Lucy Sheen was selected to join the Freelance Task Force. She was tasked with reaching out to the freelancers in our British East and South East Asian community and reporting the information she gathers to the task force.

As part of our commitment to signing the Open Letter to Theatre and Performance Makers in support of freelancers, we paid for Lucy to attend the task force, influence the wider conversation and ensure the particular concerns of BESEA artists were heard.

This group of freelancers will form a working group to strengthen the influence of the self-employed theatre and performance community. It will create ongoing points of connection between freelancers and organisations, and amplify the voice of the self-employed in conversations to come.

"The strength of any civilised society is reflected in the strength of its culture and performing arts. Freelancers are a vital and essential part of this sector, of this country. It is important that moving forwards out of the pandemic, the arts, theatre, are not left behind, but are given the support that other sectors have received so that we too can do our part in helping to create jobs, work, and great theatre for all to enjoy." -Lucy Sheen

We promoted our Freelance Task Force callout as soon as the Open Letter was published, knowing that we would be working at speed to get the group together. The timeline in which we were working allowed for an open callout and an interview stage, and whilst the schedule for the Task Force as a whole was extended, the applications we were receiving were not suitable for any other decision making process without asking for more work from those applying. We received a range of excellent applications and were able to have bigger discussions during the interview process. We interviewed 8 applicants. It was Lucy’s experience in advocacy and her perspectives surrounding the BESEA freelance experience that led us to putting her forward for the Task Force.

Lucy quickly got to work conducting a survey of freelance British East and South East Asians. Here is a snapshot of what she found, based on 175 participants: