Eton College has a 401 seat theatre, 2 separate studio spaces n puts on 20 productions a yr
Tom Hiddleston n Eddie Redmayne were in an adaptation of EM Forster’s A Passage to India at Eton
my school didnt offer GCSE Drama cos they couldnt afford a teacher and had no facilities
since i was last in here the NT appear to have embarked on a ruthless campaign to remove all fucking plug sockets from their front of house.
rufus, i have paid 30 pounds for a ham sandwich and a flat white.
give me some leccy
WE GOT ARTS COUNCIL FUNDING!!! 🥳
ecstatic to be kicking off 2021 with my first ever funded project bid!
I’ll be working with an absolutely stellar team of creatives over the coming months to deliver The Places In Between: LCN > SHF, a community-focused audio project
sorry, its a bit self-involved woe is me so tl;dr:
im not going to birkbeck, thanks for everyone who’s supported me and i promise I’ll sort out giving u ur money back asap, im not gonna flee the country x
its a shame
@NationalTheatre
leadership actively undermines the good work its education dept does with things like schools tours etc. by engaging with and in so doing legitimising a government actively working to limit arts education & cultural engagement among working class kids
@PrisonPlanet
"Every line [...] I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism"
this is one of the most appalling out of touch things iv ever read
she argues that it was a “large chatty family” that gave her the confidence to be an actor and not 9 years at a specialist Performing Arts boarding school
sat in garden, drinking coffee, watching bees on lavender, trying not to feel overwhelmed by the depressing revelation the NT has a semi-secret invite only directors training programme. more assumed knowledge. more feeling small n stupid as a working class person in the industry
tea brands as political parties:
Twinings - Conservatives
Yorkshire - Labour
Yorkshire Gold - New or Corbyn Labour depending who you ask
PG Tips - Lib Dems
Clipper - Greens
Tetley’s - UKIP
Typhoo - Change UK
Scottish Blend - SNP
Nescafé - Monster Raving Looney Party
in better news today i got a job offer to start in two weeks AND I’ve had an official confirmation letter through from Birkbeck for enrolment on the MFA Directing next year!!! 😭🥳 🎉
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Callum Berridge as Associate Director (Engagement & Participation)! Read the full announcement, with statements from Callum and our Artistic Director Jake Smith on our news page at:
theatres wouldnt be reliant on a financial model that panders to cultivating relationships with wealthy patrons if those patrons’ wealth was taxed more substantially in the first place by the state, providing funds to be invested into education, the arts, infrastructure...
as this seems to be getting more attention than im used to on twitter (which is nice) can I recommend people check out and consider supporting
@artsemergency
@theatrecommon
and
@JerwoodF
for all the amazing work they do helping young working class people into the arts industry ✊🏻
🚨 SEEKING TWO WRITERS 🚨
looking for 2 writers currently based and / or grew up in South Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire or Lincolnshire
for 3 part audio & theatre project working with communities in these regions
full criteria, my contact details & how to express interest below:
8 long form answer questions and having to input your job history role by role? cant just submit a cv and cover letter. for a part-time £17k pro rata short contract job? are arts orgs actually ok? 🙃
SO excited to finally be able to announce I’m a Headlong Origins supported director for 2022/23!
hyped to be working with the
@HeadlongTheatre
team and these 4 outstanding artists! 🙌🏻 🥳
Today we announce the 2022 Headlong Origins Artists 2022!
Congratulations Anna Berentzen, Callum Berridge, Sam Hardie, Mandeep Kaur Glover & Emily Ling Williams.
Read more at
nothing says ur valued like interviewing for a job and then getting the rejection at 10pm on a Friday that begins “dear candidate”
you’ve interviewed what, like 10 ppl? you cant dig out my name and keep ur rejections to within office hours?
🤨 👎🏻
im delighted to announce im making a show
& this show is gonna help toward funding my place on the MFA Directing
@BirkbeckUoL
2021-22
the shows pretty long
in fact its a decade long
check it out, grab a ticket & help me afford my dream course!
