(Sarah Brigham’s article appeared in the Guardian, 7/1.)
A successful artistic director of a large producing house once said to me: “I have five people I go to when I need to find out who the next hot young talent is that I should be developing.” I asked who those five people were. He named five white men who were all as successful as him, based in London and operating in what one might call a theatre bubble.
The recent debates about the lack of development opportunities for actors from non-traditional backgrounds seem to miss the crucial issue that if we keep having the same conversations about developing talent with the same people, then we’ll keep throwing up the same kind of artists and they will, on the whole, reflect ourselves. The old adage “if you want a different answer, ask a different question” seems it should also be accompanied with “and ask a different person”.