Our producer training course The Optimists wrapped up at the end of the summer, so we caught up with one of our cohort members – Hattie, to find out what she enjoyed about the programme, what has influenced her approach to producing, and what are her biggest takeaways.
I am sitting on the floor of a theatre, about to start three days of Research & Development on (what I hope will be!) an exciting new project. It has been a long road to get here. 12 months ago, I wasn’t sure I’d ever been here again. But then I learned about The Optimists at a networking event, and a little crackle went off in my brain. Ten sessions and lots of oreos later, and I am.
When I walked into that first session, I was coming off some pretty major burn out, and in all honesty feeling like a bit of an imposter. I stepped away from theatre in 2020 and dipping my toe back in six years later felt like starting from scratch. I was back home in the Midlands when all my contacts were in the South West (or had left the industry post pandemic), I’d aged out of all the “emerging” artist opportunities and developed a shiny new chronic illness to try and work around. I needed a reset – I had a seed of an idea and I wanted to learn how to make it real, even though that felt impossibly out of reach. I was desperate to build a theatre-y community in the area; I wanted some security and confidence to say: “yeah, I can do this in a new way”. I got all of that and so much more from The Optimists!
If you’d told me at the start of the course that the most valuable thing I got out of it would be the ability to advocate for myself, I would have laughed. It’s not something I’ve ever been very good at – I tend to put other people’s needs before mine – and honestly, I thought just telling people about my condition but then trying to make myself as inconvenient as possible was the only way to do it. Before the course I didn’t think of it as something that would be central to my producing practice, but I’ve realised that it is the key to the sustainability I’ve been looking for. The team at China Plate created such a safe space, reaching out and checking in from day one, that I felt like I had permission to need things and they would not just work around me but actively change the space to fit me better. It was a revelation. It was a reminder that theatre (at its best) is a community enterprise, where we can all support each other rather than one person’s needs don’t have to come at the expense of someone else’s.
One of the key things I learned on the course is producers are story tellers – obviously, as a writer, this really resonated with me. Every project has a story and I’m excited to go out there and find them, but mostly I’m excited to rebuild my story.
I’ve built the confidence to reach out to people and venues and say: “hey, this is who I am and what I do, is it something you’re interested in?”. Travelling around the region for sessions means those venues don’t feel quite so out of reach and scary (turns out, they’re not. I’m sitting in one of them right now). I also have a list of new funding avenues to explore (never with my own money).
I’ve learned how to ask for actual support rather than asking for people to look the other way while I support myself. I’ve learned to say no to projects that will be bad for my health in the long run and I have a better idea of what I am willing (or more importantly, not willing) to invest into a project. That might sound a bit counter intuitive – that my main take away from a course about creating new work was to turn down work – but there is something really liberating about being able to recognise and step away from something that is draining you (even if you love it) to make space for something that isn’t. I’ve built connections that will last the rest of my career and maybe found some new collaborators. I’ve spotted gaps that I think I could fill with projects I am passionate about. I am thinking long term for the first time in a long time, and even when that future gets fuzzy it is exciting rather than terrifying. I feel energised and empowered and all those things that felt out of reach seem that little bit closer now.
So, armed with this new knowledge and ready to tell a new story, I’m sitting on the floor of a theatre about to start three days of R&D on a new project. A new story is about to start.
Interested in applying for our next Optimists course? Sign up to our Training & Development mailer to be kept up to date on applications opening, alongside other upcoming opportunities and events.
To find out more about The Optimists, you can visit the programme page, or get in touch with our Training & Development Producer Kristina Hall at [email protected]