Networking Forum Ovation Launches To Challenge The Lack Of Gender Diversity In Theatre

Project Ovation ("Ovation"), the exciting and dynamic new forum for women and female identifying creatives in British theatre, launches this month.

Its focus is to create space for women in an industry that continues to prove challenging, and to provide opportunities for networking and skills development - both with other creatives, and with theatres and producing houses - to support their work and create opportunities.

Ovation was created by arts writer, Victoria Sadler, following sustained issues she found with the platforming and ongoing support given to women creatives across theatre. "I still see a huge imbalance in gender across the theatre industry," she says, "particularly when we look at writers, directors, and artistic directors for major venues. I was so frustrated seeing the same issue year on year, and so I asked myself - what can I do to change this?"

The working committee for Ovation was set up in March 2018 to consider the issue and devise a possible solution. The approach agreed upon was to create space for women in buildings and theatres, and to fill that space with talks, panels, workshops, performance and networking opportunities.

The result is an events calendar that will bring women and female-identifying creatives face to face with other key people in the industry - whether that be Artistic Directors, producers, agents, or literary departments - so that these people can give them the right advice and the right contacts at the right time.

Ovation will also enable theatres and producing companies to broaden their own database of female identifying creatives as they look to diversify their programming and production teams.

As Ovation grows, the aim is to continue to work with theatres and production companies to promote further inclusion and opportunities for women and female-identifying creatives - but the space that Ovation will make for women will get ever bigger!

As with any initiative, Ovation needs the support of theatres and buildings to provide space for women to meet and share lessons learnt, and to participate with us.

Stevie Bryant, COO of Ovation, asks, "The support from women for this new venture is evidently there, as any observer can tell from dialogue on social media and elsewhere, but space is hard to find in London. Therefore if you run a building and have physical space that Ovation can use to host events and bring women creatives and the theatre industry together, please do get in touch."

projectovation.org

Though Ovation is starting in London in 2018, from next year it will roll out the forum and its framework across the United Kingdom, and is looking forward to working with participants and creatives across the country to develop regional forums that work for all women.

As Naomi Westerman, founding member of Ovation and Artistic Director of Little but Fierce Theatre says, "As a female playwright I am shocked by the ongoing poor gender equality in theatre. Women and especially women from marginalised groups are underrepresented across the industry, and still have many barriers to overcome. In 2013 I founded a female-centric theatre company to try to redress this balance, and I am proud to be able to take my work fighting for women's' and disability rights further as a member of Ovation. I can't wait to work with women from across the UK next year to further Ovation's reach and ensure all women are included in this new initiative."

The inaugural season of events is now live on the Ovation website at www.projectovation.org?and includes:

Meet the Artistic Directors Panel - Our flagship event this Autumn, we are bringing together female Artistic Directors to talk about their paths to the position, the challenges they've experienced along the way, and the opportunities the role offers them to shape the building - and even the industry - to support female creatives.

Script Surgeries - With these sessions, we aim to empower female-identifying writers telling female-centric stories by providing them with an opportunity to share an extract of their work, receive facilitated feedback, and to meet directors, producers, dramaturgs, and more who are interested in helping them to develop their work beyond the surgery.

Disabled Artists Workshop and Panel - This panel is aimed at actors with disabilities, and directors or theatre-makers interested in working with disabled actors and in making integrated theatre. This is an opportunity to ask questions to representatives from organisations such as Equity, Agents for Change, and Disabled / Integrated Theatre companies, and for actors to connect with artists who have a particular interest in working with disabled actors.

Other events include panel discussions on Women of Colour, Parents in Theatre, and Women Writers, as well as acting workshops and social events. There are also 'speed dating' nights where you can meet agents wanting to meet more female-identifying creatives, and members of literary departments from across the theatre industry.

The list of events can be found on the Ovation website now. You can also find Ovation on Twitter as @ProjectOvation, and on Instagram and Facebook as Project Ovation.

Ovation is launching with both paying and free events, with a goal to have the greatest accessibility possible for participants of varying socio-economic backgrounds. To do this, Ovation will be pursuing sponsorship and funding so welcome dialogue with companies and organisations who would like to pursue these opportunities.