I was delighted to be asked to write the first blog post of the New Year for Ardent Theatre company by their Creative Director, Mark Sands.
Ardent have recently achieved a significant milestone in their evolution as a company, by securing a three-year Paul Hamlyn Foundation grant to support the running of the company. This couldn’t have come at a better time, as the company’s next major production, of Tracy Ryan’s STRIKE! opens in April at Southwark Playhouse in London, and is the first production to have signed up to be guided by Equity’s Green Book, outlining how to create and run sustainable theatre productions.
For the blog entry, I thought it would be good to address the country’s productivity gap, explain what has contributed to it and suggest genuine solutions. I think you’ll find it an interesting read.
Ardent Theatre’s co-Creative Director Mark Sands has written a very useful article about the redistribution of existing arts money outside London and why it isn’t the answer. Well worth three minutes of your time. Read it here
“London is being punished for the decades’ long underinvestment in regional arts and cuts in local funding. It’s not a solution; it’s a recipe for resentment.”
On Tuesday 8th March, Ardent Theatre Company launched their online Big Give campaign to raise funds to produce Tracy Ryan’s play STRIKE! about the Dunnes Stores Anti-Apartheid strike that took place in Dublin between 1984 and 1987.
Every donation made unlocks the same amount from actor Sir Ian McKellen who has pledged £25,000 towards the project via his Producer Grant scheme.
Ardent said “We’d like to thank everyone who gave so generously and rallied behind us. We’ll be thanking you individually and adding your names to our website to acknowledge your support.
When we planned this appeal we had no idea what was about to erupt in Eastern Europe. Our hearts go out to those who have suffered and continue to suffer. We stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
In light of this, The Big Give has allowed us to extend our appeal until Sunday 31st July to give us more time to reach our target and unlock the full amount of funds offered by Sir Ian McKellen.”
If you’d like to help, you can donate here . Remember, if you’re a UK taxpayer if you add Gift Aid in the donation confirmation, your £1 will be worth £2.25 to Ardent!
Thank You to everyone who has donated, in the past and the future!
From March 8 to 22, Ardent Theatre Company are asking for your help to stage a significant play which highlights Ireland’s contribution to the South African anti-apartheid struggle of the 1980s.
Sir Ian McKellen has awarded Ardent a £25,000 producer’s fund to help them tour their production of STRIKE! around the UK in 2023, culminating in a run in Dublin. But Ardent first need to raise that same amount to unlock that funding, which is why they are asking for your help. You can help them- but only until March 22nd when the appeal closes.
STRIKE!, by Tracy Ryan, tells the incredible true story of a group of 11 young shop workers in Dublin in 1984 who went out on strike to protest against apartheid in South Africa. Their three-year battle with employers Dunnes Stores tested each and every one of them, inspired significant change, and brought them into contact with supporters around the world – people who they never imagined meeting before.
457 days into strike action and on the 19th October 1985 Irish Poet Seamus Heaney joins with Dunnes Stores Workers at an anti apartheid demo. Photo copyright rollingnews.ie
It’s an engrossing and ultimately uplifting story of solidarity and personal sacrifice that is less known outside of Ireland, told with humanity and humour and guts, celebrating young people standing up for what they believe in, against overwhelming odds and yet still persisting. Ryan’s play has been extensively workshopped and developed with the writer herself. Ardent’s commitment to the project is long-standing.
The London run and UK tour of the show will include a number of educational resources and online supporting material to aid future research and historical appreciation of the strikers’ campaign.
Your online gift will be matched by Sir Ian McKellen – he’ll be matching each donation until the target is achieved.
Give £5, the production gets £10. Give £50, it’s doubled to £100. Every donation makes a difference.
Please support this production by donating via the link here.
Please remember the challenge closes on Tuesday 22nd March. Thank You!
“I would like to make a plea to the owners. Here are young people of whom you ought to be proud, because these are people of such integrity. You should be glad that you have people of such calibre working for you. I would like to call on you to hear what they are trying to say.” — Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 1984
Acclaimed theatre company Ardent Theatre have taken their most recent, five-star reviewed show on the road. Co-devised by playwright Andrew Muir and the Ardent 8 actors, this show is about them – their hopes and dreams as young people emerging into the world, and their wants and needs. It speaks to all those aspiring to have a career they love and to find meaning in their contribution to the world.
The show, which had a London run in October 2021, now visits Poole this Friday February 4th and subsequently plays private performances for students in Leicester and Manchester.
Ardent Theatre Company presents RETHINK, a brand new production created and performed by Ardent8, a group of emerging young actors from outside London who face barriers to pursuing a career in theatre. Written with and directed by award-winning playwright Andrew Muir (Joint Creative Director of Ardent Theatre Company) the play highlights inequality of opportunities to break into a career in theatre, intensified by the global pandemic.
RETHINK is set in the aftermath of that sunny July 2020, when six graduates from a performing arts course on the south coast of England are encouraged to reconsider their careers, in the wake of theatre closures and lack of opportunity. According to a government-backed advertising campaign, their next job could be in cyber, they just don’t know if yet. What choice do they have?
RETHINK is created and staged by the Ardent8 Ensemble, a group of Dorset-based young people brought together through Ardent Theatre Company’s scheme to rebalance inequality of access to a career in theatre. The project was born of a recognition that often the most talented of actors will have given up before they’ve even realised their full potential because they are unable to access other cities that provide greater employment and development opportunities.
Ardent8 was launched in Dorset in 2016 and the inaugural group’s production Sacrificewas staged to acclaim at Soho Theatre and Jellicoe Theatre, Poole in 2018. The programme is being expanded across the country with partners currently including Manchester Metropolitan University and Leicester De Montfort University.
The aim of Ardent8 is to provide a taste of life as an actor in London and benefit from opportunities within the industry from which they have otherwise been alienated but which Ardent Theatre Company believe is no more than an equal opportunity. In doing so, they will develop their skills further in a professional context that also introduces them to key industry practitioners. The programme includes acting workshops led by industry professionals, ongoing advice and mentorship, a week’s professional performance at a London theatre (paid at Equity rates), and all travel, subsistence and accommodation costs.
Andrew Muir, playwright/director, Joint Creative Director of Ardent Theatre Company: “It has been a joy to create RETHINK with such a talented and generous group of young people. The play gets to the heart of their own frustrations – feeling powerless confronted by a lack of opportunity to follow their dreams due to a lack of funds, knowledge, networks and stuck distanced from meaningful cultural offerings. From working class backgrounds, these young people are passionate about acting yet even considering a career in theatre was alien to them – even before Covid grounded them entirely. Through Ardent8 we hope to shift things in their favour, so that our theatre ecology can benefit from their talent and perspectives.”
RETHINK can be seen at The Lighthouse, Poole, Dorset on Friday 4th February at 8.00pm. Tickets here
