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The message from the Government about retraining has actor Gavin Mitchell up in arms as he is still up for the challenges of his profession
Still Game’s Gavin Mitchell on his latest project
It’s not about retraining, it’s about reinventing. For many, being able to turn to a great comedy or a compelling drama has been a saviour in the last few months, a welcome distraction from the constant barrage of difficult news or everyday challenges that this unprecedented situation has resulted in.
We need to find ways to escape even for a short time, from reality - how would we do that if the thousands upon thousands of people who make this industry tick have all been forced out of it?
The very notion that our profession; actors, writers, dancers, props, lighting, musicians, make up, runners, should stand on the precipice of collapse due to this pandemic and this Government’s sheer lack of care or support for an industry with an international history and legacy that brings billions of pounds to the economy is not just a travesty in financial terms, it's a disaster in social and personal terms, in educational and emotional terms - entertainment enters every part of our daily life.
This call for ‘ retraining’ is disgustingly short- sighted and downright shameful. But we know why. Because the traditional role of the arts is to challenge and question those who seek to rule and bind us. Not a popular looking glass for our present rulers. But this is an attack on our very culture and freedom of speech.
What is evident about our industry, is that we will continue to find ways to reinvent what we do - in fact we will do whatever we can to continue the creative endeavour exactly because for many people in the arts this is not just a ‘ job’ but a vocation. People have dedicated their lives to it; sacrificing much personally and financially for sharing creativity, love and passion. In the majority of cases, certainly not for the money; long hours for union minimum. It is anything but ‘ elite’.
Many of us have already trained to take on additional jobs because we have already had to - it's time we recognised what the industry contributes and why it deserves to be given more support.
During lockdown and beyond I’ve been involved in online sitcoms, teaching, skill sharing; whilst also sharing heartbreaking stories of survival.
Most recently, for example, I’ve become involved with the fantastic project called ‘ Bookstreamz’. It offers a chance for us to continue to play the roles we have trained for all our lives - to tell the stories we were born to tell. To retrain for the new platforms so that we can continue to mirror, reflect, engage, question, challenge - and entertain.
In a way this has demonstrated how creativity is a way of dealing with these crises in life. Actors, writers, are masters of invention and reinvention - we have to reinvent who we are to play our part.
Bookstreamz are a classic reinvention of something that's been around for eons - books. We've been reading them for centuries - listening to them for nearly a hundred years - and now, with the invention of Zoom, we can watch books too. This is a new experience. It's like a cross between a play and an audiobook. Netflix meets Audible if you like. We have a narrator who reads the main story and then as actors we read the dialogue in character - and it has that live performance adrenaline that makes it exciting.
There are faces you'll recognise, from the theatre, from TV, but also new ones, because we have to keep giving young people the chance to do what they've dreaming of. We can't just take all that away because we have a new challenge to face in the world.
You can zoom in and watch us when we perform or you can watch it on catch- up - just like you would a series. This is the kind of thing that needs to be supported - new ways of storytelling, not just telling people they can't do what they love any more.
We've got a whole schedule of stories starting in November - the books are separated into episodes so you can ' tune in' every day, or you can catch up later.
There are classics like Wuthering Heights - and this is the original story, straight from the book. Then there's new writers with dystopian sci fi fantasy, courtroom drama, romance, crime fiction - there are so many we can tell - and it helps support authors too.
The arts are for all. From the more esoteric to pantomime. From a man covered in blue wode in a bath of beans slapping his nether regions with a kipper to a Showaddywaddy song… to the groundbreaking hard hitting Hamilton. From a local radio jingle for ‘ carpets’, to the booming voices of the Globe Theatre.
As someone who has been lucky and successful enough to be involved in Still Game, a long running sitcom
The traditional role of the arts is to challenge and question those who seek to rule and bind us
and live show; which played the Glasgow Hydro 51 times to more than 10,000 people a night, bringing millions to the local and wider Scottish economy I also know how commercially viable and vital we can be both for morale and financially.
However in this unstable and uncertain times I knowthat we have to fight and survive by any means necessary. But it’s not about retraining, it’s about reinventing. Using the skills and means we have before us to move forward and create anew. Creating, developing and adapting our skills to the present temporary situation. And I say temporary with the certain knowledge that unless we support the arts, help its survival, it won't be temporary for many businesses, freelancers and performers who will need to rely on our infrastructure to rebuild their future when this is all over.
Devastating an industry that contributes 10.8 billion a year to the economy, 2.8 billion a year in tax and generates a further 23 billion a year and a further 363,700 jobs, covering theatre, film, television, radio, dance, comedy, music, visual arts and performance with a dismissive, banal message to retrain is a travesty.
So let's support the arts in reinventing itself, let's keep the entertainment that colours our lives moving forwards despite this Government's failure to create a sustainable solution to these issues.
We're here for you to keep you entertained during one of the most difficult periods in recent history - what we ask of you is to carry on supporting us. With books, TV, film... and if you would like to support our efforts to reinvent with Bookstreamz, then for what you might have spent on a theatre ticket this winter, me and whole casts of actors plus producers, writers and designers will be live and streaming our reinventions with hundreds of hours of entertainment on bookstreamz. com.
Bookstreamz will be live online from 2 November. For full details and to register in advance for membership go to www. bookstreamz. com