We will be hosting two briefing sessions for artists interested in applying for our Common Ground commissioning opportunity to find out more.

This is the second of two briefings, taking place Tuesday 7 July at 11am with Zena Edwards.

Raised in Tottenham, North London, Zena Edwards has become known as one the most unique voices of performance poetry to come out of London. She is also known for her polemic voice, speaking on panels for climate change and creative campaigning for equality and equitable rights.

Zena has been involved in performance for 20 years – as a writer/poet performer, facilitator, creative project developer and vocalist after graduating from Middlesex University. 

As part of Season for Change, Zena will be working with Apples and Snakes on a new commission in 2020/21.

Who is this briefing for?

UK-based artists, makers or creators. Common Ground invites applications from artists who identify as Black, Asian and minority ethnic/POC, refugee, D/deaf, disabled, neurodivergent, working class and/or LGBTQI+.

Access

The sessions will be delivered digitally. If you would like this session to be captioned or BSL signed, or you require other access support, please email info@seasonforchange.org.uk.

Visit there website

Introducing Lockdown: Green Up! ☝️

A digital environmental theatre week, sharing the work of climate theatre-makers & artists, for those wanting to integrate eco-practices into their work 🌍 With livestreamed conversations & Q+As!

We hope this will contribute to the ongoing discussion over how artists, venues and producers can green up, engage with climate injustice & reimagine a more sustainable industry.

Conversations and Q+As will be streamed live on Facebook and most sessions will remain online afterwards to create a database of accessible climate theatre resources. We’ll also be sharing artists making climate work each day on social media.

🔎 Streaming is not entirely carbon neutral! To minimise our impact, we will be offsetting the carbon cost of people streaming our workshops, and the electric energy we’ve used preparing the week, with the advice of our friends Climate Stewards.

All sessions will be available captioned within one week of streaming.

All sessions are free of charge. However, if you’re able, we ask participants to donate the price of a £5 “ticket” (or whatever is appropriate!) to a fund, such as these supporting artists:

👉 ARTISTS FUND ARTISTS who are redistributing all funds raised before 1 August 2020 to Black artists in the UK:
www.gofundme.com/f/artistsfundartists

👉 TERRIBLE RAGE, covering essential costs for artists ineligible for the Self Employed scheme & unsuccessful in their ACE Emergency Funding application:
www.gofundme.com/f/theatre-makers-ineligible-and-unsuccessful

SCHEDULE OF LIVESTREAMED SESSIONS 👇
(Times BST, unless stated)

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‪Start with the Land 🍃

A conversation with playwright David Geary and site-specific theatre-creator Kendra Fanconi, on the relationship between art and nature, and making work with the land at its heart.

‪📅 Mon 29 June 4pm‬ (8am PT)

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‪How is theatre adapting in a time of climate crisis? 💚‬
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A conversation with Lyn Gardner, and theatre-makers & Staging Change co-directors Alice Boyd & Josie Dale-Jones, about how emerging theatre makers are adapting for greener future 👊‬

‪📆 Mon 29 June 5:30pm‬

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‪Signalling Through The Waves 🌊‬

‪Creating a durational performance with the sea & approaching work through a ‘climate lens’, with pioneering eco-critic Una Chaudhuri, and artist & director Sarah Cameron Sunde 🌳‬

‪📆 Mon 29 June 6:30pm‬ (13:30 EST)

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‪Rethinking Design, and Embracing Eco-Scenography ♻️ ‬

‪What is Eco-Scenography? Pioneering eco-designers Tanja Beer (The Living Stage) + Andrea Carr on rethinking design practices & reinterpreting materials to integrate ecological principles. ‬

‪📆 Tues 30 June 10:30am‬ (19:30 ACT)

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‪Making the Digital LIVE 💻 ‬

‪Joe Ball, Artistic Director of Exit Productions and theatre-maker/political-activist Zack Polanski discuss digitalising their interactive environmental show, Eco Chambers.

