Chichester Fringe has confirmed the winners of its brand-new commissioning grant scheme – £250 to be offered to two successful artists or companies to help bring their work to life.
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00:00Good morning, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Lovely to
00:06speak to Carol Webb of the Chichester Fringe. Now, astonishingly, Chichester Fringe is entering
00:11its fifth year, which is difficult to get your mind round, isn't it? But for this year,
00:15to make it even more special, you've got a very new scheme. You have just announced the
00:20winners of your grant commissioning scheme. Now, tell me how that works. What were you
00:25looking for by commissioning? So we're very, very pleased to be offered some money by the
00:31City Council to be able to offer these grants. And so we really wanted to think very carefully
00:37who we had quite a few applications, how we could give it fairly and that would give the
00:46production that we gave some progress towards that we're doing. So one of the things that we
00:51really carefully thought about was what difference was it going to make to the performers by having
00:56the commissioning grant? And that was our key question, really. You needed people who needed
01:00the grants then, clearly, didn't you? Yeah, so essentially, their performances probably wouldn't
01:06go ahead without the grant. So for example, one of the winners, we have two of the artists in
01:12Scotland, one in Wales. They're just graduates. So obviously, I haven't got so much money to be
01:19able to put things together at the moment. And it is enabling them to be able to hire performance
01:25space and also some train tickets to be able to get to each other to perform. Because performing
01:31on Zoom is OK, but you do need to be in the same room sometimes to be able to develop a production.
01:36And we should say that your winners are Iona Rose and Lynne Robinson. But you're also thinking about
01:42what happens next. You were interested in what they could do with the production after they've
01:46been with you, weren't you? Yes, absolutely. So especially for Iona, she lives in Scotland at the
01:52moment. I mean, they aspire to take it to Edinburgh Fringe after developing it for us, and we wish
01:57them luck. And if there's anybody out there that can sponsor them for Edinburgh, that would be
02:01amazing for them. And then for Lynne, yes, they want to take their production to the Women's
02:08Prize for Playwriting. And who knows where it would go from there? But equally, they don't see
02:15the production with us as the final piece. It's just a development, and then it will,
02:20they are looking at the response from the audience to know how they can take it forward.
02:25Absolutely. And in between the commissioning and the aftermath, you will also be mentoring,
02:30won't you, to make sure it comes to the stage? Yes, absolutely. Especially for Iona up in Scotland,
02:35I'm sure, as she's doing a Macbeth piece, there might be some props she might need. And so we'll
02:40be looking for those, and also supporting her on the journey. And we've got Katie Bennett on our
02:45team, who's very knowledgeable. And, you know, again, she can tap into the experience that we
02:50have here. Fantastic. And this is all leading up to the announcement of the Fringe programme
02:55in mid-March, isn't it? Yes, absolutely. We're right now scheduling, we've just finished our
03:01second wave. So we have more applicants, and we're desperately trying to find those spaces. Yes,
03:06we've got over 70. And we have two weeks of Fringe in the summer from May the 31st to June
03:12the 15th. So that'll be very nice. On June the 15th, that's the point at which the festival
03:17of Chichester starts. Beautifully dovetailed. Absolutely. It's lovely to go from one to the
03:22other. There's so much art in Chichester. Lots and lots to celebrate. Brilliant. Well, lovely to speak
03:27to you again, Carol. And congratulations on the scheme. I'm sure it'll go brilliantly.
03:31Thank you for having us. And thank you for letting us tell everyone about our exciting news. Thank
03:35you. My pleasure.