Two or three years ago Jane and Katie came calling. They had graduated from Birmingham University, had formed a theatre company called The Other Way Works and were after some advice. Since then, intermittently, we’ve spent an hour or two here and there talking through various challenges they face and choices they must make, it’s been fun.

They have now made a few shows and their star is rising. It looks like they may be getting some money to ‘develop their organisation’ and have kindly offered to start paying Stan’s Cafe for my advice – if it is offered in a more structured way. Yesterday was the first half day of this work. It’s still fun – except now I feel obliged to do a little more legwork and type up notes on our discussions.

The fun in this kind of work comes in visiting other peoples’ worlds, exploring and moulding ideas that you know you will never have to make happen yourself. My brother does a similar thing but is expected to save companies £20M along the way. I just want to help get Jane and Katie a living wage and a few more shows made. They’re good folk and their website is worth a visit.

www.theotherwayworks.co.uk

James