‪📆 Tues 30 June 5:30pm

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Thinking Bigly: How to make an anti-TED talk

We talk to Ben Yeoh and David Finnigan about making their theatre-performance talk ‘Thinking Bigly: A Guide To Saving the World’ and finding hope in the midst of the climate crisis.

‪📆 Wed 1 July (Time TBC)

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Lighting a Greener Path 💡 ‬

‪Olivier Award-winning lighting designer, Paule Constable (associate of National Theatre, Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and Lyric Hammersmith Theatre), discusses incorporating environmental sustainability into her practice for a brighter future.‬

‪📆 Wed 1 July 5:30pm‬

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‪Making Green Productions 💚‬

‪We discuss how Julie’s Bicycle are paving the way to green productions, and top tips on how to make your show sustainable with Julie’s Bicycle Creative Green Programme Lead, Graciela Melitsko Thornton 🦎‬

‪📆 Wed 1 July 6:30pm‬

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‪Running on Your Own Energy 🚲 ‬

Award-winning choreographer, Prue Lang, on powering theatre with renewable energy generated live during performance & how to create Green Guidelines for your practice 💃‬

‪📆 Thurs 2 July 11am‬

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‪Integrating Science & Eco-Philosophy into Theatre ✍️ ‬

We discuss the research process for climate play Dweepa with playwright Abhishek Majumdar (Pah-La The Royal Court Theatre): science, philosophy, and the lived experience of Bengali communities.

‪📆 Thurs 2 July 2pm‬ (18:30 IST)

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Telling Climate Stories Through Dance 💃

We talk to international award-winning dance company VOU Fiji about “Are We Stronger Than Winston?”, and investigating the human costs of climate change on Pacific communities through dance.

‪📆 Fri 3 July 9am (20:00 FST)

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‪Peddling sustainable practices with The HandleBards 🚲 ‬

An interactive workshop led by the HandleBards, cycling Shakespeare company & Edinburgh Sustainable Practice Award-winners, on how to implement sustainable practices into your company. (Details on signing up to follow!)

‪📆 Fri 3 July 5:30pm‬

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Towards Climate Justice 💪

A knowledge sharing with Groundwater Arts on re-evaluating your practise with a climate justice lens and their Green New Theatre proposal, applying the #GreenNewDeal to the theatre industry.

‪📆 Sat 4 July 4pm‬ (11:00 EST) TBC

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Making Saving the Planet Sexy 🎉 ‬

‪“Why can’t you enjoy a good sex story whilst wanting to save the planet?”‬ Award-winning comedian and climate activist, Steve Hili (Steve Hili – Comedy), on writing and performing climate comedy 🤪‬

‪📆 Sat 4 July 6:30pm‬

Lead Editor’s note: We will be publishing excerpts from Q18: dis/sustain/ability, guest edited by Bronwyn Preece, in order to make the content accessible to blind readers with audio screen readers. We’ll also be including audio descriptions of the Quarterly’s original layout designed by Stephanie Plenner, audio described ky Katie Murphy. Please stay tuned for future posts and share widely. In this chapter, Ray Jacobs discusses the process of creating “Four Solos in the Wild.”

Four Solos in the Wild By Ray Jacobs

I am in a familiar situation — a circle of twelve talented learning-disabled dancers from Arty Party — partaking of the ritual known as warming up. Each performer takes their turn to lead, taking their moment in the spotlight and passing it on to the next performer…     Each performer has a distinct movement language honed through a lifetime of dance and movement based projects, or simply their own indomitable style.

Mervyn (Performers’ names used with permission) begins, with movements and gestures that have power, gravitas and yet they still hold qualities of softness. Graham, who has an incredible graceful sense of wingspan within his arms, beguiles us with his bird-like movement. Erika brings weaves a lightness of moving with contagious joy and laughter to match. Andrew, all angles and emotion, falls into the drama of dancing, daring us to be part of that drama.  Dean adds his twisting, repetitive and darkly comedic movements of subterfuge.

My name is Ray Jacobs, director of performance projects for Arty Party, a learning- disability arts organisation based in Shropshire, England. Four Solos in the Wild, is a touring exhibition of dance solos filmed in ancient wild woods. This is the story of how the project evolved from a moment’s desire, into — two years later — learning-disabled performers sharing their work with the public at the Tate Modern Museum in London. I speak as an observer, a facilitator, a director and a learner in this unfolding process.

