In this episode Naomi talks to Jess Thorpe, Co-Artistic Director of the award-winning Scottish company Glass Performance. Jess talks about through the co-creative process, the artist is bringing the framework and tools and the non professional artist is bringing their lived experience. For her it is important to ensure that the non-professional artists understand the process they are going through.
She thinks it is very important that she is not extractive, taking the best stories for her artistic glory. She prioritises the relationship with people she is working with and considers people’s emotional needs throughout the process.
Over the years she has created a process that she can pass on to others (with her collaborator Tashi Gore). Sometimes people expect a script. This is particularly prevalent in a prison context where she often works. She gives each of the stages of the process a name and writes this structure on the wall so that people understand where they are in the process. She constantly creates a shared language in the room.
Jess talks about the importance of rituals to create opportunities for feedback and dialogue within the group. They utilise questions a lot. They also have an Anonymous Anxieties box which anyone can put a question or concern in so that issues can be raised in a safe way. It brings multiple voices into the room. She brings this box into the process a couple of times when she feels she needs to know what is really going on in the space. It’s not there all the time as she would not want anxiety to overwhelm the space.
She talks about how their partnership work with Barnardos has enabled a youth worker to be part of the process who holds responsibility for the wellbeing of the young people. This enables her to focus on the theatre. This has been a game changer for Jess. She also has access to a dramatherapist for support in her work at Dundee Rep. Jess talks about the importance of being trauma informed so that everyone comes out of the project more empowered than when they started it.
In reflecting on the challenges of this responsibility, Jess talks about how exhausting it can be. Over the years she has developed stronger boundaries with a clearly articulated path ahead for the relationship once the project has come to an end. There is also a challenge around the level of editorial support that participants might want or need. Sometimes participants will know best what they are capable of and trust that the work is a vehicle for something important to them.
Jess talks about the risks of human pain if the project is not held in a way that feels good. The fear is that someone feels taken advantage of and that work has been made on the back of their life. She has been asked challenging questions by participants which have enabled her to grow because she was scared of them but engaged with them.
She says that you need to ask yourself as an artist why you are doing it. She is concerned about social tourism - where the artist and audience is a tourist in someone else’s social context with a power dynamic that is problematic. She is also concerned about value-signalling that some artists fall into a trap of talking publicly about who they are working with as if they are doing people a huge service. For her it is about lifting people up in the dialogue around your work, not lifting yourself up.
Naomi Alexander is the CEO and Artistic Director of Brighton People's Theatre. Her AHRC funded research Let's Create: Do we know how to? identified 20 qualities, skills and responsibilities that are important for artists leading co-creative practice. The report and illustrations are available here.
IG: @naomi.ontheatre
LinkedIn: @naomiontheatre
Jess Thorpe is the Co-Artistic Director of Glass Performance.
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