Reboot Summer 2020 season
This Summer, our Reboot programme goes online with artists from across disciplines of music, theatre and dance talking about aspects of their practice and answering your questions. This is a chance to connect with a host of brilliant artists, to learn, to reflect and imagine new ways of working.
These events will take place on Zoom. All events are free to attend, with the option to make a donation. All donations will go towards paying freelance creatives, artists and educators to work with us.
The programme features:
Louise Blackwell and Roxanne Peak-Payne on producing for independent artists. Thursday 25 June.
Maëva Berthelot, Scott Jennings, Yen-Ching Lin & Harry Alexander on being professional dancers. Friday 26 June.
Bourgeois & Maurice on cabaret, queerness and embracing failure. Thursday 2 July.
Sylvan Baker on social practice. Monday 6 July.
Hansjörg Schmidt and Paule Constable on lighting for performance makers. Thursday 9 July.
Katie Mitchell on directing contemporary performance. Thursday 16 July.
Peggy Shaw on solo performance and gender-queer vulnerability at 76-years old. Monday 20 July.
Thick & Tight on research, collaboration and camp. Thursday 23 July.
Gareth Fry and Donato Wharton on sound design for performance makers. Thursday 30 July.
Main image credit: Maëva Berthelot remotely working on The Feast During the Plague [Redux 2020].
Thursday 25 June, 5:30pm – 6:45pm
Louise Blackwell and Roxanne Peak-Payne on producing for independent artists
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Developing skills in producing is a necessity for many independent artists. Self-producing offers opportunities for creative thinking as well as taking ownership of the direction and context of your work. This session is a chance for artists who want to self-produce to pull on the expertise of CLOD ENSEMBLE producers Louise Blackwell and Roxanne Peak-Payne. They will share principles and strategies relevant to a broad range of artistic practises, drawing on years of experience in an ever-changing industry.
Louise Blackwell is CLOD ENSEMBLE’s Associate Producer. She is an independent producer working across artforms with artists at different stages in their careers. She is Co-Director of new Brighton based company LOOKOUT, connecting young people, artists and businesses through creativity. Louise co-founded producing company Fuel, with Sarah Golding and Kate McGrath in 2004 and was Co-Director with Kate, until July 2017 when she became an independent producer.
Roxanne Peak-Payne is CLOD ENSEMBLE’s Producer, where she works with the Artistic Directors to develop new productions which build on the artistic excellence and innovation the company is known for, as well as overseeing the company’s public events, participation and education activities. Roxanne has previously worked as a producer for companies including Fuel, The Old Vic, Theatre Royal Plymouth and 14-18 NOW; as well as independent artists and collectives.
Friday 26 June, 5:30pm – 6:45pm
Maëva Berthelot, Scott Jennings, Yen-Ching Lin & Harry Alexander on being professional dancers
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In this session, four dancers currently working with CLOD ENSEMBLE will talk about their expertise of working as a professional dancer within established companies, and as independent artists.
Harry Alexander trained at Bird College and has been a member of Michael Clark Company since he graduated in 2010. He started performing with Julie Cunningham & Company in 2016, and has also danced choreography by Lea Anderson, Carlos Pons Guerra and Thick and Tight. He is represented by Kult London and has worked with photographers including Oliver Hadlee Pearch, Bruno Staub and Tim Walker.
Maëva Berthelot is a performer, choreographer, rehearsal director and teacher based in South London. After obtaining her BA in Contemporary Dance in 2003 from CNSMDP (Paris Conservatoire), Maëva has worked with artists and companies including Emanuel Gat, Wayne McGregor, Ohad Naharin touring internationally as a performer while also developing her personal work on the side. She has spent six years as a senior member with Hofesh Shechter Company, contributing creatively as an original cast member in numerous pieces and as a teacher, giving workshops for critically acclaimed companies and in studios across the world.
Scott Jennings studied dance and theatre at The BRIT School and then went on to receive a BA (Hons) degree from London Contemporary Dance School. From 2009, Scott worked as a freelance artist and then starting in 2012, spent six years as a member of Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal. Most recently, he has been working with Australian choreographer and director Lloyd Newson.
