Your reports Find reports Where does humility end and weakness begin? Where does strength end and bullying begin? Where does humility end and weakness begin? Where does strength end and bullying begin? Convener(s): Emma Rice (Notes taken by Madeleine Bowyer) Participants: Madeleine Bowyer, Ray, Annette Mees, Rikki Tarascas, Sam Yates, Alastair Evans, Fiona Watt, Carolina Valdes, Melisande Cook, Alex Hassell, Lucy Pw, Anna Barrett, Sam Jones, Penny Francis, Tamzin Griffin, Jade Gandy, Paul Allender, Adam Bennett, Caroline Thompson and many more… Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations: How do you keep a light instinct and guarantee a product? Emma fell into directing by instinct Nurturing a natural female tendency so how to react if there is the opposite energy coming at you Keep creating Love all your own work Emma asked why did we all come to her session Because: The question for session was very honest A genuine question from a maker to feed back into their work How do you stay with who you are? Try to be honest Look back at your influences Where you’ve come from Where you’re at Where you want to go Looking at the range of directing from Preparing alone to being totally collaborative moving around on this line Staying open but still guiding Environment Coming into big organisations like RSC, National There’s already a system there, how much do you ‘be’ the system Stick your ground but listen See yourself in a different context You love your work and should be allowed to fail magnificently sometimes Casting going through a building and not in it’s normal environment is tough Tricky thing with theatre is as soon as you quantify stuff does it disappear We are all operating in a system- a patriarchal white middle-class male led system How do you solve a dilemma? Soften the horns Continue But recognise the dilemma Oscilate Female side maintains stable, unjust state Male side maintains unstable, just state We all have to learn to be bi-cultural Kneehigh going into the National is part of the National’s revolution And there is a getting lost factor It’s difficult to claim your stake More people working should know that they are invited into these buildings because they allow themselves to be vulnerable Your vulnerability is your strength Also we need to take responsibility for what place we allow ourselves to be bullied in and how we bully others How to connect to your authentic voice Go out of a building Touch a tree or whatever to reconnect to your voice The people who give advice aren’t vulnerable because they don’t have to take their own advice Humility Bullying Are we always shifting between the two points? Whatever decision you make is the only decision Emma said she has a care for the many people she cares passionately for and they are an important part of the work What is indispensable about the work? It’s a Faustian pact- always a compromise somewhere It can feed back into the work that you do, working away and with other people Gave the example of Rufus Norris who worked in a collaborative team then didn’t then worked with members of the original collaborative team after a few years and many productions CHANGE BUT STAY TRUE Tough to deal with the knowledge that the show would be better with people you know Maybe you can work with those people after? How much do you want to go into conflict if you disappear in conflict? Mentors Talk to people who have been through a similar experience There is no clear answer It’s a privilege to have an opportunity to work in big buildings All you can be responsible for is your own creativity Does the work exist without the ensemble? A new crew for the captain of the ship or climbing onto a new ship? Goes back to the continuity & ensemble debate that Michael had on Saturday morning There are no bad guys in this just different perspectives GOOD LUCK!