Ladies and gents, men and women, boys and girls –
Sadly (for me) I won't have the pleasure of your company Friday and Saturday.
I'm watching a relative get married in Nottingham.
I hope the pieces go well and much is learned.
I hope you all have fun.
But not too much fun. Especially the actors. You've all got lines and that to remember.
Have a great party too.

x

 out of  found this valuable. Do you find this valuable?    

Inasmuch as I believe Sarah's reasoning and conclusions are flawed, something I will address both privately and online, I would like to echo Liam's thanks right now for all the incredible help that she has given, and all of the work that that has entailed in keeping things running as smoothly possible.

Thanks Sarah. You've been a star.

x

3  out of 4 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?    

Dear all,

I would like to say on behalf of the Factory how much it saddens us that Sarah has felt the need to resign. She has always been a hugely appreciated and valued member of the company and her skills, talent , energy and commitment will be greatly missed! We have and will continue to talk to Sarah in person about this.

On a similar note I would like to point out that the views posted in reply to the discussion about the opportunities offered to Women within the company are not those held by 'The Factory Management' as a whole and not representative of company ethos. We have been very aware of this discussion and have been trying to listen to and understand what the thoughts of the company are before responding with a clear idea on our views and how best to move forward. This of course is not an absurd discussion but one that we are now very aware of and something we hope to deal better with in the future. We welcome the discussion on this, or any topic, as the only way we can improve/change or diversify is by open discussion.
There will be more from us soon on this subject and do continue to discuss - it is the point of such a forum
In the meantime can I again say how dismayed we are to loose Sarah and thank her for all the time and energy she has put towards the Factory cause. More than anyone Sarah has been a core company member and I can only hope that her decision is not as final as she says. We are truly sorry to have you made her feel this way!
We encourage you all to discuss such matters with us and would like to make clear that we want to be as approachable and accountable as possible on any matters that are important to our company members. We were, and still are, in the process of arranging a company wide 'AGM' of sorts for the beginning of next month to discuss such points - among many others. We'll be sending out the information within the next few weeks.
All our best - The Factory

3  out of 3 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?    

Hey guys,

you are all invited to "Big Kids Big Night Out" on Thursday night. at The Gate in Notting Hill. It's a Fundraiser for a young new theatre production company, which is producing my play.

Here are the details... http://www.publicpropertytheplay.com/bigkids/flyer.html

Hope to see you there!

Sam x

 out of  found this valuable. Do you find this valuable?    

yup.
It is about blurring certain edges and rewriting the relationship between actor and writer which in some ways over time in this part of the world anyway, has calcified into something distant and mutually mistrustful or perhaps (sometimes and worse) the opposite.
I think you have summed up what I think is our still-evolving mission... to get the writer and actor into a complex tango, all arms and legs so maybe at some whirring point we are no longer able to work out who is who. That relinquishing of control which we have a not-very-straightforward collective dedication to.
I also think the Factory Feedback Thingy is still far from ideal. it is a hard job but I KNOW there is a way in which we can offer the writer something very special in that task... it's ongoing... I have some thoughts we will try out on some sacrificial souls.
Great Stuff - and...er... I am writing a responding blog... it will go up here somewhere soon-ish.
x

 out of  found this valuable. Do you find this valuable?    

Show Last Reply

I have recently joined the site following seeing both Hamlet (twice) and The Seagull this weekend at the Bristol Jam, Bristol Old Vic. I simply don't have time enough to go to each of your profiles and 'compliment' you on what I saw, so this will have to do. I have spent 9 of the fastest, most entertaining, engaging and moving hours of my life watching your shows this weekend. Never did I think that death by rubik's cube could be so gut-wrenching, and how exciting to see our wooden buddha used to such effect. I am astounded by your imagination and trust in each other. Very exciting.

But enough gushing. Fancy setting up a Bristol branch?

 out of  found this valuable. Do you find this valuable?    

