 Welcome, everyone, to this last session of the wonderful day of all things dramaturgy, celebrating the dramaturgy network 20th anniversary. This session is the Kenneth Tynan Award Ceremony. My name is Hannah Slettner and I will be hosting this session. I'm speaking to you from Countdown, which is on the island of Ireland, but part of the UK. I'm a white Swedish woman. I wear glasses and I have brown hair with a fringe. I am wearing a jumper with abstract angular shapes. And for those joining us for the first time today, we want to mention and to thank our sponsors and partners for the overall event. So our event sponsors are Tom Stoppard and the Society for Theatre Research, our supporters, our Matthew and drama, David Hare, Tamar Shikador and our partners, the Asian Dramaturgs Network, the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, and of course, HowlRound. And thank you for hosting us this evening. I will return to our award sponsors when we announce the winner of this year's Kenneth Tynan Award. But before we go to that very important business, my dear colleague and co-founder of the Dramaturgs Network, Katalin, and I wanted to mark the network's birthday by reflecting on our beginnings. So hello, Katalin. Hello, Annand. Hello everyone from London. My name is Katalin Trencini. I'm a Dramaturg and board member of the Dramaturgs Network. My pronouns are she, her and my audio description is I'm a middle-aged, white woman of Eastern European origin sitting in front of a Japanese-style screen. I have long brown hair, brown eyes, and I'm wearing a dark red shirt with the flower patterns of pink and light blue. Thank you, Annand. So today we are celebrating the Dramaturgs Network's 20th birthday. And the fact that we are still here is a miracle and a testimony to the never-ending enthusiasm and optimism of Dramaturgs. There's always a way through any impasse. That's the approach that we take in our professional roles and that is how a range of fabulous colleagues in the network over the years have helped us reach this milestone. The Dramaturgs' role is a lonely one. There's no other Dramaturg in the rehearsal room to turn for encouragement after a difficult day. We have no understudies, no deputies or assistants. There's no team waiting in our workshop to help realize our share of the work. We work closely in collaboration with artists, yet as Dramaturgs we work in isolation. We spend our lives in the creative ideas, artistic instincts and ambitions of others listening and responding to the needs of the project at hand. We are witnessing the working process, questioning the decisions or helping random and contributing to the creative process in many ways. If we do our job well, there's so much to take care of, so many demands to meet that sometimes it feels like we are a one-person orchestra. Working in isolation is not healthy for any profession. We need conversations to reflect on our work, learn about other practices and theories to continuously develop as a professional. We need allies when we want to improve our working conditions and we need colleagues with whom we can work together to become, as Ventane noted, a force for change. As early career professionals 20 years ago, we were already the third generation of Dramaturgs in the UK. Yet we did not see Dramaturgs labour recognized or credited in programmes. We sort of knew that there were others out there doing the important but yet invisible work. Dramaturgs were spread out across the country, working for regional theatres, festivals, with independent artists or in companies. And we wanted to reach out and connect and create an ecology in which we could thrive together. So I was speaking to Lloyd Trott, that time Academy Dramaturger Rada, about the idea of creating a network and he directed me towards Catalin amongst some others. And when Catalin and I finally met and started to talk about this idea in my kitchen in Tooting Beck in London in 2001, we were aligned and we were both fired up. We both wanted a network of peers, we wanted in-depth conversation about our practice, we wanted to learn from others, expand our horizons and above all advocate for the role. Before we knew it, we were organizing our inaugural symposium at the then Albury Theatre today, Noel Cowell Theatre for the following year. Yes, this western theatre opened their doors and welcomed us for a symposium in their building, free of charge. So we learned early that as a small organization we need to find friendly partners to work with. We discovered that being a small and independent organization had advantages. It meant that we could move and respond fast. There was no hierarchy or bureaucracy to slow us down. And if it drank something up, as long as there were dedicated people who wanted to realize it, we could do it. Not many people knew that the events that contributed to shaping the profession in the UK were cooked up in a Tooting Beck kitchen. The early years also felt like an endless and tiresome need to respond to suspicions. That dramaturgy is a foreign concept or that dramaturgs would meddle with the work unnecessarily or bring a uniform formulaic approach to playwriting or performance making. The best way to respond to these fearful suspicions has been to share our work and share our practices by educating, by demystifying our work, explaining what we can and what we cannot do and sharing our ways of working. Showing what difference dramaturgy can make and how good dramaturgy is the opposite of a reliance on external framework models and structures. Good dramaturgy practice is dynamic and relational. It happens in the room with artists in sync with their ways of working, their preoccupations and their discoveries. To work with a dramaturge is a brave act. It is inviting somebody to be part of the delicate creative process, exposing one's method to their witnessing. To work with a dramaturge is a political act. It is giving space to another view, a different opinion and respectfully negotiating with it. To work with a dramaturge is a forward-thinking act. It is acknowledging that pieces of theater, performance and dance are not the result of