Arthaus Berlin
The end of summer was a bit of a blur to be honest. Finishing up my Howl tour, with a great final performance for Span Arts in Pemrokshire. We were already set up and the audience were gathering as the rain started. It was touch and go to be honest, and I was sheltering in the gazebo with Dan (sound designer and musician) peering out with a feelign of despondance, when the rain slowed and finally stoppped. The Welsh audience were well prepared, and we were all happy to go ahead. Internally I thought, this is it, one last chance (for 2023) to do a great show. So we did it, and it felt like the best show of the tour, the audience were well behind us and there was a touch of magic in the air. It was a great show to finish on. From there, it was a whirlwind of packng down, dropping things off, packing a bag for Malawi and one for Berlin.
I mentioned in my previous post, my trip to Malawi. Straight from there, I went to Berlin to join a full time course- Devised Theatre and Performance. Doing this course has been a dream of mine for many years, but it felt difficult to take so much time out of my career, but this year I decided to take the plunge.
It has been one of the best decisions I have ever made, and I realise now that, had I have done the course sooner, I may not of got so much out of it, that I'm now in a place to really get so much out of it. Arthaus Berlin (formerly LISPA) is one of the highest regarded physical theatre schools in Europe. They take their training very seriously, the quality of the teaching and the culture of the school ensures a really fundamentally quality experience for the students.
The course is a deep dive into the practice of embodiement, and combines a movement based pedagogy with emotional resonance, voice work, writing practices, art, academic research and a deep devising process. It strongly encourages you to develop your own creativity in response to the provocations of the course.
It has been wonderful to be a student again, so refreshing and as I have already mentioned the quality of the tution is excellent, I feel my brain, body and creativity really coming alive,am stimulated and inspired by the course and my colleagues on it. It's also really fun to be in such a dynamic and happening city as Berlin, where there is so much going on, especially in the worlds of theatre, art, dance and film.
I'm doing the course part-time, so in Decemeber 2023 I completed term one, and willl now wait unitl Januar 2025 to return, which gives me plenty of time to digest and integrate the learnings so far into my life nad artistic practice.
I was at The Circus Village/Yr Pentref Syrcas for 2 projects this spring, a residency with Kitsch n Sync Collective and my own residency with News From Nowhere, a project in development.
This is an idea that I have been working on in different ways for a wee while now. The idea is pretty big compared to my previous work- creating an ensemble narrative circus theatre performance with a bespoke piece of aerial equipment and commuity engagement. As the idea is complex it has been hard to gain support in the form of residencies, many venues simply can't accomodate the equipment. However, the Circus Village had an amazing, can-do team, a whole range of rigs and tents and equipment at their disposal and they were happy to offer us a residency.
The idea is still in its very early stages, the performance is a series of intersecting journey stories that meet in the performance moment, using a unique configuration of aerial equipment to play out that story. This residency focused on the exploration of the equipment, generating ideas and vocabulary under the guidance of Rowan Fae as director. There is still a lot of work to do to bring this idea to fruition, but it felt so good to begin working on it with Daisy Black , Saya Yamaguchi and Maisie Luk. I'd also like to extend my thanks to the whole team at the Circus Village who made it all possible. Watch this space for further developments.
I've been a little disorganised with my news this summer, so, here I am harking back to something that happened earlier in the year, in April in fact. The Circus Village/ Yr Pentref Syrcas is a really great thing that came out of those dark days of the covid pandemic. It is a circus festival organised by a collective of Welsh circus organisations. It was initially created to bring together the circus community after the isolation of the pandemic, for circus performers, teachers, techinicians, directors and students to be able to come together to talk, to train, to explore and create. This year was the second edition and the remit was extended to include a week of residencies and a performance festival.
As well a being there for my own residency (see next news post!) I was lucky enough to be invite down to be a performer/rigger with Kitcsh n Sync Collective, who are a brilliant company who specialise in fusing comedy, contemporary dance and circus in full length shows and walkabout performances.
