On Tuesday 28th July, we launched CONNECT - our training and professional development programme for businesses, teams and individuals - to a virtual room of regional and National businesses, entrepreneurs, leaders and press. Attendees to our virtual showcase were also treated to a special virtual Zoom performance from our Ensemble Young Company showcasing the work of our young people, as income from CONNECT directly funds and supports this work.
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The launch of our reimagined CONNECT programme is incredibly exciting for Mortal Fools and is the culmination of months of work and research and years of experience delivering training to organisations. Since lock down began, we have been supporting organisations and individuals across the region to adapt to the new and evolving demands of the “new normal” landscape through CONNECT, working with 14 organisations and 170 individuals. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed many organisations and individuals to go online with their activities and events, communicating with their networks in new ways using digital platforms and feeling overwhelmed and out of their comfort zones. We responded to this emerging need by fast-tracking the launch of our CONNECT programme, supporting organisations navigate this new landscape. 

​​Since April we’ve been running ZOOM workshops (you might have seen us champion them on our social) and offering consultancy to organisations and individuals focusing on confident and effective digital communication, developing digital facilitation skills, increasing resilience in uncertainty and adopting dynamic leadership. This training and support has so far been snapped up by the likes of Northern Stage, Myndr, Sunderland Culture, Navigator North, Wakefield LCEP and nearly 200 individuals. 

We are known for creating compelling, dynamic and high-quality theatre, projects and training by professional artists working as co-creators with young people, schools, businesses and communities; helping people connect, have fun, learn and grow together. This creative sector expertise, coupled with our experience delivering training to the likes of Virgin Money, Newcastle University, Ryder Architecture and Generator in recent years, laid the foundation for the new CONNECT programme.  

Across May 2020, Mortal Fools commissioned research within the regional business community consulting with various sectors to find out what their challenges are and their skills and training gaps. This research captured the reality being faced for organisations and individuals and included SMEs, public bodies, entrepreneurs, high growth businesses, large corporates and freelancers.
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This fed into the development and launch of our CONNECT programme; a training and professional development programme for organisations, teams, and individuals, responding to the contemporary issues, organisations are facing. CONNECT uses a unique combination of practice from the creative sector and theory, practice, and research from the social sciences to lead participants through a practical training process of identifying personal strengths, increasing knowledge, and developing new skills.

CONNECT offers dynamic and effective approaches to developing leadership practice, engaging communication, formal presentation skills, team dynamics, digital facilitation and emotional resilience & well-being. Our training is delivered by experienced facilitators, directors and creative practitioners in environments which are genuinely supportive and accessible. CONNECT is delivered digitally and in person and consists of full day and half day training, 2hr long workshops, consultancy and 1 to 1 coaching.

The theatre and performance sector in the UK is in crisis and with self-employed theatre and performance makers making up 70% of the sector’s workforce, it means theatre and performance freelancers are in an urgent and acute crisis too. Organisations across the UK pledged their support to the freelance theatre and performance community by signing an open letter (below) to theatre and performance makers in the UK, stating a promise to creating a National Freelance Task Force.
 
Mortal Fools are a proud signatory of that open letter and as of 12th June 2020, Mortal Fools joins 138 arts organisations and venues across the UK in sponsoring a theatre and performance maker freelancer to be a part of the Freelance Task Force.
 
The aim of the Freelance Task Force is to strengthen the influence of the self-employed theatre and performance community. It will create ongoing points of connection between freelancers, organisations, funders and government and amplify the voice of the self-employed in the conversations to come about how we manage the response to and recovery from the Covid-19 crisis in the performing arts sector.
 
Freelance artists are the lifeblood of Mortal Fools – to put it simply, we wouldn’t exist without them. We see freelance artists as an incredible group of multiskilled, resourceful, creative, passionate, adaptable, and dynamic individuals. Their value, skills, experience, knowledge and ability to cross-pollinate across multiple organisations and projects can’t be overstated enough. To Mortal Fools, they are everything; our freelance team feels like our tribe and one of the reasons why we’ve managed to weather the storm of COVID-19 as an organisation. To our freelancers, we say thank you.
 
