This month, JMK are inviting you to apply for our new mentoring programme for early to mid-career theatre directors and theatre-makers. This is a free opportunity which will allow you to identify and move towards your professional goals as you reflect upon your craft and practice through regular mentoring sessions and time with fellow directors.
Taking place over a 6-month period, beginning in July 2021, the JMK Mentors are Nik Partridge, Piers Black, Atri Banerjee, Nel Crouch and Jo Tyabji.
Developing from our free #JMKSpace workshops, the programme will offer participants a monthly one-on-one session with their mentor, for up to an hour, on Zoom, to review and reflect on the development of their work and practice. There will also be space for groups of mentees to come together over the course of the programme for peer-led reflection and support.
The mentoring supports directors by offering insightful questioning and provocations that will help them develop awareness of their practice, identity and interests as a director; finding practical approaches to developing their work.
If you are an experienced artist, the programme will afford a chance to reflect on your work, interests and next steps or if you are early in your career, it could be a useful opportunity to explore and discuss what pathways might be available to you.
Where appropriate, mentors and fellow directors will offer advice based upon experience, but the primary focus is on encouraging each director to define their own journey.
We have space for up to 24 directors. You’ll be matched with a mentor based on a combination of factors including your interests and influences, location, your stated goals and the benefit this holds for you at this point in your career. In identifying and selecting participants, we’ll be looking to create a fair balance and spread of directors from backgrounds and circumstances, across the country, that reflect the diversity of contemporary society and which may be currently under-represented in theatre.
You should also aim to participate in as many of the #JMKSpace and future in-person workshops as possible, taking up the places you have been given.
To apply please either film, record or write your answers to these prompts:
- What benefit would a mentor bring to your practice – what you would hope to get from it?
- What goals might you want to focus on in the mentoring sessions?
- How would you describe your experience as a director or theatre-maker to date?
- Where are you based?
- How you would describe your work, style and interests as a director/theatre-maker?
- What JMK events have you attended previously that you have found particularly useful or inspiring?
This should be no more than 650 words or 6 minutes in total.
There is no minimum requisite experience for this opportunity, but you do need to demonstrate an interest and commitment to developing and exploring your practice as a director/theatre-maker. What this means is that you will have either directed, assisted or observed on shows and/or participated in opportunities with local creative organisations, such as an outreach programme at your nearest theatre.
Those who are currently undertaking a degree or postgraduate qualification are not eligible to apply.
We particularly encourage you to apply if you have faced, or need support to overcome, barriers to your participation in theatre due to social, economic, physical, cultural, geographical or educational obstacles, including those relating to gender identity, sexuality and race.
Submissions of interest should be sent to: jo@jmktrust.org by 5pm on 28th June. Please also complete the equal opportunities monitoring form at the bottom of this page.
Please email jo@jmktrust.org if you have any access requirements or further questions.
We will inform all applicants of whether or not we will be able to support them through the programme by 2nd July. Please note we anticipate the number of expressions of interest to exceed the amount of places we are able to offer but we hope to be able to offer further mentoring opportunities in future subject to funding.
This Mentoring Programme is generously supported by The Noël Coward Foundation.
Director Biographies:
Piers Black:
Piers is director and writer, and Artistic Director of Manchester-based company, Ransack Theatre. He trained on the National Theatre Directors’ Course where he went on to be a Staff Director, was Resident Director at the Almeida Theatre, and has been a Supported Artist and Associate Director at the Royal Exchange. As a writer he has worked with HighTide, Soho Theatre, the BBC, the Kiln, and HOME. He is recipient of the John Fernald Award, BBC Alfred Bradley Bursary Award, and a Manchester Theatre Award.
As Director, theatre includes: Catching Comets (Pleasance), Crops (The Yard, Live Drafts), Love and Money (ALRA), Minus Touch (Royal Exchange); Moth (Hope Mill Theatre); The Dumb Waiter (Site Specific – Lucy Davis Vaults, NSDF and HOME); Solve (Edinburgh Fringe).
As Assistant / Associate Director, theatre includes: Light Falls (Royal Exchange) Stories (National Theatre); The Writer (Almeida Theatre); City of Glass (Lyric Hammersmith and HOME); So Here We Are (Royal Exchange and HighTide Festival); Yen (Royal Exchange).
Nik Partridge:
Nik is a Bristol based creative, who has worked extensively within the South-West.
His practice lies in the development of new work (both devised and new writing), adaptation, engagement and the reimagining of classic plays for contemporary audiences.
Nik has collaborated and produced work with organisations like Bristol Old Vic, Watermill Theatre, MAYK, The Egg, Theatre Royal Bath, Strike-A-Light, Travelling Light, Theatre Bristol, Theatre Royal Plymouth and Tobacco Factory Theatres. Further afield he has made work for the Royal Court, Traverse and Galway International Arts Festival.
He has held a number of building based and organisational roles with The Egg (Creative Producer), JMK (Director Practitioner), Theatre Royal Plymouth (Staff Associate Director) and Tobacco Factory Theatres (Director-in-Residence) working extensively both as a director and a mentor, producer and facilitator.
Nik trained on the National Theatre Directors’ Course and at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He was a BBC Performing Arts Fellow, 2014-15 and is recipient of the Equity John Fernald Award.
Nel Crouch:
Nel is an award-winning theatre maker. She makes collaborative work that invites its audience to play, performed in theatres, village halls, fields and festivals. Her company Bucket Club, whose work she also writes, are produced by Farnham Maltings and their shows include Lorraine & Alan and Fossils. She works often with Shakespeare/ clowning company, HandleBards. She was recently an assistant director at the RSC, and has been Resident Director at Tobacco Factory Theatres and the Almeida. She has taught at drama schools including Bristol Old Vic and Drama Studio and is a Connections Director at the National Theatre.
Atri Banerjee:
Atri Banerjee trained at Birkbeck and is a Resident Director at the Almeida Theatre. He won The Stage Debut Award for Best Director in 2019 for his production of Hobson’s Choice at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester. Other directing credits include Hidden Fires and Name, Place, Animal, Thing (both Almeida Theatre), Harm (Bush Theatre/BBC Arts), Europe (LAMDA) and Utopia (Royal Exchange).
Jo Tyabji is a writer, director and performer. Recent direction includes The Cobbled Streets of Geneva (Nemo Martin, VAULTS Origins Award winner 2020), Surge (Jay Bernard), My Name Is My Own (June Jordan, Jay Bernard), Loveplay (Moira Buffini). She is Associate Director of Milk Presents and founder of Graphite & Diamond. Audio work includes Mouthful of Salt and Soil (Jo Tyabji for Buzzcut), Darling (Tabby Lamb, 45North), and In Real Life (Jo Tyabji), Said Out Loud (Prime Isaac) and Communion (Leo Skilbeck) for Milk Presents. Past performance includes Motherland (UK tour in assoc with Milk Presents), Borders (The Cocoa Butter Club, Sitara Studios Mumbai, Somerset House), Cocktails Before The Revolution (Razed & Confused/ Something To Aim For) and An Urgent Queervention on Antisemitism and Islamophobia (Tate Exchange).
