Last week, we headed to Talawa Studios – home of the UK's outstanding Black British theatre company - to spill the tea with Carolyn ML Forsyth. As the company’s Executive Director and Joint CEO, Carolyn helps lead the Talawa Theatre Company team on their mission to champion Black voices in theatre. Established in 1986, Talawa nurtures talent in emerging and established artists of African or Caribbean heritage and tells inspirational and passionate stories that reflect Black experiences. Carolyn was also Vice Chair of the steering group for London Borough of Culture, This Is Croydon from 2023-24.
Can you share a bit about your career journey so far and what brought you to Talawa?
I actually started my career journey with a degree in Leisure Management and Sports Science. It included a work placement and (since I was keen to avoid spending 12 months in a sports centre!) I managed to secure a placement at The Young Vic. I had always enjoyed the performing arts as a viewer but that year I fell in love with the business of theatre, and the industry as a whole. After I graduated in 2000, I applied for a role as their Assistant Theatre Manager. It was such an exciting time – I was working on shows with movers and shakers like Peter Brook, Adrian Lester and Jude Law. A few years later, I got a role as the Theatre Manager at Unicorn Theatre (the first purpose-built children’s theatre) in London Bridge. It was a huge job – and a unique experience opening a brand-new arts venue. About seven years later, there was a company restructure, and I was approached about a new position as a Producer. In some ways, it was quite a switch up, but a big part of a producer’s role is looking after stakeholders and managing people, so I had a lot of transferable skills to offer. I did that for about 5 years, then got role at LIFT – which was another amazing opportunity, working on world renowned projects (a personal favourite being Fly By Night by Duke Riley). Then fast forward to 2020, I was furloughed, and someone I respect hugely in the industry suggested this leadership role at Talawa.
Talawa was founded in 1986 in response to the lack of creative opportunities for Black actors and I was really excited about the opportunity to be involved in the strategic decisions that would shape the company’s future.
Simply put, as Executive Director and Joint CEO, my job is to run the business side of theatre. Like every company, it has HR, Finance, Marketing etc (although as we’re a touring company, we’re not responsible for the venue itself which takes some pressure off!).
How do you choose the stories you tell on stage?
As our Artistic Director and Joint CEO, Michael Buffong is responsible for making decisions about the type of programme we want to put out there and the artists, writers, producers we want to engage with.
But it’s a very collaborative process and there’s not one prescribed route as to how we go about it. As a team, we constantly talk about what stories and artists excite us and how those elements might fit together. Sometimes an individual or an industry partner might approach us with an idea, other times, we have our own thoughts as to what we’d like to see on stage. Sometimes the suggestion might involve an adaptation of a traditional script other times it’s a completely new story that hasn’t been written or concept that needs to be “R and D’d” (research and development).
In terms of themes, sometimes we see an issue or a need and respond to it, other times, we bring artists together and see where the creative process takes them.
For example, our ‘Tales from the Front Line’ film series, came about in lockdown because Michael was watching the news about frontline key workers and questioning why the stories of Black workers weren’t being told.
‘Recognition’ (which follows a young Black female composer as she discovers the work of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor) came about because we were approached by artists Amanda Wilkin and Rachael Nanyonjo who had a captivating proposal, and we knew we wanted to be involved in spotlighting such an important Black story during Croydon’s time as London Borough of Culture.
Generally speaking, our “from Page to Stage” process is between 18-24 months but it can be much longer. For example, next year, we’re doing an outdoor commission which we’ve been working on for about 2 years already. This came about because we’d had a great time working with Bradley Hemmings (the Artistic Director of Greenwich+Docklands International Festival) on The Tide (an outdoor show about migration) and wanted to explore what else we could do together. Michael had worked with contemporary dance company, Fubunation, on ‘Tales from the Front Line’ and was keen to do more with them. He knew that we’d need a narrative component, and I suggested Sonia Hughes (a live performance artist who also writes beautifully). So, we paid to put Fubunation and Sonia Hughes in a R&D process and fast forward 2 years, they are co-creating the most beautiful production about young Black men.
How does Talawa’s work challenge traditional narratives in theatre, especially those related to race and representation?
If you were to look at the British theatrical canon of work, I think you would see that there is a certain type of person who dominates it and so the narrative tends to be male, Caucasian and middle-class. Shakespeare is an amazing playwright and of course we want to tell his stories, but at Talawa we believe there is space for other stories to be told as well, and so we work towards updating the British canon to reflect the amazing cultural diversity of the UK.
Talawa was formed in 1986 specifically because its 4 founders noticed that Black actors were not getting lead roles in theatre. For nearly forty years Talawa has platformed Black artists centre stage. From representation, platforming Black actors in lead roles of British classic texts (for example casting Don Warrington as King Lear), to the wider picture. The mission has evolved over time – we’re now not only focused on representation on stage, but on who writes, directs, manages, promotes and funds theatre.
Are there any unique challenges faced by Black Theatre companies in the UK, and how does Talawa navigate them?As mentioned, getting representation on stage is no longer such a challenge. Whilst so much has been achieved in terms of ensuring representation on stage, there’s lots more to do – we need more representation across the industry for writers, producers, marketeers and everyone else who makes up the company.
