To survive, theatre must change – a ‘return to normal’ is not an option

What if every theatre and theatre company saw itself as a community theatre company? What if institutions handed over power to young people to tell their own stories and develop their creativity? What if youth workers were seen as being arts workers, and every community had an artist in its midst? What if producers were less fixated on product and accepted that a process by which artists work in and with communities takes place over many years? What if theatres were programmed by local people and co-creation was the norm?

These are not my ideas but are among those put forward in the first few episodes of CulturePlanB, a new podcast created by David Jubb, former artistic director of Battersea Arts Centre, and director Matthew Dunster.

Jubb’s thesis is that most of what is new, artistically adventurous and transforming in British theatre comes not out of institutions but from the independent sector and freelancers. The podcasts focus on companies and individual artists who are changing what we think the arts and theatre can be and how it might operate. Or indeed what it means to be an artist or a national portfolio organisation.

There’s Conrad Murray, who runs BAC’s Beatbox Academy, which produced the astonishing Frankenstein and changes young people’s lives every day. Then there’s Anisa Morridadi, founder of Beatfreeks, the Birmingham community of young creatives set up to break down the institutional divide between those who run the city and the young people who are inheriting it, and Rhiannon White and Evie Manning of Common Wealth, a company that works with and within working-class communities.

As the pandemic unfolds, it often feels as if much of the theatre ecology is just desperately trying to think of ways to return to normal

Jubb told me that Covid-19 focused his desire to make a podcast, as he saw a difference between “theatre and artists responding to the needs of the moment and what people and communities need, and theatre responding to the needs of the sector”. As Jubb suggests, one makes theatre “relevant and essential”, the other makes the sector “come across as a self-interested group of people navel-gazing”.

As the pandemic unfolds, it often feels as if much of the theatre ecology is just desperately trying to think of ways to return to normal. Or at least as close an approximation of normal as is possible in the circumstances. After the initial shock of dealing with the shutdown itself and the pains of un-producing shows, many went helter-skelter into posting or creating digital content without a pause for breath.

As US arts leader Nina Simon – whose book The Art of Relevance is a must-read for all interested in the future of the arts – said in an excellent post on web platform Medium: “In the race to deliver, I worry we may distract ourselves from the potential to envision and deliver true community value.”