The Old Vic The Cut London SE1 8NB www.oldvictheatre.com evaluation
Background The Old Vic is a landmark theatre in London. It has been the home of great productions for nearly 200 years, and continues to attract the very best creative talent. For us, great theatre is about great plays, great performances and great nights out from the moment you step through the door. As important to us as what goes on stage is our award winning education, community and emerging talent programme, Old Vic New Voices (OVNV) which aims to support emerging talent, inspire young people and open up theatre to new and diverse audiences. In 2009, OVNV formed a partnership with IdeasTap, a creative online network and funding body for emerging arts talent. There are currently over 40,000 registered members, all of whom can find information about events, interact with other users and apply for projects as well as advertise their shows, form collaborations and access advice, inspiration and opportunities. OVNV and IdeasTap are particularly proud of the bespoke, member-led projects that evolve through our online forums and project briefs. This began with TURNING YOU ON, a course in promotional skills that culminated in a viral advert used to promote IdeasTap. Our online Creation versus Evolution project resulted in SYMPOSIUM; an interactive debate and performance of four new plays on The Old Vic stage. PRODUCERS CRITIQUE offered the opportunity to pitch a project to a panel of industry experts, with the winning applicant being given a free place on the Stage One Workshop. Finally SHOE STRING THEATRE provided small theatre companies with advice and mentoring on creating work on a limited budget. In 2010 OVNV and IdeasTap made the decision to develop the objective of the bespoke projects. Instead of providing projects facilitated by established arts companies, we decided to put the IdeasTap members completely in charge using the model of Roger Hart s Ladder of Young Peoples Participation. This ensured that all decision-making on the project would be shared between a young professional and an established professional. This style of project would empower the young professional; whilst at the same time allow them access to learn from the life experience and the expertise of the established professional. This project became COMING UP, the most successful OVNV and IdeasTap bespoke project to date.
COMING UP COMING UP was an opportunity to commission and develop new work for a two-week multi-disciplinary festival at Debut London in February 2011. To curate the festival we looked for individuals to form a collective of Creative Directors aged 21 30, from the worlds of fashion, film, poetry, music, photography, theatre and visual arts. We made them responsible for deciding the artistic direction and the managing and producing of the two week programme. In support of this responsibility the Creative Directors were entrusted with 40,000 of the 75,000 production budget, free rehearsal and office space, and once in the event venue full technical support. Beginning in August 2010, OVNV and IdeasTap began identifying potential Creative Directors for COMING UP to invite to a launch party at The Old Vic Tunnels. The 150 candidates invited were also encouraged to be the potential ambassadors for the project and to spread the word. On Friday 24 September 2010 the COMING UP brief was launched on www.ideastap.com. Applicants were required to provide a clear concept of their individual project (costing no more than 5,000) for inclusion in the COMING UP programme. By the closing date there were 402 interested members with 185 applications submitted. During this period an IdeasTap member was employed on a full salary to be the Company Manager; overseeing and managing the Creative Directors and to be the main point of contact for OVNV and IdeasTap. Of the 185 applicants 28 were chosen to attend a group workshop, followed by a meeting to individually pitch their project concept to a panel of industry professionals. The final eight Creative Directors selected provided a sporting entertainment event, an opera, two live music happenings, three theatrical experiences and a film festival; an exciting and eclectic mixed programme for COMING UP. At the beginning of November 2010 the eight Creative Directors and the Company Manager (The Collective) were allocated the 40,000, office space, rehearsal space, the event space and a delivery date of 21 February 5 March 2011. In return all that was demanded was an innovative and entertaining programme. Following an intensive two-month preparation period for The Collective, at the start of 2011, OVNV and IdeasTap began the COMING UP marketing campaign. This offered over 4,000 tickets free of charge and available exclusively through www.ideastap.com: two weeks before opening night COMING UP was fully booked. I got to fulfill multiple goals, and was always encouraged to fulfill my artistic vision with exceptional support, advice and facilities provided whenever needed! Creative Director Very well organised and diverse programme; suitable for all Audience member The eclectic mix of projects that made up the Festival also demonstrated the open minded attitude of OVNV and IdeasTap Audience member
Contents Aims 7 Impact 16 Summary 19 Recommendations 23 Press 25 Coming Up: An original concept by Steve Winter, Director Old Vic New Voices Producer Company Manager Production Manager Shaka Bunsie Tim Wilson Dan Marsden Supported by IdeasTap and Old Vic New Voices with additional support from and Hospital Club s Creatives in Residence Photography: Max Letek
aims 1. To involve over 2,500 IdeasTap members from a range of ages in the COMING UP project. 2. To ensure the productions presented during COMING UP have an artistic legacy. 3. To increase membership of the IdeasTap website through the COMING UP project. 4. To ensure the COMING UP project had media presence. 5. To entrust 40,000 of the production budget to the Creative Directors of COMING UP.