Yen-Ching Lin has worked with choreographers such as Maresa von Stockert, Charles Linehan, Jonathan Lunn, Jan de Schynkel, and Didy Veldman. She had danced for Hofesh Shechter Company and Bern Ballet, under the direction of Stijn Celis, before joining Akram Khan Company in 2010. She also teaches workshops and restages repertoire for Akram Khan Company, and was Rehearsal Director for the company from 2015-2017.
Thursday 2 July, 5:30pm – 6:45pm
Bourgeois & Maurice on cabaret, queerness and embracing failure
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Join performance makers George Heyworth & Liv Morris for a conversation about cabaret, queerness and embracing failure in performance. Drawing on their experience as satirical music theatre two-piece Bourgeois & Maurice, they will talk laughs, lyrics, hooks and breaking the 4th wall in this session.
Sequin-clad musical satirists Bourgeois & Maurice appear regularly at Soho Theatre and the Edinburgh Fringe, and have presented shows at Sadler’s Wells, the Royal Academy of Arts and many queer clubs. They have released four studio albums and written commissions for BBC Radio 3, Birmingham Rep and Theatre503, and developed works for screen and virtual reality. In 2020 they enjoyed critical success with their main stage musical Insane Animals, commissioned and produced by HOME Manchester. They devised and taught on Soho Theatre’s Cabaret and Drag Course and are Associate Research Fellows in the Faculty of Arts at Birkbeck, University of London.
Monday 6 July, 5:30pm – 6:45pm
Sylvan Baker on social practice
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Sylvan Baker is a lecturer in Community Performance and Applied Theatre at Central School of Speech and Drama. In this session he will share insights and learnings from his 30 years of experience working across the fields of applied theatre, socially engaged arts and social justice, exploring the relevance, poignancy and future of these models of working in our current climate. Aimed at artists interested in developing a social practice.
Thursday 9 July, 5:30pm – 6:45pm
Hansjörg Schmidt and Paule Constable on lighting for performance makers
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Join Hansjörg Schmidt & Paule Constable for a conversation about working with light. As we look to the future and potentially to non-theatre spaces for our ‘stages’, what role can lighting play in shaping these new experiences? How can we think creatively about lighting digital spaces? This session is aimed at directors, choreographers & performance makers who would like to reflect on the possibilities of lighting within their practice.
Paule Constable is an Associate Director of the National Theatre, an Associate for the Lyric Hammersmith and Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures. Her theatre work includes, for The National Theatre, The Visit, Ocean at the End of the Lane, Nine Night (also West End), Follies, Mosquitoes, Angels in America, The Red Barn, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Waves, Saint Joan, and War Horse. She has designed lighting for operas throughout the world, including Death in Venice (Royal Opera House), Billy Budd (Oslo) Roberto Devereux and Cav/Pag for the Metropolitan Opera, New York, and has worked with dance companies including BalletBoyz and Matthew Bourne. She is the recipient of two Tony Awards, four Olivier Awards, a Helpmann Award, three LA Critics’ Circle Awards, two Knight of Illumination awards and both New York Drama Desk and Critics’ Circle Awards. Paule is a Royal Designer for Industry.
Hansjörg Schmidt is a lighting designer who regularly works with a group of UK based artists and theatre companies, and is a frequent collaborator with CLOD ENSEMBLE. He is also the Programme Director of the MA Light in Performance at Rose Bruford College in London, and his research interests lie in the area of lighting, environment and narrative. Recent lighting designs: On The High Road and Placebo (CLOD ENSEMBLE), Dido and Aeneas (Stormen Opera), Henry (Blind Summit), Dr Faustus and Workshop Negative (Tangle), Men and Girls Dance (Fevered Sleep/touring).
Thursday 16 July, 5:30pm – 6:45pm
Katie Mitchell on directing contemporary performance
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Director Katie Mitchell is internationally renowned for her work in theatre and opera, and has created an iconic style which works across disciplines and media. In this session for practicing artists, she will reflect on her career making contemporary performance work, and answer questions about her practice and experiences.
