Pressing On

"Well I'm pressing on," sang Bob Dylan in his gospel phase. I often find that phrase running through my head as we readjust to the news that the NZFC won't allow our funding application to go to the board.

It's not like I haven't been here before. In 2003 I was producing the play Jerusalem, Jerusalem that had a wildly successful tour of NZ theatres. We were accompanied by superb reviews and full houses. I applied to Creative NZ for a grant to help us take the play to the Edinburgh festival, and was astonished to be turned down. But we decided to press on, and within the space of a week an art auction took us by surprise and made up the funding shortfall. We took the play to Edinburgh (where it was shortlisted for a Fringe First), Ireland and England.

I learned two things from that experience. The first was to be very cynical about the staff and agendas of funding bureaucracies. But the second and more important lesson was that it never pays to depend on them. The success of an artistic project lies in its inherent merits and ability to find an audience, rather than in the approval of people who are paid large salaries and generally have never taken a significant risk in their lives.

So it's onwards and upwards. We're rejigging the finance plan, adjusting the budget, scheduling our preproduction tasks and moving forward. Watch this space.