Well, it has certainly been a while since our last blog, with our Artistic Director appearing in Sam Benjamin's anticipated play Black Music Cab she will soon be travelling to New York exploring more career prospects. So time is short and demands are high! Here at the Golden Delilah headquarters we have been laying the foundations for our new winter project Mother Told Me.....
Now the evenings are getting darker, it is getting colder and with the new Tory (sorry the coalition Tory Lib Dem government) times are hard, times are grim and money is too tight to mention!
The latest social cuts which was delivered by the grim reaper himself Chancellor Osborne has hit some of us quite badly. Let’s assess the situation from an art perspective:
The Arts funding council has had to cut 30% off its budget each year for the next four years. Which as result means that any artist whether they are a musician, dancer, visual artist, photographer, director, composer, producer, actor or writer their trade will be affected in some way.
In the context of Golden Delilah and what we and so many other new theatre companies have to offer ie. new engaging writing, this means that experimental, new theatre has seriously come under threat.
Some established theatres may be too scared to take a risk of producing new work by new writers, and as a result eventually they will resort to what they know best;
Shakespeare
Marlow
Hare
Bennett
Or the 'stereotypical theatre'
Plays about young 'urban' kids dealing with knife crime.......because all young people from south west London have a father in jail, an alcoholic mother and just run around killing each other (this is obviously us being sarcastic)
Or
Plays about the middle/upper classes where there is a dysfunctional family, the father is going through a mid life crisis has an affair with his secretary, his wife becomes an alcoholic and his daughter with all the stress suffers from anorexia and his son tries to conceal in sexuality crisis (this is obviously us being sarcastic.)
There is nothing wrong with the given examples however Theatre should move with the times. What about now, the present and the future. What about the new writers and actors that are yet to come?
They can cut the Arts Council but they cannot take our freedom or can they?
Back in the 1980's when Maggie.T was running the show keeping the rich rich and the poor poor and trying her best to help Britain out of a recession. During this time when the wide boys and the city bankers were 'living it large' a wave of creativity burst on to the art scene.
As creative practitioners/ contributors/ supporters we should all look at the current Tory government (sorry Lib Dem and Tory Government) and not feel threatened by them but merely inspired by them. Theatre in its purest form is:
For the people by the people.
Fair enough, the Arts Council has to cut their funding, and okay drama schools continue to churn out actors, who to be honest some of them will never get a paid acting job within the first 3 years out of Drama School. However there is no excuse as to why we can't use our heads, think of new and inventive ways to provide a platform for us as creative’s to express an idea. Money is too tight to mention but if someone takes away your tools does that stop you from thinking, from planning?
So even though we are a company who has no money to play with......we continue striving to bring you the best new writing and new Female Actors. We take our time with each production as we feel that it is our duty to utilize all our resources to provide you with theatre which will make you feel inspired.
To end on a light note, the sensational pop culture new icon Antoine Dodson- first came into our radar after stumbling across his You Tube Clip in which he passionately expresses his desire to punish the man who tried to rape his sister.
This was a really sad story....however like us here in Britain, Antoine and his family were going through dark times, but he managed to turn this around and look into the future with a positive mind, and now has provided his family with a new refreshing life....out of the projects.
So here is to you Antoine, for making us realize that there is always light at the end of a tunnel!
GD x x
