Welcome to Articulation’s first newsletter of the new year, the new decade and, sadly, on the eve of a new departure for Britain.
Coming up there are a number of captivating performances on show in Scotland, notably at the Manipulate Festival in Edinburgh. Herewith you can also find information about networking events for physical performance and training and funding opportunities for artists and makers. Roll on 2020!
Best wishes,
SJ Couzens, Articulation Co-ordinator.
Manipulate celebrates and promotes visual and physical theatre, puppetry and animated films to its audiences of adults in Edinburgh.
The festival was created to bring the best, most innovative and challenging international theatre and film to Scotland to entertain and challenge audiences, and also to provide powerful inspiration and stimulus to Scottish-based artists.
Manipulate has been named as one of Scotland's most interesting festivals has has developed a reputation for showcasing innovative work from around the globe in visual theatre and animation.
Jordan & Skinner:
A Brief History of the Fragile Male Ego
31st January
Summerhall, Edinburgh
Andrea has been giving her lecture, but it’s not been going well. Previous presentations were marred by protests. She’s hoping the open-minded audience at MANIPULATE will hear her out. Andrea wants you to realise that half the world is suffering under the weight of a great burden. If you don’t wake up to this problem, everything we hold dear will fall apart. And we wouldn’t want that now, would we.
Multi award-winning company Jordan & Skinner presents a riotous show that cuts to the bone of gender politics.
Cirqulation is Scotland’s ongoing circus cabaret night, showcasing new acts by established and emerging artists. Featuring Scottish and international guest performers, each event is themed differently to inspire the creation of exciting, innovative work. This special edition for MANIPULATE features acts which invite you into a different world
full of dynamic insights into dimensions where humans defy gravity, music is language, one’s toes can be as expressive as one’s eyes and the usual rules of our world are broken.
In these troubling and uncertain times let’s turn to food and its elusive magic for succour and guidance. Dutifully protected by Guardians, experience the opening of a temple’s cordon in which they protect the last, prized agricultural relic from happier times. A highly visual short form, interactive installation and performance, revealing one of this island’s possible near futures - a post Brexit, post a-crop-alypse. Come! Cleanse your soles and pay your respects!
Two work in progress performances from the recipients of 2019 Surge Bursaries exploring dynamic and challenging physical theatre in an indoor setting. The recipients have worked with leading Scottish-based directors and practitioners to develop their initial creative pitches. Presenting the results made thus far to an audience for the first time is a
valuable opportunity for these artists to test their ideas. Surge is Scotland’s developer of physical theatre, circus and street arts and runs Scotland’s largest street theatre festival - Surge.
Physical, absurdist, object theatre exploring the transmogrification of two lightshades. A short form piece full of imaginative, quirky humour which explores the comic potential of objects we all take for granted - Samuel Beckett and Edward Lear’s lovechild with a live vocal score. Lamp has a strong visual narrative with no spoken dialogue.
A high impact, but grittly low-tech visual theatre exploration of the force and grip of intense mood. Stark text free theatre exploring the effects of depression on human functioning - compellingly performed by Ana Almeida, accompanied by a masterful live score by DaveBeMac - this piece is the culmination of a creative development initiative
funded by Creative Scotland and first performed at MANIPULATE Festival 2018.
Psychotherapist and theatre maker Francisca Morton is a masterful interpreter - she confidently dives into a silent dialogue about a life spiralling out of control using nothing more than guile, wit and a sheet of polythene.
In 2002 on a country road, a pack of cards was thrown from a car window and over a hedge. While in the air the pack burst open and the cards were scattered across hedge and field and road. Some cards landed face up. The hand dealt that day has moved on and outwards into this moment. The cards have become manifest, they have something to say. Pick a card… any card…
One of Scotland’s leading visual theatre ensembles, Oceanallover utilises virtuosic, multi-layered music and sounds, striking physicality and movement, and elaborate and fantastical costumes to create dynamic new, collaborative work in its own inimitable style.
Join Manipulate each evening at the festival café from 7PM for socialising, drinks and informal cabaret performances presented by some of Scotland’s leading physical and visual theatre makers.
Running order:
E&N – Sita Pieraccini / Mon 3 Feb
PICKLED REPUBLIC – Ruxy Cantir / Tue 4 Feb
DATE NIGHT – Lucy McGreal / Wed 5 Feb
LONG GREEN JAWS – Thu 6 Feb
DRACULALA – L.A.R.D.S. / Fri 7 Feb
CUCKOO – a snippet of Very Mild Peril Two Detectives / Sat 8 Feb
Woman as animal, as human, as goddess or spirit-being - visited by a horned magus - this creative is called upon to transform herself.