But at Talawa we’ve approached this challenge by turning it into an opportunity. We seriously invest in talent in order to create our own pipelines that bring more Black people into the industry. For example, Talawa Young People’s Programme - TYPT is our free flagship programme for emerging theatre makers aged 18-25 (with alumni including Michaela Coel (Chewing Gum, E4; Black Panther 2, Disney), Nonso Anozie (Game of Thrones, HBO; Cinderella, Disney) and Femi Oguns MBE (Director, The Identity Drama School).
Talawa Firsts is our writing festival that showcases the work of new writers. Talawa Stories is a partnership we have with BBC Radio 4 which brings that work to the airwaves.
Ultimately, by supporting with training and development, and providing the platform and network that artists need to grow, Talawa creates quality work and programmes that the wider sector can trust in. There’s often a perception of risk around Black work and artists. Here, at Talawa, we champion and platform talent. We invest in artists’ work, provide career building opportunities and give them the recognition they deserve. In turn, our investment in artists is rewarded with exciting work, flourishing partnerships and improvements to diversity within the sector.
What role does the Croydon community play in your work?
We came to Croydon in 2019 (previously we’d been based in East London) as we were attracted by the idea of having our own proper studio space (in the iconic Fairfield Halls) and being able to embed ourselves in a more traditional and less transient way and to lay down our roots within the community. The cherry on the cake, was the fact that Croydon was going to be London’s Borough of Culture in 2023 – which we were super excited to get involved with. That status (especially once I’d taken on the Steering group role) gave us so many opportunities to engage with the community, especially with our flagship project - ‘Our Croydon’
Of course, at our heart, we’re a touring theatre company that creates shows for people to enjoy but we see community engagement as crucial to that. Participant led projects with local people ensure we don’t get too “far away” from our audiences, and we remain relevant to what they want and expect from theatre. We also run Talawa Connect which is dedicated to local artist development.
What are some of the greatest challenges facing Black creatives in theatre today?
I’ve touched on this previously (in terms of perception of risk around Black artists and struggles with career development) but added to that is a sense of isolation.
We did some research last year to explore more about what individual creatives felt was their biggest challenge and an overwhelming response surrounded networking opportunities and feeling quite lonely.
London is a weird and wonderful space – the Black diaspora is very dominant here so it can give a false impression of what it’s like in the rest of the UK. When artists go on tour, they’re having to step into spaces where they might not feel so safe (for example during the recent riots) and when you’re worried about your personal safety it's really hard to care about your art.
Navigating (either direct or indirect) discrimination is sadly something we have to consider when going into new areas. In fact, that’s how we came to contribute to the Anti-Racism Touring Rider.
How do you see the future of Black Theatre evolving?
Ultimately, we’re looking at how we can take the “Black British experience” to more international stages.
Our focus is shifting to a place-based approach to delivering culture and for the next 5 years, we’ll be running The Black Artistry Programme (supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Arts Council England).
Essentially, we’ll be working in partnership with 4 regional hubs across England (including Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, Wiltshire Creative in Salisbury and The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry to help more artists create work in the area they live.
We want to help create a sustainable network of regional theatres – by generating work and employment opportunities for artists, building audiences and developing existing infrastructure. It’s not about us parachuting in with all the answers, but about working collaboratively with regional arts communities to see what we can do to support.
From our point of view, as a touring company, being able to go somewhere where there are Black artists we can work and produce with, and audiences who are interested in that work, obviously makes a lot of sense. But it’s also part of a bigger plan to help move our sector forward.
What excites you most about the future of Talawa and its role in shaping the arts scene in Croydon?
Croydon has such a superb community and one that is clearly committed to culture. We were very grateful to receive £25k of revenue funding that went into 'Run it Back'.
Croydon is vibrant and edgy and so much stuff has come out of here that people wouldn’t expect. It gets a bad rap, and I think what was so brilliant about This Is Croydon, London Borough of Culture were all the positive stories coming out of Croydon during that time because we were talking about the thing we do so well – formal and informal culture.
Seeing the Council really understand the value of culture and creativity and actively consider what they can do to support it, has been really encouraging. And this Public/Local Authority/Private/Community partnership is so important at a time when money is tight.
We love being able to support people who have been doing the work for years, and I’m looking forward to developing more local partnerships and creating a programme that is specific to Croydon. One of the things that came out of the ‘Our Croydon’ programme, was a 10-week Elders Poetry group who went on to work with the Borough’s Poet Laureate, Shaniqua Benjamin.
What’s coming up next at Talawa?
In terms of productions, ‘Play On!’(which is our stylish retelling of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, set within the 1940s Harlem jazz Scene) started touring across the UK this week. We have opened at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry and then we’re off to Liverpool, Sailsbury, Birmingham, Bristol, before finishing in London (at the Lyric in Hammersmith) in February 2025.
We’ve partnered with Croydonites festival and will be bringing ‘Blessed, Tryna Shake This curse’ by Simon Manyonda to local audiences in November.
Then next year, we’ll be bringing both Home Song by Cassiopeia Berkeley-Agyepong (a co-production with Unicorn Theatre - a vivid and soothing musical experience for parents and babies) and our outdoor commission (with Sonia Hughes and Fubunation) to the stage.
We’ve also got big plans for our 40th Birthday but I’ll keep those under wraps for now…
For more information about Talawa, visit www.talawa.com or follow @TalawaTC
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