a single artist genius, but they are a result of collaboration. To work with a dramaturge is a democratic act. It is working in dialogue, in collaboration, including in the creative process an independent agent who can check and challenge hierarchies during the working process. To work with a dramaturge is a transformational act. It is allowing dramaturgy to catalyze and transform the process through questioning. As more people took on the role of dramaturge and the network grew, it became clear that it was necessary to have discussions about best practice and also to support continuous professional development in the field. And this work has been strengthened by collaborating closely with partners in the UK and internationally. So during our two decades, we found many allies. Arts Admin, our cola theater, the Battersea Arts Centre, Company of Angels, the Director's Guild, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Goldsmith's High Tide, the National Student Drama Festival, the National Theatre, Playwright Studio Scotland, Radha, the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Soho Theatre, Sadiq Playhouse, the Theatre and Performance Research Association, TAPRA, and the Young Vic Directors Programme, just to mention some of the organizations we have worked with. We have also forged friendships with similar international organizations. The Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, LMDA, with during over a decade of collaboration became our sister organization. And our newer but precious friends, the Asian Dramaturgs Network and the Fence International Network. Some landmark events over the year has been the processional symposium in 2007 at the Soho Theatre. And a week-long international dance dramaturgy intensive in 2012, the first in this country, led by dramaturge Hilda Herder-Weist from Leibalee-Seidelabere, or our COVID Block Project, the Invisible Diaries in 2020. And the year-long international dramaturgy lab connecting 90 odd dramaturgs from around the world exploring dramaturgy across borders. And we organized a string of small-scale, regular monthly events over the year, such as the dramatex cafes, the DN labs, DN picnics, and later the regulars table at Gastamtisch. Today, there are approximately over a thousand people in the UK who work regularly in the role of dramaturg with more than a dozen higher education institutions that dramaturgy is taught. We are happy to have played our part in this transformation. There is now a fourth generation of dramaturgs working in the UK who are professionally trained in the latest performance theory, are comfortably at home in the practice of dramaturgy, and have relevant experience in other areas of theatre as performers, writers, or directors. They are no longer apologetic about being a dramaturg, but confidently claim the space that their talent and knowledge deserves. In the 20 years since we started, the industry has changed, and we have changed with it. We continue to challenge our own practice, to learn, to explore together as a network, to make space for new ideas, people, practices, understandings, and the ever-evolving needs of our art forms and our society. What hasn't changed though is that it is still a small board of passionate, dedicated dramaturgs who make all this happen, still on a voluntary basis. Today, the dramaturgs network remains an unfunded volunteer art organization, supporting practitioners, developing and sharing the practice and theory of dramaturgy. We work with that any substantial financial support, even though we are the only organization in the UK profiling this role. So we now turn to you to be our allies, to be our friends, and enable our work for the next decade. We have so many plans to fulfill mentorship, projects, workshops, retreats, and exploring new areas of dramaturgy. So today, we are launching a birthday fundraiser for the dramaturgs network. And I ask you to reciprocate the generosity of the DM volunteers by donating towards our work. We ask you to give us a birthday gift, as little or as much as you can, which will enable the dramaturgs network to continue this important work in the future. The link below will take you to our birthday fundraiser page on our website, and we would love to raise a thousand pounds towards our events in 2022. Please, if you can, give generously. Thank you for enabling our work. And now, join us in wishing the network and all who sail in her a happy 20th birthday. And here is to many more anniversaries to come. Happy birthday, and thank you, Kathleen. Before we move on to the Kenneth Tynan Award, here are some photos from our 20 years together. And I just want to say welcome to Carol Ann for being here. Now, let's turn to one of the most wonderful tasks the network has to biannually celebrate and highlight the work of dramaturgs around the country through the Kenneth Tynan Award. This year's panel received 22 nominations from which to select our shortlist and then our winner. We were inspired by the passion of those nominating their peers, colleagues and mentors. The nominations included a range of very established dramaturgs working within the literary departments of some of the country's major theatres, a range of freelance dramaturgs with different specialties, working in different regions across the UK, and we salute them all. But our shortlisted dramaturgs for 2021 are Gail Bab, Lucope and Neil Grutchfield. What is very exciting with this year's shortlist is that it really shows off the wide range of work that a dramaturg does. The expertise, the accrue, the intersectional and cross-disciplinary space that they inhabit. Dramaturgs working in dance, in new writing, a range of different ways, and as collaborators, makers. Dramaturgs being in the rehearsal room, dramaturgs thinking strategically about using performance and storytelling to make us reflect on aspects and groups in society we might not hear from otherwise. And dramaturgs being an integral part of knowledge sharing and professional development. Before we hear from our extraordinary shortlist, we shall find out a little bit about what other people were saying about them