I am blessed to be sitting on the quiet north shore of the island of Bali in Indonesia, resting a while here whilst Kath takes part in a meditative retreat with a dozen amazingly open hearted colleagues from the USA. I am, what is called by the UK Foreign Office, a ‘trailing spouse’ – basically just here for the ride. And the snorkelling, dawn boat trip out to spot some dolphins, walks to waterfalls, and next week a few days in the artistic centre of Ubud. It is a strange time to be witnessing a group of people seeking to find a greater energy for the planet and all life through meeting and connecting. At a time when their fellow US citizens have been cheering a new President who seems to be focussed on choosing to destroy every good thing humans have tried to do in recent years to heal and reach greater harmony and community. However he and his strategists did it, they preached sound bites of untruth and vitriol which appear to have been heard and echoed by his massive choir.
It is sanguine to realise that I am in a choir and an echo chamber which contains almost all the people I know and admire, and almost no-one who supported the return of this President, or, closer to home, the decision to distance ourselves from Europe and shared trade and opportunity through Brexit. As I share inspiring, challenging or witty thoughts posted by friends on Facebook or BlueSky, I acknowledge that they are in a 48-50% minority of the UK and US populations, just like me.
As a marketing specialist my role is to find ways to amplify awareness of a show or project outside the echo chamber of those who already know and follow the work. If I start to sell a show and only focus on the Friends of the Theatre, or the low-hanging-fruit of one particular demographic, then I will not find enough audience, and in time that pool will get smaller and smaller.
I admit, at this very moment, I am finding myself preaching to my very small theatre ‘choir’ about two project offers which need to find people who don’t know about it yet. I am offering a short course as part of my CGO Institute in London 7-10 March for aspiring and inspiring producers If I rely on Alumnae of the last 8 courses to spread the word, or my Facebook or linked-in posts, then I am likely to reach only those who I know. During lock-down I ran over 50 workshops online about producing for undergrads and networks of creatives. They truly reached people I didn’t know and fed into the programme. Now I would love to get The Stage or wider artistic publications to talk about this form of training – but I am not controversial, famous, or new enough. That’s life. The right people are finding me in the end, through my blogs and posts and word of mouth.
My second offer is a wonderful free network app, Producers’ Persona, which is specifically for UK and International producers to connect and share their needs & offers. We have 120+ producers signed up so far (Free to join at the moment) and they are already forging connections and making new projects happen. This programme is written especially for producers and programmers of other people’s work. Again I need help to reach out to a wider community of festival directors, programmers, producers, and general managers I don’t know yet. Do feel free to share this blog or the link if you might help the spiders’ web to spread.
People are finding their way to it, but I admit to thinking it would attract producers more quickly. I am winding down the Producers’ Pool in person and on zoom meeting group which I have run for 8 years now. 600 people are on that database and hopefully, soon, they will awaken to this new app which will allow them to make direct connections and not rely on me to set up a zoom meeting once a month.
We are living in a world with myriad examples of reducing awareness of differing opinions and offers, as the algorithms become better and better at feeding us what they think we want to see. We all have circles of friends and colleagues who connect us, if we work at it, with a wider community. It can be painful to sit and listen to diametrically opposed views about Covid, Brexit, Politics, or Society – but unless we push our boundaries of awareness then I know my horizons will narrow and I will feel even more detached from what the ‘majority’ appear to be voting for in my name.
I’ve just looked back. I wrote my first Blog on 14th Jan 2014 after 4 years blogging for WhatsOnStge when it was run by Terri. The 2014 blog was around Devoted and Disgruntled and the start of writing a book. “…currently called “Coffee or Peppermint Tea – stimulation or soothing words for creative artists on their journey”. It’s come from my 5 years of CGO Surgeries for creative artists (still ongoing) and my 4 years of Whatsonstage blog writing.” That became Your Life In Theatre Which is still getting Kindle sales and might, who knows, get reissued in Korean one day soon.
10 plus years preaching to the choir, welcoming new ‘singers’ into the fold, and through CGO Institute helping them find ways to get their voices heard in the world – and form choirs of their own.
If you have a voice, a network, a passion for championing others – then do share this Blog, look out for different voices and let’s keep broadening our awareness of Difference. Despite Executive Orders the world needs, in my opinion, Diversity, Inclusion, Queer voices, Trans respect and support; A wonderful richness of people choosing to live in our Countries; Safe spaces for migration when needed; Thoughtful people with widely diverging opinions; Kindness and Love, and through all this we might be able to be part of supporting Equity and Equality.
Thank you to Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, the Bishop of Washington DC for sharing your calm voice of hope and encouragement into a very different pool this week – you were most definitely not ‘preaching to the choir’ – but the world has heard you whether your live audience wanted to hear or not. Thank you for your shaft of light and lets keep sharing this message.
I will be back at the desk Feb 1st, then down to Bristol University for a producing workshop on 3rd. Let the New Year crack on, but for now, I head back out into the thunderous rain for lunch – from my desk view pictured above.