Follow Pauline Lynch, Artistic Director of Braw Clan, as she prepares for Secret Wrapped In Lead.

Wednesday 21st June

Life has been moving fast and suddenly we are only a few days before beginning rehearsals. In the previous fortnight my time has been taken up by production zooms, prop and set decisions, finance meetings, funders’ information talks, contracts, mileage sheets, evaluations on previous projects, guest lists …

You may begin to notice that there’s very little in that list that’s directly connected to artist’s work.

With that in mind, I’ve told Clare and Martin that I’m slipping off comms this week in order to spend some serious one-on-one time with the script ahead of rehearsals.

Easier said than done.

Yesterday, Martin, myself, and our board member, Guy Hollands, had a meeting to run through the budget, and then I went into Glasgow to meet Louise from the Playwrights Studio to firm up details of a panel event she has very kindly agreed to host with us.

Tomorrow, there’s a funding zoom with Creative Scotland, and Friday I meet with Clare, Martin, and Liz Steele, our caterer for Soup And A Story to discuss next steps on that project.

So it turns out I have just one completely free day, and I’m feeling reflective. As Braw Clan sets full sail into industry waters, I want our presence to be a positive one not only for our community and audiences, but for the people who make our industry happen. Let’s make spaces where we can have honest conversations about the challenges we all face.

Setting up Braw Clan has been no picnic.

It’s two years since I first met Martin and here I am – busy, bedraggled, bewildered. It’s hard moving from being essentially a solo practitioner into being a key component of a small, tightly-knit team. Having the right people around you is the most important thing. Trust is crucial, as is assuming the best of your workmates. These are just some of the lessons I have learned throughout the process of building Braw Clan.

The arts are full of some of the best people on the planet: open, vulnerable, honest, tough. But the business can be so bruising, it’s no surprise that some of us might develop a kind of armour that runs contrary to the best elements of artistry. Whether consciously or not, we might try to protect ourselves by becoming less honest, less open, less vulnerable. And yet, we all know it’s a hard game full of rejection and criticism and perpetual funding cuts. We are all looking down the barrel of a gun and yet here we are, still standing, still fighting, still creating.

Surely, we can give ourselves a pat on the back for that?

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