"We need equality": Protest to highlight lack of black voices in Sheffield Theatres

Sheffield Theatres admitted that they were not giving black directors and writers enough of a chance to have their art performed on the biggest stage in the city after Nathan Geering, who runs Rationale Theatre Company in the city, criticised their programme’s “lack of diversity”.

Now Nathan and other black directors, writers and performers are planning to protest outside Sheffield’s major theatre to make sure that action is taken, and that Sheffield Theatres are “not just making the right noises and not following them up”.

On July 18, at 2pm, “a peaceful, artistic” protest will take place outside The Crucible to draw attention to the issue as well as showcase the work made by Sheffield’s black artists.

Nathan says that too many times now he has been told by Sheffield Theatres that they will make positive change only for nothing to happen.

This includes the theatres’ failure to ask his company back to the main stage despite Rationale selling out a run of shows in 2011 with a play called ‘In My Shoes’, organising the 16,000 capacity Special Olympics opening ceremony in Sheffield in 2017, and Nathan’s many attempts to open up a dialogue in the nine years since then.

Nathan, whose theatre company tours all over the country, said: “This is not just about the way they have treated me. We are drawing attention the much larger problem of institutionalised racism within the organisation itself.

“If we look at the make-up of the board and the senior management team, at the number of black directors whose work makes it onto the main stage, we can see that problem.

“I couldn’t tell you another black director from Sheffield who has had a chance to direct and perform on that stage.

“The representation is terrible. We need change and we need equality as soon as possible.

“Even when we see black faces on stage, and see the schemes that are in place to help black people develop as artists, these are still being cast and controlled by white people in a position of power.

“And the white people in charge do not want to give up these positions of power. They can cast black people, and they can include black characters to try and keep us quiet but it is always still white people telling black people what to do.

“It is this power, and the control of the opportunities, that means black theatre-makers who are upset and outraged are scared to speak up publicly, too. They want to maintain a friendly relationship with Sheffield Theatres in the hope that they will get that chance on the main stage.”

Nathan says that since Rationale Theatre Company put on the sold out show in 2011 he has tried many times to encourage Sheffield Theatres to give more of a platform to black directors and artists.

He said that he has been in numerous meetings with artistic directors where he has suggested ways that the group can engage the diverse audience brought in by shows like ‘In My Shoes’, however nothing happened as a result.

“The artistic directors over the years have come to Rationale’s shows and said they were brilliant and made all the right noises and said ‘let’s keep the conversation going’, but they never do,” Nathan said.

“With the sold out shows and the Special Olympics ceremony, we have proven there is a large and profitable audience for work made by black artists, so it doesn’t make sense when they say that the main stage is not available to us for financial reasons.

“The offer us space on the studio stage, but never the main stage. They are saying to us that our art is not good enough or doesn’t matter enough to be on the biggest stage.

“Sheffield Theatres need an inter-generational group of black people with experience of our lives and our art to sit on those boards and teams, and not just give tokenistic opportunities to black artists from outside of Sheffield who are already successful,” Nathan said.

“If every job on the board is shared between a white person and a person of colour, then they will not be able to escape race wherever they look.

“There will be the opinion and voice of a person of colour heard on every issue.

“There is so much incredible art by people of colour going on here in Sheffield. It is part of the fabric and culture of our city, so it should be represented on our stages.

“We have made some incredible art with so little. Imagine what could be done if we had equality and were given the same opportunities and resources that Sheffield Theatres puts into theatre made by white people.

“We are going to protest outside The Crucible on July 18. And if there is no action after that we will protest again, when their doors are open.”

In response to Nathan’s criticism, a Sheffield Theatres spokesperson said: “Black voices and stories haven't had enough space on Sheffield's stages. We must and we will do better.

“Like lots of organisations we’re breaking down our statistics to give a fuller and more transparent picture, which we’ll put out as soon as we’re able, but what we do know is that last year 45 per cent of actors in our companies were people of colour; 25 per cent of our Board and 20 per cent of our Senior Management Team are people of colour. It's a start, but there’s so much more work to do.

“We are committed to doing more to engage the abundance of emerging black talent in the city and we’re working hard to do so through initiatives like The Bank (our hub to support local talent, currently transferred online) and Making Room, a thriving network of local artists and makers.

“We need to listen to our black colleagues and critics, audiences and artists. We acknowledge our position as gatekeepers and understand the urgent need for better representation at every level of the organisation.”

If you are an artists and also a person of colour and would like to take part in the protest, contact Nathan at [email protected]