Inspired by the mythologies of cultures from around the world, this piece celebrates our human need to create fantasy and legend, exploring how we fashion our own gods to help us make sense of the world around us.
A fashion show on the fracture between feminism and fabric.
A catwalk which takes you from Haute Couture to bargain bin, from big beats to near silence. Five diverse performers take to the stage on a catwalk like no other! Garments flow, stilettos break, hair is pulled up, let loose, let free! Jazzy moves, heartfelt stories and heart-throbbing energy fills the room.
Navigate your own path through a performance featuring five strong women from different walks of life. Using your mobile and headphones, choose between music and stories which offer contrasting positions on the parade of costumes and identities on stage.
A Wire Apart is a modern love story set in the surreal environment of our digitally connected world. Distanced by a tangle of wires, two individuals work to find each other, but in doing so they must first find themselves.
Using dance, physical theatre, tight wire walking and original music, A Wire Apart explores the impact modern communication has on our mental health and our ability to connect authentically with one another.
3rd - 4th February
The Studio, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Once upon a time there lived three sisters. They lived in the middle of nowhere with only a vague sense of time. They existed as if in a dream and, for them, that dream was real life. They moved like sleepwalkers and danced as though chasing the last departing train. Like Siamese triplets they shared everything in each other’s lives, as though they
were one. Experiencing an eternal present, they have no sense of a future. Can anything break the fractured rhythms of their everyday?
Samolœt is made up of a group of leading experimental visual theatre artists who harness their Russian training and heritage with contemporary western European techniques and concepts to create intriguing and emotionally powerful work. This production has been acclaimed at leading festivals throughout Europe.
The odds of perishing in a commercial plane accident are 29.4 million to one. Reassuring. Except if you’re the one. As emergency masks plummet, engines squeal and hand baggage flies from the overhead bins, two strangers hold hands. Scared and breathless, their lives flash past as they face their final moments together.
Exploring themes of luck and choice, fate and coincidence and above all what it means to connect with someone, this work-in-progress, created by one of Scotland’s leading theatre companies, is a fantasy table-top exploration where time is turned upside down and all the things that matter start to make sense.
7th - 8th February
The Studio, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
A golden age is ending. There have been three years of winter. The sun hangs low in the sky, unmoving, and the bonds of kinship are failing.
The world is breaking…
A young girl and boy battle to seek a future in promised land, moving through a fractured world as dreams and reality clash around them.
A collision of ancient myth and modern spectacle, inspired by the cyclical Norse myth of the same name, Ragnarok is a story of fate and self-determination, of gods and mortals, of the world’s end and its rebirth.
Lewis Sherlock and Ali Maloney:
After Metamorphosis
8th February
Summerhall, Edinburgh
When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect…
A choreography of movement, words, and visuals that look through the eyes of insects to both lampoon and celebrate humanity. This adaption of Kaftka’s classic seeks to weaponize the surrealism of the original text into a wild rumpus: a satire of identity and conformity.
Combining contemporary cirque style artistry with adrenaline fuelled stunt action, this astoundingly talented international troupe includes over thirty jugglers, acrobats, aerialists, dancers, drummers, and daredevil stuntmen showcasing the finest in traditional circus thrills and skills.
Don’t miss the world’s most hair-raising circus act - the legendary motorcycle ‘Globe of Death’, live on stage.
Worn is an exquisite and emotive new dance production, exploring how the body is affected by time and space, and the experiences, marks and scars that become part of our history and affect our present as well as our possible futures.
Choreographed and performed by acclaimed contemporary dance duo
Errol White and Davina Givan. Worn draws inspiration from the ancient Japanese art of kintsugi, where broken pottery is mended with gold or silver, making the cracks into a beautiful and valuable part of the object.
White and Givan’s trademark strong physical presence, dynamic and tender choreography engages on both a physical and emotional level and asks very relevant questions about the acceptance of transience and imperfection in our current Instagram culture.
An exciting collection of contemporary spoken word monologues and group poems, giving a platform to a generation that is frequently reduced to a sound-bite in mass media - ineffectual, lazy, oversensitive 'snowflakes'. It’s played out like a frenzied scroll through a social media feed; with seemingly disconnected pieces running into one another at speed, woven together with athletic, physical delivery and puts Millennial voices to the front, in all of their oversharing glory.
What do you do when the state becomes the oppressor? Would you put your body on the line?
A young girl ready to die to defend what she thinks is right. A king determined to impose his will as the rule of law. Antigone, Interrupted re-imagines a classic story for a contemporary world through the body and the voice of a single performer.
