Being a Parent & Working in Theatre – Work/Life Balance
Thursday 9 July
4.00pm – 6.00pm
Working in theatre is a demanding, unstable and volatile vocation. Creating a balance between life and work is a challenge. Having home obligations, whether this be caring responsibilities or children makes the situation even more complicated. Many directors fall away due to the pressures of these responsibilities as the demands seem incompatible.
Yet the experience of parenthood and other life duties can enrich your craft in ways you wouldn’t have necessarily expected.
Should directors be doing more to shape the industry and our working structures to match their needs? How can we equip ourselves to have long, fulfilling careers whilst having time to enjoy family life and carry out caring responsibilities? What can we learn from each other's experiences?
There are organisations like Parents In Performing Arts doing some great work and this is a chance as freelancers to share experiences, tactics, approaches.
The session will be facilitated by director Emma Baggott (mum of one), and she will be joined by Nicole Charles and Dermot Daly. The conversation will be around working in theatre; the challenges, obstacles and solutions they are dealing with along the way.
This session is open to anyone who is presently a parent or for those that are thinking about it and want to plan for the future, or those just interested in the debate.
Often the experiences and challenges of parents and carers are placed together. This session will focus on parenting. If you would like us to run a session on working in theatre as a carer please let us know and we will organise.
If you are interested in attending please sign up! Zoom details will be emailed to you the day before.
If you have any access requirements please let us know.
This is a relaxed space - we expect that people attending will also looking after their offspring.
RTYDS is currently curating the Young Vic Directors Programme. You don’t need to be a member of the Genesis Network to take part in this session, but you do need to be a professional director, designer or producer and not in full time education.
You can find out more about the Young Vic Genesis Network and sign up here.
The Genesis Network is funded by the Genesis Foundation.