☄️ 🌌
if u ran a food van at the ed fringe fest whats ur angle?
mine would be deluxe fishfinger sandwiches
choose ur own toppings - pickles, fresh salad, condiments etc
like £8 a sandwich, something ridiculous
Jackie Weaver declares “i AM the parish council”, corkscrewing out of shot into other councillors Zoom screens with surprising agility, ruthlessly cutting them down with her sabre
@jasonshowtunes
no but scrapping independent schools and investing properly in state schools would
even scrapping independent schools charitable status would provide around £106 million a year that could be invested into state schools facilities
I, David Hare, wealthy playwright and eurosceptic, would like to tell YOU, common plebeians, how this pandemic was for ME. i shall do this by channeling my literary talents through the voice of one Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes. You will find my work
#relatable
very excited to be heading up to Edinburgh tomorrow for the full month where I’ll be assistant director on
@IYF_Theatre
’s
@TrainspotLive
saw this show in 2014, wrote an essay on it at uni, i LOVE it. outstanding, dynamic piece of theatre & such a dream to be working on it
#worldtheatreday
ending with a late night tweet sparking beef between freelancers and a privileged industry person sharing blinkered views is VERY on brand for theatre twitter...
applying for arts jobs is exhausting but applying for non-arts jobs is soul crushing
iv spent 4 hours today constructing an “applicant profile” just to apply for one job. Personal details, employment history, education history, personal statements... etc
for ONE basic admin job
holy fuck im dying
this is Tring Park Performing Arts school
y’know, the place daisy ridley didnt have a privileged education
t h i s p l a c e
THIS PLACE
yh ur right, no privilege here...
firmly agree with this but, leadership selection processes could likely default to seeking out exceptionalism (read more experience) which invariably occludes those from marginalised backgrounds, esp. working class, whose careers tend to bloom later than middle class peers
Sam Mendes has claimed the
@NationalTheatre
needs a "younger generation" to run it following the departure of Rufus Norris, as he ruled himself out of taking the top job at the venue.
Read more 👇
extremely humbled to be one of the three directors among this outstanding cohort of creatives. 2022 is gonna be an exciting year and theres already some amazing stuff in the pipeline through the Bank 🥳
Meet the new Bank Cohort for 2022!
This group of 13 artists and creatives have taken residence in our dedicated talent development hub, The Bank: a space to support emerging theatre-makers.
Find out about more about the talented team here:
standing at the sky’s edge receiving a 3 star review from the stage has radicalised me to campaign for the north of England to separate from the south wtf are you even talking about
★★★ Review: Standing at the Sky’s Edge – Chris Bush’s sprawling, big-hearted musical charting 60 years of social change in Sheffield arrives in the West End
@SkysEdgeMusical
Read The Stage's full review 👇
family: no politics at xmas
me: yh i know
family: none of this socialism stuff
me: yes, yes, i hear you
family: ok?
me: ok
family: ...
me: so can i put the tree up?
family: yh sure
me:
im back in a rehearsal room and im co-assistant directing this amazing show with
@nadiapyramid
im in a rehearsal room making theatre
making theatre
MAKING THEATRE
M A K I N G T H E A T R E
imagine actually having the attitude that even places like The Leicester Curve, Nottingham Playhouse, Sheffield Theatres, The Royal Exchange etc are just places to break ground as an early career artist before making your way to the capital...
