The Genesis Foundation’s 2022
Present, future and past
As the end of 2022 approaches, the Genesis Foundation has announced a new initiative. The Genesis Theatre Design Programme puts a very timely and necessary emphasis on diversity and representation while looking firmly to the future. At the same time it revives the spirit of something from the past: the influential Motley Theatre Design Course, which ran from 1966 to 2010. Motley remains a powerful and vibrant force in theatre, film and TV, thanks to the legacies and the continuing work of designers whose talents it developed and shaped.
This productive fusion of present, future and past makes the new programme an apt embodiment of the Genesis Foundation’s philosophy. Nurturing the careers of today’s creative professionals, and encouraging and embracing innovation, it draws on past experience and accumulated knowledge with an eye to building the cultural memory of the future.
The launch, with all its entrepreneurial energy and optimism, has come in the final weeks of a dramatic and turbulent year. Particularly momentous for the United Kingdom was the death in September of Queen Elizabeth II and the transition to the reign of King Charles III. The Genesis Foundation had planned a concert in October at the Tower of London as a celebration of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee; it became a tribute to her life.
Entitled A Garland for the Queen, the concert programme spanned five centuries; the oldest music dated from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and the newest was a vivid world premiere, the Genesis Foundation’s 30th commission of sacred music from a contemporary composer. ‘O Lord, make thy servant, Elizabeth’ by Cecilia McDowall will no doubt be taken up by many choirs in years to come. It was performed at the Tower of London by Harry Christophers and The Sixteen. The Foundation’s training partnership with The Sixteen, Genesis Sixteen, has been running since 2011, and over 250 young singers have now benefitted from its resources. As a prelude to the live-streaming of the concert, four of the students sang together for an online audience of many thousands of people around the world. Once again, present, past and future came together to resonant and meaningful effect.
As we enter 2023, the troubled political and economic climate inevitably gives rise to a sense of uncertainty, but this is no time for negative thinking or withdrawal. When times are tough, not only should we honour our philanthropic commitments but we should also be ready to make new ones.
2023 will bring the completion of all 95 future-facing projects made possible by the Genesis Kickstart Fund, which we launched in the dark days of the pandemic in autumn 2020. At the time I pointed out that Kickstart upheld the Genesis Foundation’s long-term strategy of affirming human dignity through the arts, one person at a time.
That strategy remains as valid now as it was when the Foundation came into being in 2001. I am determined that, through our further collaboration with our partners, and with the ever-growing support of our friends, the Genesis Foundation will continue to honour the past while enhancing the present and opening new paths for the future.
Have a blessed Christmas and New Year,
John Studzinski
2022 Highlights
George Turvey awarded 2022 Genesis Foundation Prize
“I am truly incredibly honoured to receive the 2022 Genesis Foundation Prize in recognition of my work mentoring playwrights.
For 14 years, we at Papatango have had the privilege of supporting and launching some immensely talented writers and, through the Playwright-Player Commission, this Prize will allow us to push further than ever in our quest to get the brightest new talent onto the UK’s biggest stages.”
George Turvey
Artistic Director, Papatango Theatre
George Turvey, Artistic Director of the Papatango Theatre Company, was awarded the 2022 Genesis Foundation Prize in February. He has been using the £25,000 prize to pilot a new scheme called the Playwright-Player Commission. Offering an innovative model for championing rising talent, it will create a pipeline of ambitious new work for major stages.
The inaugural Playwright-Player Commission, to be hosted at Bristol Old Vic, connects a hugely promising early-stage playwright, Samuel Bailey – winner of The Times Breakthrough Award at the Sky Arts South Bank Awards for his play Shook – with Olivier Award-winning director Sally Cookson. The pair are creating an ambitious, large-scale new play for Bristol Old Vic’s celebrated main stage.
First event celebrating the Genesis Jewish Book Week Emerging Writers Programme
As part of Jewish Book Week’s 2022 literary festival, writers and mentors from the inaugural Genesis-JBW Emerging Writers Programme came together for a celebratory event.
Writers of fiction, non-fiction and poetry worked with mentors to develop writing projects with the theme of ‘Beginnings’. Mentors included Tracy Chevalier, George Szirtes, Kavita Puri, Sam Leith, Benjamin Markovits, A.D. Miller, Sophie Herxheimer, Caroline Moorehead, Cathy Rentzenbrink and George Prochnik.
