Flintlock Theatre is launching The Big Tent Project in in Eynsham this summer to provide a one-stop-shop for new and emerging theatre artists who want to make their own work.
“It’s never been easy to get your start in theatre. Even in Oxford, a town positively dripping in culture,” Flintlock Theatre’s Artistic Director, Anna Glynn explains.
Which is why she’s on a mission, to throw a lifeline to artists who otherwise might not make their dream a reality, with The Big Tent Project.
“Artists need support to develop their creative ideas, but they also need business skills – learn how to use spreadsheets, where to source funding, how to manage budgets – in order to be successful,” she says.”So we’re launching The Big Tent Project,”
Held across five days in the stunning grounds of The Gables, Eynsham, artists will be led by Flintlock through a creative development and skill-building course to become a Big Tent Artist with ongoing support and development, which will be entirely free for those who need them.
“It IS a whole generation of makers, whose lights have been dimmed, potentially permanently, as opportunities have dried up”
Which is where you come in. Because to redress the balance of representation in theatre Flintlock is running a campaign to raise essential funds to make courses entirely free for those who need them. and need to raise £1750 by June 30.
“Please lend your support to The Big Tent Project. Grassroots arts is where the most brilliant projects start life and we need your help to ensure those talents survive and thrive as life opens up again,” Anna says.
“The creative arts remain overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly male in its leadership and overwhelming privileged, and that’s rightly been called out over the past year. We’re fundraising to make sure that Big Tent courses are free for Global Majority (BAME), D/deaf, Blind and Disabled Artists and for other groups who are under represented in our industry.”
“A complex blend of hard work, privilege and luck played an enormous role in our start back in 2012. And a diaspora of creatives work their socks off around day jobs to get their chance to dazzle and delight you, and tell their own one-of-a-kind tale in the process and it is that group, a whole generation of makers, whose lights have been dimmed, potentially permanently, as opportunities have dried up,” Anna explains.
If you can support The Big Tent Project, visit https://bit.ly/2SL9Evt
To find out more, visit http://www.flintlocktheatre.com/bigtent
