Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation

Recommending: Growing your own vegetables

Rufus Norris & David Eldridge & money

Guardian interview Norris and Eldridge.

I’ve had the fortune to be in work shops with both of them (not at the same time!).

One of the most useful practical notes that Rufus gave aspiring directors was along the lines of:

“… you’re unlikely to make money… I never started to really make any money until I was 40… before that I probably never earned more than about 10k in any one year… the thing to do is find somewhere cheap or even free to live, once you have your living sorted you can get by and you can concentrate on your work… but if you are having to constantly try and pay the rent and keep body and soul together, it’s very hard to go out there and do the work you want to do…”

That really hit a note with me. You can say many things about people with inheritance money or trust funds, but if they get it right, the money buys them the freedom to do the work they want to do and perhaps that is one of the reason why privileged children go on to make a name for themselves, it may be contacts and money but it may simply be the work they do – they can afford to do the work they are passionate about.

I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad things for the arts but it’s worth thinking about if you don’t come from a background of money, you still have to keep up with the work you really want to do and feel passionate about because if you’re always jobbing it is so much harder to create stand out pieces.

OK. Back to the day job.

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  • About me

    I'm a playwright and investment analyst. I have a broad range of interests: food, gardening, innovation & intellectual property, sustainability, architecture & design, writing and the arts. I sit on the board of Talawa Theatre Company and advise a CIS investment trust on socially responsible investments.

  • Recent Work

    Recent plays include, for theatre: Nakamitsu, Yellow Gentlemen, Lost in Peru, Lemon Love. For radio: Places in Between (R4), Patent Breaking Life Saving (WS).

  • Nakamitsu

  • Yellow Gentlemen