In his first creation as Artistic Director of Scottish Dance Theatre, choreographer Joan Clevillé presents an intimate solo work with acclaimed performer Solène Weinachter. Using his distinctive mixture of dance, theatre and storytelling, Clevillé examines the notion of dissent in democracy, and how the female body can be the target of oppression but also a powerful tool for resistance.
See Cirque du Soleil’s breakthrough ice experience, Crystal.
This spectacular show blends circus arts and the world of ice skating in a stunning new production that will take the audience on a journey into a whimsical frozen playground where ice skating of all kinds mingles with acrobatics and aerial feats.
8th February
Out of the Blue Drill Hall, Edinburgh
The Beginners class will focus on learning the very basics of aerial Hoop skills, while the Improver/ Intermediate class will be expanding on the moves you’ve learnt, adding in flair and dynamics, and lengthier sequences as you get stronger.
Metamorphosis: The Animated Body
by Improbable Dolls
31st January - 1st February
Summerhall, Edinburgh
A workshop for confident dancers and physical/visual theatre practitioners which explores, in a cross-art context – the creation of new relationships between the animated film image and the performing artist. It will focus on the development of a character’s physicality and inner life.
Using Nataly’s animated film PAPER THIN as source material, you will also gain insights into the creative process employed to create her production MINA.
A workshop with leading puppeteer Gavin Glover for all inquisitive theatre practitioners - actors, dancers, puppeteers, physical theatre practitioners, film makers and directors - who want to discover the darker side of contemporary puppetry performance. In this physically intense but fun workshop, you will explore the role of the
performer and the puppet together, observe their relationship through some slightly disturbing scenarios and look at the emotions and the empathy that audiences can feel for a puppet. You will experiment with different approaches to using puppets, find the moment when they become a metaphor of ourselves, and then subject them to the many emotions we wish we could impose on those around us. But the puppets will stand up for themselves, they will answer, and they will fight back!
Physical Lab with Yorgos Karamalegos and Pau Aran Gimeno
6th - 9th February
London
A search for authenticity and presence in acting. This Lab will focus on stripping down acting habits rooted in social and cultural conditioning.
Grounding techniques as tools for presence and deconditioning will be shared. The aim is to explore a performing state where the body, mind (conscious and subconscious), emotion and instinct, work together moment to moment.
Each body has its own unique movement language. The body, our work tool, must be powerful and receptive at all times. With these premises, and through play, we will discover technique exercises, composition, improvisation, body narrative and authentic expression. Opening the space for dialogue with oneself and others. The process will build skills for autonomous thought, capable of adapting to a creative process and developing a greater awareness of our limits and how to overcome them whilst fine tuning the quality of movement.
Told by an Idiot: Artist Development Training
Building the Chaos
8th - 9th February
Jerwood Space, London
Taking inspiration from the greats of silent comedy: Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy and Buster Keaton, this two-day intensive will explore the idea of adding a fresh twist to some classic routines. led by long-term TBAI collaborator and experienced performer, director and theatre maker Stephen Harper.
You will draw on clowning, commedia dell’arte and the work of Michael Chekhov to explore the technique and spirit required to create brilliant comic set pieces.
You will take away a toolkit of ideas and practical approaches, which will enable you to make your own gags, numbers and comedy routines. This includes: hand to hand combat techniques in order to create slapstick violence, pratfalls, double takes and - of course - throwing custard pies.
3:30pm - 8:15pm on the 20th February
Creative Scotland Exhibition Space, Edinburgh
The workshop will incorporate practical, reflective exercises from The Performing Artist’s Audience Workbook. Whilst The Workbook is intended as a holistic, staged journey, the exercises function effectively as stand-alone activities and can be ‘mix-and-matched’ to support specific goals.
Aims:
To develop inspiring new language with which to describe and ‘sell’ your work to venues (ideally you will have a specific piece of work in mind which can be previous, current or work-in-development).
To build confidence in engaging in on-going dialogue with programmers about your work.
To use the same to develop informative sales and marketing copy that audiences understand, and in a way that arouses interest, curiosity and the desire to experience your work.
To increase tour bookings and audiences for your work.
The toolkit has 24 questions with links to help you improve your work. You can use the toolkit individually or as a team.
When you are finished, you can generate a report on one evaluation or comparing several.
You will be asked to assess your performance and how important the issue is at this point in time and you can also add notes. Taken together these measures show where you are currently performing well, and where your priorities for improvement are.
Hidden Door Festival are looking for submissions from visual artists wishing to participate in a 10 day multi-arts festival which will take place from 9 - 18 October 2020.
