Spymonkey are looking for an experienced creative consultant to work with us over the next year to support us in embedding our diversity and inclusion work into the creative process of our next two productions; Hairy and The Frogs.

Following a significant change within our artist-led organisation, not least the unexpected death of our friend, collaborator and associate artist Stephan Kreiss, and founder Petra Massey’s continued secondment to Speigelworld in Las Vegas, we have spent time rethinking who Spymonkey is, what we do and why. This reflection was coupled by the pandemic & the BLM movement, Spymonkey’s freelance part-time team reflected on our diversity practice & Action Plan to ensure our work is reflective of a society which welcomes and celebrates the diversity of race, ethnicity and the lived experiences of a broad range of people.

Through ‘Spymonkey’s Would Like to Meet workshop in 2022 we took some practical steps to engage with artists from the Global Majority for our creative productions and training programmes. We held a workshop paying highly-skilled & experienced performers from the Global Majority to spend 2 days in a creative workshop led by the two of the Spymonkey ensemble, and facilitated by Amrita Dhaliwal, a Punjabi American arts leader, educator and devising artist based in Los Angeles. Amrita joined the team in London with worked with Spymonkey’s Artistic Directors Toby Park, Aitor Basauri, Executive Producer Emily Coleman, and Education and Training Officer Natasha Britton, to understand our DE&I work to date and support us on some next steps. She attended our workshops in London as a way of redressing the power balance in the room, to introduce the team and our terms around identity, alongside facilitating discussions during the two days.

Would Like to Meet has been transformative on our work, has impacted our approach to shortlisting & recruiting our bursary places and practically leading our training and education workshops. We really valued working with Amrita as an external person with lived experience of discrimination and an understanding of the work of Spymonkey. As we look ahead, the support of a local UK-based practitioner will best serve our continued application of this learning and continue our commitment to equality through our creative projects.

We would like to engage someone to attend at rehearsal days for Hairy and The Frogs between June 2023 and Jan 2024, plus additional meetings and prep/feedback on the process.

For more information about the role please download the Word document here.

There is a large-print version available here.

 

HOW TO APPLY
Please send us a two page document or 3 minute video or audio file outlining how your experience fits The Role and Who We Are Looking for outlined in the info pack. We’d also like to know why you’d be interested in working with Spymonkey on Hairy and The Frogs. 

You are also welcome to tell us any access requirements and things we can do to help you do your best work.

Deadline for applications is Fri 14th April at 12noon

We would like to meet up to 4 people via Zoom on Tues 2nd May as an opportunity for us to ask you, and you to ask us, questions and to see if we’d like to work together.

If applying for this role is not accessible for you and you’d like to apply in another way, or if you need any support please email info@spymonkey.co.uk. 

We recognise there is a lack of representation due to systemic barriers and we encourage applications from members of the Global Majority and those currently underrepresented in our industry. If you would like to discuss support with an application please contact the team on info@spymonkey.co.uk.