1. To involve over 2,500 IdeasTap members from a range of ages in the COMING UP project The festival s incredibly talented and hard-working creative directors have done a sterling job IdeasTap Editorial Team With over 40,000 registered members of www.ideastap.com it was vital that COMING UP reacted to previous project feedback, provided a range of opportunities to a range of ages, and gave priority of engagement in the project to the current members. To date over 200,000 in funding has been awarded to member projects via the Ideas Fund briefs; however, member feedback prompted OVNV to launch a project that provided funding and a venue. The project funding provided by COMING UP was supplemented with the 12-day hire of Debut London in London Bridge. In addition to announcing the COMING UP project via an external marketing campaign, OVNV and IdeasTap held a member s invite only Launch Party at The Old Vic Tunnels. Simultaneously through the use of banners, images and adverts across all pages on www.ideastap.com, the COMING UP project highjacked the site. The highjack was supported by the IdeasTap editorial team who posted articles that focused on giving advice to potential applicants. The articles asked industry professions What would you do? with the upcoming opportunity. The professionals included Paul Roseby from National Youth Theatre, Tania Harrison from Festival Republic, Steve Atkinson from HighTide and Jack Thorne, writer from Skins and Shameless. 325 IdeasTap members aged 18 30 applied to the COMING UP. This represented an amazing 74 % increase to the average number of applicants to previous briefs aimed at young producers. The eight Creative Director projects selected included a further 55 IdeasTap members within their creative teams, in addition the Ideas Club L Ouverture Band, made up of nine members aged 16 19, which performed at COMING UP. Tickets to COMING UP were free of charge and offered exclusively through www.ideastap.com. A newsletter announcing the availability of over 3,000 COMING UP tickets was sent to the 40,000 registered members a week prior to any external announcements. In the period between the internal and external announcements 93 % of the tickets were allocated, resulting in the release of a further 1,000 tickets. Finally, during the COMING UP performances 15 IdeasTap members aged 16+ volunteered to join the Front of House team. At the end of the project the number of IdeasTap members involved in COMING UP totalled over 3,500. This is a massive career opportunity! Creative Director It was GENUINELY phenomenal; I couldn t believe it was for free! Audience member
2. To ensure that the productions presented during COMING UP have an artistic legacy COMING UP has had a clear impact on the professional development and future careers of the eight Creative Directors. There was an expectation on the Creative Directors to make the most of this opportunity by inviting observers that could provide the next step for their own individual projects. In support of this, OVNV also invited its list of industry contacts and previous Friends or Supporters of The Old Vic. Significantly, all eight projects have been provided with opportunities to develop artistically in the future. The sporting entertainment event Britwrest-Fest has been asked to provide team building wrestling camps for businesses and is working with an independent studio to produce Wrestling and Mixed Martial Arts TV shows. Silent Opera has set up a site-specific opera company and are in discussions with English National Opera. C-Rooms and Underbelly are to produce Strauss Salome. Both live music events will happen again: Old Roots New Routes are to meet with the Arts Council and Tate Modern to extend the project; and one of the Electric Tunnels acts was signed off the back of their performance. Eat Your Heart Out have been contacted by BBC Radio 4 to discuss their work on Front Row, and they also have an expressed interest from The Secret Garden Party with White Label UK, happy to support the future incarnation. The Creative Director of Coalition has been recently hired as the Producer of The Bush Theatre and the team behind Civil Unrest are working on two new projects together. Finally, the original film commissioned for Underground Cinema will tour the film festival circuit internationally, and will be screened to many new audiences. The rare opportunity to test my vision and abilities in a field that is relatively new to me A very nurturing and supportive environment to work in The Creative Directors I d hope that in the future these creatives could be the next group of artists who presage a shift in the industry and artforms. This would not happen if it wasn,t for the level of support and trust given here Audience member
