Camden gets creative

The Camden Theatre Consortium (CTC) and Camden Council’s Arts and Tourism service, launched the online Camden Creative Producer Support Scheme earlier this year, to allow local audiences to engage with creative producers. CTC was formed in April 2009 and comprises 14 local borough theatres. They joined forces to look at how they could work together, devise a unified audience development plan to help increase audiences in the recession. They teamed up with Chris Mellor, Arts Development Officer for Camden Council, to develop and launch the scheme.
 

The scheme exists to encourage investments and volunteer pledges for producers in Camden and UK-wide. The community can invest their skills, time or money into theatre projects they wish to support within the borough. They are able to follow a show’s journey from the rehearsal to the first night by reading producer’s blogs and watching filmed pitches. They can give feedback to the creative team, or even be asked to vote on ideas for designs. Effectively, the interactive relationship is designed to turn a producer’s online friends (such as those on Facebook) into active audiences. Theatre producers are invited to video a pitch for their production and upload it for all to see, along with a budget (to include skills and money) for the project. The footage is available for people to offer their creative skills (technical, backstage, marketing, print, etc.) or to, make a donation to the project. All projects are backed by a local theatre manager and will have a venue in place for the production once the budget targets are hit.
Producers are encouraged to offer supporters incentives such as tickets to see the show, invites to special events, exclusive downloads or programme credits. The minimum financial gift is £25. The scheme was launched at London’s Shaw Theatre in March. Many theatregoers aren’t aware of what producers do, or how to support them at a grassroots level. To encourage producers to up their game, supporters can move their donations between shows if they wish. A ‘top ten’ chart plots the productions that are most popular. Currently topping the scheme’s chart is ‘Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens’ which is aiming for an autumn run at The Shaw Theatre. Other shows receiving support are ‘Contacting the World – Neon Fairytale’, ‘Rasputin Rocks!’ and ‘Muscles the Musical’.