XTRAX Shorts Mintfest 2012

XTRAX Shorts at
Mintfest 2012
.Supporting Inspirational New Street Arts Projects.
XTRAX SHORTS
Malt Room, Brewery Arts Centre
XTRAX Shorts is a relatively new strand of showcasing which was developed by
XTRAX and premiered at Mintfest 2011. XTRAX Shorts takes the form of a short
!pitching" session, allowing various artists the opportunity to give a short 10 minute
presentation, regarding their new outdoor project, to an audience of promoters and
other street arts professionals.
The XTRAX Shorts programme is designed to bring new work to the attention of
potential bookers and to help support the development of great new outdoor work.
This year fourteen companies have been selected to present at Mintfest, offering a
diverse range of ideas from outdoor artists originating from across Europe.
XTRAX Shorts are proud to present the following companies:
Saturday 1st September
10am - 12pm
Refreshments will be served from 9.30am
Intro / Welcome
Simon Birch Dance Company - Terrarium
Frolicked - The Birds
Emergency Poet - Emergency Poet
Dans La Poche - Suspension
Break
Thor McIntyre - Boiling Point
The Bone Ensemble - The Caravan Show
Barnaby Gibbon - Charlie O!Taney, The Brooklyn Healer
Galizian Urban Project - Galizian Urban Project
End
Sunday 2nd September
10.30am - 12pm
Refreshments will be served from 10am
Intro / Welcome
Joli Vyann - Don!t Drink and Dance
Avanti Display - Hydromania with Les Grooms
Inztant - The Magnificent Magnifier
Break
Bright Shadow - Salon Luminhaire
Mercurial Wrestler - Magna Mysteria
Ramshacklicious - Punch
End
AVANTI DISPLAY - HYDROMANIA WITH LES GROOMS
UK, North West
Large Scale
Bill Palmer
T: +44 (0)1282 778 314
M: +44 (0)7946 601 017
E: avantidisplay@aol.com
W: www.avantidisplay.co.uk
Avanti Display draw on two decades of experience in outdoor theatre. Our work varies in
scale from the intimate to the epic but we always aim to produce work that is engaging and
entertaining. Our trademark has become the use of water, which we use to make both
comedy and spectacle. Currently we are creating a new work for the rural touring network
for winter 2013 and later this year performing shows in London for the cultural Olympiad
and in Yeosu Korea for the Expo.
In 2001, as a result of a chance meeting, we created a version of our show The Spurting
Man with Les Grooms, the Paris street theatre company. This piece used existing
repertoire from the band and integrated their brilliant improvisational style into our show.
Even though there was very little rehearsal for this performance it was voted show of the
week by Time Out. Over the years since then we have kept in touch and collaborated in
various small ways. This year Philippe Violanti has commissioned the companies to re-visit
the idea and to create a finale show for festival Accroche-coeurs in Angers. The
performance will be a development of that earlier start and will feature elements from our
show Hydromania plus new music arranged by the band and around 40 amateur
performers from the city. The performance will be directed by Gilles Rhode of Transe
Express.
BARNABY GIBBONS - CHARLEY O!TANEY, THE BROOKLYN
HEALER
International, France
Small Scale
Barnaby Gibbons
T: +33 (0)6 08 33 92 15
E: barnabygibbons@gmail.com
W: www.danslapoche.com
Barnaby is currently living between England and France and has performed extensively
throughout Europe as well as Vietnam, China and Australia. He started his performing
career in 1991 as an off-the-wall clown in the Working Men's Clubs of the North-East of
England before moving to France to study acrobatics and clowning at Le Lido circus school
Toulouse. Conquering his fear of heights he worked for a high-wire circus, Les
Funambules, in the South West of France. He then joined a Spanish circus and went on to
create the ground-breaking comic duo Mr Green and Mr Orange, taking European streetclowning to new heights of ridicule. In 1998 he started his 14 year relationship with
Toulouse based theatre company Le Phun, where he discovered the delights of 'theatre
d'intimité' and welding. During this time he has continued his solo work and collaborated
with Dot Comedy, BOSI, Red Herring and Compagnie V.O. to name but a few. He now
specializes in comic 'intimate theatre' and developing new areas of public performance.
