theatre in the mill - autumn winter 2015

UNIVERSITY OF BRADFORD

AUTUMN/WINTER 2015WWW.BRADFORD.AC.UK/THEATRE

DIARYAUTUMN/WINTER 2015

OCTOBERThursday 1st October The People’s Republic of Poetry - A Firm of Poets

Wednesday 7th - Sunday 11th October The Other Way Works - Black Tonic

Friday 16th October Imove - breath[e] : LESS

Friday 23rd October Grace Surman - Things Stack Up

Friday 30th October Chris Goode and Company - Weaklings

NOVEMBERFriday 6th - Saturday 7th November 154 Collective - Under the Bed

Friday 13th November Greg Wohead - Comeback Special

Friday 20th November Hercules Productions - Prison Game

Saturday 21st November Natalie Diddams - Thesmophoriazusae

Wednesday 25th – Saturday 28th November Selina Thompson - Dark and Lovely

DECEMBERFriday 4th December Louisa Claughton - Have I Got This Wrong?

OPEN

SPACE

VISITING

WORK

THEATRE IN

THE MILL

COMMISSIONS

Theatre in the Mill exists to support artists to develop new work and to put our audiences right at the heart of that development.

We do this in three ways:

OPEN SPACE: A place for artists to play, explore and develop new ideas. A place to dream and think and a place to test with an audience.

THEATRE IN THE MILL COMMISSIONS: Development commissions for artists whose work we love to create performances that can be toured.

VISITING WORK: We host the work of companies whose work adds to the conversation about what theatre is and what it can be.

THEATRE IN THE MILLUniversity of BradfordOff Shearbridge RoadBradfordBD7 1DP

BOX OFFICEBuy online: www.bradford.ac.uk/theatre01274 [email protected]

Postcode for sat navs - BD7 1NX - this will take you to Bombay Stores on Shearbridge Road - we’re opposite, down a side road into the University campus.

CONCESSIONSAvailable to full-time students, state pensioners, registered disabled people and their carers, unemployed people and children under 16.

DISABLED PARKING & ACCESSTheatre in the Mill is wheelchair-accessible with a lift to the main auditorium on the first floor. We have two disabled parking spaces nearby.

WE ARE HERE

THURSDAY 1 OCTOBER, 7.30PM

OSSETT OBSERVER PRESENTS

THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF POETRY WITH: A FIRM OF POETS£8/£6/LIMITED STUDENT OFFER: £3

A quartet of poets face the audience; in turn they step up to the mic to perform their poems. A cross between a poetic super-group and ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?’ the show is fast paced and never the same twice.

With humour, pathos, quizzes and audience participation, this is a fun night out that will both move and entertain.

A Firm of Poets is Ralph Dartford and Matt Abbott, with the duo joined by fellow poets Genevieve Walsh and John Darwin in Bradford.

A pre-show poetry workshop is available, see www.bradford.ac.uk/theatre for details.

This year’s ‘Word Of Mouth Sensation’ at Beacons Festival

VISITING

WORK

BUY TICKETS: WWW.BRADFORD.AC.UK/THEATRE BOX OFFICE: 01274 233200 [email protected] TICKETS: WWW.BRADFORD.AC.UK/THEATRE BOX OFFICE: 01274 233200 [email protected]

VISITING

WORK

VISITING

WORK

WEDS 7TH - SUN 11TH OCTOBER(performances at 6.30, 7.45 and 9pm each night)

THE OTHER WAY WORKS PRESENTS

BLACK TONICTICKETS: £20 FULL/£15 CONCESSION/£10 STUDENT (one ticket admits two people)

This performance will take place at The Bradford Hotel (see our website for details).

Interactive theatre meets mini-break as you play detective in the bedrooms and corridors of a real hotel.Be our guest: check-in at the Hotel reception and journey along corridors and into bedrooms to piece together the clues of this mysterious and visceral thriller.

The Other Way Works creates playful theatre that immerses our audiences in the story. “A dynamic young company that is successfully exploring the possibilities of what theatre can and might be.” Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

Official Hotel Partner: The Bradford Hotel. Devised by The Other Way Works. Text by Clare Duffy. Directed by Katie Day.

Funded by Arts Council England, The Sir Barry Jackson Trust, and our individual supporters through Kickstarter. Supported by Birmingham REP; Watershed, Bristol and Theatre in the Mill.

