Filling the gap

The Gap Theatre Project started as a conversation between writers but quickly broadened out to other theatre practitioners. We all felt proud of the fringe events we saw across Greater Manchester and celebrated our fantastic main house venues with their national reputations − but we still felt something was missing. We started to wonder how we might bridge what we saw as this gap in Greater Manchester’s theatre scene. Our feeling entirely acknowledged the many vibrant, diverse and high-quality theatre venues (in excess of 65 and counting) that range from small and informal spaces to the presenting and producing houses of the Lowry and the Royal Exchange. We also acknowledged the array of theatre and writing courses in the academic sector, the strength of non-professional, youth and community theatre and the many new writing initiatives and networks.

Our aim is to ensure that mid-career writers and theatre-makers resident in Greater Manchester have more opportunities to work with existing theatre venues

With support from Arts Council England (ACE) and theatre venues, we sought to test this notion of a gap by presenting a season of new commissions in a city centre venue, together with a programme of action research. What started out as a modest intent to meet and discuss new theatre writing with a representative section of new theatre-writing and theatre-making people turned into an intensive series of face-to-face conversations with more than 170 people and companies from Greater Manchester, Lancaster, Leeds, York, Stockton on Tees, London, Glasgow and Dublin. In addition, I chaired a panel debate in front of 115 people featuring Ian Tabbron (ACE), Sarah Frankcom (Royal Exchange) and writer Debbie Oates.

Simply put, there is no single gap. There is no simple element that we can point at and say: “Aha! If we do this and this, we’ll be fine.” I’ve been using the metaphor of a diamond when describing the project to interviewees or responding to comment and query. Each facet of the diamond reflects a gap to the individual concerned from the perspective of the writer, venue, company or producer.

Writers were extremely candid in their views, senior management teams of many theatres made themselves available either face to face or over the phone, with theatre companies and producers also getting involved. The comprehensive nature of the findings and the clarity of a potential programme of work directly arose from this unanticipated (but wholly welcome) intense engagement. Interviews with writers in particular raised specific needs and requirements, as follows:

• A simpler connection to established professional networks.
• Access to greater production resources.
• Effective signposting for peer support and script development.
• Access to hot desks and ad hoc office space.
• Places to meet, greet, chat, relax and ‘be at home’.
• Better, and more structured, facilities to develop scripts.
• Opportunities to explore diverse writing and performance forms – through dramaturgy and the European theatre model.
• A transparent process by which new written commissions are accessed.
• A revival of North West Playwrights or something similar to suit the present funding and support climate.
• The possibility of enabling a theatre piece to be taken from an initial (probably smaller) venue and transferred to a larger venue with higher production values.
• A one-stop information source in an updatable format providing easy-to-access guidance on available rehearsal and development spaces, supportive literary departments and professional networks.
• A commissioning (or co-commissioning) process enabling theatre writers from Greater Manchester to work outside the city region and then bring performed work back into the city.
• Access to networks allowing work written and performed in Greater Manchester to be toured outside.

So, where does this bring us? Our aim is to ensure that mid-career writers and theatre-makers resident in Greater Manchester have more opportunities to work with theatre venues. We aim to achieve this by building on the existing base of high-quality theatre writers and infrastructure within Greater Manchester and create a deeper, richer, diverse and more sustainable reservoir from which theatres can draw a resurgent talent of new theatre writing.

The series of events and research clearly demonstrated the need for new mechanisms to be put in place that support writers as they make the transition to having their work performed in venues and events enjoying higher production values and critical rigour. With support from ACE, the events identified an extended programme of work combining new commissions of short and full-length plays, collaborations with venues across Greater Manchester, peer-to-peer critical events and writer development. Our plan now is to put this programme into effect over the next two years starting in May, which we anticipate will deliver the following:

• Develop a career path for writers within Greater Manchester and the wider north west of England.
• Increase the frequency of new plays being commissioned and produced within Greater Manchester.
• Extend the engagement between established theatre venues and writers producing new work.
• Develop a sustainable pool of local and regional writers having their work produced in local and regional theatres.

We believe that the implementation of this programme will have a significant impact on the number of paid active writers within Greater Manchester (and by extension theatre practitioners of all disciplines) and will increase the programming of new, locally written work in local and regional theatres.

Arthur Stafford is Manager of The Gap Theatre Project.
theatregap.co.uk