Phase 1- Individual and group therapy. A five to seven minute solo side show for
audiences of one to four, based in and around a car. To be performed in the street, parks
or green-field festivals. A small group gather around a black Mercedes saloon. The taxi
sign on its roof reads !Healer" and the number plate spells !miracles". Having chosen from a
restaurant-style menu of illnesses the would be 'patients' await their 'Healer'. After a few
minutes the previous 'patients' exit the car followed by the smart and rather menacing
figure of Charlie O'Taney, the Brooklyn Healer. Charlie used to be a hit-man for the
Brooklyn Mafia, but suffered a rather abrupt career change having been given the !healing
gift" by a dying China-man and is now condemned to travel the world, selling his remedies
and performing miracles.The next patients are ushered into the Mercedes, the parcel shelf
packed with attache-cases full of remedies from around the world. Using pendulum,
healing hands and stories, Charlie removes warts, headaches, period pains, money, luck
and professional problems as well as a plethora of psycho-emotional issues. If it's a back
problem you'll be bent over the bonnet of the car, receiving a shiatsu massage, during
which Charlie recounts his life stories.
This is a medicine show, not a historical re-enactment, but a contemporary take on the
earliest form of street-theatre. Using the subtle art of 'smithing' comedy and poetry, this
show deals with our age-old fears of ill-health, aging and death. It questions our attitudes
towards medicine, both alternative and orthodox, confronting it's audience with it's fears.
Would you get into a car with this man? Will this kill me or cure me? This show offers a
new arena for theatrical engagement, in the intimacy of one of street's most common
features, the motor car.
BRIGHT SHADOW - SALON LUMINHAIRE
UK, South East
Small Scale
Katy Hirst
M: +44 (0)7823 697 697
E: katy@brightshadow.org.uk
W: www.brightshadow.org.uk
Bright Shadow is a performance company whose mission is to strengthen, value and
celebrate the lives, stories and character of communities and individuals. We do this
through producing interactive and participatory performances and running community
based projects, specialising in working with people with dementia. Performance doesn"t
just belong in theatres, it belongs on sea fronts, in hair salons, fields and high streets and
Bright Shadow have the itch to take high quality, surprising and celebratory performance
into the world and back to the communities that inspired it. Salon Luminhaire, an
installation celebrating kindness is our current production for outdoor festivals.
Salon Luminhaire is an outdoor installation that spotlights and celebrates kindness. The
circular installation is 7m in diameter, 2.5m high and enclosed in a wall of black hair,
decorated with bows. Upon their approach, audiences are introduced to the installation by
a character called Mary Mumps, who insists that human beings have been sucked into the
belief that kindness is a thing of the past and that selfishness, greed and hostility now reign
supreme. She has therefore created Salon Luminhaire, a Kindness Treatment Centre
designed to crush peoples negative side and reinvigorate the kindness within. Inside,
audiences find a space inspired by a salon aesthetic and littered with stories to beautify the
mind. There are trees made of rollers, stuffed with stories of kindness, whilst giant rollers,
hair clips and vintage beauty posters also boast stories and musings about kindness, all
gathered from the community. Audiences are directed to 6 treatment spaces: to debrainwash, detox, focus, express, practise and implement kindness. These spaces are
facilitated by !kindness practitioners" who surprise and entertain.
This show is the outcome of a three-week research and development project
commissioned by Winchester Hat Fair and funded by Arts Council England. We have
performed it at Winchester Hat Fair and Hat Fair Out There Rural Tour. The piece was
directed by Matt Feerick of Wet Picnic, with set design by Kate Unwin. As it currently
stands, the show is ready to tour to festivals and so we are promoting it for next season.
However, we would like to develop the installation further for next season, making the set
bigger and more manageable for touring as well as incorporating more performers, giving
the audiences more opportunities for interactions. We are therefore looking for
commissioning partners to support us in doing this.
