Output details

Writ Large: New Writing on the English Stage 2003 - 2009

By 1999 Arts Council England had ceased to collate production and box office data from Theatres. Writ Large was commissioned by Arts Council England in recognition of the need for evidence to support national Arts policies. The British Theatre Consortium [BTC] submitted a competitive bid to collect, interpret and disseminate otherwise inaccessible data from subsidised theatres. BTC is a co-operative of academics and playwrights representing five Universities, including David Edgar, ex-president of the Writers' Guild, and founded at the Next Stages Conference, organized by Julie Wilkinson at MMU in 2007.

The specific research aim of Writ Large was to investigate the results of the Boyden uplift in Arts Council subsidy on new writing on the English stage from 2003 to 2009. The methodology: a survey of 89 theatres; in-depth interviews with 12 companies; a national survey of playwrights; investigation of the work of playwriting agencies. Interviews with theatres were split evenly amongst the team; statistical and qualitative evidence were analysed collectively. In addition, Julie researched and wrote Chapter 7, Playwrights, Playwriting Agencies and Dramaturgy, analysing the role of development agencies, based on first-hand accounts from practitioners. Providing a unique resource available on the Arts Council’s website, the report was the subject of a national conference, Next Act, at Manchester Metropolitan University in November 2012. Its findings continue to provoke debate in the press and academia, e.g. in panel contributions and final keynote address to the V&A's conference Subsidy, Patronage and Sponsorship in July 2012 See:http://britishtheatreconference.co.uk. Its sustained impact is evidenced by the implementation of a key recommendation; a new publicly funded system of data collection, run by BTC with the Theatre Managers Association, employing criteria for classification initiated and tested in Writ Large.