Furnace Symposium 15.10.11
Creating and Producing Theatre in West Yorkshire
Saturday 15th October, 4.30pm, Courtyard Theatre
This event was live streamed. Watch it here
What is it like to be a theatre maker inWest Yorkshire today? What do we want more of, what could be better, and what are the key issues affecting the way we create and produce theatre in this region? Be part of the discussion.
#wypfurnace
1) Welcome
2) Opening Provocation:Alan Lane(Slung Low)
3) Panel Discussion
4) Determining the next discussions. Game led by Clare Duffy.
The Speakers:
Professor Stephen Bottoms (Chair)
Stephen Bottoms is Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies at theUniversityofLeeds, and Director of its Workshop Theatre. He is a theatre director and occasional performer, with particular current interests in site-specific performance (Steve last performed in public on Light Night, shepherding the curious down what is allegedly ‘the longest corridor inEurope’, on the Leeds Uni campus). As a critic, Steve has published widely: his books include studies of playwrights Sam Shepard and Edward Albee, a history of theNew Yorkunderground theatre scene in the 1960s, and creative collaborations withGoat Islandperformance group and pioneering drag king Diane Torr. He has just written the introduction to the Collected Plays of actor/playright Tim Crouch (due out from Oberon any minute).
Clare Duffy
Clare is a founding member of Unlimited, freelance playwright and in the final year of her doctoral research in playwriting at GlasgowUniversity. In March 2011 Clare wrote and directed ‘Money…the game show’ for the Arches and Traverse Theatre, as a winner of the Platform 18 Arches New Directors Award. Her next show, ANA, will open inMontreal in November 2011 and tourScotland in 2012. Clare co-wrote ANA with Francophone playwright Pierre-Yves Lemieux for director Serge Denoncourt, with Stella Quines (Edinburgh) and Imago Theatre (Montreal). She is currently commissioned by Magnetic North (Edinburgh) to write ‘Some Other Stars’ about a man with ‘locked-in syndrome’. Clare’s first full-length play, Crossings was produced and published in 2005 by Sgript Cymru. It won a Pearson award and a year residency at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. She has also written drama for Radio Four.
Alan Lane
Alan Lane is Artistic Director of Slung Low, the award winning company based in Leeds,West Yorkshire. Creating site specific and theatre installations Slung Low have created work with and for a variety of renowned theatre buildings and festivals including: The Almeida Theatre, The Barbican, The Liverpool Everyman, The Cultural Olympiad, The Lowry, The Gate Theatre, and Liverpool 08 European Capital of Culture. In 2008 they were awarded the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award and in 2010 voted the Liverpool Echo Production of the Year with Anthology. The company is based in 5 railway arches that have been converted into office and studio rehearsal space called The Holbeck Underground Ballroom. Alan is also an Assessor for the National Student Drama Festival, Directed the Count of Monte Cristo at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, and was a Curator for the Playhouse’s Transform Season in June 2011.
Annie Lloyd
Annie Lloyd is a member of the Compass Live Art consortium founded in 2010 to develop live art practice and infrastructure in Yorkshire and theHumber. She is curator of the Compass Festival of Live Art taking place inLeeds25-27 November 2011. She also works as an independent producer inLeeds, having just presented a season of new performance at Seven Arts. Formerly Annie was the Director of The Gallery and Studio Theatre,LeedsMetUniversityfrom where she nurtured and supported new performance work for 18 years.
Jon Spooner
Jon is a director, writer, performer, founder member and the artistic director of Unlimited. For Unlimited he has directed and performed in Static, Neutrino (both awarded Fringe Firsts for “innovation in theatre and an outstanding production”), Could It Be Magic? (with Sheffield Theatres), Tangle (with The Corn Exchange, Newbury), The Ethics of Progress (with Oxford Playhouse) and The Moon the Moon (with Curve, Leicester). Also for Unlimited and Sheffield Theatres he has directed Safety by Chris Thorpe and Zero Degrees and Shifting(nominated for Best Fringe Production in the MEN Theatre awards). Most recently for Unlimited he has co-written Mission to Mars, The Ethics of Progress and The Moon The Moon. Jon is an associate of the Quantum Information Group at the University of Leeds.
Kylie Walsh
Kylie is a founding member of The Paper Birds Theatre Company based inLeeds. The company formed in 2003 after graduating from Breton Hall and have devised and nationally toured 7 productions. The Paper Birds also hold an MA from the University of Chichester in ‘Theatre Collectives’.
Regulars at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, The Paper Birds picked up a Fringe First award for 2008′s ‘In a Thousand Pieces’ for outstanding innovation in new writing. The current show ‘Thirsty’ will tour in Spring 2012 following critical acclaim at this year’s festival.