DANS LA POCHE - SUSPENSION
UK, South West
Medium Scale
Rosa Parkin
M: +44 (0)7960 414 808
E: rosa@danslapoche.com
W: www.danslapoche.com
I am interested in re-visiting old magic traditions to see them reinvented in a new context. I
often play with the role of gender within what has been traditionally a male dominated artform, and explore a new language of performance with the magical manipulation of objects
as a metaphor for larger questions.
A childhood memory: Outside The Roundhouse 1979, Cirque Imaginaire are performing
and I am sat cross-legged on the floor. Three metres away Charlie Chaplin"s grand
daughter is lying down, held between two chairs. A wooden chair is removed from her feet
yet, incredibly, her body remains suspended in the air. Everything seems to slow down and
then stop. Time is suspended, along with her body, logic, reason and my disbelief.
This memory has stayed with me for all of these years. It has that hazy magical dream-like
quality that childhood recollections possess. Levitations, suspensions of gravity, legends
such as the Indian Rope Trick - where do the origins of these mysteries or myths stem
from? The effect: The magician hurls a rope into the air, the rope stands erect and a boy
assistant climbs the rope and then descends. How authentic is my childhood levitation
memory? What does it really take to suspend gravity outside, and our disbelief?
As a student at CNAC I have access to an extensive knowledge resource and professional
advice on this particular speciality. I plan to research long lost traditional street magic of
India, of the Madari caste, alongside modern methods of levitation to create a promenade
mid scale perfomance, where the audience happen upon different kinds of street levitations
and various forms of suspensions. Through this piece I seek to explore the suspension of
gravity, logic, reality and disbelief, with a view to re-inventing these ancient street arts and
presenting them in a contemporary context in a Hitchcockian style - the master of
suspense. Alongside the future completed project we will run an education strand, with
workshops teaching magic to disadvantaged children.
Creative Team:
Rosa Parkin - Artistic Director ,Performer & Magician
Benoit Dattez - Magical direction
Ben Edeny - Magician & Performer
EMERGENCY POET - EMERGENCY POET
UK, West Midlands
Small Scale
Deborah Alma
T: +44 (0)1584 879 151
M:+44 (0)7720 328 741
E: kittythefish2@aol.com
Emergency Poet is the world's first and only mobile poetic first aid service. The 1960s
ambulance is equipped with the latest diagnostic techniques and first rate practitioners.
You will be admitted to a private poetic health consultation and within 10 minutes you'll be
prescribed an appropriate poem, verse or lyric or be given a poem-in-a-pill. No experience
of poetry necessary, indeed the service was first established in order to overcome allergies
or phobias. The ambulance can tour to arts, literary, music and other festivals.
Emergency Poet is a cross between a piece of interactive theatre, bibliotherapy and
creative writing and can be flexible in its approach for diifferent venues or occasions. The
'set' is the 1960's ambulance with Emergency Poet on a logo on the side, a siren and a
blue flashing light. Emergency Poet and Nurse Verse will either dispense Poemcetamols
(fortune cookie-like poems in a pill), or give a full consultation in the back of the ambulance
on a stretcher.
I have developed a questionnaire that aims to establish which poem an individual is likely
to respond to within a 10 minute consultation. The client will then be prescribed an
appropriate poem. There is a separate questionnaire for children, which is explicitly more
fun in its approach. I will also have other activities around the ambulance; positive
magnetic poetry words, tonic poems, body parts etc for both children and adults. the
ambulance has a side awning where poetry workshops can also take place.
The creative team is small, myself and another artist as Nurse Verse and Antonia Beck as
producer. I was asked to attend the Southbank's Poetry Parnassus as part of the cultural
Olympiad, (amongst other things) and the event was hugely successful there and I am
currently at the end of a GFA bid in order to develop the idea (marketing etc) further. I have
future bookings including Birmingham Book Festival for National Poetry Day in the city
centre and an event for Shropshire schools for teacher CPD day.
