Acta community theatre’s ‘cycle of engagement’ and foundation worker programme: creating pathways into cultural participation and work

ABSTRACT This article expounds acta’s model of participatory community theatre developed over the years since the organisation was founded in 1985. It examines how acta’s commitment to access and participation has come to be enshrined in the ‘cycle of engagement’ which offers multiple pathways into and through participation in theatre making. Recently, these pathways into experiencing and making theatre have been extended into (paid) training and employment through the launch of the Foundation Worker (FW) programme. The article examines acta’s Foundation Worker programme which offers first jobs with training and mentoring to those new to the community/participtory arts workforce, whether recent arts graduates, community theatre participants or civil society/third sector workers. It is argued that the co-articulation of the cycle of engagement and the Foundation Worker programme reflects acta’s democratic and developmental ethos of theatre making. The aim of this piece is to contextualise acta’s history and development as a community theatre company and to outline the pathways into employment and training that acta’s FW programme offers. The paper is co-authored with acta and FWs (in third-person voice) after a focus group at the acta Centre, Bedminster, in July 2019, with follow up over email.