FRIDAY 16TH OCTOBER, 7.30PM

IMOVE - breath[e] : LESS £8/£6/LIMITED STUDENT OFFER: £3

Is about denial. The sea. Staying alive.The city. Sunsets. Division. Hope.It’s about how you and I might respond in our hearts and heads.To global change, threats to our habitat, love and death.Oh … and Terry and Julie. Don’t hold your breath.It is a producer and performer live set - of beats and stories that you don’t have to sit down to watch.Three performers, one DJ. A crowd.A new kind of performance/ gig experience. Dancing is allowed.The first preview of this new music and spoken word project. You are free to keep dancing after the words have finished. There’ll also be a chill-out session where you can share your responses. Words by Ralph Dartford, Tessa Gordziejko, Tom Hunt. Music by Kwah. Directed by Iain Bloomfield. breath[e]:LESS is produced by Imove Arts in association with Theatre in the Mill, Bradford.


Image: Sara Teresa

FRIDAY 30TH OCTOBER, 7.30PM

CHRIS GOODE AND COMPANY AND WARWICK ARTS CENTRE PRESENT

WEAKLINGS £8/£6/LIMITED STUDENT OFFER: £3

At a website dedicated to the work of a cult novelist and his personal obsessions, fans gather to interact with their hero – and each other. In this delirious space where identity is slippery and ideas are everything, an anarchic virtual community of queer punks and lonely teens, paranoid artists and wannabe slaves, forms and endlessly re-forms, until it’s hard to know what’s scarier: that a lot of what happens here isn’t really real – or that some of it is.Inspired by and loosely based on the notorious blog of writer and artist Dennis Cooper, Weaklings disorientingly blurs fiction and documentary, fact and fantasy, to create a compelling portrait of people on the edge, finding a strange refuge together in dangerous times.Featuring a specially composed soundtrack by Scanner, Weaklings brings together a remarkable cast, as well as two members of Chris Goode’s ‘avant-garde performance boyband’ Ponyboy Curtis.

Presented in association with Fierce Festival. Supported by Arts Council England

THEATRE IN

THE MILL

COMMISSION

Yorkshire Dance Amplified is working in partnership with Theatre in the Mill to offer audiences an opportunity to engage with its work and artists mid-development.Things Stack Up by Grace Surman will be shown as part of the project on 23rd October at 7:30pm. This experience will include a conversation around the performance shown and discussions about contemporary dance work. We would like to invite you to be part of this experience and conversation...your thoughts will be invaluable! For more information please contact Amplified Project Producer Natalie Duffield-Moore on 0113 243 9867.Amplified is a two year artist development programme funded by Esmée Fairbairn aiming to establish networks in conventional and non-conventional spaces across the region and the North for artists, venues and festivals. For more information visit our website www.yorkshiredance.com/Amplified

FRIDAY 6 - SATURDAY 7 NOVEMBER, 7.30PM

154 COLLECTIVEPRESENTS

UNDER THE BEDCO-COMMISSIONED BY ARC STOCKTON AND THEATRE IN THE MILL

£8/£6/LIMITED STUDENT OFFER: £3

When Alice is stolen away in the middle of the night by her mum she has no idea what is happening. Scared, confused and angry, Alice finds herself in a strange house, forbidden to leave, arguing with her mum during the day and hiding under her covers from the strange noises at night.

Told using performance, music, live animation and film, Under the Bed is a compelling new play about childhood trauma and what happens when nightmares are indistinguishable from reality.

154 Collective is an international group of theatre makers, visual artists, animators, musicians and writers who come together to captivate audiences by telling new stories in interesting ways. Expect stunning visuals and powerful storytelling set to an enchanting live music score.Under the Bed is also supported by Arts Council England, Bradford Council, Leeds Library & Information Service and The Civic Barnsley.

FRIDAY 13TH NOVEMBER, 7.30PM

GREG WOHEAD PRESENTS

COMEBACK SPECIAL (WORK IN PROGRESS SHOWING)

TICKETS: £3

Jam sessions, patter with a Southern drawl, big dance numbers, and a bit of sweat: this is a solo reenactment of Elvis Presley's 1968 Comeback Special.

It’s an experiment in time drag; wearing another time as drag and dragging another time into the present. What happens if the Comeback comes back? Like Chinese whispers or two mirrors facing each other or repeating a word so much it loses its meaning.

