What does a devising process look like? How does a theatre company get from a fledgling idea, to a fully staged devised production? Who’s involved? And how did they get there? The Paper Birds’ new digital creative careers resource, Navigate, aims to demystify devising, and more…
Those of us who work in drama education have all got one thing in common; preserving our subject and promoting it to the young people we work with. Dwindling uptake since the devaluation of ‘soft’ subjects like ours has been ricocheting through the industry for years, coupled with the effect the pandemic brought upon our ability to explore drama practically and physically, pushed us to the brink of mass extinction.
After seeing repeated posts and call outs from drama teachers about where to find stats or resources they could share at open evenings, or how they can shape schemes of work in the wake of reduced class capacity, or even the most heartfelt of posts, the one we all dread, that this year they’ve no cohort at all and the course simply won’t run, we decided to see if we could contribute.
Which job roles can our students really move into with an A Level in Drama? How do we inspire students (and parents) that opting in to drama at GCSE can, and will, provide tangible job prospects in the future? Is drama school the be all and end all, can you forge a career in the arts if you are not a triple-threat with a bank balance to comfortably put you up in London for three years or more?
We saw a space that needed filling. At The Paper Birds, we are self-made artists and entrepreneurs. We founded a company on friendship and a desire to make and tour theatre shows. We didn’t have drama school training, we studied Theatre Acting at university with part-time jobs in pubs and supermarkets. We paid our rent with student loans. We begged, borrowed, and stole our way to the Edinburgh Fringe to begin showcasing our very early plays, with no financial backing or support whatsoever. We laid a career path that certainly wasn’t easy, but we went after it all the same.
This year, in 2024, we celebrate our 21st birthday as an organisation. We are proud of the journey that our little company has undergone – from six best friends trying to make a play and get it out on the road, to a regularly funded organisation selected as one of Arts Council England’s National Portfolio Organisations. We reach thousands of people across various communities every year with our shows and workshops. We are shapers of our own destiny, making the work we want to make and living the lifestyle we want to live. It’s incredibly empowering, as well as lots of hard work!
It’s surely difficult for a student at KS3 to see the real tangible career trajectory that can occur, or even to see past the shining lights of the West End or the big screen. We wanted to offer to the young people who are now making their choices about the future, what a realistic career in professional theatre can look like, so we set about making Navigate. Navigate is a completely digital resource, comprising of 10 short ‘industry profile’ videos. Subscribers are introduced to the many diverse faces behind the development of a professional touring live production, including artistic directors, performers, assistant director, theatre producer, sound designer, set and costume designer, video designer, filmmaker, lighting designer, and choreographer. Each short video features a short interview with the professional creative, charting their journeys from KS4 to working professionally in the industry. Each artist has taken various routes to arriving where they are now; would you guess that a professional video designer with a degree in computer science also has a GCSE in Dance? Following each artist interview, a short practical workshop task is set, enabling viewers and students in school to sample the day to day tasks that each creative explores.
Coupled with the artist interviews, is a more in-depth behind-the-scenes documentary which follows the development of The Paper Birds’ latest touring production ‘Feel Me’. From initial research and development workshops, to final tech week and preview performances, students are given a window into how a professional devised production takes shape, and how all the different job roles collaborate to meet the shared goal. Supported by accompanying PDF’s that include a glossary, live links to further careers opportunities and apprenticeships, and write up of all the practical workshop exercises, schools can subscribe to Navigate and gain access through The Paper Birds’ website. It is offered on an annual rolling subscription – but once you have access, it can be shown and delivered to students across the entire school, meeting Gatsby benchmarks for careers provision as well as inspiring students across the school to really consider the alternative creative job roles that studying the performing arts can lead to.
Our vision at The Paper Birds is to provoke change, one encounter at a time. For us, every encounter is important, whether it be an in-person workshop, an interview with someone sharing their story with us for a new show, as an audience member at a theatre, or via the recorded resources we put out online. If we can affect change in the course of young people’s lives and make them richer for their encounter with us and our work, then our mission as an arts charity is served. Without the right steers to our young people at the right time, our professional theatre industry will stagnate, it will become more elitist, and ultimately the art made, become diluted. We need to encourage our young people from all walks of life to tangibly see the potential for themselves in the creative industries, as well as enabling our school drama departments to thrive. Because together, we all have a shared goal, to inspire and encourage our young people towards the performing arts industries. And there is strength in numbers.