FROLICKED - THE BIRDS
UK, Yorkshire
Small Scale
Beka Haigh
M: +44 (0)7947 578 181
E: admin@frolicked.co.uk
W: www.frolicked.co.uk
Frolicked is an outdoor, puppet-filled theatre company. We produce magical, intimate,
family-orientated experiences with beautifully illustrated, self-designed and made puppet
creatures and characters. We perform both walkabout and static shows and have created
puppet interventions for a variety of locations across the UK. In 2010, we produced a
darkly different nature trail in woodlands across the North of England for Lakes Alive
(supported by Arts Council England). In 2011, we were one of ten companies chosen to
develop a new show for !Gone in 20 Minutes" and this year, we devised a feather-filled
pervasive gaming experience for Manchester Histories Festival.
After a set of exotic birds escaped from their aviaries at the local nature reserve, one shy
and very rare species miraculously made a home in the local buildings and trees, where
they continue to survive today. In order to ensure their protection however, resident
ornithologist, Rosemary Dudcott, needs your help to find undeniable proof that these
elusive birds still exist...The Birds is an interactive game that can be played in a variety of
spaces and settings. Based on the ideas and structure behind a classic treasure hunt,
small groups of audience members must work together to decipher and follow clues within
scattered diary entry notes, in order to collect relevant items which, when combined to
create an ideal habitat, will attract the male of a rare species of exotic bird, in puppet form.
The game is a very different approach to performance and storytelling using a mix of
pervasive gaming techniques and interactive puppetry. Pervasive Gaming is a cross over
between theatre and game design, utilising real people as playing pieces and real
environments as the game-playing arena. It is a unique method for devisers to develop
narrative for performance and a fantastic way to encourage audiences to explore familiar
surroundings in new ways, to be on their feet and active within a given space, and to be
fully immersed in any presented narrative.
On 3rd March 2012, Frolicked presented a work in progress performance of The Birds as
part of Manchester Histories Festival at the Town Hall, with support from the Library
Theatre company and Larkin" About.
GALIZIAN URBAN PROJECT - GALIZIAN URBAN PROJECT
International, Spain
Small Scale
Pilar Gutierrez
T: +34 (0)93 473 8669
M:+34 (0)62 564 9263
E: pilar@freeart.es
W: www.freeart.es
Galizian Urban Project is a group of young and talented people who have developed
developed a work which is personal to them, using their well-practised parkour abilities
together with the use of acrobatics. This powerful, emerging company, born in 2006, have
created a way of showing their work to an audience in a tightly packed 25 minutes
performance. The free-runners move freely, negotiating obstacles of the city’s structure.
Galizian Urban Project was founded five years ago in the city of Vigo, starting with 4
members and adding up to a total of 9 members today. They have performed in a great
number of exhibitions both national and international. Some members have been selected
for the Red Bull Art of Motion in Brazil and Greece; the most important international event
in the discipline.
Galizian Urban Project members are: Sergio ‘Steel’ Cora Campos, Pedro León ‘Phosky’,
Pablo ‘Brian’ López Soutullo, Guillermo Lago Costas ‘Shobu’, Alejandro Surís Costas,
Manu Umbría, Simón Gil, Rubén Alonso and Santiago Iglesias.
The Magnificent Magnifier
INZTANT - THE MAGNIFICENT MAGNIFIER
UK, Yorkshire
Small Scale
Steve Gumbley
T: +44 (0)1422 845 162
M:+44 (0)7980 352 366
E: steven.gumbley@gmail.com
W: www.andyplant.co.uk | www.bt-things.com
INZTANT is a company which produces visual arts and events, including theatre,
processional images and exhibitions. The three founder members, Steve Gumbley, Andy
Plant and Bryan Tweddle have worked with many other theatre and arts companies,
making sets, specialised vehicles, exhibits and perfomances for a wide variety of
presentations, both indoors and outdoors. As individual artists they have been
commissioned to make permanent public art, sculpture and automata.
The Magnificent Magnifier is a huge microscope; convincing, impressive and practical.