The festival are looking for innovative projects across a variety of artistic disciplines including performance. They're particularly looking for projects which allow artists to develop and innovate their art practice. Applications are welcomed from UK artists at any stage in their career and particularly encourage new graduates and those who consider themselves emerging artists to apply.
Glastonbury Theatre and Circus Fields are commissioning 6 new shows for the Glastonbury Festival 2020. Glastonbury Theatre and Circus Arts Commissions are offering seed money for performers who are now ready to take on their own work, with funding from Glastonbury Festivals Events Limited and the Arts Council.
The massive infrastructure of the Festival will be utilised to stage these shows. The festival will mentor the selected commissions in their planning and creation prior to, and throughout the Festival. Artists will also be supported in taking the shows to a wider audience in the time after the festival.
A brilliant opportunity for an ambitious and passionate producer to join the Common Wealth Theatre in Cardiff.
Common Wealth Theatre are interested in hearing from people with a diverse range of experience and talent - those who are producers and those who might not consider themselves a producer but have all the relevant skills.
Emergency Exit Arts Job Opportunity:
Artistic Director
Deadline: 10am on the 7th February
As Artistic Director you will provide inspirational leadership, a bold and relevant artistic vision, strategic direction, a safe and inclusive environment for staff, partners, participants and audiences.
Working closely with the Executive Director, you will ensure that EEA maximises its impact and challenges audiences, partners and participants to take creative risks.
Your job is to have fantastic, creative ideas and know how to attain them. You’ll set the artistic direction, vision and positioning of the company and optimise the company’s existing and future creative assets.
Critical Response Process - A primer
Part of the Manipulate Festival
2pm - 5pm on the 8th February
Summerhall, Edinburgh
Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process (CRP) is a method for giving and getting feedback on work in progress, designed to leave the maker eager and motivated to get back to work.
Go along to the half day event where you will be able to participate in the Critical Response Process and see it being used as a tool for developing a work in progress - AFTER METAMORPHOSIS - as a way of giving audience feedback to artists.
Imaginate are inviting proposals from artists who would like to try out a new idea for children and their families as part of National Museum of Scotland's Family Day 2020.
Family Day is an excellent opportunity to be part of the festival, to try out a new idea and receive audience feedback.
Think about what would be interesting, fun, thought provoking or an unexpected artistic experience for them to come across. Due to noise, dialogue-heavy performance pieces or performed readings aren’t suitable. As the audience is often passing through, interactive and walk about or pop-up pieces work well. Short performances that gather an audience can work if based on visual, sound and/or movement.
Calling all planet protectors and agents for change: you’re invited to bring your most resourceful imaginations to this year’s parade.
This year you’ll be working with acclaimed designer Dan Potra as Creative Director to help shape the vision for the parade and he will work with artists and groups to develop sections of the parade. ideas are welcomed for floats, costumes, music and performance for the parade and squares in response to the theme.
Lyra are offering four commissions to develop four new live performance pieces in collaboration with children and young people from Greater Craigmillar in Edinburgh (Lyra’s Young Artists). The Commissions are funded by a National Lottery Community Fund Young Start Grant. The available Commissions are:
Performing Arts X 2
Dance X 1
Music X 1
Lyra are looking for exciting, high quality proposals with a clear and strong idea. Each artist will lead weekly sessions for a group of young people between May 2020 and March 2021 to develop the work. The successful artists will be educated to degree level or equivalent in the arts and have a passion for creating work with, for and by children and young people. Proposals should outline the artist’s idea for the work, as well as how the artist intends to collaborate with the Young Artists (who are aged 8+ years). The Young Artists must have a central role in the presentation of the final piece.
Artists from any live performance background are welcome to apply including dance, parkour, music, circus, installation, theatre, storytelling, live art, moving image and more. Cross-disciplinary Proposals from independent artists, collectives or companies are also welcome.
Northern Stage is looking for a leading creative practitioner with an entrepreneurial approach to take the company beyond its 50th year. The Artistic Director will lead the company artistically, devising and delivering a compelling programme of work that animates Northern Stage’s values and identity whilst ensuring its long-term financial stability and growth.
This is a rare and exciting opportunity for someone who will bring new thinking, champion boldness and inclusivity, and question what contemporary theatre looks like, how it is made and who is central to making it.
Experienced theatre directors and makers are encouraged to apply and applications are also welcome from others who can demonstrate relevant artistic credibility, excellence in their discipline and the ability to lead and influence other theatre artists.
Aerial Edge Performance Opportunity: Scratch Night
27th March
Glasgow
Calling all keen performers! Aerial Edge are excited to announce their next Scratch Night which will be taking place on Friday, March 27th.