Final round of grants for £1 million Genesis Kickstart Fund
“The Genesis Kickstart Fund grew out of our response to the pandemic, but we have always been looking to the longer term. Beyond enabling paid work on worthwhile, innovative projects, the grants are about nurturing resourcefulness and resilience – and developing ideas and momentum in a dramatically changed environment.”
John Studzinski
Founder & Chairman, Genesis Foundation
In March, the Genesis Foundation announced the final 36 projects receiving £360,000 in grants through its Genesis Kickstart Fund. Since it started its distributions last year, a total of 95 future-facing projects have benefitted from the £1million fund, which was established during the pandemic to enable outstanding freelance talent to thrive in paid work.
World premiere of three Genesis Foundation commissions
In July, The Sixteen premiered three new Genesis Foundation commissions, joined by amateur singers from across the UK in their concert, Writing for Voices, at St Stephen Walbrook in London.
The performance was the culmination of a day of workshops and rehearsals with Genesis Sixteen Conducting Scholar, Olivia Tait, and conductor and founder of The Sixteen, Harry Christophers.
The three new pieces, written by Anna Semple, Eoghan Desmond, and Lisa Robertson, were featured on The Sixteen’s choral album A Meditation.
David Lan joins the Genesis Foundation’s Board of Trustees
“I’ve known the Genesis Foundation since I was writer-in-residence at the Royal Court in the mid-1990s. The Court’s International Writers Program, enabled and supported by John, was an early example of his willingness to take big risks on big ideas – large-scale, highly imaginative ways of offering support to young artists. Many of those who were part of the various directors’ projects we dreamed up with John and Genesis at the Young Vic over almost twenty years are now running their own theatres all over the country.
I was touched to be asked and am very happy to join the Genesis board in the hope and expectation that many new ideas will emerge through which young people can be supported to find their unique way to flourish as artists in our ever changing world.”
David Lan
In June, the Genesis Foundation announced David Lan‘s appointment to the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, a move which took a long-established partnership into a new phase.
As writer, producer and director, David Lan has won acclaim from critics and audiences in the UK and around the world. Throughout his career, he has made a priority of nurturing the careers of younger theatre-makers.
The association between David Lan and John Studzinski, Founder and Chairman of the Genesis Foundation, dates back more than 20 years, to Lan’s early days at the Young Vic. Together they established the theatre’s Directors Program, its Genesis Fellowship and the Genesis Future Directors Award, all with the aim of enabling the Young Vic to champion the training of emerging theatre directors. The Genesis Network, which now connects over 2,000 theatre-makers countrywide, became the first organisation to bring artists together on this scale for training, professional exchange and mutual support.
2022/23 Genesis Jewish Book Week Emerging Writers selected
After a successful inaugural programme in 2021/22, Jewish Book Week selected 10 writers for to form its 2022/23 cohort.
The emerging writers receive mentorship from established authors, bursaries of up to £1,500, peer support and specialist seminars.
In the category of non-fiction Caroline Gardiner, Tilly Rubens and Aaron Taylor the mentors will be Bidisha, Anne Sebbaand Dominic Selwood respectively; in poetry Oakley Flanagan, Rachel Lewis, Amelia Loulli and Natalie Perman will be mentored by Wayne Holloway-Smith, Ruth Padel, Clare Pollard and Jack Underwood; and for fiction Amy Abrahams, Helen Bain and Leeor Ohayon will work with Charlotte Mendelson, Ashley Hickson-Lovence and Philip Hensher.
The Genesis Foundation and The Sixteen celebrate 250 Genesis Sixteen singers
“Since its inception in 2011, over 250 singers have now come through this ground-breaking programme. Our initial goal was to identify and nurture young artists with potential and provide them with world-class mentoring. To say the programme has surpassed our expectations is an understatement. Seeing the heights these singers and conductors reach as they come out of Genesis Sixteen is a testament to , their talent and passion and to the quality of the mentorship provided by Harry Christophers. We are so proud to have created and enabled this programme for as long as we have.”
John Studzinski
Founder & Chairman, Genesis Foundation
In August, The Sixteen announced the 22 singers joining Genesis Sixteen’s 12th cohort. Genesis Sixteen is the UK’s first ever fully funded programme of its kind. The Sixteen’s free young artists’ scheme for 18-23-year-olds aims to nurture the next generation of talented ensemble singers. Participants, of which there are now more than 250, have gone on to perform, record and tour with professional groups, including The Sixteen.
