{"id":102,"date":"2013-09-16T18:46:28","date_gmt":"2013-09-16T18:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/?p=102"},"modified":"2013-09-17T12:56:34","modified_gmt":"2013-09-17T12:56:34","slug":"theres-no-business-like-publicly-funded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/theres-no-business-like-publicly-funded\/","title":{"rendered":"There’s no business like publicly funded…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, I read the part of the Father in a rehearsed reading of new Vietnamese talent, Tuyen Do’s, \u00a0play in development, Summer Rolls<\/strong>, as mentioned in a\u00a0previous post.<\/a><\/p>\n

The evening was part of Tamasha theatre company’s development programme for new writers, which they call “Scratch Night” <\/a>and the excerpts we read were followed by a panel discussion and audience debate around the topic, ““Creating from where we are”\u00a0<\/strong>which pondered the notion that ethnic artists are under pressure to represent their ethnicity.<\/p>\n

One conclusion was that in order to get anywhere (at least commercially) the answer is “Yes, you have to accept your pigeon hole in the short term and maybe once you are successful, you can transcend your race”.<\/p>\n

This doesn’t sound so good when you flip it around. \u00a0 What this message means, to many up and coming ethnic minorities is, “We know what you should be writing about. \u00a0Your community. \u00a0Whether you like it or not.” \u00a0This is not as far fetched an extrapolation as it might seem.<\/p>\n

A \u00a0BBC Film Executive once said to me at a high-powered film meeting about a romantic comedy script I had written (about a Chinese Elvis), “Can you rewrite it to be more “A Big Fat Chinese Wedding”?! \u00a0The fact that the theme of my film was identity,(the Elvis in the film was West Indian Chinese and felt he belonged neither to the Chinese community nor the English one, hence his being drawn to being Elvis) was either totally lost on him or he didn’t give a shit. \u00a0This guy wanted something totally different! \u00a0Needless to say my film is still available to be picked up\/developed and this guy is now a massively successful film producer.<\/p>\n

On a fateful day in 2002, I had a conversation with an “officer” of the London Arts Board about why I had chosen to produce a play about being Chinese mixed race, Sun in Shining. \u00a0<\/strong>It wasn’t so much the play itself they had a problem with, from what I could gather, but they could not comprehend why I had produced this play with their money, when I was developing East Asian writers. \u00a0Sun is Shining<\/strong> was written by Matt Wilkinson, a white writer who is one of my closest friends, and even though he had undertaken extensive research under my direction with the company, and I am mixed race Chinese myself, the Arts Board had decided this was not acceptable.<\/p>\n

Not only was my choice incomprehensible to them, it was, I was about to learn, grounds to cut the company<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>from their revenue funding portfolio. \u00a0It was incredible to hear their reasoning, especially as it happened to be also the very day that the production of <\/span>Sun is Shining<\/strong> I had mounted at The King’s Head in Islington, just up the road from London Arts Board’s offices, had made its way into Time Out Critic’s Choice \u00a0(where it subsequently remained for the rest of its sold-out run, before returning the following year at the ‘Best of Critic’s Choice season’ at Battersea Arts Centre, from where it appeared at 59E59 Theatre in New York – it became arguably the most successful British East Asian play ever produced in UK ). \u00a0It was an incredible conversation because, here was a well meaning white guy, telling me that his panel of well meaning white guys were disappointed that I had decided to go with a good play, rather than a much worse play by an “ethnic in development”. \u00a0The fact that I am myself mixed race and judged it a good play (correctly, it seems) was not pertinent and, well, that was that.<\/span><\/p>\n

As it turns out, the East Asian theatre company that the Arts Council did continue to fund for the next 6 years failed to produce a show with anything like the artistic success of Sun is Shining. \u00a0<\/strong> The Arts Council then withdrew funding from them too, primarily (it is understood and accepted) for failing to be of high enough standard, leaving British East Asians totally unrepresented in the national portfolio and in a vastly worse position than ten years previously. \u00a0 And confused! \u00a0I wish they would make their minds up! \u00a0Does the arts council want a good show or does it prefer well intentioned gestures approximately in the right middle-classed direction, and to hell with artistic excellence? \u00a0By not knowing, then changing its mind, the Arts Council put the entire East Asian performing arts community back a decade. \u00a0We East Asians still have not a single revenue funded company, incidentally.<\/p>\n

With all the East Asian shows being suddenly produced this year, none of them by an established East Asian theatre company, the following question can legitimately be asked: What is the relevance of a specifically “ethnic” theatre company and does any such company, defined by its ethnicity, such as Tamasha<\/a>, Tara<\/a>, Yellow Earth<\/a> only marginalise the very people they claim to represent even more?<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Summer Rolls<\/strong>, the \u00a0Vietnamese play, is\u00a0not<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>being developed by an East Asian theatre company \u00a0but by Tamasha, predominantly known for its (south) Asian output. \u00a0 I think its possible that Tamasha is like that fictional successful ethnic, mentioned at the beginning of this post in the post show discussion, who has transcended their own ethnic identity and is now using its success and expertise to produce and develop material that is not confined to their ethnicity. \u00a0 Or is it? \u00a0<\/span>Is this such a big jump? \u00a0<\/span>Its about another ethnic minority’s ethnicity! \u00a0It would be much more bold if they were to attempt to produce a play written by, say, an Irishman about, say, \u00a0motor cars. \u00a0But then they would stand accused, like I did that time, of not serving the ethnics they receive money to represent. \u00a0Being ethnic really does define what you can and can’t do in this business.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where does this current predicament leave us East Asians? \u00a0Still no theatre company revenue funded. \u00a0Yellow Earth, the last to hold such status, is not really looking relevant at all. \u00a0Ad hoc groups are having to scrabble around, independently and in competition with one another, which is extremely difficult. \u00a0Is it too much to ask for an organisation, funded by the Arts Council, which could provide help to produce the shows that are currently being produced, and develop the plays that are currently being developed outside of our community? \u00a0This would add the skills and talent within the community. \u00a0Just please, this time, Mr “Officer” don’t assume that you know what’s best for us. \u00a0Leave us alone to find out for ourselves.<\/p>\n

My Chinese Elvis film is still unproduced (and mostly unread). \u00a0If there is an Asian producer, who has ‘transcended’ Bollywood and wants to use his skills to produce something different and is interested in a clever idea for a (probably TV) film, do get in contact. \u00a0In the meantime I will be working on trying to transcend myself…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, I read the part of the Father in a rehearsed reading of new Vietnamese talent, Tuyen Do’s,  play in development, Summer Rolls, as mentioned in a previous post. The evening was part of Tamasha theatre company’s development programme for new writers, which they call “Scratch Night” and the excerpts we read were followed by … Continue reading There’s no business like publicly funded…<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[44,38,37,13,40,45,27,39,26,42,41,28,43],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116,"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102\/revisions\/116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.chineseelvis.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}