Changing the narrative: Josette Bushell-Mingo

The job of running one of the country's biggest and best drama schools – the world-famous Royal Central School of Speech & Drama – is fraught with challenges. So why on earth would Josette Bushell-Mingo, one of our most versatile and charismatic actors and directors, want to take it on?

She explains: ‘my mission is to defend the arts, and Central is a dynamic, complex, provocative and challenging environment from which to do so.’

A challenging time

It is a time when the provision of university arts courses is diminishing in the UK, and the performing arts sector is already at a low ebb in the wake of covid. Yet Josette, who took up the position earlier this year, takes a more holistic approach, bringing arts education providers in all parts of the UK together to look at the problems and to try to come up with solutions.

‘As an artist I understand the difference between higher education and directing but leadership is not dissimilar. I have been in other leadership positions, and I might be the right person to be here at this time,’ she says. ‘I'm really encouraged about what can be achieved.’

Bushell-Mingo is also happy to be back in London, where she grew up, having spent the past 20 years in Stockholm, acting, directing and teaching, as well as bringing up a family. ‘It is deeply moving to be back home, to see my old friends and rediscover the theatre scene in London. I'm back in one of the great cities of the world.’

Previous experience

While her early career was taken up with physical theatre, exploring the teachings of Le Coq and Grotowski, Bushell-Mingo was always keen to diversify as much as possible. She directed two shows during her formative years with Kaboodle, and moved on to do memorable work with Complicite, Contact, Talawa, The People Show, a succession of roles with the Royal Shakepeare Company, and the role of Cassandra in a landmark production of The Women of Troy at the National Theatre in 1995.

She was also an outstanding Cleopatra in Braham Murray's production of Anthony and Cleopatra at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre in 2005.

Perhaps her most talked-about role was that of Rafiki, the wise old baboon, in Disney's The Lion King, a performance for which she was nominated for an Olivier award in 1999. She recalls, ‘I had the best time on that show. Nobody expected me to do anything as commercial as The Lion King but (director) Julie Taymor's approach to directing and performance wasn't that far removed from my own. It just happened to be more mainstream, with a big West End budget.’

Work within the sector

It also prompted Bushell-Mingo to establish Push, a festival-come-pressure group aimed at young black artists. ‘While I was doing The Lion King I saw there were so many brilliantly gifted black artists out there who weren't being given the time of day by our mainstream institutions. But Push wasn't primarily about colour, it was about everyone having a chance to express themselves equally.’

While living in Stockholm, Bushell-Mingo ran The Silent Theatre, serving deaf actors, and established the National Black Theatre of Sweden, as well as being head of acting at Stockholm's University of the Arts. She also returned to the UK to take on one of her biggest ever acting challenges, playing the American soul singer Nina Simone, one of her long-time heroes, in the solo show, Nina: A Story About Me, at the Unity Theatre, Liverpool, and subsequently on tour. Simone's activism and rage at the injustices heaped upon her race in America helped politicise Josette in her youth and provided her with a role model for life.

‘The arts are for everyone’

Of course, it is early days in her headship, but addressing Central's recent history of institutional racism will obviously be at the top of Bushell-Mingo's agenda. On the subject of diversity in her new role, she says: ‘I'm aware of central's history but the narrative is changing. We are dealing with it together with others in the wider training sector, as well as our colleagues here at Central. It has to be about practical actions, not talking. We must live this, or people will cease to engage with it. As a part of this work, we have aggressive outreach and EDI programmes, including the student voice at their heart. I do student drop-in services. I have my sights on partnerships outside the college, both at home and abroad. The arts are for everyone.’

The other big issue for arts education providers, after three disruptive years of the pandemic, is wellbeing, which she says will also be at the top of her agenda in the coming years. Bushell-Mingo says she is acutely aware that the covid threat has not gone away, and that the care of students and staff will be a top priority.

And what of Josette's work as an actor and director? Will that have to be put on hold for the foreseeable future? She says, ‘just before I came to London, I directed the world premiere of Ben Okri's Songs of Enchantment in Stockholm, and next year I'm going to direct an opera, The Fairy Queen, also in Stockholm. Clearly my focus is on Central but the fact that I'm a practising artist can be useful sometimes. It helps me support and understand the work of others.’

josettebushellmingo.com

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