and why they are here today on the shortlist as well as their current biog. So the first shortlisted dramaturg is Gail Bab, who's nominated for her work as a collaborator-maker dramaturg and her work in the field of participation and in championing black artists and their work. To quote from one of the nominations for Gail, Gail Bab's work as a dramaturg is path-breaking, inventive, and vitally important. And another said, I would love to see Gail celebrated for the sheer artistry, knowledge of structure, and ability to work outside accepted structures. Gail Bab's biog reads, Gail Bab is a theater-maker who specializes in creating new work and supporting emerging artists. As a dramaturg and director, she has created shows for theaters, found sites including museums and the derelict school, as well as national and international touring. Recent credits includes work with Fuel, Brickston House, China Plate, National Youth Theater, Talawa Theater Company, and Hackney Showroom. Gail also co-directs the MA in Applied Theater at Goldsmith University of London and facilitates creative processes in community settings. Often centering Black British history and identity, she's a Clore Fellow 2017 and a Black British Business Award finalist. Lou Cope is nominated for her excellent work in the field of dance dramaturgy and her many initiatives supporting professional development of choreographers and dramaturgs. The nominations praise her commitment, wisdom, care, and approach, which have been valued by people right across the sector. And her deceptively light tone, whilst never erring from her mission to enhance our collaborative efforts by staying true to the principles of dramaturgy. Lou's biographies. Lou Cope is a UK-based dramaturg who has worked across the UK, Europe, Australia, and the Middle East. She's the co-founder of Co-Ad, the Centre of Applied Dramaturgy. She works across ballet, contemporary, South Asian participatory and inclusive dance and theatre and specialises in production, practice and organisational dramaturgy. Recent and current collaborations include Gary Stewart in Australian Dance Theatre, Akash Odedra, Gary Clark, Birmingham Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, Rihanna Faith, Stop Gap Dance. Lou has a podcast called Downtime and has recently launched Doing Dramaturgy, an online intensive course for choreographers and dramaturgs. And Neil Grutchfield is nominated for his tireless work at Synergy, nurturing writers and new plays to put unheard stories about the criminal justice system on theatre main stages. He has provided dramaturgical support to around 30 prisoners and ex-prisoners, writers at all stages of development. To quote one writer who has benefited from his support, Neil has an intoxicating knowledge of theatre. He's thoughtful, considerate, potently perceptive and alarmingly generous with his time and effort. He has been instrumental in bringing me to where I am and for as long as he'll have me, I'll pester his divine mind with my half-baked balmy stories. Neil's bio-greeds. Neil Grutchfield is a freelance dramaturg and script reader for 20 years' experience. He also works as new writing manager for Synergy Theatre Project and reads for the 35er3 Playwriting Award and Kessler Arts Award. His most recent credits include Script Editing Juice, a short film by Ambrine Rathia for Synergy and Dramaturgy on Vessel, a new play by Laura O'Keefe which has toured nationally with ARC 468. That is our wonderful shortlist. The panel was also impressed with two additional dramaturgs making their presence felt in revolutionary ways. A special mention goes to Rita McDade, Royal Conservateur of Scotland for her innovative and groundbreaking dramaturgical work in forefronting British Sign Language and artists working in BSL and Francesca Pechier for her work in the New Works Department at Liverpool Playhouse for her artistic leadership and passion in platforming and celebrating voices that are often left unheard. And now I want to invite Gail, Lou and Neil onto the stage for a brief conversation about their thoughts about Dramaturgy and their practice. Lovely, thank you for being here with us this evening. So we have heard from what people have been saying about you and we have also during the day heard from different corners of the world what dramaturgical discussions are ongoing and what our colleagues are talking about and engaging with. But we're all in our own little worlds with our own little preoccupations so I would be really interested in hearing what you are thinking about at the moment in your own practice and your projects. So I will address that to Lou first if you wouldn't mind kicking us off with any themes or process or practical preoccupations in your field. Thank you Hannah, hello everyone. Yes, I'm Luke Hope. I am a middle aged white woman with blond curly hair wearing a black coat and speaking to you from Brighton today. I just wanted to say thank you Dramaturgy Network for everything that you do. Today has been amazing and also just to say how happy I am to be here and how nice it is to be in a conversation with these amazing people. So thank you. And in terms of what's happening sort of in my world I'm not an initiator of work. Listening to conversations earlier in the day I'm not an initiator, I'm not a gatekeeper. My practice is to be amongst other people's practices so really it is responsive and I'm so lucky to have amazing people that let me work with them and who are brave and who are inspiring and I'm always trying to help them be their very best really. But thinking about what's new for me trying to work with these artists to push up against the edges of what's important or what's necessary or what's beautiful or what's exciting right now that's not new, that's what we do. Me trying to help them find their voice extend their reach be everything that they can be that's also not new, that's what we do. But I think my observations are that I have a sense of self questioning. I think our self question is great, that's a good thing but perhaps more now than ever and I feel that all of us have been really sort of a little bit destabilised