The warm-up sparked the initial spark.  During it, I had a growing hunger for this movement to be shared within a landscape that meets the performers incredible qualities and Tycanol Woods came to mind.  I wondered what if the performers were to respond to, be taken up by, and place their movements within the magical Tycanol Woods?  

Months later, seven learning disabled performers and a team of artists arrived at Pentre Ifan Centre in the Woods. After hastily unpacking sleeping bags and choosing bunk beds, we began a ritual of filling water bottles, donning walking boots, cagoules (waterproof jackets), and gathering for adventure. Support, patience, openness and laughter replaced habitual urgency.

The movement solo, especially when created by the performer, is an intensely artistic and personal statement. This, I felt, would be the right channel for the performers to create and have agency over their own work. We would be creating an installation of four film screens, showing each solo continually looped, surrounded by a forest of images of the performers captured by dance photographer Chris Nash.

Movement facilitator, Simon Whitehead, led us through the atmospheric Tycanol Woods, where, like a many-legged creature finding its pace after a long time immobile, we found a rhythm and a pace that suited everyone.  We splashed, splattered, crunched, and slid. There are members of the company who find uneven surfaces challenging, but the group met squelchy mud, slippery rocks and glorious cushions of moss, with creativity, cooperation and laughter. The excitement and group impetus gave energy and verve to everyone. Playfulness is a strong, committed member of the group.

During the walk we stopped at a glade opening, deeply moss covered rocks and oaks in the foreground, an island of oaks on the horizon. The instructions were to walk towards the horizon and find a place to be, within the landscape. Once the first person arrived and settled, the next person was to follow and find their own place in relation to both the landscape and the other performer, and so on. Half the group witnessed the forming of this landscape portrait. The act of walking into an opening, being in a chosen place, alive to the environment, felt like a statement of sovereignty over our bodies, yet at the same time we were supported by each other and the landscape. We returned, one at a time, leaving no physical trace of the group but inhabiting it with memories.

Tycanol Woods is an ancient dark oak woodland, rich in moss, fern and lichen. Towards the hostel is a more recent, lighter part of the woods, with a mixture of beech, oak, sycamore and holly, ideal for bonfires and days when we don’t want to walk quite so far. Gathering the performers around an old fire pit, amongst a group of large beech trees, Simon gave the performers a task in pairs: one person leads, listening, seeing, touching the environment as they walk through the woods. The other follows. The leader is looking for a place that resounds, feels right, invites. Once the right place is found, the leader becomes dancer, spends time connecting with this place and then with eyes closed begins to move. When the dance comes to an end, eye contact is made between the mover and witness and the roles are reversed. Solos are created.

As a group we visit each solo. Graham Busby has chosen some long forgotten dens made of branches. He hides and scurries between the old dens like a hermit crab. His witness, Wren, aids the shell building, covering Graham’s body with leaves and branches. Erika Juniper dances around the base of a big beech tree, a dance of fingers sensing and listening, a powerful connection and longing.

Back in the studio the work was recalled in writing and drawing, and re-enacted, each performer was allocated a mentor who supported this recording process. These tasks of listening, moving and witnessing, and performance immersion within landscape, were all contributing to building the personal stories, the structure and the flavors of each performer’s solo. 

Whitehead shares memories of the retreat:

Slowly, Tycanol entered us, and the dancers became quietly attuned the place and each other…

Real time seemed to drop away and a process of composition, song and observation took us through the falling afternoon light for hours. It was both ‘real’ and sublime. 

I remember a talk by disability activist Petra Kuppers, at a conference in Ilfracombe, during which she stated that there was a strong need in disability performance to present ‘depth, heft and presence.’ This phrase has become an inner mantra and was one of the beacons moving this work forward.

