RTYDS Connect Artist journal 9/8/21

Who are RTYDS?

The Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme (RTYDS) is a professional artist development programme for new and emerging theatre directors in the UK. The scheme seeks out and nurtures talented theatre directors; developing their skills and experience by placing them in the UK’s leading regional theatres and providing unique training and professional development opportunities.

What is a Connect Artist?

The ‘Connect Artist’ scheme was born from conversations with freelance artists during lockdown. Initially conceived as a 12 month role for two individuals, the aim of the program is to discover how we can best reach those directors and theatre makers that experience barriers and inequality because of race, gender identity, educational background, class or disability. The role has since developed into a 7 month project with a cohort of 5 different artists, myself included. RTYDS believe that this is a process that needs to be designed alongside freelance artists because their knowledge, skills, creativity and lived experience needs to sit at the heart of the change we are trying to make.

…and what does that mean, exactly?

It basically means that each artist is going to spend some time exploring more deeply how to connect with a particular community in a meaningful way. In my case, I’m interested in reaching out to South Asian artists, particularly within the East Midlands, because the numbers represented within theatre don’t represent the local communities. In particular, in the youth theatres I work with across Derby & the Midlands, I see very few Asian faces, which ultimately leads to a representation issue that gets passed down from generation to generation.

So, what are you going to do about it?

The first step is reaching out to South Asian artists across the region, to engage in conversations and find out what their perceptions of the cultural landscape are. This can be with emerging artists, to find out what training and opportunities would be most useful; or with ‘established’ artists, to hear about what the quality and quantity of roles are like for people from the South Asian diaspora. Then, if it feels right, I would like to bring these artists together, building a network that can skill share, shout about roles and opportunities, and support each others work and professional development.

I am also interested in bringing theatre to a younger generation of potential artists, to share a career in the arts as a viable future. Whether this is workshops delivered by established artists who look like them, recruiting more South Asian youngsters into existing youth theatres, or setting up a whole new group to support and nurture the next generation of young Asian talent remains to be seen. This will all be built and shaped by what the community says is missing.

When does the project start?

September 2021. To be clear, the hard aims of the placement are simply to have time to reflect and write my musings down in this journal. By the end of this role I will have a list of action points that outline a strategy for establishing this South Asian network. My personal aims are to see a quantifiable increase in the number of Asian youngsters engaging with theatre in the East Midlands, but we shall see how we get on…