and you know I embody the why am I talking in this I'm always uncertain of yeah anyway the privilege of being able to have conversations with artists always blows my mind. But I think that the questioning that's happening around right now is healthy so long as it's healthy and that I'm involved in trying to look after people in their questioning we can't paralyse ourselves we have to take action and make action and make art really so I think that I'm being called upon to be sensitive to that and to look after people I think I'm brushing up against the edges of my own skill set there in terms of being aware of what I'm not for I think there's a really healthy sense of questioning about I mean always dramaturgical questioning in terms of the why you, why you, why now why you know what etc but also just really trying to work extra hard to interrogate our work why people would pay to come and see this and yeah what we have to say to the world really I think that's it's kind of what we always do perhaps it's more urgent and yeah it just feels more important than ever Thank you Lou, Gail what are your dramaturgical preoccupations at the moment Hello I'm Gail, I'm a black woman I'm wearing an orange jumper and I've got an afro currently tied up with a red headscarf I'm talking to you from London I'm I'm really thinking about how we exist in the in-between space as dramaturgs that we're often we are in creative processes but we're often asked to speak from the perspective of outside so we're splitting between outside and inside or we sit in the doorway between in and out with one foot in one camp and one foot in the other and I think that there's something I think that's a big strength of what we do is that we can speak to artists from within and without at the same time and I think that's quite well documented and it's something we talk about all the time but I'm interested in what other in-between spaces we exist in so I think we're often invited to sit in between writer and producer or in between art and audience and I'm interested in what can we do as dramaturgs in those little in-between spaces how much control or impact can we have over what a producer does over how a budget is set over what a process might look like if we start to think about our dramaturgy from every little nook and cranny that somebody sits us in so yeah that's what I'm thinking at the moment yeah that's really really interesting and thought provoking I'll turn to Neil as well what are you currently thinking about and feel free to also respond to what you've heard here yeah thanks I'm Neil Grutchfield my pronouns are he, him I'm I was going to say I'm six foot two but that doesn't really work on a zoomy type thing it doesn't matter I'm a white bespectacled guy in a badly lit living room also in London there we go we're a bit London centric today apologies for that I just wanted to pick up randomly on one thing that Gail just said about those lines in the in-between and a thought I've had about some of the panels I've been on today or watching today so I haven't been on them which is just the idea of there's been a lot of talk about the sensitivity and the care we have to take the pastoral role we have the fluid role we have the many things we have to be but one of the things that I think we're discovering that we shouldn't be is judgmental however this is a role where we have to exercise judgment so I'm quite interested in going back and having some old conversations with myself about like how do you exercise good judgment without being judgmental so I'm just going to drop that bomb in there and leave it for a while otherwise in terms of things I've been preoccupied with there've been some pretty boring practical ones like so working in prisons over the last two years by God they've experienced lockdown 23 hours a day in Yersal so normally we do face-to-face work where we bring tutors into prisons and they'd work with people directly and they'd have that dialogue so for us one of the big practical problems is how do you then introduce things like digital learning how do you introduce where you when you can't have zoom in prisons etc so we've had to really think about different tools, different ways to get creative and also to replace that essential tool that we have which is one of the greatest tools of the dramaturg's arsenal which is to have a dialogue directly face-to-face with someone so for me that's been the biggest kind of seismic thing of the last two years I found it really inspiring this morning when I had the Asian dramaturg's network talking about these kind of mind-boggling projects that take place on you know in different islands in different time zones with people dancing in the same virtual space and thought yeah there's this weird thing going on where half the world's been in lockdown not being able to be in the same room as each other and then other people are building cathedrals so yeah those are my observations about what's going on right now brilliant brilliant and there is some Gail and Lou to what Neil was saying I think I'm such a fan of Zoom basically I'm so grateful to it and I've actually always worked online but of course much more so in the last couple of years and I've been on panels recently where people have talked about how dramaturgies can't happen online can't happen through Zoom, can't happen in a distanced way and I just don't feel that way I feel so grateful for this interface I feel so when I look back on a day where I've done back to back Zoom I don't feel like I did back to back Zoom so I feel like I was with people having amazing conversations and that there was a lot of presence there so I guess I'm just saying ready for Zoom and aren't we lucky that we do have that opportunity and of course environmentally I think it's really important that we find more ways to be together whilst not being together yeah I agree I miss big paper and pens I miss sitting next to somebody and drawing but other than that all of the sort of the worries and the tensions and the stresses at the beginning of all of this that I had around Zoom they melted away quite quickly and when I sort of realised