The Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme (RTYDS) is pleased to announce the return of its Three-Month Placements, where it supports six early-career directors and theatre makers to take up three-month placements in regional theatres and companies, providing them with invaluable experience to develop their skills.
RTYDS is the UK’s foremost professional artist development programme for theatre directors and theatre makers, offering bespoke training opportunities to artists from the earliest stages of a career right up to leadership development. RTYDS works in partnership with theatres and companies around the country, outside of London, enabling talented artists to build their craft and develop their leadership skills.
RTYDS Three-Month Placements are designed to support directors and theatre makers from backgrounds that are currently under-represented in theatre as a result of barriers arising from gender, social, cultural, financial, racial, geographic inequality, educational disadvantage or disability. These placements, therefore, provide a progression route towards creative leadership for artists who experience inequality of opportunity. In the short term this increases the diversity of artists working in theatre and in the long term changes the industry. As RTYDS Artistic Director, Sue Emmas explains:
“We create pathways that affect who is a leader in theatre; if you change the directors and theatre makers, you change the stories that are told, the work that gets made, the actors they work with and the audience you speak to. We believe it’s essential to see everyone represented in theatre and at every level and in every area.”
RTYDS Three-Month Placements provide much needed opportunities for artists across England (outside of London) to get in rehearsal rooms, to be part of the process of making work, and to learn from more experienced artists. Sustaining a career has always been challenging, but early-career freelance directors and theatre makers have been particularly vulnerable to the impact of the pandemic on the industry and their ability to develop their skills.
Alix Harris, Corey Campbell and Kash Arshad are three brilliant, talented directors who have all been supported by the Three-Month Placements. Alix’s Three-Month Placement was at the Barbican in Plymouth in 2016 and she has been leading the company, Beyond Face in the south west since 2016. Corey did a Three-Month Placement with The Belgrade, Coventry in 2016, and was recently announced as its Creative Director. Kash did his Three-Month Placement with Freedom Studios, Bradford in 2016 and has recently directed Oliver Twist at Chester Storyhouse and An Adventure at Bolton Octagon, which opens on Friday 4th February.
RTYDS will be open to applications for its Three-Month Placements from midday on Tuesday 2nd February 2022 until midday on Monday 28th February 2022, via its website: https://www.rtyds.co.
