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I am a UK theatre artist based in Brighton and the starting process for all work is text written by me. I then work with associates and collaborators to bring the piece to fruition. The ultimate responsibility for production lies with me, however I do work closely with producer Lisa Wolfe.
Last year I achieved with merit an MA in Life History and Life Writing at the University of Sussex. My work is based within the auto/biography construct, finding lives that resonate with my own compulsions through which to tell the story. The narrative and form is excavated/created/found through the characters and also through the under-pinning philosophical frame of the work.
Location is a vital ingredient and draws on elements of site-specific practice to exploit the properties and meanings of the location; the aim being for the work to perform a labour of transformation upon the traditional rules of engagement. The majority of my work is created for non-traditional performance spaces; a life-drawing studio, a swimming pool, a museum exhibition.
My fascination lies in the relationship between our inner and outer worlds..how our sense of 'insiderness' meets or clashes with the version of our self we wish we were and/or the version we present to the world. This manifests in how we narrate our lives:the myth of self we live by, the (sometime) desperate need to have that narrative believed and responded to....the imperative to make good our lives. To not fall from grace even when conscious of having done something unworthy of our own sense of personal excellence. What do we do and who are we when unfaithful to ourselves?
The catalyst for making work often comes as a response to a personal psychic disturbance and the desire then to interrogate the political and social resonance of that disturbance. I believe the personal is political and that artistic practice is a political act; one which performs a crucial function in society. The production of a work is synonomous with the production of a life and there is a constant interplay between the two intentions.
Creating a performance is about inviting what scares me to introduce itself and hang out for a while. It is about exorcising demons but also treating them with compassion along the way. In that I follow the advice of Tibetan yogini Machig Labdron;
"Approach what you find repulsive, help the ones you think you cannot help, and go to the places that scare you"
As my work has developed so have my (informal) team of collaborators, they include:
Lisa Wolfe as my (very) creative producer.
Stephen Clark as co-writer on a (hopefully) enormously funny sitcom and first port of call for discussion about all my projects.
Janine Fletcher as choreographer and dance coach.
Tim Crouch and Stella Duffy; each providing dramaturgy and wisdom.
The Nightingale Theatre for incubation assistance
Brighton Dome and Festival Supported Artist programme