4. The “Portfolio Creative” by Associate Artist Laura Turner

The “Portfolio Creative”

This is probably a phrase that we’ve all come across a lot in the last few years. I don’t think it’s just because it’s an “in fashion” thing to have lots of different strings to your bow – I think it’s because it’s an absolute necessity of being a working creative and artist in today’s world.

Necessity vs Creativity

For me, working across different roles and different headspaces has always been a big part of what being creative has meant for me. Firstly, there’s a necessity to this. It’s hard to imagine being in the luxurious position of “just” being able to create. I imagine nearly all (if not actually all) of us have to find ways to supplement our creative earnings and enable us to take the risks, leaps of faith and earn the speculative time that being an artist involves. Yes we should all be paid properly for our time and work when we are working on a specific project – 100%. That is never in doubt. But what about the time we, as artists, have to take for ourselves, away from commissions, away from earning, in order to develop who we are and find out what we want to say? The reality is, something else has to tide us over and pay the bills while we’re doing that.

So necessity is one thing, but I also genuinely believe that working across multiple disciplines and different projects keeps us fresh as artists. It keeps us asking questions of ourselves, demanding more of ourselves, which for me, is the only antidote to that underlying fear of going stale that I think every creative probably experiences at some point in their journey.

I thought I’d talk a little bit this month about the different ways I typically find myself portfolio-ing in my work, jumping from different roles and ways of thinking.

Dramaturgy

Naturally, at the moment, a chunk of my time is spent working on projects with and at Nottingham Playhouse through my current role here. I’m dramaturg on the forthcoming Christmas show (which I’ll talk more about in a future blog), which means reading drafts and having regular meetings with the writer, and from this month going forwards, getting together with the director so that we can ensure we’re on the same page. This feels really important as the vision for the whole production starts to come together, and it’s no longer just about the words on the page but the feel of the whole project.

Running Workshops

I’ve also been coming in to work with some of the different groups at the Playhouse, from a chat with Club Encore about the various strands of my work in theatre, film, television, teaching and beyond. I also ran a Writer’s Table at Amplify Co-Working, and joined the Amplify Writers’ Group for one of their sessions to share some exercises and practices that I use to help grease the creative cogs.

I particularly love running writing workshops because more often than not, they help me to unlock something about a project I might be working on. It’s easy to get locked into one headspace when you’re writing and spending a lot of time on your own, and what’s great about running a workshop (or going to one) is that you can step away from yourself and let your mind wander, maybe ask bigger questions of the idea rather than: “Is this line of dialogue right?” It’s so easy to get bogged down in the nitty gritty, when often it’s the big questions – what do you want to say, what’s your message or theme? – that need the most interrogation.

Marketing

With my producer hat on, I also joined one of the weekly marketing meetings with the Marketing Team at the Playhouse, which was a brilliant insight into how the public-facing side of an artistic business as big as the Playhouse operates. It’s a big step away from my own experiences of self-producing shows, or even at the venue where I am producer – The Blue Room in Lincoln – which is a much smaller, more specific 110-seat music hall style space. I’ve been producing a new show of Calendar Girls by Tim Firth at the venue this month, and considering the differences between venues and projects on different scales is always fascinating and a reminder of the one constant between them – the need to be specific in your marketing, and seek to engage a particular audience.