that you can actually just be you can be with someone at least one-on-one on Zoom in a way that feels real that feels like you can miss some eye contact but I feel like we can play a few games by looking directly into the camera and seeing what we're you know who's looking where but you've sort of spun me out Neil I'm thinking about judgement without being judgmental and I think I think maybe I'm going back to the in-between thing I think if what we're judging if what we're discerning is ours then maybe that the sort of the judgmental tone the sting of judgmentality isn't there actually we're just looking through to go what's working what's not working it's brilliant together because this is our piece of work that we want to make as good as it possibly can be even if it isn't really our piece of work it's your piece of work but you've invited me to shape it with you and so I think there might be something I think we can openly, kindly judge without judging I feel that also sometimes that dramaturgy is if it's done in that kind of sort of dynamic relational way actually creates the own standards by which it is judging something from within within the group and within the material so I'm hoping because you've provoked me there as well Neil I'm going to be thinking about it I'm going to move on to my next little question which is looking at sort of the that we've heard about today the important sort of trends and areas of experiencing change within our industry and just wondering how you feel that the role of the dramaturgy within your field and your area can help to address incorporate and navigate this change maybe I'll turn to Neil first yeah particularly that your work with playwrights okay I've got some sort of specific thoughts and some general thoughts so I'll just cover the specific ones that are about working in the criminal justice system and working with prisoners, next prisoners because a lot of that is at the emerging artist end of things so it's got to be a bit more hands-on I don't sort of have the luxury often of being able to build long-term relationships or in-depth relationships and often it's quite an instrumental relationship because the empowerment the writer achieves is through writing and if you can't get any writing out then it's a done starter so a lot of what we're trying to do and the role of the dramaturgy is really important in this particular environment because it's basically facilitating creativity, facilitating writing in order to facilitate the ownership of stories to facilitate the development of a writer's voice which that individual can then take away and have after that moment so there's a tension there between a teaching role and wanting to be as free as you would with an experienced professional writer where you can do all the niceties and spend ages etc but in terms of the more general thing I've actually been quite inspired finding out a little bit about what Gael and Lou and other dramaturgs do because I think I'm getting a wider sense of what the dramaturgs role can be and the advantages of having dramaturgs that aren't just so narrowly about the delivery of a piece of work or the development of the career of an individual actually that consultative role the roles in different forms the roles the pastoral support role all of those things, some of these things I guess I'm involved in already but other things it's such a fluid role but that is a problem for us as well I do think it's a fluid role it's an advantage for all these wonderful reasons it can be anything it's also a disadvantage because I still think despite the 20 years of wonderful things going on we are still regarded in some quarters as an optional extra I think within the industry and within education there's enough out there for people to know what we do but the public still don't know what we do so we're in this weird situation where kind of dramaturgs are now part of the landscape but the public don't know what we do and yet within the industry everyone's a dramaturg you don't always need a dramaturg because the director can do it well the playwright is a dramaturg as he produces funding this so they're really the dramaturg everyone's a dramaturg so I still think that fluidity is a blessing and a curse it's wonderful possibility but it also means hang on to your credit because you might be out the door tomorrow yep Gail I'm going to put that same question to you about how your work is affected by the changes that are happening and how your the role of dramaturg fits into that change I think I'm going to nail because I do a lot of work with people who are making their first second maybe maybe a pushed third piece of work I think that a lot of my role is developing the artist as well as the art providing space and time for them to go well what do you want to do and what are you interested in asking all of those questions what are you interested in what might your voice be but with that there's also then there's always the reality of going well actually where are the resources can you get into that building the questions that they tend to ask is can I think that big should I be doing a two person show rather than the nine person show that's in my head and so there's something about about pulling out and opening up and expanding and holding space for people to really dream and to think about to imagine the piece of work they want to make and then tempering that with the reality I think another thing because a lot of the work that I do is co-created and is with multiple people I think that maybe finally slowly the industry is starting to understand that devised work is a valid way of developing work as well it doesn't have to be one writer in a room and their singular vision it can be ten people in a room all feeding off of each other layering their different understandings on top of each other to get something that's beautiful and that's conflicting and that contradicts and that goes and so I'm thinking a lot about that at the moment what it is I love pulling together threads from multiple people but once you pull together those threads how do you explain to people outside of who's