The Stage

ACE children’s policy threatens to close Tiebreak

Published Tuesday 30 August 2005 at 12:10 by Alistair Smith

Arts Council England’s revised strategy for youth theatre in the east of England looks to set to cause the closure of the region’s foremost company Tiebreak.

The Norfolk-based group, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, was informed at the beginning of August that it would lose all of its £100,000 arts council subsidy as part of a funding review, leaving Tiebreak’s artistic director Dianne Hancock concerned as to whether the company will be able to operate beyond the end of the financial year.

Hancock, who replaced founding artistic director David Farmer this year and had only been in her position for one month when she discovered the company was to lose its funding, said that the decision had come as a huge blow. She added: “What has been the big shock is to go from £100,000 to nothing. We thought we did everything that ACE encouraged - we do national and international work and we employ lots of actors and writers. We are still reeling from this decision and asking where we can go from here. We can trade to the end of the financial year, possibly beyond, but this will fundamentally change the nature of how we work and we won’t be able to employ as many actors and writers as we do at the moment. There is a good possibility the company will dissolve.”

ACE defended its decision to revise the funding system to create a single regional flagship children’s and youth company, which will receive all the available revenue grants. The scheme will be put out to tender in October and the new company will become operational in February of next year.

John Davidson, head of performing arts for Arts Council England East, explained: “We have employed consultants to look at what is happening in the sector in the region and nationally. As a result, we’ve now decided upon a new way of looking at children’s theatre in the region. This has directly resulted in Tiebreak losing its funding but the money will stay in the sector.

“Prior to this financial year, we made it clear that the review might affect their funding. It was made clear that it could affect all of their funding. You don’t achieve anything without some risks but we’ve consulted both regionally and nationally and the aspiration is that we will do things better in the future.”

However, the move also brought a rebuke of the arts council’s policy from Tiebreak’s patron, children’s author David Wood.

Speaking to The Stage, he said: “I’ve had a look at this review and what strikes me as slightly odd is the fact that they seem to be starting again with a clean sweep. It’s a bit like they are throwing the baby out with the bath water. If you’ve got a company in existence which knows the system back to front, to lose that expertise seems to me to be folly.”