Show Last Reply

of course there is an act of faith in every relationship, but in the last 5 Factory projects, women have not even been equal - not even equal! - to men, as either actors, directors or writers. how long are the women expected to have faith for?

of course i'm not suggesting that any of the people invovled in the difficult decision making process are purposely and conciously holding back the women, and maybe the problem is as deeply ingrained as John suggests. if this is the case, how does the factory go about addressing it? positive discrimination has been slapped down, so i guess we are back to trust.

maybe we don't do anything. let the factory find it's feet, see what we have, and take it from there. i agree that the work comes first, however i do think that the work could still have come first and the factory invovled more women in it's last lot of projects. just saying 'the work should come first' could imply that female involvment might have brought the standard down. which i don't believe. but i'm a woman, so perhaps biased.

i will write more anon, but i have to leave it short and sweet for now xx

1  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?    

patriarchal values infuse every aspect of Western culture so yes it cld be argued that what we expect from a play could well be "a bit boy". What can we do about it? Being curious is a good start. Being angry is a bit finite. Stats are interesting but in themselves a "bit boy" implying quality-judgement and quantifiability in a process which is ineffable at best.
What I want to say here and I am not going to say it again is that this project was and still is ALL ABOUT PROCESS; the platform change that we are arrived at here at Swiss Cottage is NOT marked "good plays get off here - the rest of you stay where you are" - and ironically I find it a"boy" reading to see it that way. The process and the learning and the fun continues - I don't think I or anyone has knowingly indicated or said differently.
There was a very interesting study done in America which revealed that in playwrighting the lack of opportunities for women was significantly exacerbated in theatres in which a female literary manager/artistic director was incumbent. (I will post a url when I have it...)
No I don't know what that means either but I am, I promise, examining my conscience and haven't found black and grain'd spots yet... or not more so than usual.
Thanks John for pitching in.

 out of  found this valuable. Do you find this valuable?    

Show Last Reply

When someone doesn’t pick my play it’s because they’re an idiot. A horrible idiot ******** who wouldn’t know good theatre if it shagged them in a meadow. And time and history will prove me right and so on, and so forth. Then after awhile I get over it and myself. Cause life’s a bit like that.

My only point is this. There are a million reasons why someone else’s play gets picked rather than our play. So it may be nothing to do with our gender that our play is or isn’t picked. After all, there are so many other possible reasons. But that doesn’t mean that sometimes that might be the reason.

My guess is that no one ever sits down in a room and says ‘This year, we need to make sure we do more plays by boys than girls. That’s what we really need to do’. But then my guess is that George W Bush never sat down in a room with anyone and said, ‘You know what this country needs? Oil. So let’s attack a country we know for a fact poses us no threat, and take theirs’. I don’t think anyone ever said that. But just because no one says these things doesn’t mean they don’t happen. They do.

On a practical note, ‘blind’ submissions sent under pseudonyms might be a good idea. The Bruntwood playwrighting award does this.

1  out of 1 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?    

Show Last Reply

Or are the criteria by which we judge ‘good’ writing skewed towards a boy’s way of thinking? I run a playwrighting MA and the basis or most of what we think of as Western writing is Aristotle (boy). Also Mamet’s a pretty big influence on ‘how to write’ (he’s about as ‘boy’ as you can get) and we owe a big debt to Pinter (pretty sure he’s a boy). Much writing theory focuses on the tactics by which we attempt to overcome the obstacles to our desires. Which is a pretty good place to start with writing as it goes but I do wonder if it’s a bit ‘boy’ in its conception of drama as a kind of sport. This is a question really. Is the way we think about plays a bit ‘boy’? I think you know what I mean by ‘boy’. It’s not the same as male or female.

Or maybe boys are just better at writing than girls? I’m tempted to suggest this is the case just for the perverse thrill of starting a big fight, but I just don’t believe it myself. Plus I’m a bit scared of the girls. I’m joking. Well, I’m not, but I am.

By joking I don’t mean to imply it’s not an important thing to talk about. It is. As if lower pay and workplaces geared towards men aren’t enough. Pshaw! 42 to 18 is a big difference. Maybe it actually is fair, but it certainly doesn’t look fair, and that’s worth thinking about.

It can be hard though, because if (as I’m suggesting might be the case) ‘boy’ thinking is ingrained into theatre culture, then how do we even know if we’re doing it? And even if we do suspect we might be programmed to praise ‘boy’ more than ‘girl’ then how do we stop? If I like a play I like a play I like a play. If I like play A more than play B because it has ‘boy’ qualities that through cultural indoctrination I’ve come to assume are ‘good’ qualities, and the level at which I make that assumption is so deep I’m not even aware I’m doing it, what am I supposed to do about it? Pretend I like play B because I think it’s the right thing to do?

 out of  found this valuable. Do you find this valuable?