PAST PROJECTS
Stuff I've worked on in the past.
CYC: There is a light
THEATREWORKS: Royal exchange theatre
Spring 2017 - Lead Artist
I'm back at Contact working with their award-winning young company again, this time as lead artist.
I'll be teaching the company phsyical and ensemble devising skills in preparation for their next show 'There is a Light', a piece made in response to the Brightlight study of young people living with cancer.
It's an honour to be back with these incredible young performers alongside Director Adura Onashile, the study's researchers and old friend and ex-CYC alumni Mark Croasdale.
www.contactmcr.com / www.brightlightstudy.com
Spring 2017
This spring I'll be the lead artist on The Royal Exchange's Theatreworks programme.
Theatreworks aims to engage, inspire and raise the aspirations of secondary school pupils through the creative arts. We'll be working with young people from Our Lady's High School in Blackley exploring visions of our future selves.
The 10 day project will culminate in a sharing of work including a film created by the pupils with illustrator Jim Medway and film maker Annie Woodson and the pupils will also be exploring career options within theatre with a full building tour included... oh and they get to work with me, lucky bunch.
Positively speaking
Autumn/Winter 2016 - Consultant
Young people's consultancy project seeking new ways to incorporate technology into learning for a charity supporting people living with HIV in Manchester and the North West.
This project brought together my skills as a theatre-maker and facilitator with young people with my passion and support for one of my favourite charities.
Click for more about George House Trust.
20Stories high: HEADZ
Autum 2016 - Company Stage Manager
I'm back with one of my favourite companies of all time, 20 Stories High assisitng the young performers of HEADZ on a tour of the north west. Originally performed in July 2014, HEADZ is a unique insight into the lives of young people in Liverpool from these masters of storytelling. Click here for more.
#HEADZstories
ACTION HERO ARTIST LAB
August 2016 - Participant
I was made up to receive a bursary to take part in this week-long artist lab with the amazing Action Hero.
Over the course of a week we explored their detailed and exhasutive approach to devising using Lou Reed's iconic album 'Transformer.'
At the cutting edge of contemporary performance, Action Hero mix theatrics with pop culture and iconography and it was inspiring to learn more about how they create their work.
Read my blog posts from the week HERE.
Contacting the world
July 2016 - Assistant Director
Contacting the World is Contact’s international exchange project for young theatre makers bringing together young people from across geographical, cultural and social divides uniting them through the common aim of creating new artistic work.
In July 2016, 80 young people from Belgium, Demark, China and Portugal took over contact for a week of debate, devising, discussion and dancing! The companies were twinned and challenged to make a new performance piece together in response to the theme: The Imitation Games under the direction of Stacy Makishi, Matt Fenton and Adam McGuigan.
June 2016 - Director
A groundbreaking theatre project exploring the issue of honour based abuse developed and performed by young people in Manchester schools. Commissioned by Greater Manchester Police alongside Contact and Creative Experts.
Watch the trailer on the right and check out some production shots in the GALLERY.
NOT IN my honour
June 2016 - Director/Composer
Written by Noel Greig I originally fell in love with this piece for young actors when I was commissioned to write the music for a revival production at Contact which commemorated Noel's contribution to young people's theatre following his death in 2010.
‘Your parents came from the pampered generation. Cod-liver oil and concentrated orange juice on the State… Well it’s different now, it’s sink or swim now.’
Grace is a bag lady. Scorned by the world around, she defiantly stands out against a society that shuns people who are somehow ‘different’.
A darkly comic circus show, Do We Ever See Grace poses the question: have we simply forgotten how to care? This is no grim piece of social realism but an urgent and unflinching play of anger and ideas.
With public spending squeezed like never before, Do We Ever See Grace is as pertinent today as when it was first performed in Thatcher’s Britain.
This production was performed by the Young Actors at Heald Green Theatre.
DO we ever see grace
UNDER THE COVERS
2015 - Co-Director (with Stacy Makishi)
'Gender is important to people, but I'm not sure if it's important to me.'
Under The Covers was a collaboration between performance artist Stacy Makishi, Contact Young Company and myself.
Examining young people's attitudes to sex, sexuality and gender, it was a no-holds-barred look at 21st sexual politics complete with dildos, ball-gags, female orgasm, shaken-up diet coke breaks and orgies.
The Wellcome Collection commissioned show was originally performed at Contact as part of Sick! Festival and subsequently toured to WHY? Festival at the Southbank Centre, Battersea Arts Centre and Chrysalis Festival in Edinburgh.