Dance, historically, has been a bastion of the body perfect. An art form based on perfection is like a road ignoring all contours and cutting through the landscape with no regard and ultimately a heavy cost. Inclusive dance, on the other hand, is open to meanderings, diversions, the beauty of curves, twists, and setbacks. 

Facilitating disabled performers to make their own work or collaborating with disabled people is not a separate field, or something adjunct to the mainstream but at the very heart of being human.

Returning to the Woods two weeks later, we had the task of honing the solos, creating music and costume and filming all four solos in five days. The performers were joined by Welsh composers and musicians Ceri and Elsa, supported by mentors, and followed by film makers.

The musicians had researched traditional music composed in the region. Morning movement sessions, led by inclusive dance artist Rachel Liggitt, forged an incredible link between performers and musicians. The musicians learned to respond to the dancers and the dancers, breathing in the notes of harp and fiddle, breathed out beautiful, moving dance. 

“It felt so good being out in the woods by the tree, spending time with it.” – Erika, performer.

Erika’s solo was woven together with the song a Cantref that the musicians had unearthed.  The song is a message from a yearning lover sung to a bird who would relay the message to her heart’s desire. Erika’s dance of whispering, tender strokes and circling the tree sparked our imagination…  Erika, in a flowing purple gown, performs the solo with incredible concentration and presence. The musician’s voices add atmosphere to this scene in the heart of the woods. When Erika reaches out to touch the tree and the haunting Welsh voices begin, it is deeply moving. Performers, camera crew, mentors, and support artists are mesmerized and applaud every take.

“I’m feeling really good today, we did the filming, it was really wicked.” – Erika

Whilst given the space to find their own creativity, the performers were provided with rigorous direction, feedback, mentoring and critique, enabling them to work to the highest professional standard. I remember as a performer in an inclusive touring dance company, during a physically and emotional gruelling devising process, the disabled dancers stated critically that they did not receive the wrath and demands of the director as much as the non-disabled dancers.  Arty Party’s process aimed not to recapitulate inequality. 

One of the ground rules we had been given was to ‘be here and now’… amongst the calls of ravens, rush of streams and flight of the air. Andrew Kelly, one of the performers, initially struggled with this: falling into dramas of ‘another world’: being chased, dodging bullets, breaking down doors. I suggested a simple score of calling out loud the things we feel and the things we see right here: the edge of a leaf, the roughness of lichen, the call of a raven, a distant aeroplane, the snap of a branch underfoot. Opening the door to the present also invites all the things we are avoiding.

Andrew’s dance Letting Go was the last piece to be filmed, on dappled ground under the canopy of a sinuous oak: harpist, fiddle player, film crew and Andrew in spring sunshine, making sense of it all. During an interview, Andrew put his solo into words:

Breaking out from the cage of branches is finding my freedom.

Touching the sapling gently, I remember my Mother’s love.

I break and throw the branches, I feel raw with anger about my mother’s death.

Letting go of the branch is just that, letting go of it all and starting anew.

During the post-production process the films were edited exactly as they were performed, using shots from different camera angles to bring out the best.

Community dance pioneer, Cecilia Macfarlane, once shared during a lecture at Coventry University, that “Every project has a storm, it might happen at any time but I assure you it will.”  The storm happened three weeks after getting back from filming, when we all found out that Dean Warburton and his mother had been killed in a car crash on the way to the workshop.

The remainder of this workshop and others during the following weeks were amongst the most emotionally challenging myself and my colleagues had ever facilitated. Performers and teachers shared so much grief, attempts at running a class regularly breaking down, with the whole group sharing memories and in tears. Attending Dean’s funeral with group members really brought it home. Three weeks before, we were in beautiful woods exploring the idea of burying each other amongst branches, moss and birdsong, with the usual funny, soft, expressive Dean, and here we were at his funeral, Dean’s larger than life body in a wooden coffin being carried gently by his family.

The Four Solos in the Wild opening was to be a celebration of the exhibition and a wake for the life of Dean. It was only upon setting up the four screens, each showing a looped solo, that we realized how beautifully they worked together as a quartet. Many people working at the theatre entered the space and were mesmerized by this quartet of solos – actions, gestures and stories full of presence and connection. Arty Party has a membership of one hundred, many of whom were present. The opening was a beautiful, wild, red carpet event. 

