Funding the powerhouse

New Writing North has been developing writers and new plays since 1996. Our long history of working closely with writers has meant that at times we have been aware of great plays that never reached production. The idea of forming a consortium of receiving venues to develop and produce new work came into being in late 2005 when we began to talk to receiving venues that we knew in the North East. They were keen to have more access to touring shows that were produced in the region, and we were keen to find new ways for writers to see their work produced. Tangentially, they were also keen to work more closely together and working with us enabled that too. We now have in place a consortium of three receiving venues: the Queens Hall Arts Centre in Hexham, Customs House in South Shields and Darlington Arts Centre. The partnership is two years in to a three-year project to develop and produce new plays to tour.

The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation invested £88,000 in the model to support the first three years of production in 2007, and Arts Council England has contributed project funding to the first two plays, ‘Pub Quiz’ by Carina Rodney (2008) and ‘Queen Bee’, by Margaret Wilkinson (2009). The rest of the production costs are contributed by the partners (often against box office income) and by other smaller funders and sponsors when we can find them, including this year, the Foyle Foundation. The first year of producing was successful and nerve-racking. A gentleman’s agreement underpinned the partnership, which was built on a high level of trust. During the development of ‘Pub Quiz’ the Gala Theatre in Durham, one of our original partners, pulled out of the partnership to pursue their own productions, and at the eleventh hour, in response to a serious financial problem at the venue, Arc pulled out too, leaving us with a hole in our budget and a gap in our tour, both of which it was too late to rectify. We ploughed on and produced a show that we were proud of and which exceeded the targets set for it at each of the touring venues. Paying keen attention to planning marketing across a regional tour helped to make the project a success, as did the support of the local press.
This year the delivery structure is much improved. Each consortium member is contributing £5,000 to the production and this matched with income from Grants for the Arts, the Foyle Foundation and the second year of our grant from Esmee Fairbairn Foundation has enabled us to commission and produce ‘Queen Bee’, a psychological thriller by Margaret Wilkinson. The consortium members now have a watertight co-producing agreement that ensures shared Intellectual Property as well as shared deficits, should it come to that. Alongside the work with the consortium, New Writing North’s profile as a theatre producer has also increased, which has enabled ‘Queen Bee’ to tour more widely this year. We hope that in the years to come the consortium will sustain itself through wider co-production arrangements and the continued support of funders who are interested in supporting new ways of working. It has been hard work for New Writing North but worth it to see such good plays reach an audience.