It’s gonna take years: On the virtue(s) of taking your time

Convener(s): Simon Bowes

Participants: Joanne Hartley; Steve Ryan; Bethany Pitts; Alex Lehman; Matt Ball; Daniel Pitt; Ros Williams; Maddy Costa: Dachel Davies; Steve Pitman (and others); Greg McLaren

Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations: 

Note that the session was called to try and identify a dissatisfaction with two (seemingly pervasive) orthodoxies:

1. Edinburgh-once-a-year-or-you’re-invisible;
2. Scratching-it-will-make-it-better

This is what we come up with:

• Maybe we NEED urgency
• bound up with who you have to ask for the money
• gestation periods can be too long (lost-in-gestation!)
• “...being okay with your shit ideas”
• “we should be practicing all the time” (perhaps a painter who produces one painting a year is automatically going to be a shittier painter than one who produces ten a year)
• Scratch culture often ensures that by the time an artist “…considers the work finished, everybody’s seen it…”
• Can early-career / emergent artists afford to work privacy?
  • Is there an alternative to scratch that is artist-led, rather than venue-led
  • fairly enclosed, invitation-only
  • free, not pay-what-you-can?
    • EXAMPLE Uninvited Guests just can’t do anything quickly (Mr. Dufty and Mr. Clarke have FULL TIME JOBS)
• necessitates short, infrequent working patters (presumably with plenty of time for reflection)
• they might not be prolific but they maintain their profile and never look seem to look hungry
• how do we find dedicated time?
  • TIME IS ECONOMIC
• Who says audiences knows better than artists what the work should be?
  • Audiences notice things the artist may have overlooked, but often give artists BAD ADVICE about how to develop their work
• contrast all this with EXAMPLE Song of the Goat (Poland), or other comparable European companies: length of time spent developing the work permits depth and intricacy
• “What’s the life of a show?” / “2 years to make, 2 years to show” / crossing over
• “‘time’ is a question of efficiency…”
• “wider than one individual process”
• "there is no ladder to climb”
• “…we’re not footballers (only as good as our last game)|” – No! – “…We’re as interesting as our entire body of work…”
  • but if let’s say, the reviewer / writer sees a bad one, they might miss a show or two before they go back
• WRITING ABOUT THEATRE
  • “…you’re as good as the last thing you did and the thing you’re going to do next…”
  • is it possible to write to support a work / artist in another way?
  • getting a little review (well-starred or not) isn’t always that helpful –
  • “…I’m discovering that I’m a slow thinker and a slow writer…” (becoming Okay with that)
  • SPILL Festival salons/ dialogues / ‘stings’: commissioned writing
    • all pretty encouraging
    • EXAMPLE: “…Frayn had a five year hiatus before ‘Copenhagen’…”
• MONEY BUYS TIME – but fuck the money 
• “…you have a duty of care to the work…” (you have a duty of care to the audience)
• long timeframes permit continuities, sustaining the discourse around the work (documentation, critical thinking)
  • “…the little commitments make up The Big One…”
• if we want to slow things down, there’s a value in that…if we make the process part of the show…a long process doesn’t necessarily mean a slow process
• “the luxury of time”
• “…we’re working in an industry where everyone wants to be working in that industry…”
• “if you’re going to do something, really fucking do it”
• “…if you can do it for £300, try getting 6…”
• talking about getting Lyn to see your stuff: “…be sure that you’re ready to invite me along…”
• A CULTURE SHIFT of TAKING YOUR TIME
  • generosity towards emerging artists (or: to an emerging / developing work, even if it’s made by an old artist)
  • giving time to something can buy you out of that economy
    • EXAMPLE: Simon from Rough Fiction – a permanent ensemble, by consensual agreement – free space donated by the Actor’s Centre, for six hours every Saturday
      • core artists working on skills, founded in an open space, leading to a deep sense of collectivity – nobody got paid
      • has resulted in a finished show developed over eighteen months, equivalent of nine weeks of rehearsal spread out
• in some circumstances the work itself is its own reward
• what else are you spending / investing in, if not time
• some kind of TRIANGLE DIAGRAM, like an equation Quick = Money, Good = Time
  • yeah: it can’t be cheap AND good AND quick!
• you’ve got to GIVE THE PROJECT WHAT THE PROJECT ASKS OF YOU
  • “…long time-frames are all well and good, but you’ve got to have outcomes, and you’ve got to stand by them…”
  • the work asks you: what kind of artist do you want to be –