piece of work it is when there is a director and there is a the title director carries such weight and the words devised by company are so slippery actually how do you fully credit people for the work that they do how do we value what is the collaboration that makes that work it feels to me like both what you were talking about what Neil was talking about is also in between the dream and the ambition and the reality and the structure so it's another in between space as well Gail sorry what does it look like from your vantage point within dance yeah well similar to what everyone says and I think in terms of yeah being in the spaces in between I think a conversation that I'm really enjoying in multiple places is actually a conversation that I was really enjoying before Covid hit about the unsatisfactory touring model and how it's just a bit of a nightmare and young artists are encouraged to get as many gigs as they can and their audiences are small and they haven't invested in place and in their audience etc and that was difficult and I think needed attention before Covid came along and then of course Covid comes along and it's difficult for a whole other host of reasons but so I'm really excited about working with artists who are thinking about how else they can present their work and how we can look at depth not breadth but really depth and have impact that is local and therefore is sustained it's not just a one hit wonder and off they go the next morning to really really develop relationships really have that profound impact which of course again is environmentally necessary and looking for exciting partnerships with buildings or organisations that aren't necessarily theatres or dance spaces but that will enable us to have much more further reach, much more diverse conversations it's less ableist it's more inclusive it's more economically viable maybe for people to attend and so I think there's a shift or I think some of us are looking for how can we present our work, how can the work be great but how can it land with more depth and with more duration and do better work I suppose you know have greater impact and I find all that stuff incredibly moving and challenging but really exciting Before I move on to my final little question any responses from Gail or Neil to conversation we just had I'm just thinking that there might be more work for the Dramaturgs Network to do in positioning us in being able to lobby and to be able to speak for with Dramaturgs in all of the different knowledge that we collect from the different ways that we inhabit because yeah there's quite a lot that needs to change throughout the industry and I don't know that we are as Dramaturgs are being consulted in those changes actually No and there's this other split between that we've heard about today as well about the freelance Dramaturg and their relationship to power structures versus the in-house Dramaturg and their relationship to power structures is different so yeah there's a huge task in conversation for us to have however I'm going to move on to a little question just to round up this discussion with we have a lot of early career members in the network and tuning in tonight so I just wanted to ask all of you what is your best bit of advice for the next generation of Dramaturgs Gail what would you offer to those entering the profession today Ask for what you want I think people can say no but I think ask for what you want and for what you think you need in order to do your job the best way that you can and that's whether that's money, whether that's time, whether that's I need a mentor, I need support as I say people might say no and then you've lost nothing people might say yes and then you've won everything and more to the point they might say no now but they'll fundraise it they might fundraise it for it later they might put it into part of a structure whether that's for you for later or for another Dramaturg for later so I think yeah there's no harm in asking and I do think that there's a danger in us staying quiet about what we need Very good very wise yes Lou you are a great mentor of Dramaturgs and choreographers what's your piece of advice for my course obviously I wish not to say that my online course seriously I have created that course because there isn't one and it's two days a month for three months so that it can fit in alongside people's practice and however else they make their money because I love creating spaces where we get to talk about all of this but aside from that it's about course it's about reading everything watching everything, listening to everything being in the world seeing work but I've always believed that you just offer yourself up in good faith then you say I'm here I'm interested I'm available I'm trying will you have a conversation with me I don't know how which is what I still do after 20 years will you have a conversation with me I don't know how it will go I don't know if it will be any good but shall we try and be brave about that and be curious and be honest and be excited and yeah so offer yourself up and accept that people might say no you're alright thanks but some people will and you'll realise so quickly how you can feed each other and conversations can grow and yeah I just think really what my advice is is to do it just do it get out there with love and with excitement Thank you Neil finally from your perspective Can I do two is that alright Yes you can The first one again this is taking from the different panels I've listened to today and I'm actually going to try and offer this advice to me as well as as well as emerging because I think it's all still relevant for me as well listen and be aware of your own prejudices agendas and unconscious biases know what you don't know and don't be afraid to talk to someone who does know be kind if you forget everything I just said be kind is the one I would remember because yeah I don't want to be trite but it's essential to a good relationship and our best work comes with good relationships and then the other one is a practical piece of advice the elephant in the room today I think is economics and yes it's a circle of