Applications are currently open for our next Genesis Sixteen cohort. Deadline: 3 February 2023
A Tribute to the Life and Reign of Elizabeth II: A Garland for the Queen
In October, the Genesis Foundation presented ‘A Tribute to the Life and Reign of Elizabeth II: A Garland for the Queen’ at the Chapel Royal of Saint Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London. This hour-long choral concert by The Sixteen, conceived and conducted by the group’s founder Harry Christophers, was live-streamed globally on Classic FM’s Facebook page and received 20,000 views in less than 24hrs.
The programme of ‘choral crown jewels’ was built around music, both sacred and secular, from collections assembled for Elizabeth II and for her Tudor predecessor, Elizabeth I: Cantiones Sacrae (1575); The Triumphs of Oriana (1601); A Garland for the Queen (1953), and Choirbook for the Queen (2012). It included a new jewel – a work specially commissioned by the Genesis Foundation from Cecilia McDowall, one of today’s leading composers of choral music.
Cecilia McDowall’s ‘O Lord, Make Thy Servant, Elizabeth’ was the 30th new choral work that the Genesis Foundation had commissioned. The Foundation is now established as the largest commissioner of choral music in the UK.
Launch of Genesis Conversations
In September, the Genesis Foundation announced its new series of conversations, in partnership with the Barbican, Bristol Old Vic and the Greater London Authority.
Genesis Conversations gathers cultural leaders around a key issue of the cultural world today and match established well-known figures with emerging talent and mid-career artists.
The series began on 21 September at the Barbican Centre with a debate on NETWORKS. Chaired by Will Gompertz (Artistic Director of the Barbican), in conversation with Sue Emmas (Associate Artistic Director Young Vic, and Creators Programme lead); Jack Gamble (Theatre Director and Founder of the Public Campaign for the Arts); Pip Jamieson (Founder & CEO of The Dots); Jamie Njoku Goodwin (CEO of UK Music); Shanice Mears (Co-founder and Head of Talent, Elephant Room) and Audrey Solvar (Founder of Black Creators Matter).
On 15 November, Genesis Conversations came to Bristol for a panel discussion on ARTS IN A TIME OF CRISIS in the Bristol Old Vic‘s Courtyard. Chaired by Tom Morris (Former Artistic Director, Bristol Old Vic), in conversation with Angie Bual (Creative Director and Joint CEO of Trigger), Shami Chakrabarti (human rights lawyer and Chair of The Gate theatre) and Vanessa Kisuule (writer and performer).
New Genesis Theatre Design Programme
“I would not have been able to do the work I do without a similar intervention early in my career. It’s exactly what a National Theatre should be backing. I am proud to be part of it.”
Clint Dyer
Deputy Artistic Director, National Theatre
In early December, the Genesis Foundation announced the launch of a free training and mentoring programme for global majority applicants who are from socially and economically challenging backgrounds who want to pursue a career in theatre as a designer.
The Genesis Theatre Design Programme is a free two-year part-time course which will train and support six designers with the aim of improving global majority representation among theatre designers in the industry, expanding the pipeline of talent, and opening more career opportunities. It is a partnership between the Mulberry UTC Creative Industry Training College, the National Theatre, The School of Historical Dress and Brixton House and funded by the Genesis Foundation, National Theatre Foundation, with additional support from the James Family Charitable Trust.
The programme will include tutorials with world-class designers and directors, lectures and research projects with staging and costume experts, design projects with global majority directors and artists, practical training with production and technical staff, placements as assistants to designers, and experience in theatres. Participants will also network with and receive mentoring from leading industry professionals.
The Genesis Theatre Design Programme will be led and delivered by three theatre artists in collaboration with Clint Dyer, Deputy Artistic Director of the National Theatre (Get Up, Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical, Death of England, Othello).
The course leaders are:
- Gbolahan Obisesan, award-winning British Nigerian writer and director and Artistic Director of Brixton House.
- Sadeysa Greenaway-Bailey, Black British Theatre Award-winning designer who has recently worked on Death of England at the NT, Anansi the Spider at the Unicorn
- ULTZ, Olivier Award-winning, Tony Award-nominated designer who has recently worked on Death of England and The Corn is Green at the NT and Jerusalem in the West End.
