ADF BOARD SHADOWING PROGRAMME: 8 ADF MEMBERS WILL TAKE A SEAT IN THE BOARDROOMS OF THREE ICONIC LONDON THEATRE COMPANIES.
After the success of the Board Shadowing Programme: Yorkshire Edition, Artistic Directors of the Future is proud to officially launch their revolutionary Board Shadowing Programme, in partnership with three leading theatre organisations in the UK; Complicité, English Touring Theatre and Punchdrunk.
We are delighted to announce the 8 selected ADF Members participating in the first ADF Board Shadowing Programme: London Edition Ebe Bamgboye, Eileen Bellot, Youness Bouzinab, Zak Khan, Francesca Murray-Fuentes, Natasha Patel, Tian Sampson-Brown, and Clea Williams.
The ADF Board Shadowing Programme: London Edition catapults eight extraordinary ADF members, from a wide range of culturally diverse backgrounds and disciplines, into the boardrooms of three iconic theatre companies to demystify boards and create a new pathway to governance. The selected candidates will have the opportunity to shadow the board meetings at all three theatre companies as well as gain the opportunity to engage with each organisation outside of the boardroom, including attending press nights, subcommittee meetings, open rehearsals and group tours around the building and surrounding areas to understand the ecology of each organisation.
To support the board shadowing programme, ADF has designed a series of training sessions to enable facilitated training and peer learning. The programme will begin with a pre-board shadowing training session facilitated by ADF Advisory board member and co-Artistic Director at North Wall, Ria Parry actor and Trustee at Theatre Peckham, Endy Mckay. The preliminary session will provide the eight shadowers with the necessary insight and strategic thinking to assist them to get the best out of the board shadowing programme. The programme will conclude with a group session called ‘The Board Room’ a fantasy board activity whereby all eight shadowers will become the trustees of a fantasy board to tackle real case scenarios in order to put their learning into practice.
The programme will run from September 2019 through to February 2020 and aims to increase the diversification of boards in mainstream theatres and arts organisations across the UK by bridging the gap between culturally diverse artists and leaders and board of directors.
Throughout the programme, our evaluator Dr. Samina Zahir (FRSA) will assess the learning and development of each participate as well as the partner organisations.
Artistic Directors of the Future is thrilled to be working in partnership with the three theatre companies for the first London consortium iteration of the ADF Board Shadowing Programme and will be looking for other partner organisations to join forces for future iterations across the UK and internationally.
Polly Gifford, Executive Director
Complicité works across art forms, believing theatre, opera, film, installation, publication and community art can all be sites for the collective act of imagination. Founded in 1983, the Company has won over 50 major theatre awards worldwide.
Whilst never standing still, the Company nonetheless, seeks to continually build on its origins as a collective endeavor, strengthening and reaffirming this spirit of collective enquiry, of collaborative curiosity as a dynamic working process. The work Complicité has created with actors, designers, writers, artists and other specialists from around the globe, has established core relationships that have spanned the last three decades.
Alongside McBurney’s work, the Company runs an award-winning Creative Learning and Participation programme and supports artists through the Complicité Associates and ‘Developed with Complicité’ strands. In 2019, this work will see the Company return to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for the first time in over 20 years, with two new productions – one from Complicité Associate Catherine Alexander, and a new show from The Wardrobe Ensemble developed with Complicité.
www.complicite.org / Twitter @complicite / Facebook @TheatredeComplicite / Instagram @complicitetheatre / YouTube @Complicite
It’s been inspiring to meet the new ADF Board Shadowing members, a very talented group of artists, practitioners and producers who are all asking important and challenging questions about where British theatre currently is and we have no doubt they will go on to shape it’s future. We’re really excited to start working with them and look forward to the positive influence they will have on shaping the culture of ETT and the wider industry.
Richard Twyman, Artistic Director and Lizzie Volger, Executive Producer
English Touring Theatre (ETT) is one of the UK’s leading touring companies, winning the UK Theatre Awards Best Touring Production in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and the 2017 Manchester Theatre Award for Best Visiting Production. ETT works with exciting artists to stage an eclectic mix of new and classic work for audiences throughout the UK and internationally; theatre that is thrilling, popular and engaged in the contemporary world. ETT celebrates the diversity of the nation, create connections between audiences nationally, and places an examination of English identity at the heart of everything it does. ETT passionately believes that everyone, wherever they are in the country, deserve access to world class theatre that has meaning and relevance to their lives.
Last year saw the company celebrate its 25th anniversary, it began the year with a critically acclaimed production of A Streetcar Named Desire directed by the 2017 RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award-winning Chelsea Walker, followed by a major national tour of Richard Twyman’s production of Othello,and a celebrated revival of Dealing with Clair by Martin Crimp in a co-production with the Orange Tree Theatre.
www.ett.org.uk/ Twitter: @ETTtweet / Instagram: @englishtouringtheatre/ Facebook: @EnglishTouringTheatre
Sarah Goodfellow, Executive Director (Maternity Cover)
Formed in the UK by Felix Barrett in 2000, Punchdrunk has pioneered a game-changing form of immersive theatre in which roaming audiences experience epic and emotional storytelling inside sensory theatrical worlds. Our award-winning productions invite audiences to rediscover the childlike excitement and anticipation of exploring the unknown and experience a real sense of adventure. The company’s international production, Sleep No More, recently celebrated eight years of its extended run in the USA, and opened a new version in Shanghai in December 2016.
Since 2008, Punchdrunk has taken the company’s practice into communities, creating high quality, ambitious projects and productions for children, participants and the wider community. This includes public productions, research & development and Enrichment work with teachers and schools.
The Charity’s recent work includes Small Wonders, a production for 5-11 year olds and their families, whilst schools projects The Lost Lending Library and A Small Tale are currently being delivered in London and across the UK. Previous projects include Against Captain’s Orders, a family show created in partnership with the National Maritime Museum and Greenhive Green, which took place in a care home for older people including those with dementia.
www.punchdrunk.org.uk / @PunchdrunkUK
