Guest Blog: Stage to Street, A New Angle on Diversity

I often catch myself looking around the theatre to see the demographic of the audience. More often than not I’m surrounded by the white middle class. The diversity that defines London certainly isn’t reflected in the stalls and it’s a great shame.

Personally, I think there’s more than one reason for this but the primary one is access. The theatre is still very much perceived as an establishment, one that’s expensive to frequent. Increasing diversity begins with breaking down that barrier and engaging with new audiences. How is this done? By introducing new and underrepresented voices to mainstream theatre. Stage the right play and the audience will follow. It sounds like a no-brainer, but the way in which new voices are sought out and positioned can make the difference between them being seated in the mainstream or confined to the margins. And this applies to the audience too.

Targeting writers from specific ethnic minorities is one way to increase diversity. However, this approach can lead to writers being positioned in their own neat little box, which for an artist can be limiting, not to mention frustrating. The focus should be on bringing new voices to the mainstream, without placing them within the confinements of their ethnicity. I’ve recently come across a theatre company, who in an attempt to take underrepresented voices into the theatre establishment are targeting postcodes rather than specific ethnic groups. It’s a refreshingly different approach.

Angle Theatre has teamed up with the Bush Theatre to find new writers (18 and over) from six boroughs across West London. They’ve stepped into the communities to promote their campaign, holding road shows in local venues and leaving leaflets in cafes, libraries and football grounds. Two plays will then form part of the Bush theatre’s autumn/winter season.

Intrigued by their rather unique approach, I went along to their road show in Willesden Green. As I walked along Willesden Green High Road towards the Library Centre where the road show was taking place, I saw an Irish pub, an English bakery, Polish, Bulgarian and Indian eateries, a barber shop and launderette situated along the same road. I realised they may be onto something. This was the perfect location to find an eclectic mix of stories and voices. They’re inviting writers from a very diverse community, as opposed to a specific ethnic minority group.

The turnout at this particular road show was unfortunately low, and there were no aspiring playwrights from the youth sector, but those that attended had a range of writing experience and exposure to the theatre under their belts. As they posed questions to Charlotte Gwinner, artistic director of Angle, it was clear this campaign was also about demystifying the process and the theatre establishment.

We also heard from Shamser Sinha, who having come across a leaflet in his local café in Leytonstone applied for the Angle campaign in 2009. He had only been to the theatre once since leaving school and is now on attachment to the Royal Court. How’s that for an achievement? Mina Maisuria is another playwright who emerged from the 2009 campaign, and she is now under commission to the Bush theatre. Clearly, this process has worked in the past and new voices have been discovered. When the playwrights have been selected, Angle step back into the community and invite them to see the shows.

Angle’s inclusive approach to finding new voices and talent is not only extremely clever, but it broaches the issue of diversity in way that doesn’t patronise. Writers will (hopefully), not fall into any category other than that of the new playwright from West London. It’s not just a cause. It’s the most constructive way of tackling the lack of diversity both on and off the stage. Diversity initiatives should be about enabling people to take their unique perspective out of the box and onto the main stage.

– Amardeep Sohi is a freelance arts journalist and theatre critic.