freelance career and passion projects against sustaining ourselves within the profession so my advice to emerging dramatizes get a job get a job that allows you to be a freelance at the same time because unless you've got the bank of mum and dad or you're willing to be an intern for nothing forever you need to make this sustainable but ideally get a job maybe it was being a reader be a reader get paid as a reader don't let people give you endless trials where you don't get paid or work for a theater or a company that's tangential or directly related to what you want to do because the two will feed each other and it will be a virtuous circle and also then all these conversations we're having about power and hierarchy actually it probably is the best world for a dramaturg to have one foot in an institution and one foot out of an institution I think that's a healthy existence actually learning wise and empathy wise Can I just say one more thing Hanna just really quickly I want to say something I've learned a hundred times but I've learned it really profoundly again today which is not to isolate ourselves which I do because I'm busy and I just work and I've got so much out of today I've had conversations so much that really my tip would be be active in the dramaturg network Lou and get wisdom and comfort and company from the people here note to self it's noted Thank you and that beautiful note I will want to say thank you to you all for this lovely conversation so Adam on to the next part so we're going to turn to the evening that we've all been waiting for announcing the winner of the Kenneth Tynan award 2021 the award was established in 2011 this biannual award honours theatre professionals as we've just seen who's working and residing in the UK who have made an outstanding contribution to dramaturgy in the UK in the past two years regardless of their job title the award is in honour of Kenneth Tynan who became the first dramaturg in the United Kingdom when he joined Lawrence Olivia at the newly established National Theatre in 1963 so at this point I also want to extend the thanks from the network to our award panel members Ola Dipo Agobolay Agobalje Agobolay no I'm so sorry I get that wrong I do know how to say that name Hannah Khalil, Stuart Pringle Sarah Siegal myself and Catalin it wasn't easy task this year I'm so sorry about the name we also want to thank the sponsors of the award National Theatre and Nick Hurn books and our supporter John Stoppard and Matthew and Drama and thank you to Tracy Tynan Kenneth Tynan's daughter who is continually supporting us and is delighted that we are continuing to offer the award in her father's name the winner receives a check of 500 pounds and a lifetime membership of the dramaturks network as well as our coveted winner certificate featuring Kenneth Tynan in an extraordinary photo by Julian Lloyd and Tynan's wonderful quote rouse tempers goad, lacerate and raise world winds the winner also gets 50 pounds worth of books and plays from our sponsor Matthew and Drama now it's time to reveal the winner this year and to invite them onto the stage to deliver their dramaturgy paper and the winner this year is Gail Bab congratulations Gail the stage is yours thank you so much Hannah thank you Dramatur's Network thank you to the nominees it's just genuinely brilliant to be recognised and congratulations Neil and Lou it's been good getting to know you briefly and chatting to you and hopefully in the spirit of not isolating ourselves hopefully the three of us can chat more and be a little support network of our own so I've been asked to speak for about 10 minutes I probably won't speak for quite that long but here is my paper so dramaturgy is a funny word I'd been working in theatre for a long time before I understood what it meant and I'd been doing this thing called dramaturgy for quite a while before I felt able to call myself a dramaturgy it's also the part of my job that I most often have to explain when talking to people outside of theatre but as we're at a dramaturgy conference and a lot of the conversation today has been about expanding on the role I won't spend a lot of time defining it here what I will say briefly for those of you that have just joined us or who are new to dramaturgy that what we do is we fulfil many functions and we take on many roles we are writers, provocateurs facilitators critical friends midwives, compasses and anchors as previous winners of the Kenneth Tynan award have said we are curious people who listen deeply who ask questions and create skeletons for others to flesh out we care for artists and for the art at our best we are sensitively guide and shape holding the artists we work with as well as all the elements of the work the text, the movement, the music the emotional and energetic score in mind none of this work is neutral our curiosity is driven by our knowledge and our interests our questions are loaded with our life experience and what we hear when we listen has been filtered through our unique position in the world dramaturgy is political and I think that there's a danger in speaking in hushed tones about that fact in allowing others to think of dramaturgs as neutral facilitators or dispassionate outside eyes instead of the active collaborators that we are and can be I call for us to be more explicit about our perspectives to be clearer about where we stand and to further interrogate where our questions come from let's be transparent and bravely state the politics that shape how we shape performance in that spirit I'm going to try and be transparent with you today my practice is rooted in blackness and the vast majority of the work that I make collaborate on to advise on centres black British experiences the theatre making processes I'm involved in often start at the archives and I mean archives in the widest sense of the word it could be that we're working from traditional historical archives, museum collections or everyday archives family photo albums diaries, the boxes of records at someone's parents house the experiences that are inscribed on our bodies at the moment I have one central question that shapes all