3. To increase membership of the IdeasTap website through the COMING UP project During the period of time from September 2010 March 2011 there were 67 pages launched in relation to the COMING UP project on www.ideastap.com. These pages were viewed a total of 43,035 times. The briefs launched offering the opportunity to participate in COMING UP had a total of 12,797 views with a total of 325 applications uploaded. The tickets for COMING UP were free of charge and available exclusively through www.ideastap.com. The total number of views of the ticketing page was 3,415, with the number of ticket order confirmation e-mails sent out for Coming Up totalling 2,617. Previous to the launch of COMING UP a target of 500 new member sign ups during the longevity of the project was set. Whilst we are unable to calculate member sign ups specifically related to a project, the period from October 2010 to the end of February 2011 www.ideastap.com had a total of 7,045 new member sign ups; an increase of 17 %. There isn t enough out there for young people to get involved with, especially if you don,t have a lot of experience behind you but you are keen to build upon that experience. If you guys do Coming Up next year, I definitely would like to jump on board! Audience member We sent out an entirely Coming Up-focused newsletter to promote ticket sales. The result was the highest day s traffic we ve ever had IdeasTap Editor IdeasTap members were out in force showing their support a predictably mixed crowed rubbed shoulder including the self-named Accidental Fan who had happened upon the night wandering the streets of London Bridge IdeasTap team
4. To ensure the COMING UP project had media presence In addition to marketing the COMING UP project to the IdeasTap membership it was also important to spread the word externally. The project encapsulated the IdeasTap philosophy of providing funding, career development, and advice by encouraging creative collaboration. Moreover, with the coalition government calling for more philanthropic donations to boost arts funding in the United Kingdom COMING UP became the ideal opportunity to market www.ideastap.com. Mobius Industries PR was comissioned by OVNV and IdeasTap to assist with the external marketing campaign. Using the new government initiative, COMING UP and www.ideastap.com were promoted nationwide through The Stage, Evening Standard, the Independent and Guardian newspapers. The articles focused on the unique strategy taken by IdeasTap and OVNV to fund and ultimately put The Collective in charge of producing COMING UP. To support the articles COMING UP was also included in numerous online theatre listing sites including Time Out, Frost Magazine, TheatreFix, Kadmus Arts, Spoonfed, Flavorpill, Visit London, View London and All In London. The external marketing campaign resulted in specific productions being reviewed by online theatre bloggers including Biting Point, Purple Radio and Carousel of Fantasies. Notably the Creative Director of Silent Opera was interviewed by Time Out and was asked to write an article for the Guardian. We have the potential to reach an entirely new audience... It s shaping up to be an incredible and utterly unique event Arthur Cauty, Hard Knocks This is the first review I ve written where, this far in, I still haven t mentioned costumes, scenery or even acting! I think this says a lot about the novelty of the experience Art Bear from the surreal to the sublime; think wrestling, a silent opera, a folk-hip-hop collaboration and a theatrical cooking banquet creative producers have been given the opportunity to divide up the cash and put their ideas into play Victoria Stewart, Evening Standard
5. To entrust 40,000 of the production budget to the Creative Directors of COMING UP In addition to the office space at IdeasTap Headquarters, rehearsal space in Central London, and the two week hire of Debut London as the event space, The Collective of eight Creative Directors were entrusted with 40,000 of the overall 75,000 production budget to allocate to each of their projects, thereby allowing COMING UP to achieve the highest level of Hart s Ladder of Youth Participation. The money was to be allocated equally between their individual projects to cover marketing, the fees of their creative team, project specific technical crew, and the purchase/hire of any necessary costume, props and set. However, entrusting complete control of this part of the production budget to The Collective also carried a risk due to their inexperience, and unfortunately resulted in two oversights. In the intensive two month period producing their individual projects they neglected to allocate the necessary funds to individually market their projects and overlooked the need to hire the specific technical crew to support the production management team at the venue during the event. Handing control of a part of the production budget over to The Collective always carried a risk. Nonetheless, it was decided that it would be a pity to allow the two oversights to affect their positive experience of the project. As a consequence, IdeasTap and OVNV provided an additional 15,000 to the overall production budget. IdeasTap and OVNV wanted COMING UP to provide real life situations for the professional development of young artists. Whilst in real life 15,000 might not just materialise, the compromise represented the understanding that we were not just investing in talented young people, but also accepting and exploring new and innovative ways of working. Stay firm on a decision about money, and don t waiver from the boundaries you set Creative Director The idea is that they have special talent, are experienced in their field and looking for new things...it s good that they make mistakes as they will have been given the chance to experiment Peter de Haan