Aerial Edge are also looking for people to take part as well! Whether you're an aerialist, an acrobat, a juggler, a compère, or all-round circus entertainer get in touch.
Remember that a scratch night is an informal and relaxed evening to show off developmental work so no pressure on having a fully polished routine!
If you are interested please let contact Aerial Edge by emailing: info@aerialedge.co.uk
This year, the Bursary scheme will offer a maximum of six bursaries to UK-based artists at any stage in their career working in live art, contemporary performance and interdisciplinary practice. At least three of these Bursaries will be awarded to Artists of Colour as part of Live Art UK’s Diverse Actions programme.
Facilitated by Artsadmin’s artist support team, the Bursary offer includes:
Cash award of £4,000.
£300 mentoring budget to work with another artist, a critical thinker or dramaturg.
£200 budget to go and see work, which can cover travel, visas or ticket costs.
£200 budget for well-being, to be spent at the discretion of the artist.
A week-long studio residency at Toynbee Studios.
An invitation to present work in a Bursary Showcase at Toynbee Studios, with budget for access, technical, documentation and marketing support.
Foundation Scotland: Baillie Gifford
Community Awards Programme
Deadline: 4pm on the 2nd March
Foundation Scotland and Baillie Gifford have been working together for over ten years. Over the last decade Baillie Gifford has been the largest contributor to Foundation Scotland’s Express Grants programme. Following a review of their charitable giving Baillie Gifford has decided to launch a stand-alone grants programme aimed at supporting grass roots community organisations across the whole of Scotland.
The programme will consider grants of up to £2K which fit at least one of the following priorities:
Jerwood Bursaries provide funding of up to £1,250 to help you explore and develop your practice by enabling you to gain new skills and knowledge. A Jerwood Bursary can support your development by funding meaningful opportunities to reflect on and grow your creative practice. This might include new partners for
collaboration, receiving mentoring or taking part in training, conferences and workshops. It can support development of your creative practice by covering the costs of self-initiated residencies and by supporting early-stage research and testing of brand new ideas. Jerwood Arts want you to suggest activities that will help you to learn and take control of the development of your artistic practice and career.
The Ideas and Pioneers Fund supports people and/or groups with unusual or radical ideas that aim to improve the life chances and opportunities of people in the UK.
The Paul Hamlyn Foundation's charitable mission is to help people overcome disadvantage and lack of opportunity, so they can realise their potential and enjoy fulfilling and creative lives.
Ideas and projects that support this mission are invited to apply for up to £15,000.
People whose ideas are in the early stages of development are particularly welcome to apply. The applicant must be committed to making the idea happen and will have done some initial work to develop it but it can still be in the early stages.
Devoted & Disgruntled 15: What are we going to do about theatre and the performing arts?
8th - 10th February
Battersea Arts Centre, London
Devoted & Disgruntled is an opportunity for everyone passionate about the art to get together and focus on the question "What are we going to do about theatre and the performing arts?". It's a 2 1/2 day event where you set the agenda and decide what conversations you want to be part of.
Creative Scotland and Calouste
Gulbenkian Foundation:
From Participation to Co-creation
25th February
The lighthouse, Glasgow
SAVE THE DATE
Creative Scotland and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation are hosting a day of debate, workshops and practice sharing to create fertile ground for change through the arts. Following the Review of Arts and Homelessness In Scotland, With One Voice, the international arts and homelessness movement will lead skills building workshops in fundraising and evaluation. The afternoon will focus on the civic role of arts organisations with leading practitioner Nina Simon (Of / By / For All) and examples from the Scottish arts community.
NASA: For the Love Of It 2020
13th - 15th March
Cobden Works, Manchester
The greatest annual gathering of Outside Artists: for professionals who make creative projects outside - both NASA-UK members and not.
A weekend of inspiration, creation and fun, a chance to recharge and re-connect. 48 hours of Inspiration, Creation and Fun. The weekend will combine skills sharing workshops, talks and showings in a friendly and supportive atmosphere.
Call Out to Artists and Makers, groups and organisations involved with Circus, Street Arts, Physical Theatre - let us and others know about your work. Take your place in Articulation’s Directory on the Website by sending your information to info@articulationarts.org
Add to this Newsletter! Please send information about anything to do with Physical Performance together with a picture or a logo to articulationnews@gmail.com
Categories
News
Opportunities
Funding
Training
Touring
Networking
Performances
Festivals
Please can everyone send any info by the 20th of each month. If you can please include the category in subject heading so that it is easier for us to collate. Please also make sure that any info sent will still be valid by the last Thursday of the month.