the little questions that I ask, the notes that I give and the ways that I experiment when I'm in the room that question is how do we reach into the archives into these rich and varied containers of black culture, knowledge joy and pain in ways that respect what we find there protect us as artists and invite an audience into a generative conversation with us it's a three part question I'm going to use the next five minutes or so to expand on that question and see what's inside it it's big and I don't have concrete answers I don't think there's a blueprint but what I'll do is to share where my thinking is currently at so the first part of the question is how do we reach into the archive with respect and care for the lives contained within it a key follow up question for me is why why are we drawing on a particular life, historical event or aspect of black culture is it simply in order to stage unheard stories something that gets talked about a fair amount in theatre if so that's not enough for me partly because the idea of unheard stories invisibilizes generations of black British theatre makers and their work but also because what I'm interested in as a dramaturg maker is working with other artists to tell stories from the archives differently in ways they haven't been heard before in ways that help us understand something of our past reveal something in the present and all that help us imagine new futures so when pulling from the archive I follow Christina Sharp's challenge in her book in the wake on blackness and being I ask myself are we quote keeping and putting breath back in the body end quote as we draw from the archives are we giving these lives the breathing space to be rendered fully human on stage or are we consciously or not flattening them out reproducing what is already known and assumed about blackness and if we are doing that if we are flattening it out then maybe the structure is not quite right or the form maybe that particular piece of material in the archive maybe it's meant for a completely different piece of work let's not be afraid to leave things in the archive for someone else or for a future you to pick up later the second part of the question is how do we create from black pain in a way that doesn't hurt us as artists I've just finished working on a piece called the body remembers which is about embodied trauma in black British women what I discovered in that process with some brilliant co-creators Heather Ajipong and Imogen Knight what I discovered there is what I think we probably already know that care is key as dramaturgs we are often carefully holding a creative process at least up until the point when we hand over to a director while we're doing that let's advocate for what we need to thrive if care, kindness and compassion are key to our processes and I've heard them mentioned a few times today then they should show up in our budgets let's ask our producer to add a lining to fundraise for a therapist or a coach to create flexible schedules that allow for careful, gentle collaboration let's build in time to check in with each other to reflect on our own how do we go for a walk to cut the day short when it turns out that actually we're kind of full finally how do we invite our audiences to join with us in generative conversation if we're going to take care of our artists we should probably take care of our audiences too so first can we expand the caring and careful approach of our rehearsal room to include our performance space what is the formaturgy if the audience experience from the moment they walk in until the moment they leave using the body remembers as an example again it was a relaxed performance people could sit where they wanted to stand, move, stretch during the piece most people didn't because they were being well behaved audience members but they could have and some did we also provided paper and pencils so that people could write or draw during the piece and once it ended there was another 45 minutes where they could stay in the space reflecting on their own talking to friends, walking the stage knowing that no one would hurry them out or ask them to leave they could sit with the piece the material their thoughts until they were ready to step back into the world outside in terms of sparking conversation that generates new understandings or actions I'm encouraging myself and my collaborators at the moment to consider what happens when we imagine that we are making work for the audience member that knows our source material the best for the audience member that has the same box of records in her parents house who's already researched that historical event or attended 17 conferences about that particular issue if we want to move conversations forward then we can't always position them at the starting line sometimes we have to start a little way down the path and trust that the rest of the audience will have an entertaining enriching experience whether or not they understand every nuanced line or gesture that way black artists and audiences can express themselves fully without compromise explanation or apology and at the moment that is the sort of theatre I'm interested in enabling thank you thank you Gail there's so much to unpick and think about in that wonderful paper and it will be available amongst previous drama Terji Papers on our website in a few weeks time just to finish off this section and thank you again Gail and congratulations we have this lovely picture of Hannah Khalil delivering the award to Gail earlier in the week so now all that remains is to thank you all for tuning in it's been a full wonderful day thought provoking discussions a birthday party and a wonderful paper by our winner of the Kenneth Tynan Award Gail if you have enjoyed the day please give us a small nod and encouragement through our birthday gift donation you can find the details on our birthday fundraiser on our website and finally I want to say thank you to the amazing team that has made today happen and who make the network the buzzing inspiring collegiate and boundary breaking organization that it is so from all of us to all of you thank you and good night