to anyone else waiting to hear, the assistant director role on To Kill a Mockingbird has been filled, which i only now know because i called and asked because there hadn’t been any update 🙃
anyone got any work? working class freelance director / theatre-maker / performer / project manager / producer / writer / marketer / I’ll garden I’ll do whatever you want just does anyone have any paid work please
a really basic thing organisations should be doing from now on is building a feedback process into any call out opp
artists need & deserve individual feedback if they take the (unpaid) time to submit for things
ur “we really appreciate you submitting...” doesnt mean shit to me
looking for recommendations for northern working class theatre designers
preferably with lived experience growing up in former coalfield communities
preferably have been in working men’s / sports & social clubs before
where you at? 👀
famous actor wiki pages like
[surname] is a 4th cousin twice removed of Prince William & their father owns half of Lincolnshire. when they were 16 they were scouted walking down Oxford St by modelling & acting agent Sarah Cholmondley CDG & starred in a feature film 3 weeks later
kudos to the Barbican after artists expressed their displeasure at the shortlisting process on here & via email, they’ve taken it all on board & have sent a long, considered email apologising & stating that while it might take them a while, they’ll feedback to all artists who ask
ur answer shud be
“OMG F ME YES COURSE IT HAS. Educational privilege. Familial privilege. Social privilege. Economic privilege.
I went to a fucking specialist performing arts private school n meanwhile can we talk about the complete absence of arts provision in state schools?!”
i made a mistake, its
@JerwoodArts
, check them out too!
they collaborate with arts organisations across the uk to create 40 roles every two years in the industry for ppl from lower social-economic backgrounds - their importance to diversity in the industry cannot be overstated
n to be clear being posh is not the problem, u cant help ur background n its no reason to not pursue a career in something
but if sum1 asks “do u think ur privilege has helped u?”
ur answer cannot be
PRiVeLeGe??? WHaaatT PriveLeGe???!!!
grim but not at all surprising is it?
cos no one actually gives a shit about class. not really. class isnt all that visible, unless you’re one of these middle class pretenders donning an adidas tracksuit and pretending your grew up on a council estate.
on my way up to Keswick to spend the next few weeks as Associate Director on
#BrassedOff
@tbtlake
super excited to be back up north working with
@LizStevenson5
and a brilliant team on such a special story
pirating power from the NT by jamming a fork into the olivier lighting rig and connecting up my devices in order to circumnavigate the cost of living crisis
sheffield theatre folk!
i’ve moved to Walkley as of last Saturday and I’d love to meet lots of local writers, makers, producers, directors, designers, actors etc.
so if you fancy a reasonably priced pint or a pretentious coffee, say hello 👋🏻
great afternoon
@LeedsDrama
watching the BA Acting graduating showcase
some really incredible talent entering the industry and so many of them committed to remaining up and working in the north, its heartening to hear
excited to be teaching the 1st & 2nd years from next week!
one of the worst artist call outs iv seen
they expect u to pay a £25 submission fee, only 9 works get selected, only the 3 most popular get paid & in their FAQs they justify the fee as covering the admin of the festival, which in any other industry is surely just ur fucking job
Daisy Ridley.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
The list goes on.
Privately educated, white middle-class, typically Londoners. Brilliant but all terrified of admitting they benefit from horrific inequalities in society and the industry
n actually they’re pretty happy with how things are
citing privately educated oxbridge graduates who achieved major industry success and advancement in their 20s is not an aspirational model of leadership and equal opportunity
nor to be fair is it what I think Sam Mendes is actually advocating for
posh ppl love to reduce a major lack of working class representation in the theatre industry down to abstract concepts like how much “passion” a person has
easier to suggest middle class ppl are somehow inherently more “creative” or “passionate” than to address systemic barriers
Welcomed
@callum_berridge
to
@easternangles
officially today! Want to connect with us on all things Engagement and Participation and New Work drop him / us a line. We are always keen to hear from Suffolk based creatives.
the whole...
“this pack of pasta costs 65p & this sad jar of ASDA own brand tomato sauce costs 35p”
... rhetoric is basically ppl saying...
“Well they’re not LITERALLY starving, they’re just severely malnourished & their lives are a miserable subsistence, so im ok with this”
#OVConnect
working class director looking to connect with working class writers, also looking for any assisting opps with directors
interested in new writing, new forms of storytelling, new ways of engaging audiences
callumrobertberridge
@gmail
.com
@EmmaMBearman
working class and increasingly its all i talk about cos of how fucked this industry is and how unwilling / incapable ppl in leadership are of realising and understanding the complexities and extent of how big and broad the barrier is
directors / actors / writers / producers/ any and all other theatres pros:
what are your side hustles? what flexible or part time work are ppl doing to supplement their income in between the theatre work?
