Supplementary memorandum submitted by
James Chalmers, Shoreline Productions
I recently submitted an item re Musical Theatre
to the Committee which has been acknowledged.
I am forwarding this e-mail as it has some relevance
to the subject.
This is feedback from the Arts Council England
NW explaining why my application for funding for a piece of Musical
Theatre was turned down.
This is probably the fourth time I have applied
and been rejected—in each case it was for musical theatre.
The general thrust of the awards system appears
to be to fund projects which are targeted to minority groups,
socially excluded people, etc. It is certainly not the case that
support is given to projects which encourage the development of
musical theatre in its own right.
I have a real problem with the way things are.
Do I drag a selection of people off the streets to represent the
minority groups in order to gain funding—even if they are
not really interested in taking part? As it happens members of
my team do include people with disability—the choreographer
for example is partially sighted—but too proud to make this
known to all but a few people close to her—so I can never
declare this on my applications—she would be grossly insulted.
And I have had some racial minority participation
in the past—but what am I supposed to say to a young girl
who looks oriental "Are you Chinese—I need the information
to put on a form"?
The Magic Opera for which I was trying to get
funding is a sung through piece in two Acts for young performers—a
Gothic Rock Opera. Completely original and conceived as an entry
for the All England Theatre Drama Festival 2004. You will see
from point two of the feedback—that it is acknowledged as
being interesting and ambitious. It will go ahead without the
funding from ACE, but it will be my own money that goes into it.
I have had a small amount of funding from the
National Lottery Awards for All—to cover the recording costs
of a CD and then to buy radio microphones. I will be applying
for funding to try to cover the costumes for The Magic Opera—but
the amounts involved are small by comparison to that handed out
by ACE.
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