I’m featured in a book called Equal Stages: Standing Up for Identity and Integrity in the Performing Arts, Vol 1. It’s never going to be a best-seller, that’s not the point of the book. It is going to be something which helps to inform the journey that communities and cultures need to make as they come out of the COVID-19 restrictions.
As any observers of theatre should know, look beyond the musicals which light up the West End’s stages, and there is a vast and nationwide creative powerhouse which influences gaming, interior design and architecture, education and training, community conhesion, ‘brand Britain’ and so much more.
Theatre and storytelling are woven into the fabric of what we do as human beings.
Equal Stages documents how diverse theatre is made in the UK and Ireland
Lived experiences of gender, race, disability, class, poverty, age and region inform the perspectives shared in the book.
African-Caribbean, British South Asian, British East Asian, Traveller/Romany, racism in theatre, racism in comedy, Islam, Welsh language, deaf/British Sign Language, gay, transgender, class through the prism of the council estates and poverty, women in the criminal justice system, rural, older people, the North, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland, playwriting, criticism, theatre in education writing, education, funding, fringe, community, grassroots international theatre in the UK, alternative venues, Black Ticket Project, working men’s clubs, theatres serving the community of all backgrounds and ages, marketing, academic, agents, representation and the language of respect – these are just some of the subjects discussed, taken apart, reformed and informed by relevant practice.
The insights of these voices from around the British Isles – England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland & Ireland – have a resonance far beyond the performing arts, in what has turned out to be a #LastNormalPhoto collection (most of the interviews took place between October 2019 and February 2020) tackling the issues we faced before the Coronavirus Crisis – and which we’ll be facing with even greater urgency post-Coronavirus.
Get your copy from > deserthearts.com
Sanjit Chudha 