Diversity, equity, and inclusion are great goals in every industry, but a goal is not the same as a policy, and improvements in workplace DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) will not happen without a plan to put those intentions into practice.
British production designer Tim Routledge talked to Live Design about checking off a bucket list job on the biggest entertainment event of the year, and successfully creating, and enforcing, a diversity policy while he did it.
Known for his work on some of the biggest live entertainment events, including Beyonce’s Formation Tour, the Spice Girls comeback tour, and Stormzy's talked-about headliner performance at Glastonbury 2019, the British designer still had some career goals to check off last year, when it was announced the UK would host Eurovision 2023.
“That was at the top of my bucket list,” he says. “I've been very fortunate in my career to do some pretty amazing things, but this was one that I really wanted to go for. It's now the biggest non-sporting event in the world, with 162 million people watching.” For the record, that’s double the Super Bowl Halftime Show, and attracts audiences from all over the world for three live shows over consecutive nights. To be fair, it wasn’t always this big. “As a young lad who wanted to become a lighting designer, that was the show you’d want to do. Although back then it was much smaller, it had some flashing lights and that was it but in the 2000s it started having huge lighting rigs.” Routledge’s dream of being a lighting designer goes back to his childhood acting career, where he toured in (among other places) the former Soviet Union, but soon realized that being onstage was less satisfying than deciding how that stage should look. A friend of his, Stephen Abiss introduced him to lighting and he fell in love with it, working on school plays and a local Youth Theatre. Over the objections of his high school (he says, “They thought it was folly!”), Routledge studied live entertainment design at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, where he is now a fellow and occasional teacher. It paid off, and after an already enviable career he checked off Eurovision from his bucket list, beginning work on the design last October for the event at Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena.
Co-Hosting The Show
Routledge says that even during the process to choose designers when he was having conversations with the producers [at the BBC], “I put together an idea of what my team would be like and who I wanted. I was very keen to make the team massively inclusive, and since we were hosting the show on Ukraine's behalf, it was important that we integrated Ukrainian professionals into our team. That approach was replicated in the other departments including audio, floor management, and cameras, there were actually a lot of Ukrainian specialist camera people.”
His first choice was Zhenya Kostera, a lighting designer from Kiev, who moved to western Ukraine after the Russian invasion and finally left the country four months into the war. Kostera now works for MA Lighting in Germany but jumped at the chance to work on Eurovision. Routledge says, “I knew that he had done Dancing With The Stars and The Voice in Ukraine, so he was already used to doing large entertainment “shiny floor” shows.”
In addition to hiring Ukrainians, Routledge insisted on having a 50% female lighting crew with as much diversity as possible, sometimes ‘borrowing’ professionals working on other BBC productions. As he says, “Eurovision is a diverse show. If you look at the performers and audience it celebrates everybody and every type of person, it embraces everybody. I just felt I couldn't have an all-white male crew, and actually, you would have to go out of your way to do that because we have some exceptional female professionals in the UK.”
Students
His outreach efforts also benefited local colleges. “I did a couple of days training up near Liverpool and then we picked seven students from two schools, Cheshire College and Paul McCartney’s university, the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts." Five of those students became follow spot operators on Eurovision and two were part of the lighting crew. Routledge adds, “So in addition to spending a whole load of money in Liverpool, we were able to leave something behind in terms of experience.“
Fortunately, Routledge already had a network of people to call on, including Louisa Smurthwaite, who was the lighting director for him on Sam Smith’s 2018 tour. She came on board as follow spot caller and ran that department.
Sustainability
The BBC has an official sustainability policy which includes avoiding flying domestically and taking the train instead, staying at accommodations within walking distance of the venue, not taking taxis, and having meat-free Mondays in the canteen. Even using a green fuel, 100% hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) in the generators and offering green fuel to the vendors at separate fuel stations. It is a good policy, and forces a change in behavior that good intentions alone do not. If the industry is going to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion, it needs to adopt a similar, written, approach.
Mentoring
Another way that Routledge is working to increase diversity is by mentoring. He describes how he and his team helped Rae Atkin, winner of the TPi Breakthrough Talent Award.
Atkin approached him at the Royal Welsh College when he was teaching, and said she wanted to work as a programmer and in concert touring. “Now, many students come to me and say this, and it is not just about wanting to work with pop stars,” he says. So he offered to help if she did three things to show her commitment:
- Go to the MA console training in Hammersmith, London
- Join the Robe Student Network, NRG, of which he is a big supporter.
- Get a work placement at Neg Earth Lighting in London, probably the biggest independent lighting supplier in the UK.
Three weeks later she phoned him and said, “I'm just outside MA Lighting about to do my training. I'll be at the Robe event tonight, and in three weeks’ time, I’m starting my placement. “
Since then, Routledge and his team have introduced her to lots of industry people and got her into every show and event they could, and after experience working on festivals she is out on tour in Europe. He says, “She's now flying! We are happy to actively try to help people where we can if they are genuinely interested in being part this business. The biggest thing for me is enthusiasm, the technical knowledge can follow. You have got to have the right attitude to be part of this because it is a strange vocation.” His advice to people joining the industry is to demonstrate that commitment, adding, “If they are nervous about being a female or member of an underrepresented group in the industry, we can help with that. If they have commitment to doing it we can help get them over many obstacles.“
Part One of a multi-part story; please stay tuned for more...