The Challenges of being ‘Good’

A saying that I heard a lot in my younger years was ‘you’ve been brought up, not dragged up’. This was a reflection of my mother’s amazing parenting skills and my solid (if unorthodox) family upbringing. I was raised in a single parent family, just me and mum, but we did live next door to my nan and uncle. This provided a very safe and happy childhood which saw me spending time between both houses, my nan teaching me poker aged 6 and my uncle sometimes in an almost brother role playing on the Megadrive with me. The poker carried on till my nan’s death when I was 17 and the Megadrive till I was about 8 and started consistently beating my uncle at any game we owned. My mum has worked for most of her life and gave me as much love as a mother can give a child, this instilled in me a good work ethic and a deep level of compassion and a love for hugs!

But being good can have its obstacles and can provide a strain on an otherwise balanced lifestyle. Obviously we need to start with a definition of being ‘good’, the dictionary would state ‘being morally right’ or ‘showing kindness’. Urban dictionary on the other hand provides these high thinking gems, ‘opposite of bad’ and ‘to be modestly exceptional in bed’. I can assure you before writing this article I wasn’t setting out to focus on the latter! Ignoring the comedy that the internet creates, there are a number of challenges that present themselves when we set off upon the path of the righteous.

Temptation: Everywhere we go there are situations or events that provide us chances to be good and act in a saintly way. Also many people class being ‘good’ as sticking to diets and staying away from junk food. Well, unless you’re a farmer and only eat your own produce you’re going to find a ton of temptation at every supermarket or shop, from chocolate to vodka, and all with gleaming offers and deals to help your conscious give in and indulge. Being good can also class as being faithful when in a relationship. When I was in my last relationship I had a ton of opportunities to cheat if I had wanted to and several girls I knew/know had no qualms about the fact I was in a relationship as they weren’t after commitment or anything. The total lack of moral compass didn’t really surprise me though, it’s the world we now live in.

Money: Or a lack of it can really dent our chances of being as helpful and decent as we would like. Christmas has just been and gone and all the message we are given is that we should all give whatever we can to help people all over the world. I’ve seen an awful lot on Facebook people stating they’ve been getting an increased level of charity letters and phone calls asking for aid and support. This apparent barrage of pleas for aid and help raises in itself an important question, among others such as why aid is needed in the first place. What if you don’t have any money? I know a few people who literally don’t have anything spare to give to others, even if they wanted to, does their lack of donating make them a bad person? The festive period is full of fundraising and photos of people doing ‘their bit’. Does me sitting at home, detached from all this activity make me a ‘scrooge’? On a personal note, no it doesn’t. I actually do a fair bit myself in the local community and donated several hampers I was gifted by people to local charities that help the homeless and those families in need of assistance. The argument against this notion is that there are many things which we can do which cost us nothing but time to get involved and feel that we’ve made a difference. I volunteered at a youth theatre school back in the summer as a director for their debut musical. I didn’t ask for any money for doing this, not even petrol money and did I enjoy the experience and feel I was making a difference? Yes! I got to meet a great bunch of people, make a direct impact on their lives and can sit typing this knowing that many class me as a friend.

Jealousy: Frequently we can overcome most of the obstacles that are set against, only to be faced by the green eyed monster. People (who often live in glass houses) look at those who do great deeds with a dubious suspicion that they must have an ulterior motive. These souls are often ones that are rarely good, therefore they feel jealous when other people can achieve heights they are unable to reach. I help run a theatre company based in my hometown and we have several remits which we try to stick by. For these reasons we could easily be a target for naysayers as we focus on developing new talent in theatre rather than be content with a limited pool of friends and family. Also we have an open door policy which welcomes anyone regardless of experience or background, we further reinforce this may charging no audition or membership fees. Some could try and see our charitable pursuits as vanity, but in actual fact we simply want to help build up our local community and offer assistance in any way we can. To this end we have donated tickets to raffles, given money from ticket sales to worthwhile causes and did a great deal of fundraising for Cancer Research and the British Heart Foundation. Don’t get me wrong, we’re certainly not alone in wanting to help people. There are several others run locally who follow similar veins of thought as us and run concerts and fundraisers, but I’m sure they’ve probably faced the same challenges we do.

I’ve focused on three areas that I feel present a challenge to being good, but there are scores more which I could explore. I think though that these key areas present the main bulk of obstacles and allows you, my dear reader, with a heads up to avoid the fate of less hardy souls. My advice? Everything in moderation, i.e. let yourself be tempted sometimes as this will help your self-regulation. Don’t feel bad if you can’t donate the next time you see someone with a charity tin outside a supermarket, instead give someone you miss a text or hug that loved one a little bit tighter. Lastly on those jolly green giants, ignore them. If they want to fester in self-loathing, let them. You can only answer for your actions to either yourself or him upstairs (if that’s something you believe in). If you feel you’re doing enough, chances are your right. So kick back, enjoy a glass of red and bask in the moment, because chances are, you had a good old climb getting to the summit!

As ever, thank you for your supporting and reading my blog and if you want to get in touch send me an email at chris@cd-productions.co.uk or visit the website www.cd-productions.co.uk

Theatre - Watering those grassroots

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.

The above is a well-known saying, one that can be applied to a myriad of situations and circumstances. The particular focus of my current thinking is theatre, or more broadly performing arts. I often speak to youngsters (and some adults) about their dreams and aspirations of becoming actors, singers and dancers. They speak with such enthusiasm, verve and self-belief, generally only needing help working out where best to direct their energies. These people are the grassroots of theatre. I’m not necessarily talking about primary school aged children, though I’ve had several rather interesting conversations with some about what they dream to be. The main catchment seem to be aged 13-17yrs, the ages that young people are presented with more and more choices to make, and not always given the guidance, especially if it’s not what many consider to be a ‘normal’ job.