Three or four operators control the giant apparatus which can move, swivel and focus on
specimens; enlarging the small moments of life which it finds. Watch out! - they will be
looking for members of the public who are willing to be strapped onto the microscope slide
and reveal their tiniest details! It could be zooming in on the hand of a woman‚ or revealing
new life-forms on a schoolboy's shoelace. Perhaps there is an enormous complex world in
that sweet wrapper found on the floor? The Magnifier will find it!
Using images from a real digital microscope, mixed with pre-made animated film
sequences, the audience is given a big look at life's small wonders. Images are displayed
on large circular digital screens which can revolve and are visible even in the
daytime.There could be a night version with images projected onto screens or walls.The
presentation will be an interesting mix of art, science and technology. The microscope will
have a strong sculptural presence in different situations: e.g. a park or a city The event
will be suitable for all ages
JOLI VYANN - DON!T DRINK AND DANCE
UK, East Midlands
Small - Medium Scale
Olivia Quayle
T: +44 (0)7921 061 984
E: janandolivia@gmail.com
W: !""#$%&&'()*+,-+)&./01)&23453567
Joli Vyann are a newly formed company consisting of Olivia Quayle and Jan Patzke. We
met whilst Olivia was working with Motionhouse and Jan was working with Circulation
Locale. We created Joli Vyann because we were both interested in fusing dance, theatre
and circus. We aim to pull the audience into a theatrical experience, blurring the
boundaries of where the dance ends and the circus skills begin. Through the creation of
cute and quirky relationships Joli Vyann like to embrace an element of surprise in the
performance of their exciting tricks. Fluidity in the structure is of great importance whilst
charming characters entice interest and imagination. The acrobatic tricks enhance this
storyline creating a playful yet impressive cocktail of technical skills and story telling.
The show is currently just over ten minutes, fusing hand to hand acrobatics, dance, contact
and theatre. This will soon be developed into something longer. It involves two characters,
a chair and a wine glass. We do not have a set but we set the scene as if taking place in a
bar. There is a story, although not necessarily a narrative. Through theatre, dance and
acrobatics we create a charming chemistry between the two characters which develops
and then ends with an unexpected twist! We also use a small amount of audience
interaction.
This show is very new and is still in a work in progress phase. However, we have just been
given funding by the GI20 project and will be performing at Watch This Space and Stockton
International Festival. This will be the first time that this piece will be performed in its new
version. We started working on this piece over 6 months ago but had no time or funding to
finish it until we were given the GI20 award. Joli Vyann consists only of the two of us and
we do everything independently, from choreographing, training, and choosing music, to
administration, marketing and finance. The Gi20 have given us support in all these areas
and we are keen to continue to find such support. Individually we have both worked in
many outdoor festivals and love the vibrancy and intimacy of such environments. Olivia
has worked at Mintfest with Motionhouse twice and thoroughly enjoyed it. We have both
decided it is time to leave our companies and start our own work and have been lucky to
be inspired by these companies who have huge experience in this field. As a company we
think it is important to be flexible with our approach to making work so that we can tailor
shows to specific criteria if required. We currently also have a 5 minute show suitable for
corporate shows and a longer more theatrical piece. We took the latter as a base to create
a performance in the Opera, 'The Fairy Queen'. We have performed internationally
including the UK, India, Slovenia and Luxembourg.
MERCURIAL WRESTLER - MAGNA MYSTERIA
UK, South West
Medium Scale
Kate Hazel
M: +44 (0)7595 388 165
E: katehazel@alchemyproductions.co.uk
W: www.mercurialwrestler.com
Mercurial Wrestler is a performance collaboration between Becca Gill & Jay Kerry, formed
at the beginning of 2010. Since its inception, Mercurial Wrestler has forged forward as one
of the few theatre collaborations in the country which has cutting edge pervasive media
practice at the core of its work. Mercurial Wrestler are resident artists at Pervasive Media
Studio, Watershed in Bristol. They joined the studio as artists commissioned through the
Arts Council Digital Futures fund to research the use of pervasive media technologies in
recreating magical illusions from the 1860s – 1920s to develop accessible new audience
operated interventions. Their desire to make participatory, personalised, magical
experiences which are truly accessible led them to researching people"s perception of
what is magic in their lives.
