Stories Matter: Beyond Face
At GIFTED, we champion stories that matter to increase representation and aspiration in the arts and culture space. We’re drawn to the work of Beyond Face, a female-led team that opens opportunities for artists of the Global Majority to live, work and thrive in the South West theatre sector. Recently, they’ve celebrated 8 years: in this time, they’ve created five stage productions, delivered several commissioned productions and have employed 45 artists of the Global Majority through various creative projects. We took some time from their busy schedule to celebrate them and the inspiring work that they do.
Image: Dom Moore
Thank you for all the work you’ve done and continue to do! We’d love to hear more about some of your archived projects, particularly ‘Elephant In The Room’. What inspired this piece?
Back in 2020 we were part of a cultural programme in Plymouth that seeked to acknowledge the complexities of the Mayflower 400. We decided to be a part of this project to ensure that there was representation of Global Majority people and to ensure that there were different perspectives of stories told, particularly those who are still experiencing the impact of colonialism today. We were due to make a live theatre piece, but due to the pandemic, theatre’s were still not open. It was important to us to still give work to artists during this time and a chance to speak about global events that were happening alongside the pandemic. We didn’t have the most positive experience of being part of this cultural programme. When we attended meetings and spoke about the work that we do and what we were about, racism and colonialism, and ourselves, very much felt like The Elephant in the Room. It felt vital and important to respond to our experiences of erasure and to make a piece of art that spoke to our frustrations and the lack of accountability. Due to restrictions we worked at a very fast pace from writing the script and recording the text via zoom, with each performer being sent a recording device and building a fort to block out external sounds; next was movement rehearsals on zoom, and again super challenging, with the performers having to work in their bedrooms and living rooms. We then had 6 days of location filming. We filmed four performers in Plymouth and two in Bristol. The film then went into editing with both film and sound and then we had a live streaming to launch the film. It was definitely a new experience and challenge for us as a theatre company, but artistically it was important for it to still feel like theatre. The most important thing was for us to be able to respond to what we were experiencing and also to speak to the wider political context.
You do so much for young people to help them discover their individual and collective voice. From your work in schools, you nurture safe spaces and offer opportunities to engage with professional artists. We find that it can be challenging to engage young people - how do you introduce them to explore a range of art forms within theatre? What stories do you find that they are drawn to?
We have two offers for young people: Young Theatre Makers and Beyond Face Youth Company. The Young Theatre Makers is designed to use theatre skills as tools to develop their confidence and communication skills. The emphasis is not projecting theatre onto them but allowing the sessions to be an organic process and identifying where the young people are within themselves. The theatre aspect provides a framework for storytelling and exploration into what the young people want to speak about.
The Beyond Face Youth Company is a space for those young people who know they definitely want to come and perform; the sessions are much more geared to making performance work and developing those skills, for example vocal work and movement. We do a lot of devising as well working with scripts; again, similarly to the young theatre makers, the sessions are always tailored to those in the room. We find there is a real mixture of stories that the young people want to talk about: they sometimes want to look at serious subjects that are impacting them daily, but also very much wanting to do a lot of comedy! We see the huge influence that TikTok and Neiflix have on them as well, so often their stories correlate a lot with things that they are watching.
We’re interested in hearing more about your development and training programmes, including masterclasses and ‘Bring It To The Table’. Please tell us about these initiatives.
Through our We are Here to Create workshops, artists are given the space to develop their craft and to hone their artistic identity. The workshops are always tailored to the requirements of the group. Delivered across the region, they are a great way to connect with other artists and build networks.
Bring it to the Table is an opportunity for all of our participants to bring their thoughts and ideas to the table; we hold space for conversations with no agenda. An example of how Bring it to the Table has influenced our work was with the young people. We recently created a production that came as a request from the young people we engage with. The young people told us that they didn't feel heard by adults when they were experiencing racism. They asked us to create a production that would tour schools. We applied to the arts council and received funding to create a new show. Sitting in the Grey is a school touring production that addresses the disconnect between adults and young people in conversations around societal issues such as racism and climate change. Bring it to the Table is a way for artists to give feedback on their experience of creating/living in the south west as a person from the Global Majority; this helps us shape our offers for artists.
Image: Dom Moore
There’s definitely space for more voices and stories from artists of the Global Majority, and your Scratch Nights and We Are Here programme offers just that!
Our We are Here to Share events are our scratch nights, which are spaces for Global Majority artists to share an early-stage piece of work to a live audience, whether that be theatre, poetry, stand-up comedy or dance - anything that can be performed live. Performed at venues across the region, they are an opportunity for artists to develop their work through the response/reception of a live audience as well as being able to take advantage of development support from the Beyond Face team. We are Here to Write is our writers’ group for Global Majority writers. Meeting online, members benefit from masterclasses with guest artists, a space to share their writing and receive feedback and they can enter their writing to be rehearsed and performed script-in-hand by professional writers in our We are Here to Write scratch events.
We admire that, in your work, the idea of ‘quality’ is reframed, so that art is not measured by performers’ age, their level of training, location or scale of the production. Why are these ‘quality’ measurements important to note in arts and culture?
In the past, the word quality has often been used to refer to how much money has been spent on a production or how big the stage it has performed on. Quality for us is much more about the quality of experience, ensuring care is at the heart of what we do. We think about the experience for everyone involved, from the artists making the work, through to the audience’s experience on the day of a performance. This is important because, often, the arts industry can be fast moving, with ‘getting the show on’ being put before people’s well-being. In the arts, the word quality can also feel exclusive but for us it’s about reframing that, ensuring that our shows feel like a safe and enjoyable space for everyone involved. We often find that as a result people return to our events and artists and young people go on to work on several projects with us.
We all know that it’s been a tough few years for all of us. How does Beyond Face create more space for moments of joy?
Moments of joy, or MOJ as we call them is an important philosophy of our work. It's easy to get caught up in life's stressors, we like to remind ourselves of the things throughout our day and week that made us smile or full on belly laugh. We share our MOJ's at the beginning of every team meeting and ensure that besides talking about them, we make them! Whether that's by going out for food, or setting time aside for a dance break in our production rehearsal room. We also have team days where we get a chance to connect collectively, this is really important with all of us being located in different regions. All Beyond Face sessions begin with sharing a MO, it’s a wholesome experience to see people smiling and laughing in response to one another.
It is important to recognise that joy can come from something small. Often Beyond Face has received expectations and assumptions that our work is all about trauma and negative experiences, that is far from what we are about. The MOJ philosophy is there to counteract those assumptions in a positive way. Whilst there are definitely times where space should be created to explore complex issues, it's also important for there to be space for both joy and challenge.
We love and appreciate how you serve artists of the Global Majority. How can people get involved and support?
Please sign up to our newsletter! You can also follow us on social media: @infobeyondface
Artist Development
You can sign up for our writers’ group by emailing corinne@beyondface.co.uk
Keep an eye on our socials or sign up for our newsletter so you don’t miss any of our workshop dates or We are Here to Share events
Young People
Please contact youngpeople@beyondface.co.uk if you are a school who are interested in us running a young theatre makers session for your global majority students. If you know of any young people who would benefit from our youth company please also get in touch. We are always interested in partnering with organisations who work with young people, so if you have any questions about potential partnerships please email alix@beyondface.co.uk
Booking Productions
Check out our website to view our upcoming touring productions for 2023/24. For more information or to access our tour packs please email info@beyondface.co.uk
Regional Voices
Regional Voices is our strand of work that seeks to:
Engage people who currently have little to no engagement/experience with the theatre industry.
Work with people through partnership projects, and bespoke community projects.
Find ways for people who don't work in the arts sector to engage in creative workshops as an expressive outlet and a place to meet other people of the Global Majority living in Devon/South West.
Investigate how voices can transform a space/building idea.
Hold space for global majority arts consultants to share and support one another working in arts and cultural spaces across the region.
If you’re a community group or organisation and would like to be one of our partners please email alix@beyondface.co.uk
We love to recommend things to our readers. What is Beyond Face:
Listening to?
Masego, Masego
It’s all About the Stragglers, Artful Dodger
PLUM, Ruffin
Reading?
A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini
Consumed, by Aja Barber
Strong Female Character, by Hanna Flint
Watching?
Love is Blind 😆 (2020 - present)
Unforgotten TV Series (2015 - present)
The Gold (2022)
Nanny (2022)
