So, What Is It You Do Anyway? | Roxanne Carney
Hello, I’m Roxanne Carney. I’m based in Colchester and work as a Theatre
Producer; mainly in Essex but my work has taken me nationally and to Europe and
America. I’ve been self-employed and in this role for about 11 years.
I really enjoy the work I do. At the heart of it, it’s problem solving and helping people.
However, there is a wide misconception as to what a producer does. My most
frequently asked questions are:
So do you put your own money into a project?
Do you do all the admin bits?
What is it you actually do?
So what is it you like doing?
Funnily enough, most of these questions are asked by people in the industry and not
just my friends and family. So if there’s a misconception around the role of the
producer within the industry - what chance do we have of being noticed for the work
we do and where on earth did we go wrong?
When I graduated from a performing arts course in 2014, I began my career as a
theatre maker. I got an ACE grant, made a show and did a South East tour. I had no
formal or educational training in how to brand or platform myself as an artist. I just
applied for opportunities and hoped for the best. I learned very quickly (and badly)
the basics of putting on a show. I wasn’t really aware that what I was doing was
producing. I just thought it was called *being an artist*. Which is still true, you can
absolutely be an artist and not only make the show, but make everything else around
the show, happen.
After seeing the mild success I had with my own work. My peers and recent
graduates started to take notice ... and then, the questions would come. I was
getting inundated with requests to help book tours, connect people, look over funding
bids, help scale a project, come to this meeting ... I still thought I was ‘helping out’. It
was only when a Producer at a venue I was on workplace at turned to me and went
‘You are being a Producer, do you know that?’ Then it all clicked - there is no official
guidance in how to navigate this industry and there was certainly no path for
producers to carve out their own work which didn’t rely on an artist.
My first 3 years of ‘doing this’ was ‘on the job’ experience. I was feverishly looking at
all the free training I could enrol onto, to protect myself and really understand how to
be a producer and to not F*** it up for myself or the artists I worked for. I also did a
lot of unpaid hours of research, volunteering at festivals, staying later at the venue I
worked at to see the free shows, telling someone who’s work I admired what I
thought and hoping it would lead to a further convo about how they ‘cracked it’. I was
fortunate to have been in spaces where people were happy to help and share their
budget templates, cashflow docs, databases of contacts (before GDPR!) but as I
reflect on my early years working in this industry, I realise that the training wasn’t
readily available nor was it that easy to access.
It’s true that this industry is built on networking. It’s also true that this industry attracts
neurodivergency. Which, put those two things together, it could spell out a recipe for
disaster. We put an awful amount of pressure on ourselves to be visible. Which I think is important, but that shouldn’t be the only route in. It’s not productive to always
be on your laptop in the cafe at a venue or attending Press Nights or a ‘Creatives
Only Networking’ event. It’s about investing in your own practice and training yourself
to be a more knowledgeable creative.
Side bar: It also helps if you are genuinely interested in what other people are up to
and how your region is operating .... But we’ll save that for another day!
I really do believe that everyone has the capability to be a producer. We are forced to
become producers at the beginning of our journeys. Gathering / meeting contacts for
coffee, fundraising, project building, merging creative teams together and reporting.
This is largely due to, lack of funds and making a name for yourself. But when you’re
destined to be a writer, director or performer - the training to be a producer just isn’t
there. (It’s not even there if you want to be one!)
It goes deeper too. Producers are responsible in leading and running a project.
When the chips are down - everyone looks to the Producer to solve the problem. It’s
high pressure (as high pressure as theatre can get) so if there’s an audience
member harassing a performer, someone hasn’t been paid on time, the set has
broken in transit, an agent is demanding holiday pay for their actor or a venue has
double booked two performances - the Producer is there to resolve, so without the
training, your project has catastrophic consequences. (All of those instances have
happened to me).
I can name one Producer training course in East Anglia - I’m willing to be challenged
on this! For a region that is vibrant with creative talent, that’s poor. There is an
abundance of artist development opportunities for writers, visual artists and directors
and yet, for a role that is so vital and is largely often taken on by creatives getting
their work off the ground, I struggle to see why there are not any other courses here?
Of course there are producer training courses nationally, but when you’re choosing
between paying train fares and dinners to make a free training course or to walk
down to your local theatre for a Press Night with a free glass of wine ... even though
I’ve banged on about investing in yourself - I would choose the latter option. It’s
convenience.
Which brings me to the reasons why I started my Producer Lab workshop series. I
wanted to show people that producing was a viable way into the creative industry. I
recognised that participation in arts and culture is not always an option. We see it in
our daily reminders that creative subjects are pulled from GCSE’s and councils are
cutting budgets from the arts department. Myself and my team at Blown Fuse have
worked hard to make this series accessible, in timings, affordability, information
download, social posts, locations...
I guess what surprised me the most about Producer Lab was that, any artist showed
up. I’ve had writers, directors, photographers, choreographers, dialect coaches,
visual artists, performers, musicians, opera singers, quilt makers - even people who
aren’t in the creative industry wanted to come!
I ran 2 series online and the reach expanded from Fife to Lyon. I was overwhelmed
by the response and recognised that this is a national issue. This wasn’t funded so
testing online was a good route to experiment. I knew I wanted to roll this out in East
Anglia and in-person but the project was way too expensive to just rely on ticket
sales. Thankfully I received financial backing from ACE, a trust and seed
commissions from venues and we’re finally on the road! If anything in this blog
ringed true to you - let me know.
You can catch the Producer Labs in Chelmsford, starting on 13th October. You can learn / buy your ticket here: https://www.chelmsfordtheatre.co.uk/discover/discover-
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Roxanne is a Producer based in Colchester who collaborates with artists whose voices reflect the world as is, striving to create accessible, inclusive processes and experiences for artists, participants and audiences. Roxanne's work highlights include FAT BLOKES (Scottee & Friends, UK National Tour, Total Theatre's Judges Discretionary Award), In Her Shoes (Blown Fuse, Essex Tour) and Toxic (Dibby Theatre, UK National Tour). Current shows in production and touring soon are The Farm, BRICKS and The Wise Men.
In October, she launched House of Carney, a producing company dedicated to platforming original, urgent stories.
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