Mercurial Wrestler were funded by Arts Council England and commissioned by Bristol City
Council Neighbourhood Arts, Bristol Ferment, Mayfest and supported by Pervasive Media
Studio and Theatre Bristol to create a piece which utilised Pervasive Media in telling the
story of the Magician coming to town. Magna Mysteria, a multi-platform performance
piece, premiered at Mayfest 2012.
The piece plays on the desire to be mistaken about how the world works and recheck our
standards of reality. Magna Mysteria allows its audiences to suspend their disbelief and
delight in the wonder of being an integral part of an elaborate illusion. The piece is unique
in a number of ways; firstly the experience does not take place once and disappear. It
forms part of people's lives over an extended period of time altering their perception of the
world around them for moments, days, weeks maybe even years to come. It allows
people to live within a manufactured fiction as it blurs with everyday reality. Secondly,
Mercurial Wrestler's unique form of immersive audience-led performance is inspired by the
pervasive nature of the media around us and the ability to make the impossible, possible.
Magna Mysteria is the product of research carried out by Becca Gill and Jay Kerry at the
Pervasive Media Studio into the use of pervasive media technologies in recreating magical
illusions from the 1860s-1920s. The !Magna" experience begins with an invitation to a
magic show and then unravels around you. Stories emerge from nowhere, characters tell
conflicting tales, and the audience choose who – or what – to believe. It is not a game,
there is no right or wrong, but there are many paths, and not everyone will experience
Magna Mysteria in the same way. The world of Magna Mysteria is one where Victorianstyle magic mixes with digital technology. Psychics send text messages and immortals
tweet. And a mysterious carnival caravan stands waiting for the audience, beckoning them
to begin their search for The Magician.
"Mercurial Wrestler's Magna Mysteria, a show that turns its audience into
magicians.” Lyn Gardner, The Guardian
RAMSHACKLICIOUS - PUNCH (WORKING TITLE)
UK, South West
Medium Scale
Kate Hazel
M: +44 (0)7595 388 165
E: katehazel@alchemyproductions.co.uk
W: www.ramshacklicious.com
Ramshacklicious Theatre Company is the playground of siblings, Holly and Jack Stoddart.
They have toured street theatre festivals around the UK, Ireland and Europe since 2006
with their anarchic blend of character comedy, storytelling, live music and puppetry.
Holly and Jack collaborate with other truly amazing artists from many different disciplines:
from performers to directors to designers to musicians. The Ramshacklicious devising
process is exploratory and playful and always produces high quality, accessible yet
subversive physical, musical comedy theatre for non-theatre spaces.
Ramshacklicious fuses together live music, contemporary clowning, physical theatre,
puppetry, storytelling and improvisation to take unsuspecting audiences on a journey into
the unexpected. They have successfully made and toured three street theatre shows
under the name of Ramshacklicious: The Road to Nowhere, The Small Time and FinkSoup
all of which have been supported by ACE and a variety of co-commissioning festivals.
Punch is the story of an old Punch and Judy Professor. Circumstances beyond his
control have forced him to leave behind his cosy old puppet booth and his much
loved hand-carved puppets, to lead a new life; a life of grind and grime, grease
and meat; the life of a mobile burger van man. He lives with his dysfunctional family in a
make-shift, haphazard, over-spilling shack constructed on top of the burger van. Their
complicated mesh of codependency, lies and deceit is all that holds them together. Apart
from the grease.
This show follows the trials and tribulations of a family intent on survival in harsh times; a
real life, modern-day soap opera, built and played out during the running time of the
festivals they have so crudely imposed themselves on. Punch aims to be a two-part event,
starting with an initial installation as the family arrive and begin to build their home on top
of the burger van. Part two will be a scheduled evening show with live amplified music,
where the audience will see the set become a living organism, flaming and smoking and
falling to pieces as The Professor"s reality crumbles away. This is an innovative and
ambitious approach, but one that allows the show to become an integral part of each event
it visits.
