It’s been a while since we last wrote on our blog, partly because so much has been happening – the theatre world is positively buzzing at the moment. If you don’t already follow it, Lyn Gardner’s blog has this terrific round up each week that will keep you abreast of what is happening across the country.
So… we’ve had a moments pause to reflect on our summer season in which we tried something a bit different by linking together a number of shows under the banner Everything Is Real There Is No Audience. The feedback was extremely positive and people seemed to really enjoy this style of programming – do let us know your thoughts if you haven’t yet.
An absolute highlight has to be Ontroerend Goed’s A Game Of You, which had an amazing response. Our favourite tweets/blogs were: “Eye opening genius” and “I now truly see myself”. Quite. Was everyone brave enough to listen to their CD? It took us about a week. OG do a fine line in work that has a profound and personal impact and we are very much looking forward to seeing their new show Audience at the Edinburgh Festival this year – we anticipate more surprises, are slightly nervous as always and will eagerly pursue any UK touring opportunities.
There was also a really warm response to Leo Kay’s It’s Like He’s Knocking, The Summer House and Bane – which was a cheeky little sell-out right at the end of the season. Bane 2 and 3 are in Edinburgh so we’ll take a look at both of those too. Finally, Shlomo left all of us with our jaws round our ankles – what a legend! Wowed us all some with awesome beat-boxing and (as he put it) “polite conversation – what a mix!” Check out his website if you didn’t make it along and catch him again – anyone interested in seeing his band?
We also helped to produce The Irish Giant event in partnership with The Centre for the History of Medicine as part of their Being Human project. It was great to get another chance to see Cartoon De Salvo’s new show in development (we’re very keen to see the finished article) but what really seemed to appeal to the audience was the combination of a great show followed by a panel discussion hosted by Dr Claudia Stein from CHM about the themes raised in the piece. It was brilliant. The ever on the money Janet Vaughan from Talking Birds (@vornster) described the evening as a “piece of theatre followed by an episode of Front Row”. We are talking to CHM about how we might collaborate with them again to bring more events like this into the Arts Centre.
Although our season is now officially over until Autumn, there is still loads of exciting stuff happening here. Not least the launch of a brand new commissioning strategy that we’ve developed: Triggered at Warwick Arts Centre. The idea is for artists to come to us with outstanding new ideas for shows and for us to offer them the support they need to “trigger” the process that sets the project in motion. Over the next 3 years this will mean that loads of exciting new projects will get launched here and that you can see some of the UK’s most exciting artist take their first steps on a new artistic adventure. Triggered at Warwick Arts Centre will launch on Friday 22 July with an early work in progress showing from internationally renowned Mark Murphy of his new show Take A Deep Breath. The show uses aerial choreography and animation to explore the death-defying world of free diving – judging by the number of BAFTAs in the meeting room at AKA animation (we went there for a meeting with Mark) this isn’t one to miss…
Looking ahead to the Autumn we are really excited about bringing Sound&Fury (Kursk) back to Warwick with their new show Going Dark, creating an opportunity to see the seminal Schrodinge from Reckless Sleepers, laughing our socks off with New Art Club (who kick things off on 11 October) and having managed to get Operation Greenfield a show that is fast becoming a cult hit up and down the country.
We should just mention the wonderful BE Festival that we attended last week, which was absolutely splendid. Look out for the brilliant Furies from Kindle Theatre a lovely new work from Thomas Eccleshare, Perle and if they ever come to the UK again the rather amazing Sleepwalk Collective.
A huge thank you to everyone that blogs and tweets, we love talking to you. We’ll be in Edinburgh again over the summer so we’ll keep you up to date with what we’ve seen and post our hot Festival tips – let us know if you’re there and maybe we’ll get a chance to say hello in person…
Ed and Paul
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