Therefore, actively supporting this Task Force, felt urgent, important to Mortal Fools and we are looking forward to seeing how the Task Force connected and collaborates to re-develop the arts and culture sector for theatre and performance freelances with their collective voices as we emerge from lock down and beyond.
 
Mortal Fools are delighted to announce our sponsored Freelance Task Force member, Mortal Fools’ Lead Associate Practitioner, Sian Armstrong (pictured below).

“I am so excited to be part of the Freelance Task Force and be sponsored by Mortal Fools; a company that’s constantly supported me throughout all my freelance work. The Freelance Task Force is such a needed platform for freelancers to feel heard and empowered right now. I’m really grateful to be in a position where I can support and advocate the voices of other fellow freelancers across the North East. I will use this opportunity to put freelance voices, especially working-class freelance voices, at the forefront of what is needed now and beyond lockdown. I will support, listen and actively work with others to build a more inclusive, and accessible creative community for freelancers across the UK.”
 
We look forward to seeing how the Freelance Task Force grows and evolves in the coming weeks. To the freelance community, across the UK (and beyond), Mortal Fools are here for, with you and we see you. 
 
To find out more about the Freelance Task Force, coordinated by Fuel Theatre, you can read HERE or search #FreelanceTaskForce across social media.
 
Below you can read the open letter to theatre and performance makers
 
An open letter to theatre and performance makers
This is a letter to self-employed and freelance theatre and performance makers in the UK. To the actors, playwrights, directors, choreographers, stage managers, designers, stage crews and set-builders to name just a few.
 
We really miss being with you during this period of lockdown. Making theatre and performance is a collaborative endeavour, so we are particularly affected by having to be apart from one another right now. We’re not able to come together, in the same space, to share the experience of a live performance. We’re not able to practise and enjoy our artform in its most basic form.
 
It’s now looking increasingly likely that won’t be possible for months to come, and we recognise that many freelancers face real uncertainty about if and how they will be able to continue to work in theatre. 70% of people who work in theatre and performance in the UK are freelance or self-employed, and it’s for this workforce, in all its diversity and complexity, that the impact of the current situation is most acute. 
 
During these past weeks we have had conversations with many of you to understand your needs and the ways you have been affected. We are writing to express our support for you, and to lay out some practical steps we are taking to improve the situation based on these conversations.
 
As well as exploring ways of producing work with freelancers during lockdown, and using this time to develop new projects with freelancers for the future, we are also are working together to coordinate our response to the government, to articulate clearly what we can offer and what we need.
 
Most urgently, we are calling for the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme to be extended in line with furloughing, for all self-employed workers, and in the specific case of theatre and performance workers, until theatres are able to safely reopen. We also want to see criteria removed from the scheme which are stopping legitimate and much-needed claims.
 
Some of you are already involved in these conversations. We welcome your voices and need to hear from more of you in the conversations to come. Your unique networks, skillsets, perspectives, and ideas are vital to the entire sector, and we need to work with you in our response to this crisis.
 
Each of the organisations who’ve signed this letter are committed to reaching out to their family of self-employed and freelance theatre makers; listening to how this is affecting your work and lives, and to your needs and ideas for the future.
 
More than that, we want to facilitate the establishment of a national task force of self-employed theatre and performance makers. The purpose of the task force is to strengthen the influence of the self-employed theatre and performance community. It would create ongoing points of connection between freelancers and organisations, and amplify the voice of the self-employed in the conversations to come. To help establish the task force, each of the organisations signing this letter will support a freelancer to join the group, ensuring they are paid for their time.
 
We want to offer a message of hope and solidarity. Our well-practised ability to work together, to form connections, and build relationships will help us through this. One day, hopefully soon, we will all be able to meet together, as people have done for centuries, in a shared space, for a shared experience. In the meantime, we remain committed to working for you and with you towards a sustainable future for theatre and performance.
 
This letter has been signed as of 12th June 2020 by 138 arts organisations and venues, including Mortal Fools. ​