Can You Afford to be a Theatre Director, Derek Bond asks

Here's a Guardian Theatre posting - a bit worrying, really:-

The secret of theatre directing? Finding another job to pay for it 

Posted by Derek Bond on 15th June 2016.

Do you keep a Reflective Practice Journal? This Guardian blogpost might interest you

Top tips for early career artists was posted on the Guardian's Culture Professionals Network a couple of days ago.  I thought it might interest anyone who has to keep a reflective journal about their development as a performer.  Do take a look.  

The Culture Professionals Network is a thoroughly worthwhile blog to keep on your radar - you never know what may pop up to pique your interest!

Be a Portfolio Musician (like Bach), argues Sean Gregory

Earlier this week, the Guardian Cultural Network featured a piece by Sean Gregory, Director of Creative Learning at the Barbican and Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Since many of Whittaker Live's readers are training to be portfolio musicians themselves, we thought we'd share the posting.  Here's the link to Sean Gregory's piece.

• Whittaker Library books on music careers can be found here.

Concerned about Accessibility in Theatre? Read Guardian Culture Professionals today

This posting from Guardian Culture Professionals Network might be of interest to you. Click HERE.

(There is also a piece about a career in poetry, which you might enjoy.)

Top Screenwriting Tips via Guardian Culture Professionals

Of course, you've signed up to the Guardian Culture Professionals?  Their online pages have loads of useful suggestions and news items for performing artists.

Here are Tips for Screenwriters, posted earlier this week: "Screenwriters share their top tips for career success"

• http://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network

LoveTheatreDay 2015: Weds 18th November (key info and how to get involved)

Or on Twitter,

#LoveTheatreDay

The Guardian newspaper says this is how you can get involved (click here). So come on, Actors and Producers - what are you going to do?

Performing Arts, Whittaker-Library Style

From time to time we share interesting weblinks for our developing artists.

Like these from the Guardian's Culture Professionals blog :- 

• from the Guardian, Top Tips for your Acting CV
• Career Tips for Opera Singers 
• Disability arts: the challenge of ensuring creative momentum

No Longer a Secret! The Lyric's Secret Theatre Project

Here's another intriguing article on the Guardian Culture Professionals website:-

"Diverse, daring and prepared to fail: how Secret Theatre rewrote the rules

 "The Lyric’s Secret Theatre project is reaching its finale. It may not have changed the face of British theatre, but it has opened up dramatic new ways of working ... " Read the article HERE.

What Wolfie Wants ( Piano App Teaching Kids With Technology)

An interesting article in the Guardian Culture Professionals Network may be interesting to our budding piano and class teachers -

How We Made the Wolfie Piano App

Guardian Culture Professionals Network Discussing Devised Theatre

Spotted in the Guardian Culture Network this week - this was authored by John Walton and posted on Tuesday 16th December:-

Devised theatre: ten tips for a truly creative collaboration 

Concerned about Audience Engagement? You are Not Alone!

There's an interesting article on this topic, in the Guardian Cultural Network earlier this week:-

Audience engagement in arts and heritage: the traps we fall into

by James McQuaid, Monday 6th October.  Click HERE.

Read about an Autism-Friendly Circus App (Guardian Culture Professionals Network)

Show and Tell Circus App

Theatrical and circus performers will be intrigued by this new app, developed by Circus Starr.  It's featured on the latest Guardian Culture Professonals Network blogpost.

"We wanted to produce an app that could somehow capture and convey the essence, magic and unpredictability of circus for a very literal audience. We needed to prepare a child who didn’t like surprises for a show full of surprises … without ruining the surprise", says Circus Starr.

To find out how they did it, you'll need to read the posting!  HERE. 

Did you know about the Theatres At Risk Register?

There are nine theatres at risk, says the Guardian Culture Professionals Network.  This is something that will be of concern to all actors, so we're sharing the link here for you to read:-

Theatres at risk: nine arts venues facing destruction – in pictures

If this kind of posting interests you, then consider signing up to Guardian Culture Professionals Network. (It's a favourite haunt of the Whittaker Library's music librarian.)

• Join the Guardian Culture Professionals Network

Guardian Culture Professionals Network Highlights Crisis for Composers

We noted this posting on the Guardian Culture Professionals Network earlier this week:-

The future of new music is at risk if we continue to undervalue composers

Posted by Susanna Eastburn on Guardian Culture Professionals Network, Monday 18 August 2014

Network As Though Your Life Depended On It

We've mentioned the Guardian's Culture Professionals Network before - a great series which brings up to date information of interest to anyone working in the cultural sector.

Did we mention that there's also a Higher Education Network?  Again, this would be well-worth signing up to.  This week, for example, the Academics Anonymous blog (on the Higher Education Network homepage) is by someone who is studying for a PhD in their forties: 'Why are you doing a PhD at your age?'

Here are the links for you to follow up:-

• Guardian Culture Professionals Network - http://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network
• Guardian Higher Education Network - http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network

Making a Success of a New Theatre: Guardian Culture Professionals blog about Leicester Curve

This was posted by Guardian Culture Professionals Network recently.  Of interest to anyone working in theatre!

""The most expensive and most disastrous project this city has ever seen in its history." So said Leicester's mayor of the city's Curve theatre in 2012. A curveball for the Curve certainly, but one the venue has managed to turn into a home run, as its chief executive Fiona Allan revealed to us yesterday in a refreshingly honest blog for Culture Pros. The theatre has since increased ticket sales by 130% and has been accepting awards left, right and centre."  Read the post HERE.

How do you Measure Theatre's Value, asks Fin Kennedy

Spotted earlier this week, a Guardian Culture Professionals article that might interest our budding drama professionals and their teaching staff.

How do you Measure Theatre's Value?  Read it here.

Social Media, Anyone? Guardian Media Culture Professionals Network Shares Tips

Karen's favourite culture website offers useful tips on one of her particular interests - social media for professional networking.  Take a look ...

Social Network Culture

Reddit - Introduced by the Guardian Culture Professionals Network

Do you use Reddit?  It's a social media website that the author of this article describes as highly influential, but perhaps not as well-known as it should be.

So we need to know about it!  Read the Guardian article here.

Find Reddit itself, here.

(No prizes for guessing where Karen's curiosity will be heading this weekend, then!)

Guardian Culture Professionals Network - UK Plays Going Global

Here's an interesting read for our actors and producers, published by the Guardian Culture Professionals Network (Thursday, 20th March 2014):-

Britain is brilliant at exporting plays, but what does it mean to go global?

• Nina Raine - Tribes
• Duncan Macmillan - Lungs
• Nick Payne - Constellations
• Much, much more - you'll have to read the article for yourself!