This is an early-stage sharing of ideas rather than a finished performance. Greg welcomes Elvis fans, theatre fans and anyone who thinks this reenactment might be fun (he certainly does).Co-commissioned by Shoreditch Town Hall, Theatre in the Mill and South Street Arts Centre. Developed at MAKE, Bios, Greenwich and Lewisham Young People’s Theatre and the New Wolsey Theatre. Initially supported through a Dance and the Homemade Commission by Chisenhale Dance Space. Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Image: Richard Eaton.


THEATRE IN

THE MILL

COMMISSION

THEATRE IN

THE MILL

COMMISSION

FRIDAY 20TH NOVEMBER, 7.30PM

HERCULES PRODUCTIONS

PRISON GAME (WORK IN PROGRESS SHOWING) TICKETS: £3

When prison is your world, how do you function within society?

Developed through real life accounts, Prison Game tells the story of an unsuspecting young boy and the extraordinary experiences that life challenges him with throughout his journey into adulthood.

Prison Game is a physical theatre solo performance packed with an intense narrative, a gripping and at times chilling insight into the life of one of the first generation of ‘starred up’ criminals in the UK, and how prison can define a man.

Hercules Productions was set up in 2006 by writer, director and actor, Marcus Hercules. The company creates eye opening performance events that are reflective of the conflicts and cultures of the urban landscapes of the UK today.

“A rich, intensely focused, solo tour-de-force; 'Breaking Bad in Bradford', if you will” audience response.

OPEN

SPACE

OPEN

SPACE

SATURDAY 21ST NOVEMBER, 7.30PM

NATALIE DIDDAMS

THESMOPHORIAZUSAE TICKETS: £3Feminist activist and theatre maker Natalie Diddams presents a work in progress sharing of her adaptation of Aristophanes' Thesmophoriazusae, investigating how the gender politics of comedy (and the comedy of gender politics) has been used to silence... and how it can be used to empower.

Working with BBC Radio 4 writer Ed Harris, stand-up comic and academic Kate Fox and a group of funny women from Bradford, this scratch performance will address the relationship between ancient and modern sexism through the lens of Ancient Greek comedy.

Natalie Diddams was co-director of My Brother’s Country, which premiered at Theatre in the Mill in February 2015.

“A stirring piece of thought-provoking theatre” The Manchester Review.


OPEN SPACE: A place for artists to play, explore and develop new ideas. A place to dream and think and a place to test with an audience.

WEDNESDAY 25 - SATURDAY 28 NOVEMBER, 7.30PM

SELINA THOMPSON

DARK AND LOVELY£8/£6/LIMITED STUDENT OFFER: £3

Selina Thompson has been exploring afro hair: its politics, its connotations, its history and what it tells us about being Black, British and Female in the UK today.

Dark & Lovely is a performance from inside the Tumbleweave; a home for hair built from abandoned weaves and extensions. Using recorded conversation, music and written text Selina explores the complexities of social debate surrounding Black hair, transforming the Tumbleweave, which is admittedly ‘a little bit gross’, into something beautiful, which can transcend the weight of all the connotations placed upon it, and reveal just what our hair does, and more importantly, doesn’t tell us, about what it is to be Black.

BOX OFFICE: 01274 233200

E-MAIL: [email protected]

TWITTER: @braduniarts

FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/theatreinthemill

FRIDAY 4TH DECEMBER, 7.30PM

LOUISA CLAUGHTON

HAVE I GOT THIS WRONG? (WORK IN PROGRESS SHOWING)

TICKETS: £3

This is one person's attempt to work out what gender means to them. This is my attempt to work out what gender means to me. I’m mapping it out, retracing my steps and trying to work out how I got here. I need your help in order to know if I've got this right. I need an outside view, I need you to validate me...it.

Have I Got This Wrong? is a work in progress. It is part of a project exploring how we perceive gender and deconstructing where that perception comes from. In the space there are a series of words, a microphone, pens, paper and a line on the floor. Where we go from there depends on the path the audience and the performer take.

Louisa Claughton makes work which puts the audience at the centre of the performance. Her work often incorporates elements of stand up, spoken word, visual and live art.

OPEN

SPACE

THEATRE IN

THE MILL

COMMISSION

BUY ONLINE: www.bradford.ac.uk/theatre

theatre in the mill - autumn winter 2015

Documents