In this conversation Naomi talks to Theatre Director Tanushka Marah about how she ensures people have a positive experience.

Tanushka talks about how you are not just making a show, you are also building a community and creating a culture. She talks about how there is a positive experience that comes from the striving and the struggle for the collective discovery of reaching for the impossible.

She talks about the conventions that she has in place during sessions, such as a check in, technique work, ensemble working before starting to rehearse. She reflects on being able to observe the relationships between people in the room and seeing that these are positive and reciprocal for people.

No matter how big the cast is she tries to check in with everyone individually. She places great importance on the space and time before rehearsals or in the breaks, noticing the people who are on their own looking awkward and checking in with them.

She talks about the challenges when there is so much diversity in the room. There needs to be continual care and support to keep people engaged. She talks about the importance of getting people to work together independently so that they create their own relationships with each other. When friendships start to form the social glue also keeps people happy and engaged with the process.

Tanushka talks about the importance of making people feel like there are no stupid ideas. It can also be as simple as ensuring that people are fed and watered. There needs to be camaraderie and playfulness in the room. It is a real duty to generate a positive atmosphere. People love the joy of co-creating and working together, without observation, spreading out across the whole building. Even the ideas that don’t get used help you see where you are not going and are invaluable.

In this episode Naomi talks to freelance artist Dan Thompson about the responsibility of knowing an appropriate amount about who you are working with.

Dan talks about the impact that the work can have on people who participate in it. At its most basic level we need to know their access needs. But at a deeper level we need to understand who they are and why they are participating in the project.

He talks about the diversity of approaches that are needed when working in different contexts. Sometimes it is a deep, long term relationship and other times it is more of a fleeting relationship. As a freelance artist he has his own safeguarding policy in place. This doesn’t need to be complicated - his is less than one side of A4.

Quite often he doesn’t know anything about what has happened in someone’s life and he is okay with that. There is a discussion about the freedom in not knowing and being able to treat everyone equally. Sometimes this enables people to participate in an art project for the first time as they are free of any label or preconceptions of them.

Each artist needs to decide for themselves how much they need to know in each context they are working in. Dan talks about how layered and complex this decision making process is. When it works it can change people’s lives.

Dan talks about a challenge involved being around holding people’s traumatic stories. He talks about the importance of having someone that the artist can talk to and offload what they have heard to. A risk of not knowing enough is that it is possible to alienate people so that they do not come back again. With all of it, Dan believes that artists need to be kind and decent to the people they are working with.

Naomi Alexander is the CEO and Artistic Director of Brighton People's Theatre. Her AHRC funded research identified 20 qualities, skills and responsibilities that are important for artists leading co-creative practice. The report and illustrations are available here.

X: https://twitter.com/naomi_ontheatre

IG: https://www.instagram.com/naomi.ontheatre/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomiontheatre/

Dan Thompson is a Freelance Artist. You can find out more about his work here.

X: https://twitter.com/artistsmakers

IG: https://www.instagram.com/danthompson33/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-thompson-397501/

In this episode, Naomi has a conversation with her colleague at Brighton People's Theatre; Jack Parris, about the responsibility of creating a structure or purpose. He talks about the importance of this responsibility because without it, the work can feel uncontained and daunting. The structure creates limitations and gives a picture to everyone involved in the project of what the parameters are for people to play in.

Jack tries to communicate as clearly as possible about where we are in the co-creation process. He tries to generate as much clarity as possible to demystify the theatre making process so that people have an overview of the structure and purpose.

When the structure and purpose is clear, you see people really playing with freedom. With clear parameters the conversation is richer and people feel safer. There is a safe container for the work.

It is challenging during co-created work to hold this responsibility as there are so many unknowns during the process. Jack talks about the importance of being able to be clear about what is known and unknown at each moment in the process. This can be frustrating for people who might feel less comfortable working with so many unknowns. It can also be challenging letting go of ideas, as not everything that is suggested can be integrated into the final project. Having a clear purpose on why we are doing this can help with decision making, but at the start of a process even the purpose will not be clear.

There are risks if this is not held effectively that people lose interest in the work and get confused about what they are doing and why. It is really important to have as much clarity as possible for the organisation, starting at the top with a clear vision and mission. This enables decision making to become clearer and easier with a clear purpose and structure guiding the work.

Naomi Alexander is the CEO and Artistic Director of Brighton People's Theatre. Her AHRC funded research Let's Create: Do we know how to? identified 20 qualities, skills and responsibilities that are important for artists leading co-creative practice. The report and illustrations are available here.

X: https://twitter.com/naomi_ontheatre

IG: https://www.instagram.com/naomi.ontheatre/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomiontheatre/

Jack Parris is the Associate Director of Brighton People's Theatre.

IG: https://www.instagram.com/jackparrisd/