Supporting emerging artists is about more than opening doors – it is about making sure people know those doors exist in the first place. In this guest blog, New Perspectives Theatre Company’s Artistic Director, Angharad Jones, and Participation Director, Jayne Williams, reflect on their own journeys into the industry, the evolution of talent development across the East Midlands, and why creating accessible, sustainable pathways for the next generation of theatre-makers has never been more important. Drawing on personal experience and the success of New Perspectives’ New Associates programme, they explore how investment in artists today will shape the stories, voices and creative leadership of tomorrow.
“Talent development is like the sat Nav. It doesn’t drive the car- but it stops you spending years pulled over in a lay-by wondering where you went wrong.” – Angharad Jones
Angharad: Twenty-one years ago, fresh out of university, I set up a theatre company with a friend. We had £1,000 from the Prince’s Trust, a business plan, and very little sense of what we were doing or what came next. At the time, under a Labour government, I was offered the chance to do a government-funded master’s degree as part of a pilot scheme encouraging people to gain qualifications through work. I said yes, of course. I certainly did not have the means to pay for it myself. What I hadn’t banked on was that the first module asked me to design my whole master’s degree. It sounded absurd because I felt entirely unequipped. But now, 21 years later, it turns out I built a career this way: self-taught, self-designed, making the map while already walking it.
In those early stages there were thriving participation teams, networking events, scratch nights and the occasional generous person who would meet for coffee or lend space. Those moments mattered, but they were inconsistent and dependent on timing, geography, and who you knew. What didn’t exist was a structured way to develop before you were expected to produce work. Dedicated artist development, as a named, resourced activity, was largely absent.
That gap shaped everything. It took me over a decade to feel established: learning contracts, fundraising, partnerships, and producing through trial and error. Nobody really teaches you the ecology of making theatre. You learn by doing, failing, and asking questions of whoever has time. I was lucky to gain support from New Perspectives, including Daniel Buckroyd, Jack McNamara and Sally Anne Tye, who demystified things generously.
The value of that kind of generosity can not be overstated but it was informal and ad hoc.
“Talent exists everywhere. Opportunity does not” – Jayne Williams
Jayne: Across more than 50 years of New Perspectives, talent development has always been part of the company’s DNA. Sometimes that has been formal, but often it has been simple and human: conversations over a cuppa, or early encounters with young people in places like Mansfield asking what theatre is for (That was me in the early 90’s), and whether it belongs to them. That’s how I started.
That principle has since become more structured. One example is New Associates, a year-long programme bringing together early-career artists across disciplines. Participants shadow rehearsals, attend company meetings, and are included in organisational thinking, including board-level discussions.
Crucially, the artists shape the programme as much as they experience it. The first cohort, supported by New Perspectives’ Exec Director Sally Anne Tye, secured Arts Council funding and created ‘Prototype’, a three-day takeover of Nottingham’s Nonsuch Theatre. It sold out, combining short performances with site-wide interventions and drawing strong audience and industry response.
That original group of New Associates (The OG’s) became a foundation for what followed. A second cohort began in 2020 and, when the pandemic hit, the programme moved online and extended to 18 months. It changed how development could work but reinforced something important: continuity matters more than format.
When Angharad became Artistic Director in 2021, my own role shifted too from part-time freelance work into a full-time salaried position after 25 years of freelancing. That change was significant. Financial instability is one of the main reasons people leave this industry. I was fortunate to begin in a different era, when funding stretched further and it was still possible to build a practice before today’s pressures on emerging artists took hold.
That understanding has shaped our approach. A key focus has been helping artists access funding such as Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) and National Lottery Project Grants (NLPG), alongside building networks and mentorship. Artists consistently say this is one of the most valuable parts of the programme. Not every cohort wants a showcase; when there is no appetite, it is not imposed. The work adapts to need rather than expectation.
A shifting region
For a long time, geography limited ambition in the East Midlands. That has changed. Across the region, organisations have embedded development into their core work, and what was once informal is now infrastructure.
At New Perspectives, that commitment has remained consistent over decades, from participation work to structured programmes designed to widen access. New Associates has become less a fixed model and more a flexible framework, with more than 80 artists taking part so far.
Over five years, New Associates and its alumni have collectively secured over £850,000 from Arts Council England. That figure matters because it translates into real practice: artists paying themselves, employing collaborators, and sustaining work in the region. The value is not only financial. It enables confidence, access, and the ability to navigate systems that are often opaque. Competition is tougher than ever, but demystifying process remains one of the programme’s most consistent impacts.
What changes when support exists
Angharad: I used to print off the AA route planner to get to venues. Someone eventually told us about sat nav. Talent development is the same. It doesn’t drive the car, but it stops you spending years pulled over in a lay-by wondering where you went wrong.
Without structured support, too many artists stall or leave the industry entirely. And when leadership remains drawn from narrow backgrounds, the stories we see on stage inevitably narrow too.
Jayne: We’re told that working-class audiences are ‘hard to reach’ but to me, it’s the industry that is ‘hard to reach’. with only 10% of the workforce identifying as working class. When artists that truly reflect our communities get to tell their own stories, in their own way, people will come.
I now realise that every bead of sweat I invest into New Associates is my effort to provide what wasn’t available to me all those years ago. Responding to what freelancers need now by truly listening, demystify and prizing open as many heavy doors as possible. We’ll never be able to say we helped everyone, but I’ll bust a gut trying.
Angharad: Across both of our experiences, a shared belief emerges talent development is not a single pathway, but an effort to widen the number of viable routes into the industry. Some artists will always take the motorway; others will take the scenic route. The question is not which they choose, but whether anyone gets lost simply because no one showed them the map.
Fast forward to 2026 and the East Midlands has changed, Infrastructure is stronger, and artists are building careers here who once would have had to leave. Along with New Associates, our region has In Good Company, founded at Derby Theatre in 2013, was the first programme in the region to actually ask artists what they needed before deciding what to give them -and that simple act of consultation was revolutionary. Nottingham Playhouse’s Amplify programme now has over a thousand members, offering scratch nights, mentoring, co-working, a writers’ group, an actors’ collective and a quarterly showcase.
Curve in Leicester runs its Resident Creative programme. Dance4 has the international Centre for Choreography. Fifth Word – the company Laura and I started with £1,000 and no idea – recently ran a playwright’s group in partnership with Derby Theatre and Nottingham Playhouse. Whilst the region remains chronically underfunded relative to the national average it is striving to support its artists. But the deeper question remains: who gets to stay, who gets to speak, and who gets to shape the work we see?
Because talent development is not solely a support function. It is a decision about what we choose to sustain and who we allow to remain visible.
Talent exists everywhere.
