I received the following letter this morning:
16 April 2013
Dear Mr Kennedy
I am writing to thank you and your colleague Helen Campbell-Pickford for the time and effort that you both put into producing your report, ‘In Battalions’, looking at the state of new theatre writing.
I welcome the work that you have done to take the temperature of the sector at these challenging times. I sent your report to the Arts Council so that they could give consideration to the issues.
It may not surprise you to know that I do not accept some of the dire predictions coming out of this report. It is easy to highlight fears and concerns within the sector – natural as they may be – but much harder to work out how to deal with them amidst an extremely challenging financial situation. This Government is wholly committed to arts and culture and I am determined to do everything I can to make sure that the sector gets through this difficult period without long term damage. We are doing this by prioritising funding going directly to arts organisations.
But we need to reduce the deficit, and DCMS sectors need to play their part in that. In the longer term our sectors, which rely on a mixed funding model, will benefit hugely from a strong economy and stable public finances. Overall, if you take into account direct Government funding and National Lottery funding, Arts Council England will receive £2.9billion in funding for the arts over the life of this Parliament, 2010-2015. That is in part down to our actions to restore the arts share of Lottery income to its original percentage, raising it from 16% to 20%.
Looking specifically at your concerns, Arts Council England has sought to protect its investment in both writer development and the production of new work during the last funding round. Most theatres that present new writing received a below average cash cut in funding of just 2.3%. Theatres with an important new writing record, such as the Royal Court, Live Theatre Newcastle and Paines Plough received an above-average rise in funding.
The Arts Council’s Grants for the Arts Lottery-funded programme also supports new writing. In 2011/12 it funded projects which were wholly focused on new writing to the value of £2,792,727. In 2010/11 the value was £2,040,485 and in the first six months of this financial year the value was £1,070,899.
The Arts Council also held a workshop for 40 playwrights to offer support and guidance on making applications to its Grants for the Arts programme. I believe that the Arts Council may also have met with you to discuss writer development and how Grants for the Arts funding can help.
Of the eighteen organisations that responded by name in your survey I noticed that eight have actually received significant increases in funding for this year set against 2011/2012 and one organisation shows no change in their funding. Furthermore of all theatre organisations which are funded, 24 received increases in funding set against 23 which show reductions whilst 11 showed no change. Overall funding for this year for the organisations mentioned in the report stands at £66m set against a figure of £50m for 2011/2012, an increase of over 30%.
Whilst I in no way deny the overriding concern being felt in the sector at this difficult time, I was also interested and heartened to read some of the comments in the report that speak of optimism, resilience, innovation, and making the most of the way the Government is continuing to support the sector.
There is no room for complacency, but plenty of scope to innovate in order to preserve and foster the high quality new theatre writing.
Ed Vaizey MP
Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries
This letter is available as a PDF download here.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Friday, April 12, 2013
An open letter to Culture Minister Ed Vaizey
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 12 April 2013 (updated 13 April)
GETTING
THE MINISTER'S ATTENTION
British
theatre's top playwrights and directors sign open letter to Ed Vaizey
Over sixty
of the UK's best-known theatrical luminaries - including Dame Helen Mirren, Sir
Tom Stoppard, Michael Frayn, Caryl Churchill, Mike Leigh, Sir Richard Eyre and
the incoming artistic director of the Royal Court Theatre Vicky Featherstone -
have signed an open letter to Culture Minister Ed Vaizey, urging him to take
seriously a recent report into the threat to new British playwriting posed by
the Government's latest round of spending cuts.
The
independent report, In
Battalions,
researched and written by playwright Fin Kennedy with support from Oxford
University's Helen Campbell Pickford, drew on data from surveys sent to
theatres across the country. The results showed venues having to cancel
productions, produce fewer new plays, commission fewer writers, and cancel a
whole host of creative research and development – from attachment programmes,
to open access workshops, to new writer development schemes, to unsolicited
script reading. As well as cuts closing down entry points to the profession,
the report also identified a creeping culture of risk-aversion around new work,
as financial instability takes hold.
Theatre
professionals contributing to the report voiced serious concerns about the
diminishing opportunities for today's young playwrights to develop their
talents - and stressed the importance of theatre as the training ground for the
TV, radio and film industries. All stand to lose a generation of talent - with
writers from less privileged backgrounds particularly badly hit.
The
potential impact on the British film industry was evidenced by the inclusion of
some prominent screenwriters among the letter's signatories - Simon Beaufoy,
author of multi-award winning movies The Full Monty
and Slumdog
Millionaire, and Peter Straughan, who wrote the screen adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier
Spy.
The report was
sent to Ed Vaizey's office on 12th February - two months ago - but its authors
have yet to receive a response.
The open
letter to Mr Vaizey - signed by War Horse director
Tom Morris, One
Man, Two Guv'nors author
Richard Bean, Iron
Lady screenwriter
Abi Morgan and the RSC's Dennis Kelly, adapter of hit musical Matilda -
expresses disappointment with the Minister's public remarks, in particular a
recent speech in which he said that to suggest there is any sort of crisis in
the arts is "rubbish" and "scaremongering".
The letter
reads: "We believe the findings of In Battalions are
to be taken seriously. They are representative of a wider trend within our
industry. If the next generation of playwrights are not properly supported,
this could seriously affect output in a few years’ time, and new plays are
vital to the future health of British theatre – not to mention a driver of
growth in the economy."
