By James Hadley in London

This week I think it's time I gave an update on the working side of my life here in London. It's hard to believe I've now been here for three months. I came to London unsure how long I would stay here - the only definite thing was that I hoped to research the theatre industry here, and in particular find out more about the UK companies presenting participatory theatre. Finding work in the industry would be an added plus, but I'd heard how challenging it can be to break into theatre in London so was keeping an open mind.By James Hadley in London

This week I think it's time I gave an update on the working side of my life here in London. It's hard to believe I've now been here for three months. I came to London unsure how long I would stay here - the only definite thing was that I hoped to research the theatre industry here, and in particular find out more about the UK companies presenting participatory theatre. Finding work in the industry would be an added plus, but I'd heard how challenging it can be to break into theatre in London so was keeping an open mind.As fortune would have it, within the first week of being back in London after a trip around Italy, I saw a vacancy advertised within the Theatre unit at the London branch of the Arts Council England - the UK equivalent to Creative New Zealand. Thinking this sounded like an ideal place to get paid for gaining further insight into the industry, I applied, got an interview, and in time was offered the position of Assistant Theatre Officer. I started work at the Arts Council just before going up to the Edinburgh Fringe, so I'm yet to work a full week there, but am cramming my head full with lots of overview information about the organisation.

Like Creative New Zealand, the Arts Council England operates at arm's length from the government. It defines itself as 'the national development agency for the arts in England, providing funding for a range of arts activities.' As the title of the organisation suggests, it's England specific, with separate partnership organisations looking after Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. I should point out straight away that my knowledge of the organisation is patchy at this stage - it's a complicated place, and there's huge amounts of organisational documents to digest!

The London branch of the Arts Council is one of several regional Arts Councils that look after different parts of the country, and then there's also a National office, based elsewhere in London and operating separately to the London branch. The National office seems to handle the big picture end of things - national strategy and policies for all the artforms... but to be honest it's still something of a grey area to me how they operate in relation to the regional Arts Councils.

My two most recent jobs were for Playmarket - New Zealand's playwrights agency and script development service, and BATS Theatre in Wellington - both comparatively small arts organisations (though of national importance) with only four or five staff. So I'm somewhat overwhelmed by the scale of the Arts Council. There are fourteen staff in the Theatre unit where I work. On the same floor there are at least another 16 staff in other departments, and there are a similar number of staff on the other three floors of the building - so I'd guess around 100 staff in the London branch.

When you consider there are eight other regional offices, alongside the National office, you get some indication of how large the organisation is as a whole. Within just the London branch there are separate units dedicated to Theatre, Music, Dance, Literature, Visual Arts, Interdisciplinary Arts and Combined Arts. Combined Arts deals with 'participatory and celebratory work, festivals and carnival, arts centres and rural touring' - most projects or organisations that work with multiple artforms. Interdisciplinary Arts works with artists who work across the boundaries of different disciplines in the wider creative industries - sometimes collaborating with scientists, ecologists, and technology, for instance. I'll leave it to you to explore the Arts Council's website - which contains masses of interesting documents - if you're interested in finding out more about the organisation in general.

The London Theatre unit within which I work is responsible for looking after some of the biggest client organisations of the Arts Council England (ACE) - such as the National Theatre. Most of the organisations who recently attracted media attention when they lost their ACE funding were handled by the London Theatre unit. I remember reading, in New Zealand, about the fuss when the Arts Council reviewed its portfolio of Regularly Funded Organisations (RFOs) last year. Now I'm working alongside the Officers who had to communicate those decisions to the RFOs in question, and Baroness McIntosh's report on what went wrong in this process makes for interesting reading. No-one seems to have been in the wrong, but a series of events meant that some organisations' expectations were somewhat mismanaged so they were faced with only a short period of warning that their Arts Council funding was to be discontinued. Greater transparency all round is now a high priority.

The media leapt on the story and it's been seen as some of the worst publicity in the organisation's history. But gaining an inside perspective on things, the decisions made about the change of portfolio seems clearly to be something that had to happen. What's not been as well reported is the number of innovative new organisations who are now funded by the Arts Council, better reflecting the diversity of the UK's professional theatre industry today. And this diversity is wonderfully apparent from my new position in the Theatre unit.

My position as Assistant Officer is mostly about processing project grants applications. It's a system called 'Grants for the Arts' here, which is similar to project funding from Creative New Zealand. Most of the funding money comes from profits of the National Lottery. To do this knowledgeably, I need to be familiar with the work of those applying where possible. This gives me a wonderful excuse to see as much London theatre as possible, mostly by professional companies working in the city's smaller venues. Already my calendar is filling up with a wonderfully diverse selection of theatre being presented all over the city.

I've also been assigned four regularly funded organisations, theatre companies whom I am to monitor and maintain communications with, which means having a more in-depth relationship with their activities. Like Creative New Zealand, Arts Council England has a policy of keeping a light touch to their involvement with funded organisations; never meddling in their management or aims. There are other aspects to the job as well, and I'm still getting my head around it, but the main thing is that I feel privileged to be getting this level of insight into the realities of London's theatre industry.

My colleagues in the Theatre unit are wonderfully passionate about theatre, each with a specialist area for which they at times act as an advocate. A large proportion of the overwhelming quantity of theatre being produced in London passes through the office in some way or other, so it's a brilliant place from which to build a picture of what's happening. There are areas of the industry which are earmarked for special assistance, such as strengthening new English musical theatre, and participatory theatre - which will become increasingly important in the lead up to the 2012 London Olympics.

Of course, I should clarify here that anything I write in 'Sets and the City' is my own personal perspective on theatre in London, and not reflective of Arts Council England's views. And it would be inappropriate for me to talk in any detail about the industry insights which my new job will allow me. But what you can expect in future blogs are details of the increasingly diverse theatre companies' work which the position is leading me to experience.

Read previous Sets and the City blogs

Feel free to get in touch with any questions (or if you're planning a London visit and want some theatre recommendations) to jamesstuarthadley@gmail.com

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08/09/08