SUMMARY COMING UP was hugely successful in the fact that it engaged so many IdeasTap members. However, the decision to put a Collective of young creatives completely in charge of the festival, with all the problems that could incur, was the principal achievement. Providing funding directly to the projects of novice producers with new untested ideas based solely on their potential, and handing over a portion of the festival production budget for them to control was a worthwhile experiment when we analyse the remarkable final results of COMING UP. Over 300 people applied to be a Producer on COMING UP, with 55 IdeasTap members involved with creating the final product. Throughout the intensive two month preparation period the eight members of The Collective continually rose to the challenge and gained the real life producing experience of bringing together and managing the creative team on their projects, liaising with the production management team during the technical rehearsal period and ensuring the integrity of their original project concept. With the addition of the professional support from IdeasTap and OVNV, COMING UP provided an experience that is continuing to inform the future of their projects. The COMING UP festival was well received due to its varied and diverse programme. Every show was fully booked well in advance with a total of over 4,000 tickets to the event being booked. During the period of the COMING UP project the membership of www.ideastap.com increased by 17 %, an indicator of the appeal of this type of opportunity to potential members of www.ideastap.com. In conclusion, COMING UP is best summarised by the following quotation from one of the audience members: History is made by the young. If it wasn t for events like Coming Up, a generation of practitioners would have to wait years to get the same level of freedom and even then it may not happen. If you look back at arts history you always have groups of people coming through together, supporting and influencing each other the Beat poets, the Bloomsbury set, Monty Python. I d hope that in the future these creatives could be the next group of artists who presage a shift in the industry and art forms. This would not happen if it wasn t for the level of support and trust given here
Recommendations Areas that could be improved in the future are: Stage Management teams to support the Creative Directors Future projects selected will be allocated a Stage Manager or Deputy Stage Manager during the preparation period. This role would also be as the technical representative for the Creative Directors during production meetings and the liaison between the Producers and production management team during the event. OVNV Company Manager Role In the future, the Company Manager will be a representative from OVNV, ensuring that certain vital elements are not overlooked by The Collective. The result will be that The Collective are better informed when the overall project has to deal with unforeseeable changes. Projects staying within tighter budget control earlier on Once The Collective was created they decided to look for external funding to add to their projects. This decision resulted in projects either exceeding the agreed scale of the final production or elongating the preparation period, using time from the technical development stage. The selection of the event space The event space will be presented to The Collective as a receiving venue, even though the space provided is site-specific. This will allow the production management team to be more supportive when a Creative Director is realising a project and also allow them room to provide more technical elements to the projects. Tighter control of box office Whilst all COMING UP tickets were booked, the actual audience attendance was relatively low. This could be alleviated by charging for tickets. Whilst this could be seen as contradictory to the ethos of the project, it is important to be aware that collaboration also includes the audience. To a community of artists, booking and attending have to be one in the same. To this end, charging for a ticket is one way to add significance to a booking. Additionally, there is also the need to limit the number of tickets an individual can book as ten tickets booked by an individual who does not attend has a significant effect on attendance figures and the availability of tickets to other potential bookers.