Quaker play misses out on arts funding
'The work focuses on Hiroshima and the first atomic bombings.'
The playwright and actor Michael Mears has had an application for Arts Council funding turned down. He was hoping for support for a twenty-eight-day tour of his play The Mistake. The work focuses on Hiroshima and the first atomic bombings, and will be shown at Quaker venues, among other places, in September and October.
The letter from the Arts Council said it decided not to support the application because ‘we decided to fund a mix of different applications that we viewed as making the strongest contribution to achieving our strategy’.
Michael Mears told the Friend: ‘They only gave one vague sentence of feedback as a reason for refusal – for an application that took six arduous weeks to put together. The tour will still proceed as planned – but I will have to use up a serious chunk of my savings to fund it, alas.’
The decision was ‘a real blow’ to Mears, but he said he was determined not to dwell on it any longer. ‘I do feel it’s “living adventurously” – setting off round the country (including to Quaker schools and Meeting houses) at my grand old age!’
The tour, starting in September, will include three Quaker schools and three Quaker Meeting houses, as well as two venues organised by Friends in Chester and Buxton. This follows a successful run at the Edinburgh Festival last year, and a recent sold-out season in London’s Arcola Theatre. Mark Friend, from Winchmore Hill Meeting, has designed the set, with Rosamunde Hutt as director. Michael Mears will perform in the play with Riko Nakazono, a Japanese actor.
Michael Mears said that ‘sadly, [the play’s subject matter] is ever more relevant and urgent’.
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