28 Apr Directing, Mothering and Caring Round Table

Posted at 14:17h in Events, Featured, SDUK News by

In partnership with PiPA

Session 1: Thu, 19 May 2022, 12.00 to 13.30 
on Zoom

An action-oriented round table with invited panelists. These sessions are open to both members and non-members of SDUK. 

What can we do individually and together to support theatre directors who are mothers and/or have other caring responsibilities?   

In this informal online event, we will talk not only about the ‘what’ but also the ‘how’ – sharing best practice and practical strategies for managing these dual roles. Directors are often asked to make adjustments for cast and crew but are themselves subject to the same pressures and commitments as everyone else in the company. 

We will focus on the action we can take ourselves, now, to shift the landscape; and look at what organisations such as SDUK can do to support mothers and those with caring responsibilities; as well as what we should lobby and push for in the long term to change our industry for the better. 

1 What we can personally do for ourselves – a personal action. 

2 Wider, collective action – what can we do as a group, what can SDUK do, where can we help, apply pressure, support etc? 

This first event is for women only, there is a second event on 9th June for all parents and carers of any gender. * 

Taking place on zoom at lunchtime 19th May, this is a relaxed event, so feel free to have your children with you, just listen in with no video/sound, come late, leave early – make it work for you.  We will enable zoom captions – if you need any other type of support in order to take part, let us know at tanja@stagedirectorsuk.com 

*We have taken the decision to have a women-only event as women’s careers still suffer disproportionately when they become mothers, and the issues they face as parents differ from those men face as parents.  In addition, we wish to create a space where women’s voices and experiences are not diluted – it is our experience running events that this can sometimes happen in a mixed-gender event. So the first session is for women and everyone who identifies as a woman, and the second session is open to all.   

Confirmed panelists: 

  • Tamara Harvey, Theatre Clwyd
  • Anna Ehnold-Danailov, Co-Founder & Joint CEO PiPA, (formerly Theatre Director)
  • Jemma Gross, Fly High Stories
  • Andrea Pelaez Lyons, Choreographer and Movement Director. Co-Founder of LAIPA UK (Latin Americans in Performing Arts UK)
  • Natalie Abrahami, Freelance Theatre, Opera and Film Director 
  • Jemima Levick, Artistic Director, A Play, A Pie and A Pint, & freelance director

BOOK HERE

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For Session 2 (9 June) info click here.

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Further Info on our Panelists: 

Tamara Harvey has been the Artistic Director at Theatr Clwyd since 2015 and was previously a freelance director for 15 years, working on new plays, classic texts and musicals. Her next production will be The Famous Five: A New Musical, in co-production with Chichester Festival Theatre.

Tamara has a six year old born in her first year at Theatr Clwyd and a four year old born three months before she started rehearsals for Home, I’m Darling, a co-production with the National Theatre.

Both as a director and as an artistic director, she is committed to continuing to find ways to make it more possible for parents and carers to work – and flourish – in the performing arts.

Anna Ehnold-Danailov is the co-founder and joint CEO of Parents and Carers in Performing Arts (PiPA). Before setting up at PiPA, Anna worked as a Theatre Director, where she experienced first-hand the challenges of parents working in the arts.
PiPA was founded in 2015 as a response to the lack of support and provision for parents and carers working in the performing arts, and to address the subsequent talent loss. The charity now supports over 60 performing arts organisations across the UK to implement effective strategies to ensure that they are able to attract and retain a diverse and flexible workforce, inclusive of carers and parents.

Jemma Gross is an award winning screen, stage and audio director with over 40 productions under her belt. She now runs her own company, Fly High Stories, that began life as an international Children’s touring theatre company, and now makes original IP in Children’s Content for the small and big screen.  

Over the last 6 years of juggling parenting and my career, I have often been forced to turn down work, or simply not put myself forward due to poor wages, unfriendly hours and a general lack of kindness towards those who have caring responsibilities. Part of the reason I set up my company, with Rachel Barnett-Jones, was to prove that sensible hours, compassionate leadership and proper wages are completely possible  and in fact lead to better creative output. 

Andrea Peláez Lyons is an award-winning choreographer, movement director and dance film director. Originally from Colombia. Co artistic director of the Unesco award winning Company Salida Productions. Co Founder of LAIPA UK (Latin Americans in Performing Arts UK) Recently received the grant Developing Your Creative Practice by Arts Council England to invest in her filmmaking and to research about dance and technology.

Being a Latin American woman, mother of two children and Movement director it has been challenging to break into the UK industry. So far it has been a positive and fortifying experience while aiming to be a professional with both my motherhood and my career. I am so happy to get to meet, learn and build  with other women on similar journeys. 

Natalie Abrahami is a theatre, opera and film director. She was Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre Notting Hill, before becoming an Associate Director at the Young Vic. Forthcoming productions include The Trials at Donmar Warehouse and Rusalka at the Royal Opera House. 

Natalie left the Young Vic to become a Freelancer when pregnant with her first child as she wanted to embrace the autonomy that freelancing offered her as a parent-to-be. Natalie is passionate about learning how to create positive working conditions for making theatre, raising the next generation and caring for the most important people in our lives. 

Jemima Levick is Artistic Director of A Play, a Pie and a Pint, the UK’s most prolific producer of new plays. Between 2016-21 she was Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Stellar Quines Theatre Company, and prior to that, was Associate and latterly Artistic Director of Dundee Rep.  

She has won and been nominated for a number of awards and has directed more than 40 productions. Recent credits include Maggie May for Leeds Playhouse, Leicester Curve & Queens Hornchurch, Man’s Best Friend and The Joke for A Play, a Pie and a Pint, episodes of River City for BBC Studios, and Fibres for The Citizens Theatre. She has also directed for The National Theatre of Scotland, The Royal Lyceum Theatre, Dundee Rep, Stellar Quines, Borderline, Grid Iron, The Traverse and Paines Plough. She is based in Glasgow where she lives with her husband and two children.  

I wanted to participate in this discussion because without opening up the conversation we don’t move forward.  And as a director myself and an employer of directors, I’m keen to learn from other people’s needs, wants, hints and tips.