2022, Corona is gone, the world has opened. Everything is possible. Yet. Everything is not enough, now, is it? This post is about MONEY and how to earn it whilst also pursue the artistic journey. A challenge I faced the soon theatre was back in business again. Tough luck.
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It is starting to get light. Looking on either side of the car, I see mostly grass and the colour grey. Grey from the sky and lighter grey from a series of windmills as far as the eye can see. They seem to grow. They must not be getting bigger; they are getting closer. I drive closer. It is still early. A whole park of wind turbines in the middle of:
Flevoland.
A special area in The Netherlands.
Man-made land.
Just the day before, this assignment started in Son, North Brabant. There, a family business in meat became big 50 years ago as a supplier for Holiday Parks. Nowadays, they mainly supply fresh meat to all major supermarkets and have as many as 11 production locations. The Almere location is a child of concern. It is far away. I can attest to that. And they have implemented the central documents badly. The location is running at a financial loss. There are concerns about quality. Help is needed.
How will I find time to work on art?
I wonder.
Weird. I'm supposed to be thinking about my assignment.
I pass the windmills. And follow the sign to ´Almere Buiten´.
Inside the factory, I first walk around and see mostly overdue maintenance. There are leaks, there is rust. And there are very few people present on the shop floor. The central documents? I print them out myself. I read: the factory needs to switch to ‘meat-free’ products, to vegetarian sausages and burgers. After cleaning, this can be done on the same machines, according to the paper.
All we have to do is clean and ´run´ the line.
Or so the head office would have thought…
On the shop floor, I can see that cleaning with the poor state of machinery is not exactly going to produce a fresh condition right away. That thing needs to be in basic condition first. And the people on the line, they are butchers. They are Bulgarian. And they pride themselves on meat and eat sausage on their lunch break. They don't speak Dutch. No wonder the documents never reached the factory floor and rules are not followed. No one understands.
Having to address a Bulgarian with a new recipe, I read at the top of the product's name ‘Silly Willy’.
That must have seemed funny to someone at headquarters…
I take a break.
And my thoughts are again:
How do I get to art? Get to stories?
I want to be a theatre maker. And not a technologist in the shit who is struggling to do her job.
The factory manager explains that things are bad, and with the choice of meat-free there will be a cut in the number of people. They expect half of the operators are made redundant. Then the challenge of producing and then cleaning becomes even greater!
Yes. ..
I might be turning white. That's how it feels. I walk away to the PC and just google something to escape from the reality. The production manager looks doubtful and worried when I turn and look at him.
I dot really know what to say.
I have to process this, how I am a going to proceed? Will I even come back?
After a while, it's time to go.
‘I think I'll stay a bit longer next time,’ I tell the production manager. ‘And I'll come on Friday.’
The production manager is quite surprised; he thought when I was on browsing the Internet I gave up and would not come back.
'For longer? And even on a Friday?
“You are driven to the job!!´
I don't tell him the following.
I have googled and found my way into Almere cultural events. And on Friday there is a special night.
Vegetarian Food.
Followed by an evening of storytelling.