Bitchcraft is a wry look at the witch trials, religious zealotry and feminie power, combining theatre, contemporary dance, comedy, circus and fire. We spent 5 days developing the ideas and then performed a work in progress show for an invited audience of industry proffessionals. It was tremendous fun, well recieved and, for me an honour to work with Kitsch n Sync for the first time. Being at the Circus Village, surrounded by other companies all working on new performance ideas was also great soul food. I'm looking forward to the next installment, and remember, You can't burn women made of fire.
Howl! Performances have been going well with the show bedding in nicely. We have some more dates coming up before summer comes to an end. If you haven't seen it yet then come along.
Mae perfformiadau wedi bod yn mynd yn dda, a dwi'n mwynhau gwneud y sioe. Mae gennym fwy o ddyddiadau yn ddod i fyny cyn i'r haf ddod i ben. Os nad ydach i weld eto, dewch draw.
Eisteddfod Genedlaithol Cymru 10 & 11 Aug/Awst https://eisteddfod.wales/programme
Awen Trust, Bryngarw Country Park 30 Aug/Awst https://www.bryngarwcountrypark.co.uk/whats-on/
Span Arts, Scolton Park 31 Aug/Awst https://span-arts.org.uk/whats-on/
Commissioned by Wales Outdoor Arts Consortium.
I'm super excited to finally announce (long overdue!) that I have been commissioned to make a show in Wales this year.
Howl! is a magical tale of a wild were-wolf woman. A narrative aerial theatre show performed in Welsh.Written by me, Directed by Gwen Thompson. Original musical score by Daniel Rhys Lawrence with Welsh support and costume design by Kate Jones.
Commissioned by Wales Outdoor Arts Consortium.
Rehearsed in my Mum's field.
We have loads of performance dates throughout Wales this summer, posts coming soon!
Rwy'n hynod gyffrous i gyhoeddi o'r diwedd fy mod wedi cael fynghomisiynu i wneud sioe yng Nghymru eleni. Mae Howl! yn stori hudolus am blaidd-ddynes wyllt. Sioe theatr awyrol naratif yn cael ei pherfformio yn Gymraeg. Ysgifennwyd gennyf fi, cyfarwyddwyd gan Gwen Thompson. Sgor gerddoral wreiddiolgan Daniel Rhys Lawrence, gyda chefnogaeth Gymreig a chynllun gwisgoedd gan Kate Jones. Comosiynwyd gan Gonsortiwm Celfyddydau Awyr Agored Cymru. Wedi Ymarfer yng cae fy Mam. Mae gennym ni lwyth a ddyddiadau perfformio dros Cymru yr haf yma.
2022 saw a return to the full run of Christmas shows for Incandescence Circus after the disruption of the pandemic. I was lucky to again be a part of the huge team of performers. I returned to one of my favourite venues too, Manchester Central, for Morrocan Fire Nights. The evening, put on by Vivid Experience, is a high quality Christmas event, featuring a drinks reception, dinner, circus entertainment, casino, fairground rides and of course a packed dance floor.
Incandescence Circus shows are always big scale, spectacular, high skill level and feature gorgeous costumes, and this show was no exception. I was lucky to be the focal point of the first act, hidden inside the skirt of a giant sun puppet, on my rope. I was dramatically revealed when the skirt dropped before being lifted high on the winch to carry on my choreography, framed by two fellow performers - Lyn Routeledge and Maddie McGowan on silks and a team of dancers.
Act two featured triples trapeze, although due to various illnesses circulating in the cast there were a few nights when I had to dust off my solo trapeze act and fill in!! Although it was pretty nerve racking to have to suddenly perform for two and a half thousand people, I thourghly enjoyed the challenge. However, one person on a trapeze can never be as spectacular as three, so I was relieved when the normal cast of this act were back in the show.
Act three was very much the grand finale, featuring the spectacular Wheel of Death, performed by the courageous and very talented duo, Vitale Ermia and Ronaldo. Both from traditional circus families they have been performing since they were young and have a natural fearlessness and showmanship that can only be admired. The audience were always stunned by the daring and beauty of this act that culminated in fireworks being set off while the wheel was still spinning.
