Today we are delighted to announce our 21/22 Level Up Producers. The six producers chosen for this brand-new programme, funded by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation through our Creative’pool Programme, will undergo a years’ worth of training and mentoring to be able to support the next wave of Merseyside artists.

 

Blabbermouth

Blabbermouth is a collective of four female creative producers working within different sectors of the creative industry. Robyn, Rach, Beth and Chloe all share the same passion for the theatre, arts, and amplifying all voices within society. After meeting on the Young Everyman & Playhouse Producers course in 2018, they realised that they shared the same goals and have since spent the past three years building a portfolio of work together. This includes live performance, film, installations, and radio and digital performance.

@blabbermouth_co

 

Dorcas Seb

Dorcas is a multi-disciplinary performer and project producer with over a decade of theatre, music and writing experience. As an independent artist, Dorcas’ recent highlights include her debut script Buttercup, co-produced by 20 Stories High and Tiger-Lily Productions for BBC iPlayer. Her experience includes work with Unity, HOME, Contact, Eclipse Theatre and more. As an independent project producer, Dorcas works in theatre as well as community projects that aim to develop talent.

@DorcasSeb

 

Fabiola Santana & Will Dickie

Fabiola & Will are artists who believe that spaces have feelings. They make performances & films out of the feelings that they find. Together they have made A Home or Grief – a sound-walk, installation and 1 to 1 performance on grief and its shared experiences. Canning Town – a dance film using the streetlights and the traffic of East London, and White Sun – 1st a live stream from their Victorian Liverpool flat.

@fbs_santana
@Will_Dickie

 

James Baker

James is a director, writer and producer who has an eye for the new and unique and loves to promote all things regional. James has produced over ten full-scale shows with no subsidised income and is best known for making theatre that packs heart and creates positive social change. Using his experience to date, James want to support new artists and celebrate and promote the diversity of theatre makers in the Northwest.

 

Ty Mather, representing Transcend Theatre

Ty is a queer non-binary producer, actor and writer originally from Manchester. They are the producer of Transcend Theatre, a Liverpool based LGBTQI+ arts organisation who aim to tell authentic stories about transgender lives and issues. They also work with young LGBTQI+ people, engaging them in arts and theatre workshops. Ty is passionate about queer activism and changing the ongoing and often false misconceptions of the trans and non-binary community.

@tymakestheatre @transcendtheatre

 

Ugly Bucket

Ugly Bucket is led by Grace Gallagher and Rachael Smart. Together in Ugly Bucket they create outrageous clown performances with music and verbatim on social issues. Separately, Grace is a facilitator at disabled arts organisation RAWD. Rachael is currently working with the community-based garden SQUASH, and has recently worked as an assistant director and stage manager with 20 Stories High.

@uglybucket

 

About Level Up

We’re thrilled to be working with this cohort of self-producing artists and companies to help them build their skills and confidence as Producers. The Course focuses on areas the participants have identified as wanting to develop to ensure it helps them achieve their own goals. There’s also a real emphasis on peer-to-peer learning and mentoring, and we hope the group will continue to support and champion each other long after the Course is over.

At the heart of the Level Up Producers Course are the two Weekenders, the first of which is in late October. These intensive Weekenders give the participants a focussed space to reflect on themselves as producers, set new goals and develop the skills to achieve them. Speakers for Weekender #1 include specialists in specific areas of producing, Arts Council representatives and coaches who will help them explore goal setting and mindset. Each participant will also lead a session for their peers at some point over the six months.

Beyond the Weekenders, all of the Level Up Producers will have regular touchpoints with the Unity team through mentoring, socials and ad hoc workshops.

The aim of the course is to give this group the skills, knowledge and confidence to take their work to the next level, producing in ways they haven’t before to build more wide-reaching and sustainable careers.

The importance of feeling confident and capable in your ability to produce can make all the difference for self-producing creatives. We hope that the Level Up Producers Course will make a big impact on our Producers, as well as the next wave of Merseyside artists who will benefit from their mentoring and guidance.

 

You can find out more about a full Creative’pool Programme here. To be the first to apply for our 22/23 course, please sign up to our Creative’pool Membership – it is completely free and gives you access to year-round training, workshops and opportunities.

 

Photography by Luke Bryant

 

Creative’pool is supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

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