I’ve heard horror stories about teenagers being told flat out to not bother and to pick something sensible to do. I know what you’re thinking, there is a huge amount of competition to be had in getting into theatre schools, let alone in making a living as a performer. However, generally the people that have issued these edicts of doom haven’t got the slightest stat or industry knowledge, if they had then the young person in question could consider it rationally. They could sit down and say ‘Chris, my tutor said that only 8% of UK based actors are ever in work at any given time, but I still think I could be part of that 8%”, instead the conversation normally follows the route of, “My tutor said I shouldn’t bother with acting or trying to sing for a living because it’s not a real job”. It’s the classic scenario of saying to someone they aren’t allowed to do something, therefore they want to do it more, and the latter ‘advice’ if you even want to grace it with that label is self-defeating.

I digress. The point I set out to make was that people of any age should be easily able to find suitable platforms to test their abilities and inhabit a comfortable, safe space where they can be challenged. Local to where I live in Northamptonshire, there are a number of courses that people can take to improve their skillset and hopefully prepare them for auditioning for stage school auditions. I do worry however about students being so focused on their course content that they don’t still seek out and/or have the opportunity to perform in other arenas. I’ve recently had an influx of interested people from Northampton College wanting to perform with my theatre company, C&D Productions, as the choice of play we offer is varied and it gives them experience to put on their C.V’s. Another recent person is taking a gap year and wants to gain as much experience both on and off the stage as possible and came to me with several ideas for one and two act plays. I can honestly say there isn’t a acting theatre company that holds open auditions in a good 15 mile radius that would be so open to people’s ideas (especially not relative strangers) and give them a chance to put their ideas into action.

In 2015 we will be performing more plays than ever before, participate in several fringe festivals and have had a local venue offer us ruminative work to produce the play first ever performed there as part of an anniversary celebration. I will be engaging with at least five local directors, including three that haven’t directed with us before, and working with a whole host of people in roles ranging from costume, make-up, set design and technical. 

This is one of the main reasons we set up our theatre company in the spring of 2014, we saw a huge gap regarding straight acting and no platform to offer opportunity and engagement, and then we promptly filled it. I speak on a localisedlevel to myself but I am curious what the situation is like in other parts of the country on both acting and theatre company level. I might add that the local college in my hometown of Kettering have been totally and utterly un-cooperative in allowing their students to know about future productions and auditions. I can’t offer a reason for this and as yet I’ve been met by a wall of silence on the subject, luckily we've got numerous avenues being opened up to connect with the general public which is providing very fruitful.

There is a point I was going to explore in greater detail which is whether nonprofessional theatre (or am-dram) should receive levels of funding, incentivised at uncovering new talent. It is a common disease of many am dram groups that they have the same rough pool of people in each of their shows, by this virtue the same people tend to get given the leading parts and life goes on as normal. This is wrong in my opinion, sure everyone is there because they enjoy the hobby and in the case of musicals they can sing songs from shows they’ve been to see or watched on TV, but the organisations themselves should take regular inventory of what their purpose is and who their audiences are. 

One of my key goals is to gradually build up an audience of people who will come see our productions regardless of cast size or if they know anyone in it. I don’t think it’s healthy just relying on friends and family to fill theatres as this will be fine when your cast numbers twenty, but what if you do a smaller cast piece such as Waiting for Godot? Many local groups struggle to survive, in fact I know of ones that have vanished entirely or have had to cut their activity due to a series of loses on the spreadsheets. Should these groups, the entry point for many aspiring performers, be given a reason to open the dusty casements and encourage new blood?

A key point on this topic is engagement and communication. I know of a local youth focused group that have had to cancelled shows due to being unable to attract a bare minimum cast. In this same period we’ve attracted and worked with over 80 people locally, many of whom would have been that group’s prime target, why is this? I think a lot depends on the variety of shows offered, the level of organisation and structure one might see or sense from the outside, but more importantly how the all-important message of ‘come be in our show’ is relayed to the public. We focus a lot of our efforts on social media and I’d like to think in our first year we’ve made a good job of it, with 1,000+ likes on our Facebook page and people contacting us on a weekly basis via our website. We do use traditional forms of marketing also, such as posters and word of mouth, and I think a combined approach works best. Given increased funds I am sure our reach could extend further and at some point we’ll try to decide how to cross said bridge when we find it in our path.

Back to the main point and focus of this article, who has the main responsibility to nurture our future would-be actors and performers? Does it lie with the government to increase funding to ACE (Arts Council England) so that they can then distribute the funding to projects they feel are of theatrical merit? The immediate answer might be no, with figures proving that the main chunk of funding never leaves the capital. Perhaps the answer is to create more focused regional arts funding centres which can react to geographical trends and needs, knowing their own locale far better than someone sat in an office many leagues away. They would have a more even spread of funding and therefore boost each area simultaneously, perhaps with funding being split on a ‘per head’ count of the population, with exceptions made to generally rural counties?

So dear reader.. What’s the situation like where you are? Do opportunities abound or could more be done at an organisational level to provide varied and affordable chances for people to gain that much needed experience? Please let me know by comments below, contacting me via the website (www.cd-productions.co.uk) or via our Facebook page. I look forward to hearing from you!