Out of Joint & Shared Experience Consortium receives
Arts Council Catalyst funding

Wednesday 8 May 2013

Two of the country’s foremost touring theatre companies, Shared Experience and Out of Joint, are delighted to announce that they have been awarded funding through Arts Council England’s Catalyst scheme, in order to build the fundraising capacity of both organisations.

The two companies will work in close partnership over a two-year period to improve fundraising skills at staff and board level, to trial new fundraising initiatives inspired by successful activity in the third sector, and to grow the long-term sustainability of their new business models in the wake of recent public sector cuts to core funding.

Catalyst is a £100 million culture sector wide private giving investment scheme aimed at helping cultural organisations diversify their income streams and access more funding from private sources. The scheme is made up of investment from Arts Council England, Heritage Lottery Fund and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

Michelle Walker, Producer of Shared Experience, commented:“This is an exciting and really valuable funding award for Shared Experience: since the loss of our core funding in April 2012, we have made huge efforts to re-focus our business model, diversify our income streams, and re-think the way the company works so we can continue to thrive and make great theatre. We are delighted to have this support from Arts Council England: fundraising has never been more important to the viability of the company and learning how best to build this strand of our work in partnership with Out of Joint will stand us in good stead for the future. ”

Panda Cox,Deputy Producer at Out of Joint said "When we lost a significant part of our funding in 2012, our artistic director Max Stafford-Clark said "We are determined to survive, and not to change the work we do". Adjusting to our new financial position has meant, initially, that over the last year we have produced a revival and no new plays. We are fighting back: over the next year we will premiere and tour two brilliant new plays, co-producing with important theatres; and prepare to take our acclaimed production of Our Country's Good on an international tour. We are glad that our work is seen as valuable by the Catalyst scheme. We look forward to working with Shared Experience to develop the means to attract new forms of income to bolster the vital subsidy we receive from Arts Council England, which enables us to invest in developing new plays that examine our times, for our own generations and for the future."

Shared Experience are currently co-producing Alexi Kaye Campbell’s new play Bracken Moor with the Tricycle Theatre, which will open on Friday 14 June (with previews from 6 June) at the Tricycle Theatre in London.

Out of Joint’s forthcoming projects include Ciphers by Dawn King, directed by Blanche McIntyre; This May Hurt A Bit byStella Feehily, directed by Max Stafford-Clark; and international performances of the recent hit production of Our Country’s Good.

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NOTES TO EDITORS

SHARED EXPERIENCE

Shared Experience has pioneered a thrillingly distinctive performance style that celebrates the union of physical and text-based theatre. The company is committed to creating work that goes beyond everyday lives, taking flight into the imagination and examining the hidden parts of the self. Tacklingpotent universal themes, Shared Experience explores the relationship between the world we inhabit and our inner lives.

Over the years, Shared Experience has become renowned for bringing literary classics to life in bold, imaginative ways, and for developing ambitious new productions with some of today’s most dynamic playwrights. Led by the award-winning writer and director Polly Teale, the company’s productions often place the lives of extraordinary women centre stage.

Recent productions include Mary Shelley, Speechless, Brontë and The Glass Menagerie, all of which toured nationwide.

Shared Experience is Resident Company at Oxford Playhouse, whose programme includes the best of British and international drama, family shows, contemporary dance and music, student and amateur performance, comedy, lectures and poetry.

OUT OF JOINT

Inquisitive, epic, authentic and original: Out of Joint is a national and international touring theatre company, developing entertaining theatre that broadens horizons and investigates our times. Under the direction of Max Stafford-Clark the company has premiered plays from leading writers including April De Angelis, Sebastian Barry, Alistair Beaton, Caryl Churchill, David Hare, Robin Soans and Timberlake Wertenbaker, as well as launching first-time writers such as Mark Ravenhill and Stella Feehily.

Touring all over the UK, Out of Joint frequently performs at and co-produces with key venues and has performed in six continents. The company also pursues an extensive education programme.