The creative team includes: Jack Stoddart, Holly Stoddart, Gwendolyn Scott, Will Datson,
Adam Fuller, Tomasin Cuthbert, Dik Downey (Pickled Image) & Kate Hazel (Alchemy
Productions).
Ramshacklicious have recently undertaken a comprehensive R & D phase for Punch with
support from Without Walls, ZEPA and Theatre Bristol. This process has allowed the
company to fully investigate both the theatrical and design needs for producing this midscale show in 2013. Ramshacklicious are now looking for commissioning and presenting
partners to realise the full show.
SIMON BIRCH DANCE COMPANY - TERRARIUM
UK, Yorkshire
Small Scale
Sarah Shead
M: +44 (0)7849 670 200
E: sarah@spin-arts.com
W: www.yorkshiredance.com/terrarium
Simon Birch Dance Company is led by award winning choreographer Simon Birch. The
essence of the company lies in high quality dance performances that feed the imagination
and transport audiences through a lyrical dynamism. They present their work in unusual
and inspiring locations, immersing the audience in poetic imagery and sound to deliver a
distinctive, unique and engaging experience. The company"s current work, Terrarium –
dance in a bubble, is performed inside a 4.5m diameter bubble, like a giant snow globe.
Created in collaboration with designers and composers it delivers an eye-catching,
beautiful dance that thrills and emotionally moves the audiences.
Terrarium - Dance in a Bubble. This dance duet is choreographed by Simon Birch and
performed inside a 4.5 metre diameter globe by leading contemporary dance artists. The
music is composed by York based composer Jon Hughes, the costumes are designed by
award-winning designer Becs Andrews and the project is produced and managed by Spin
Arts Management. It is through movement, music and costume that a very special
environment is created and encapsulated within and surrounding the bubble. Terrarium is a
highly original dance work inspired by the landscape of the North Yorkshire Moors and is a
response to the artists" visits to a variety of stunning locations within this area of
outstanding natural beauty. It is as though Birch and his creative team have distilled the
beauty and wildness of the moors and coast - the rawness of winter, the regeneration of
spring, vibrancy of summer and the richness of autumn.
To date the company has produced different length versions of the work to suit different
performance opportunities.
1) The full-length version (1 hour in length) invites audiences to sit around the globe and
observe the dance inside whilst being surrounded by a ring of ambisonic surround sound
speakers giving the music an almost 3D quality and immersing them in the sound.
2) Ten minute and twenty minute version- where highlights of the work are presented and
the music is played in stereo providing a glimpse into the full length work or capturing the
audiences imagination through an excerpt of fantastical dance.
These two versions give the company the adaptability to reach small, middle and in some
cases large-scale festivals/venues/locations.
Through Arts Council funding we now own the giant bubble and the ambisonic
sound system. This enables us to be responsive to opportunities, self-sustainable
and easily tour ready.
THE BONE ENSEMBLE - THE CARAVAN SHOW!
UK, West Midlands
Small Scale
Adam Ledger & Jill Dowse
T: +44 (0)121 443 1146
M:+44 (0)7852 569 385
E: theboneensemble@yahoo.co.uk
W: www.theboneensemble.co.uk
The Caravan Show! is a small scale, participatory, intimate (and portable!) performance for
family audiences of five people at a time, suitable for children 5-11 as well as their
accompanying adults. The Bone Ensemble was founded in 2002 by Jill Dowse and Adam
Ledger, to create original theatre-based work, bringing together exciting artists in order to
challenge and expand individual and ensemble practice. Working on a project-by-project
basis (previous productions include Again (2006) and The Car Park Show (2008)) we are
now excited to make work in outdoor contexts. The Caravan Show! is supported by ACE,
mac birmingham and Birmingham Hippodrome.