It was a fun December, and lovely to be back in the groove of a long performance contract after the strangeness of the last few years.
The what? I hear you ask, The Eisteddfod, something, being Welsh, I thought everyone knew about. Apprently not, many of my friends had never heard of the Eisteddfod, well, it is Wales' largest cultural festival and I learned this year that it is also the largest touring festival in Europe. It is 2 weeks of competitions, presentations and performances in singing, dancing, poetry, theatre, spoken word, music and much much more, alongside the compeitions there are bands, stalls, networking events, workshops and this year, for the first time, a large scale, outdoor contemporary circus show.
The show was dreamed up by the directors of The Eisteddfod, along with circus producer Zoe Munn and made in collaboration with Gorilla Circus. With a cast of 3 Welsh and 3 non Welsh artists the show was set to a specially commissioned poem by Wales' Childrens Poet Laureate, Casi Wyn. Casi performed the first part of the poem live from on top of an upturned car at 10m high, whilst myself and felow artist Kelsy Bell descended on ropes from inside the car to gasps from the crowd.
The show continued with an excellent hair hanging solo by Poppy Plowman, Counterweighted Trapeze and Hoop by Ophelia Atkinson and Daisy Williams, and me on rope. Then came the undisputed highpoint of the show, a high wire walk by Ellis Grover, the crowd holding their breath as he made his way across. The grand finale saw all the performers spinning on a carousel and big jets of flame!
The show was a great success, and as a Welsh performer, a real honour to be a part of something new at our largest cultural festival. Diolch yn Fawr!
This year I was drawn to a small festival organised by the Landworkers Alliance- The Land Skills Fair. It is a festival that focuses on land, food and climate justice. It is a medly of workshops, talks, music, performances and networking. Going there to perform combines my work life and my hobbies and passions.
So, along with Daisy Black of Gossamer Thread Circus we created bespoke aerial and spoken word performances on the themes of nature connection, climate, seasons, ecology and folklore. Writing and creating the piece was a very enjoyable creative endeaver, and I was keen to see how it was received by the audience. Daisy used some material from a film project she made during lockdown, adapting a part of it for live performance, as part of a larger project to be realised in 2023.
Both rope performances, they sat together beautifully and our short shows were well received by the very lovely audiences. It was, as ever a challenge to perform outside- we were rained off on Friday, but the weather held for Saturday and Sunday.
One of the things I do sometimes, is deliver text live while doing aerial, which can be a challenge for numerous reasons. On this occaision, because of being outside at a festival with background noise, I used a headset radio microphone, which of course brings its own problems, not least, where put and how to secure the battery pack and how to keep the headset on your head whilst going upside down and moving dynamically! In this case the wind also presented a challenge, as, the higher up you are, the windier it is, and the microphone was picking up the wind noise, which was a little distracting.
Despite this, the shows went well, we had fun and received good feedback on the performances. We are hoping to develop this into a full show to tour next year, and bring in Daisy's existing dream for the larger project- watch this space.
https://www.landskillsfair.com/
https://gossamerthreadcircus.weebly.com/
This spring I am on tour with a brilliant aerial theatre show called Aidy The Awesome. Aimed at 3-12 year olds it has been dreamt up by the brilliant team at The Gramophones theatre and is an empowering tale of super hero grannies and their grandkids, in families where the super powers are passed down the female line. It is full of fun, stunning visual effects, stunts and comedy.
The show is played on and aroud a bespoke rig, and, on this tour I am in charge of it. It is probably the most comlex aerial rig I have ever been in charge of and its been a good challenge to rise to. We are now part way through the tour, the shows have been really well received and the team are realy getting to grips with the rig. I wasn't sure how happy I would be, being on tour but not being in the show as I often tour as a performer and rigger in the same production. While I wouln't want to always do it like this, I'm quite enjoying not being quite so busy on tour and not having the pressure of having to do a show or three in every place, its fun, and I have the extra time to explore the places we are going.
You can find our remaining tour dates and promo video here: