ISSUE 74: I'M OFTEN WORKING ALONE - WHAT ABOUT PEER REVIEW OR PEER MENTORING?

Issue: I’m often working alone – what about peer review or peer mentoring?

Convener(s): Ed Bartram

Participants: Kate Hall, Alison Goldie, Thomas Hescott, Flavia Fraser-Cannon, Rhiannon Armstrong, Sarah Corbett, Sophia Simensky, Jan Lee, Yvonne Sewell, Nicholas McInerny


Summary of discussion, conclusions and/or recommendations:


Schemes exist, Improbable facilitate mentoring – recent event was Festive Fete at BAC

Various reasons given for wanting to talk things through with a mentor / peer mentor: post-show funk; not being in an organisation you don’t have a ready supply of people to talk to about things; trustees may also not be very good at that; leaving university and suddenly being on your own; working in a town where you’re the only theatre maker.

Action Learning sets one version of group peer mentoring. One participant talked about very successful recent experience of mentoring someone else; another spoke about a relationship which didn’t work at all, as the mentor was making use of her for his own agenda.

One participant explained model he uses at film school where students give feedback on others’ work: there is a group of 3 – following initial presentation the other 2 students give feedback on the work; the presenter isn’t allowed to interrupt when they’re doing this. Artists tend to be good at hearing rather than listening, and there is a need to develop this skill. Feedback framed in terms of “I feel…” and no oughts or shoulds allowed.

We discussed possibilities of setting up a group or thinking about one to one peer sessions, feeding into Improbable set-up, or setting up a facebook group.