Fin Kennedy,
the report's author said: "Ed Vaizey and the DCMS have had my report now
for two months. That's as long as my researcher and I took to research and
write it. We took the project on in our own time in good faith, and in response
to comments made to me by Mr Vaizey himself, that Arts Council cuts were having
"no effect". He offered to look over any evidence to the contrary,
and even to raise it with the Arts Council if I could show there was a problem.
I believe we have showed there's a problem, but Mr Vaizey seems unwilling to
accept the evidence we have sent him. In an email to one concerned young writer
he said: "There is no evidence of any impact on new writing." Anyone
who's read my report will see that that's demonstrably untrue. We're still
really keen to engage with Mr Vaizey about our ideas for how to fix this problem
- he's our Culture Minister after all - but we really do need him to take this
issue seriously and to engage with us, as he promised he would."
The open
letter calls on Mr Vaizey to undertake his own research, ending: "If
[your] response is still that there is “no evidence” then we would ask that you
provide evidence of your own, which backs up your position as thoroughly as the
In Battalions
authors have backed up theirs. "
The full
list of signatories to the letter reads like a Who's Who of British theatre. It
includes playwrights Simon Stephens, Timberlake Wertenbaker, David Edgar,
Howard Brenton, April de Angelis, Mark Ravenhill, Peter Whelan, Peter Gill and
Sir Arnold Wesker, directors Michael Attenborough, Dominic Dromgoole, Max
Stafford Clark, Ian Rickson, Melly Still and Rufus Norris, and actors Penelope
Wilton, Sam West and Sheila Hancock.
Ed Vaizey
and the DCMS have yet to respond.
Ends.
Notes
for Editors
The full
letter and list of signatories can be downloaded from: bit.ly/14gTtWF
The original
In Battalions report
can be downloaded for free from: bit.ly/12WleC5
Fin Kennedy
is an award-winning playwright, theatre blogger and member of the Writers'
Guild of Great Britain's Theatre Committee. www.finkennedy.co.uk
Helen
Campbell Pickford is a doctoral student at St Antony’s College, Oxford,
researching the use of theatre by NGOs to engage with communities in developing
countries.
The open letter and signatories list in full:
Mr Ed Vaizey MP
Parliamentary
Under Secretary of State for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries
House of
Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
12 April
2013
Dear Ed Vaizey,
Re: In Battalions
We, the
undersigned, are writing in support of In Battalions,
the independent report by Fin Kennedy and Helen Campbell Pickford about how
Arts Council cuts are affecting new plays and playwrights in England, which was
submitted to your office on 12 February.
As you will
recall, data within the report from surveys completed by theatres across the
country showed venues having to cancel productions, produce fewer new plays,
commission fewer writers, and cancel a whole host of creative research and
development – from new writer development schemes, to open access workshops, to
attachment programmes and unsolicited script reading.
We believe
the findings of In
Battalions are to be taken seriously. They are representative of a wider
trend within our industry. If the next generation of playwrights are not
properly supported, this could seriously affect output in a few years’ time,
and new plays are vital to the future health of British theatre – not to
mention a driver of growth in the economy.
In Battalions was conceived in response to
your remarks that Arts Council cuts are having “no effect”. Fin Kennedy
and his researcher have risen to this challenge and undertaken a detailed study
to provide you with evidence to the contrary.
We have been
disappointed by your public remarks that there is still “no evidence” and that
to say otherwise is “rubbish” and “scaremongering”. We call on you to
take In Battalions
seriously, and to issue its authors with an appropriate, personalised response.
If that
response is still that there is “no evidence” then we would ask that you
provide evidence of your own, which backs up your position as thoroughly as the
In Battalions
authors have backed up theirs.
Yours sincerely,
Sam Adamson
Bola Agbaje
Oladipo
Agboluaje
Michael
Attenborough
Sam Bain
Simon
Beaufoy
Richard Bean
Jack Bradley
Howard
Brenton
Leo Butler
Caryl
Churchill
Ryan Craig
Martin Crimp
Tim Crouch
Tim Crouch
John Crowley
April de
Angelis
Nick Dear
Matthew
Dunster
Dominic
Dromgoole
David Edgar
David
Eldridge
Samantha
Ellis
Sir Richard
Eyre CBE
Vicky
Featherstone
Michael
Frayn
Robin French
Peter Gill
OBE
Lisa Goldman
James Graham
David Greig
Sheila
Hancock CBE
David
Harrower
Robert
Holman
Judith
Johnson
Dennis Kelly
Lucy
Kirkwood
Mike Leigh
OBE
Rebecca
Lenkiewicz
Anders
Lustgarten
Duncan
Macmillan
Ian MacNeil
Prof Frank
McGuinness
Dame Helen
Mirren
Abi Morgan
Tom Morris
Anthony
Neilson
Rufus Norris
Nick Payne
Lucy Prebble
Rebecca
Prichard
Andre
Ptaszynski
Mark
Ravenhill
Dan
Rebellato
Ian Rickson
Mhora Samuel
Max Stafford
Clark
Polly
Stenham
Emma
Stenning
Simon
Stephens
Melly Still
Sir Tom
Stoppard CBE
Peter
Straughan
Colin Teevan
Jack Thorne
David Tse
Ka-Shing
Laura Wade
Dawn Walton
Matthew
Warchus
Steve Waters
Timberlake Wertenbaker
Timberlake Wertenbaker
Sir Arnold
Wesker
Samuel West
Peter Whelan
Amanda
Whittington
Roy Williams
OBE
Penelope
Wilton OBE
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