NEST Fest
So... One of the member of the North East Sustained Theatre Regional Hub: "NEST" came up with an idea for a festival to showcase the work of the groups members.
We had a meeting and came up with a whole list of potential projects that might make up perhaps a two week programme that could be shown first in Tyne and Wear and then in Teesside. I was pleased that something so positive was at last coming out of a group in which I was frankly beginning to lose faith: there is a facebook page, but 95% of the posts and updates are from me, of the 40 people on the mailing list responses only ever came from the same 4 or 5 people and worst of all: few of them were willing to stick their necks out re claiming the Arts Council grant for a building in support of their own development.
It was decided that an application for funding would be submitted to facilitate two weeks of "Research and Development" work: artists would book "workshop" space to explore ideas and test collaborations that could lead to shows for the festival programme. They were asked to submit ideas for what they wanted to do during that period- only ONE responded. Nevertheless, I drafted an application and provided them with access to it so they could make comments, raise objections etc. The same person was the only one to respond.
I called another meeting to discuss the application etc. Despite alerts over three or more weeks, only six or seven people attended. It was soon clear that few if any of them had even read the application and most of them had something to say about it. As a result of issues I will write about in another post, I had by that time pretty much lost interest in the whole thing- not just NEST Fest, but the entire Sustained Theatre charade. I made it clear I was no longer "committed" to the project but that I would complete the things I had said I would deliver so long as I received input from the members. We will see...
We had a meeting and came up with a whole list of potential projects that might make up perhaps a two week programme that could be shown first in Tyne and Wear and then in Teesside. I was pleased that something so positive was at last coming out of a group in which I was frankly beginning to lose faith: there is a facebook page, but 95% of the posts and updates are from me, of the 40 people on the mailing list responses only ever came from the same 4 or 5 people and worst of all: few of them were willing to stick their necks out re claiming the Arts Council grant for a building in support of their own development.
It was decided that an application for funding would be submitted to facilitate two weeks of "Research and Development" work: artists would book "workshop" space to explore ideas and test collaborations that could lead to shows for the festival programme. They were asked to submit ideas for what they wanted to do during that period- only ONE responded. Nevertheless, I drafted an application and provided them with access to it so they could make comments, raise objections etc. The same person was the only one to respond.
I called another meeting to discuss the application etc. Despite alerts over three or more weeks, only six or seven people attended. It was soon clear that few if any of them had even read the application and most of them had something to say about it. As a result of issues I will write about in another post, I had by that time pretty much lost interest in the whole thing- not just NEST Fest, but the entire Sustained Theatre charade. I made it clear I was no longer "committed" to the project but that I would complete the things I had said I would deliver so long as I received input from the members. We will see...
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