ETT is a proud signatory of this open letter to theatre and performance makers in the UK today, as published here.

Here is the letter in full:

This is a letter to self-employed and freelance theatre and performance makers in the UK. To the actors, playwrights, directors, choreographers, stage managers, designers, stage crews and set-builders to name just a few.

We really miss being with you during this period of lockdown. Making theatre and performance is a collaborative endeavour, so we are particularly affected by having to be apart from one another right now. We’re not able to come together, in the same space, to share the experience of a live performance. We’re not able to practise and enjoy our artform in its most basic form.

It’s now looking increasingly likely that won’t be possible for months to come, and we recognise that many freelancers face real uncertainty about if and how they will be able to continue to work in theatre. 70 per cent of people who work in theatre and performance in the UK are freelance or self-employed, and it’s for this workforce, in all its diversity and complexity, that the impact of the current situation is most acute.

During these past weeks we have had conversations with many of you to understand your needs and the ways you have been affected. We are writing to express our support for you, and to lay out some practical steps we are taking to improve the situation based on these conversations.

As well as exploring ways of producing work with freelancers during lockdown, and using this time to develop new projects with freelancers for the future, we are also are working together to coordinate our response to the government, to articulate clearly what we can offer and what we need.

Most urgently, we are calling for the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme to be extended in line with furloughing, for all self-employed workers, and in the specific case of theatre and performance workers, until theatres are able to safely reopen. We also want to see criteria removed from the scheme which are stopping legitimate and much-needed claims.

Some of you are already involved in these conversations. We welcome your voices and need to hear from more of you in the conversations to come. Your unique networks, skillsets, perspectives, and ideas are vital to the entire sector, and we need to work with you in our response to this crisis.

Each of the organisations who’ve signed this letter are committed to reaching out to their family of self-employed and freelance theatre makers; listening to how this is affecting your work and lives, and to your needs and ideas for the future.

More than that, we want to facilitate the establishment of a national task force of self-employed theatre and performance makers. The purpose of the task force is to strengthen the influence of the self-employed theatre and performance community. It would create ongoing points of connection between freelancers and organisations, and amplify the voice of the self-employed in the conversations to come. To help establish the task force, each of the organisations signing this letter will support a freelancer to join the group, ensuring they are paid for their time.

We want to offer a message of hope and solidarity. Our well-practised ability to work together, to form connections, and build relationships will help us through this. One day, hopefully soon, we will all be able to meet together, as people have done for centuries, in a shared space, for a shared experience. In the meantime, we remain committed to working for you and with you towards a sustainable future for theatre and performance.

Signed,

Access All Areas

Action for Children’s Arts

The Almeida Theatre

ArtsAdmin

The Actors Touring Company

Battersea Arts Centre

Birmingham Repertory Theatre

Boundless Theatre

Brighton Festival

Bristol Old Vic

Brixton House

The Bush Theatre

Chichester Festival Theatre

China Plate

Contact

Dance Umbrella

Derby Theatre

Eden Court Highlands

English Touring Theatre

Fio

Fuel

Gate Theatre

Graeae

HOME

Improbable

Kiln Theatre

Leeds Playhouse

Leicester Curve

The National Theatre

National Theatre of Scotland

National Theatre Wales

National Youth Theatre of Great Britain

The New Wolsey Theatre

Northern Stage

Nottingham Playhouse

One Dance UK

Paines Plough

Rose Theatre Kingston

Royal & Derngate

The Royal Court Theatre

The Royal Shakespeare Company

Sadler’s Wells

Sheffield Theatres

Spare Tyre

Talawa

Tangled Feet

The Yard

Theatre Peckham

Theatre Royal Plymouth

Tiata Fahodzi

Yellow Earth

1927

During the lockdown period with theatres closed, we have been keen to try and keep working with freelancers on creative projects to keep audiences engaged and entertained at home. From games to videos to audio projects, we have been trying to stay engaged with families and households across the UK.