Join Jill in her real-life caravan for an enchanting experience just for you, where the loos
are chemical and make everything turn blue. You become part of the show too, as we go
on a caravan adventure together, finding secrets in cupboards, try out the fold down beds,
and discover what lies behind the fridge door…
The Caravan Show! is funded by ACE, mac birmingham, Birmingham Hippodrome and the
University of Birmingham. It is performed by Jill Dowse, directed by Adam Ledger and
designed by Kate Wragg. The impetus for The Caravan Show! has grown out of Jill and
Adam"s long-term interests and experience in devised work, site-specific performance and
theatre for young audiences. Jill has worked extensively with Foursight Theatre, as well as
TIE and children"s theatre projects with Theatre Alibi. She is also working on intimate
performance for adults, and (as a member of the Small Encounters collective) has just coproduced and taken part in an extended workshop mentored by Adrian Howells. Adam has
directed in a variety of settings internationally, including site-based work in Austria and
Denmark, and extensively with young people. Kate is an award-winning early career
designer and has worked in a range of contexts,
Pilot performances have been held at mac birmingham and as part of Birmingham
Hippodrome"s Six Summer Saturday"s outdoor performance festival. The Caravan Show! is
available for touring in 2013. Alongside the main show, we plan additional installation
elements in the caravan"s awning and a shorter self-guided tour of the caravan, extending
public engagement and footfall.
THOR MCINTYRE OF ASWARM - BOILING POINT
UK, South East
Small Scale
Thor McIntyre-Burnie
M: +44 (0)7830 126 329
E: thor@aswarm.com
W: www.aswarm.com
My passion is in creating scenarios and interfaces to walk within and explore. Sounds
interplay with its context is key. I have worked as both an Artist and Sound Designer (SD);
creating and producing installations in public spaces, largely in site-responsive and nongallery based contexts, since 1997. I have also worked as a SD on a broad range of
productions, again largely in site-responsive and often outdoor contexts since 2001 (incl.
long-term collaborator with The World Famous, choreographery and site-specific theatre
with e.g. Charley Morrissey, Hyrodocracker, NYT, Ragroof. Aswarm is an arts organisation,
drawing on a small team of creatives to create installations for public space.
Boiling Point (BP) provides a transformation of our public space lead from an art installation
and sound perspective rather than from physical performance. The work gives a human
voice and a sculptural physicality to the tweeted words of people in extreme and very real
scenarios, for example revolution and resistance. This is done by channelling a network of
people reading a selection of Twitter feeds (both live and pre-recorded) though a
constellation of sculptural speaker forms, one for each voice/tweet stream. These are
suspended in flocks, gathered around real fires (stoves) occupying the streets of our towns
and cities. The installation works by both day & night, and as dusk falls each disembodied
voice appears and disappears into the night, flickering with sound responsive light.
Inspired by the way blind author John Hull describes his awareness of people around him:
“..they only exist as voices”, Boiling Point aims to return these !voices" from the plastic
reality of Twitter, back into real voices in the physical reality of the street, gathered around
real burning fire (with those closest to the fires being the most prolific/!followed"). However,
in this new scenario, these disembodied voices are transposed into a different urban space,
and are mediated through other unrelated people. A new entity; The Reader emerges... The
question of intonation and interpretation becomes acutely apparent. The aim is to offer an
alternate non-screen-based way of interacting with this new form of disparate network
entity, examining where these voices exist and quite how these words are mediated and
appropriated.
The project is in receipt of a Writing Aid grant from IN SITU and was presented at the
European Side By Side Seminar in Gratz (Nov 2011). An initial prototype version of the
project was commissioned by Atelier 231,France, Jan 2012 as their IN-SITU (European
Culture) commission, focussing on Tweets from Tahrir squares Revolution. The project is
currently in a period of R&D funded by a Without Walls R&D grant, to further develop the
concept & research partners including: the capacity to work with live Tweet streams,
tracking a live event/subject, read through a cloud network of !Readers" (explored both via
local communities e.g. of Festival town & international on-line cloud networks);
incorporating a new layer via Audio Description from Broadcast TV and developing a
tourable form for launch in 2013.