Katie Mitchell is a Professor of Theatre Directing at Royal Holloway University and a practising theatre and opera director. She has directed over 100 productions in a career spanning 30 years. She has directed 76 theatre productions, initially in the UK and then from 2000 onwards in Europe also, including the cities Amsterdam, Milan, Berlin, Stockholm, Vienna, Salzburg and Hamburg. In the UK, she has directed 9 productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company, 19 for the National Theatre and 12 for The Royal Court – and she has been an Associate Director at all three organisations. Her many awards in the UK include 2 Time Out Awards (1990 & 1991), The Evening Standard Best Director Award (1996) and a Tonic Award for her representations of woman and nurture of female talent (2018).
Monday 20 July, 5:30pm – 6:45pm
Peggy Shaw on solo performance and gender-queer vulnerability at 76-years old
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Join legendary New York performance artist Peggy Shaw in conversation with Suzy Willson for a conversation about solo performance and gender-queer vulnerability at 76-years old. Bring your questions, a pen and some paper for a Q&A and writing exercises.
Peggy Shaw is a performer, writer, producer and teacher of writing and performance. She is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow, a 2016 USA Artist Fellow, and was the 2014 recipient of the Doris Duke Artist Award. Peggy co-founded Split Britches and WOW in NYC. She is a veteran of Hot Peaches and Spiderwoman and has collaborated with Lois Weaver since 1980.
Her book A Menopausal Gentleman, edited by Jill Dolan and published by Michigan Press, won the 2012 Lambda Literary Award for LBGT Drama. It includes scripts of her solo performances: You’re Just Like My Father, Menopausal Gentleman, To My Chagrin and Must. Peggy was the 2011 recipient of the Ethyl Eichelberger Award for the creation of RUFF, a musical collaboration that explores her experiences of having a stroke. Peggy was named a Senior Fellow by the Hemispheric Institute of Performance in 2014, an award given to scholars, artists and activists affiliated with the institute and whose work illustrates the highest achievement in the field of performance and politics.
Thursday 23 July, 5:30pm – 6:45pm
Thick & Tight on research, collaboration and camp
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Thick & Tight are a duo whose work is founded in the technical rigour of ballet & contemporary dance, incorporating drag, lip-syncing & camp humour, with a close relationship between movement, sound & design. Thick & Tight are interested in promoting queer culture and accessibility within dance and exploring dance as a political art form with the power to challenge and dispel social stigma.
This Reboot session with Daniel Hay-Gordon and Eleanor Perry will give an insight into the ideas they explore in their work and the ways in which they research, collaborate and create. It offers a chance to try some of their creative methods and to ask questions about their work and process.
Daniel Hay-Gordon and Eleanor Perry established Thick & Tight in 2012. Their award-winning work has been shown at Sadler’s Wells, ROH, Tate, Wilton’s Music Hall, Duckie, Yorkshire Dance, Marlborough Theatre Brighton, Sophiensaele Berlin and more.
Thursday 30 July, 5:30pm – 6:45pm
Gareth Fry and Donato Wharton on sound design for performance makers
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Join a conversation between two leading sound designers – Gareth Fry and Donato Wharton. Between them they have collaborated with an impressive array of performance makers including Complicité, Robert Lepage, DV8, Katie Mitchell, Toneelgroep & Rambert. In this session they share sound design secrets and answer questions on their process and practice. Designed for performance makers without a background in sound design.
Gareth Fry is a sound designer best known for his work in theatre, having won multiple Tony and Olivier awards for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and Complicité’s The Encounter. He has also designed events and exhibitions, from the V&A’s landmark David Bowie Is exhibition, to being asked by Danny Boyle to design the sound effects for the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games.
Donato Wharton is a sound designer and musician. After a several years as sound manager and co-designer with Ex Machina in Canada he has gone on to design dozens of productions across the world, most recently Three Sisters (NT) Norma Jeane Baker of Troy (The Shed, New York); La Maladie de la mort (Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris) De meiden and Uit het leven van marionetten (Toneelgroep Amsterdam) Appropriate (Donmar); Donato Wharton’s music has been published on the City Centre Offices and Serein labels.