We made an animated short called WHAT’S GOING ON, written by Megan Cronin, animated by Monica Leigh and voiced by Stephen Mangan and Daisy Haggard. The video is aimed at children, explaining in a playful way why we’ve all had to stay inside. Check it out in Watch & Listen.

We also commissioned extraordinary poet Muneera Pilgrim to write and perform a piece inspired by themes of isolation. Check out her piece Reiki here. Muneera also provided some poetry exercises so that people could generate their own spoken word pieces at home!

Poetry writing exercise #1 from Muneera Pilgrim:

Think of a theme. Defining themes work well, for example love. Write a list of about 10-15 things that love is to you: they can be words, short sentences, phrases – but it has to be personal to you. If you get stuck, questions to think about include: how does it feel, smell, taste, sound, look? Is it real or imagined? Is it metaphorical? How does it make your body respond? Does anyone know? Is it a secret?  Love is… sneaking a piece of jerk chicken out of the now browning dutch pot, yet knowing that if I was caught, it would be fine anyway.

Poetry writing exercise #2 from Muneera Pilgrim:

A) freewrite for 3 minutes: no over thinking! The only rule is don’t let your pen stop.  B) then another freewrite, this time focused on how you are feeling at the moment – same timeframe, 3 minutes. C) write one more freewrite focused on a material or a texture, e.g. soft, furry, thatched – again you have 3 minutes. Read back your freewrites, and pick out the lines that resonate with you the most. Gather all of those lines and order them to make an abstract poem.

Poetry writing exercise #3 from Muneera Pilgrim:

Open up a poetry book at a random page, and without paying too much attention pick a line in the middle of the poem. That is the opening line of your poem! Give yourself 15 minutes to write the rest of it. If you get stuck, choose another line to add to your poem.

Then, to mark Shakespeare’s birthday, Digital Theatre+ made the ETT, Oxford Playhouse and Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory production of Othello available free on their educational platform as part of the second International Online Theatre Festival.

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We asked some of our artists and audiences to tell us their desert island plays – five pieces of drama they would take with them on a desert island. We were delighted with the responses (and added quite a few things to our reading list!).

Finally, the marvellous Frankie Bradshaw and Atri Banerjee put together a video for children to teach them how to build their own cardboard theatre at home, so they can play out stories for their families. You can watch the video in Watch&Listen.

Keep an eye on Latest News and on our Social Media for more updates on the work we’re making while theatres are closed. For our full statement on the COVID-19 pandemic, please click here.

We commissioned this beautiful poem in response to lockdown, all about visualising safety, growth, wellbeing and forgiveness by ETT Associate Artist Muneera Pilgrim.

Music by Mr Plexus and video editing by Craig Nom Chong.

The poem was put out in collaboration with OTR Bristol, a mental health social movement by and for young people.

Muneera also designed poetry exercises for people to try at home:

Exercise 1:
Think of a theme. Defining themes work well, for example love. Write a list of about 10-15 things that love is to you: they can be words, short sentences, phrases – but it has to be personal to you. If you get stuck, questions to think about include: how does it feel, smell, taste, sound, look? Is it real or imagined? Is it metaphorical? How does it make your body respond? Does anyone know? Is it a secret?  Love is… sneaking a piece of jerk chicken out of the now browning dutch pot, yet knowing that if I was caught, it would be fine anyway.

Exercise 2:
A) freewrite for 3 minutes: no over thinking! The only rule is don’t let your pen stop.  B) then another freewrite, this time focused on how you are feeling at the moment – same timeframe, 3 minutes. C) write one more freewrite focused on a material or a texture, e.g. soft, furry, thatched – again you have 3 minutes. Read back your freewrites, and pick out the lines that resonate with you the most. Gather all of those lines and order them to make an abstract poem.

Exercise 3:
Open up a poetry book at a random page, and without paying too much attention pick a line in the middle of the poem. That is the opening line of your poem! Give yourself 15 minutes to write the rest of it. If you get stuck, choose another line to add to your poem.

If you want to watch the video, go over to Watch & Listen and check it out.