SALT - 35p
WILD BOAR - FREE
CANT AFFORD TRANSPORT TO THE NEW FOREST? WALK. IF U LOVE UR KIDS YOU’LL WALK
I CAUGHT, BUTCHERED & SALTED THIS BOAR & NOW IT HANGS CURING IN MY BATHROOM
MY CHILDREN SHALL HAVE BACON THRU THE WINTER, OR THEY WOULD IF SOCIAL SERVICES HADNT TAKEN THEM
i did an actors studio class last night on
@The_Globe
stage and honestly it blew my wee working class mind
i hope this isnt the closest i get to performing for real on this stage but if it is then i can still say i spoke Shakespeare’s words at the Globe. unreal
i tend to say im from a working class background
im uneasy around the idea that getting a university education & working in the arts = working class erasure, like you cant have educated working class ppl
but equally it can sometimes feel disingenuous to say “im working class”
submitted my app for the Brexit festival
durational performance piece called
rule britannia.exe
i will stand atop nelson’s column, screaming the lyrics to rule britannia through a megaphone, for a week, until i shit my pants and / or cough up my raw and bloodied lungs
🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
imagine how quickly the uk private school system would collapse if employers were told only 7% of their workforce could be made up of those who were privately educated i.e. representative of the percentage of uk school children who actually attend private schools
7% of uk children go to a private school yet more than 50% of the industry is made up of privately educated actors
goes without saying but
if ur not part of the solution, ur part of the problem
3rd (sorry not sorry for doing this)
im looking for shadow directing opportunities at the minute, its an area of the industry thats near impossible to crack into, especially if ur working class
w/c directors who are seeing this and can offer any help/advice hmu plz ❤️
I’m a sheffield-based theatre director,
@crucibletheatre
Bank Cohort 2022/23 supported director, current
@HeadlongTheatre
Origins supported director, and Acting Technique Lecturer & Director
@LeedsDrama
and the rest of my year is looking prettaaayyyy prettaaayyyy free
is there anyone who can please tell me what the National Theatre Studio Directors Course is???
i keep seeing it on the biographies of directors i really like but theres nothing about it on the NTs website?
its important to remember that the biggest barrier to the arts for poor ppl is ur parents telling u ur fucking useless n hav u considered a pRopeR joB, idk maYBe a T E a c H E R ?
still, the coffee was nice, HOW WAS EVERY1 ELSE’S AFTERNOON? 🙃
no theatre being taught in state schools - cuts cuts cuts
theatres closing up and down the country
theatres that were, with their engagement programmes, doing their best to fill the gaps in state arts eduction
whatevers left of theatre is shaping up to be ugly + exclusive
I’ve done myself dirty submitting this picture of myself to marketing but i’m nevertheless having a top year as part of the Headlong Origins Directors Cohort. Lots of exciting things in the pipeline 👀
📣Priority booking is now open for A Christmas Carol 📣 We're inviting audiences in Ipswich & Woodbridge to our big-hearted Fezziwig party 28 Nov - 11 Jan ❄️
General sale opens 12pm Wed 13 March.
Book your tickets at:
campaigning and petitioning works!
fantastic news that Nottingham City Council have reversed their decision to cut local arts funding by 37%
delighted for
@NottmPlayhouse
- it’s so vital that arts and culture be protected
i say this because a lot of ppl in the industry who i really admire and respect and am kind of in awe of have reacted to this tweet in the last 24 hours and it means a lot
M-M-M-MY CORONA
a new piece of gig theatre about 2 ppl finding each other in a time of social distancing
coming to Ed Fringe 2021
Broadway Baby calls it “inappropriate”
The Guardian asks “why”
puts first dates on for a relaxing hour of light-hearted telly
“im 23, im a tory civil servant, i work in westminster, I’ve never left london & i hate animals”