Classroom is an RTYDS Connect Company.
RTYDS has worked with Classroom since 2020 and share a mission to centre working, benefit, and criminal artist voices and address the structural inequality in theatre for creatives from low socio-economic backgrounds.
We provide financial, strategic and producing support to the company and Classroom’s programmes of work.
ABOUT CLASSROOM
Co-founded by artists Stef O’Driscoll and Caitriona Shoobridge, Classroom is a space to talk about socio-economic barriers and privilege in theatre.
It is an artist-led program designed to ensure artists from lower socio-economic backgrounds, more specifically artists who identify as working, benefit and criminal class backgrounds (WBC-C) remain in the industry, develop skills, and progress to leadership.
PROJECTS
Classroom works with organisations and artists to collectively bring about change. Their ongoing projects with RTYDS are:
Some people simply ‘know the right people’ either through family, school or university and have social connections with people working in the arts giving them an advantage in gaining opportunities and employment. Classroom’s Networking Bursaries are for those who identify as from a lower socio-economic background, or more specifically WBC-C, to start or continue to grow their networks. At its heart, the idea supports building connections and networking opportunities for WBC-C theatre professionals. |
Classroom believes that no person should have the onus placed upon them to declare poverty trauma or financial hardship in order to receive payments for their craft in a way that enables them to keep engaging with the industry. Instead, we would love to see organisations proactively offering alternative payment structures at the point of contracting, allowing artists to focus on what they do best: telling great stories. Surviving on a Shoestring is a 12-month pilot aimed at addressing financial inequity in theatre by collaborating with theatre companies. Working together, the aim is to create the organisational change that helps artists from low socioeconomic backgrounds enter into and sustain creative careers in the industry. Surviving on a Shoestring’s theatre partners are: Middle Child, Young Vic, Northern Stage, Cardboard Citizens, LIFT, and 20 Stories High. |
FIND OUT MORE
To find out more about Classroom and their ongoing work, go to their website: www.class-org.com.