to consider the more detailed aspects of the production. For example, just how such and such a scene change can be done with only one performer not in the process of changing their costume? This kind of detail has focused our minds, and in the process the script has had an overhaul, an autumn spring clean. It’s now in really good shape, and as a result we’ve also been able to redraw the making list, and the materials budget.

Having done all of this, we’ve had to clear the rehearsal space so the new curtains can go in next week. After that the space is being used to re-rehearse ‘Storm in a Teacup’; and then ‘In the Shadow of Trees’ has to be adapted and re-rehearsed, so Veil feels as if it’s being put on the backburner; maybe fittingly, considering the date for finding out whether or not the whole project can continue is fast approaching.

 

 

READ AN INTERVIEW WITH BOB FRITH ABOUT VEIL HERE.

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CONTACT BOB FRITH bob@horseandbamboo.org