At the beginning of my career and in my first job with a large commercial west-end theatre company, I recall being surprised and inspired by the willingness of those working in the creative learning department to share practice with, what I then considered to be, its competitors. In the majority of other departments working for said organisation, and from my understanding, in the majority of other industries, other organisations working in the same field are seen as competitors in the (financial or otherwise) market. Three years later, I continue to be struck by how willing organisations and individuals working in participation and outreach contexts are to share and develop their practice. It’s something that I think we take for granted but deserves more thought and celebration.
From the beginning of my career in the arts, I was drawn to work in participation and outreach contexts because of its focus on sharing and improving practice across the board- striving for quality and excellence, not in competition with one another, but in partnership. Now as a freelance theatre practitioner, I am still amazed at the generosity of others in the industry to share skills, cups of tea and provide opportunities for artists at all stages of their careers. As part of my work with the Almeida Theatre Projects team, resident freelance facilitators attend monthly seminars alongside trainee facilitators, where we all take it in turns to share a specialism be it in puppetry, movement, creating a character or anything in between.
I sincerely believe that at its best, the sense of learning, experimenting and taking risks doesn’t function in a one-way relationship, from ‘expert’ to participant, but rather in a reciprocal process. Every time I work with a group, I learn something new, be it about my own practice, about communication, or about the things that matter to people in the world now. That makes me feel privileged.
It leads me to wonder how much more we could progress as a society and in other industries if we more willingly and transparently shared practice; what the space might be for progression if we all shared and celebrated our mistakes as well as our triumphs, and what kind of risk-taking that might encourage and the discoveries that we might make along the way.
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