The exhibition toured seven UK venues. At each opening the performers spoke to the public about the project and their solos, each time growing in confidence. When the exhibition was shown locally, it was a chance for the learning-disabled performers to share their work with support workers, family and friends. To hear how people were moved by the presence, qualities of movement, sense of inner story, was music to our ears. The performers grew visibly in stature through the process of sharing their work and the positive public response.

We are currently preparing for the project finale, a sharing of the filmed solos at the Tate Modern Cinema, organised by learning-disability film festival Oska Bright.  Presenters have been Skyping with the performers on a regular basis. The performers will be invited to talk about their work in front of an audience of learning-disabled people, film festival programmers and curators.  From the ancient woods of Tycanol to the South Bank in London, it will be a fitting finale to quite an adventure…

Biography

Ray Jacobs is a UK based artist who uses the mediums of image, film and movement to highlight the beauty, power and presence in the narratives that surround us. Ray works as a director and facilitator, creating imaginative and powerful works with a wide variety of companies, performers and participatory groups in particular collaborating with disabled artists.  He states, “I aim in my work to create movement and image which steps quietly into the human heart”.

His recent multi award-winning short films include The Sea Reminds Me and Bastion.  He is currently developing a new film based project with Arty Party based on the writings of Canadian Sci Fi author Jeff Vandermeer.

What it is:

All Green Room events are in English only

As part of its response to the escalating climate crisis – and in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic – NAC English Theatre in partnership with Festival of Live Digital Art (FOLDA), the Canada Council for the Arts, The City of Kingston, HowlRound Theatre Commons and The National Theatre School is bringing together participants for an extraordinary three-day/three-country digital experiment to re-imagine the future of theatre.

Join us for spirited conversations with leaders in fields such as climate activism, ecological economy and environmental humanities, as well as with theatre artists and leaders who have found innovative ways to engage with the climate crisis.

A limited number of active participants will join the event on Zoom, from eight cities across three countries: Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Kingston, Montreal, and Halifax, as well as London (U.K.) and New York. In addition, a livestream of the event will be accessible to spectators everywhere.

Please note: If you are not in one of those cities, you can still participate by joining the city closest to you or the one most meaningful to you!

Co-curated by Sarah Garton Stanley and Chantal Bilodeau.

Schedule: (subject to change)

DAY 1: Wednesday, June 10, 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. (EDT)

• Opening Picnic

DAY 2: Thursday, June 11, 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. (EDT)

• Climate Despair – 3-4 p.m. (EDT)
• How Artists Respond – 4-5 p.m. (EDT) 
• Leadership and Structures for Change – 5-6 p.m. (EDT)
• Averting Climate Breakdown – 6-7 p.m. (EDT)
• The Future: What is it? – 9-10 p.m. (EDT) 
• DJ Syrus Marcus Ware: Dance Like the Earth is Watching – 10-11 p.m. EDT

DAY 3: Friday, June 12, 2:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. (EDT)

• The Closing Act

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How to participate:

The Green Rooms are an online gathering space where we will engage with the climate crisis. There are two ways to get involved:

As an active participant

If you wish to actively participate, experiment and play, send an email expressing your interest to climatechangecycle@nac-cna.ca.

Please note, there is limited availability for active participants. If interested please be in touch at your earliest convenience: climatechangecycle@nac-cna.ca.

During the three-day event, active participants will be called upon to help create an environment of curiosity and play. This multi-layered gathering has never been tried. As an active participant you will be part of creating a raucous space that is part-picnic, part-convening and part co-creation.

As a spectator

Spectators can join the livestream throughout the scheduled times above and witness all the sessions, discussions and performances over the three days.

Watch the livestream here

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For more information:

Contact climatechangecycle@nac-cna.ca 

We’re taking a pause from our scheduled feed of projects, opportunities, and ideas about the intersection of sustainability and arts practice to direct your attention elsewhere on this Blackout Tuesday.

We don’t have a long statement. We don’t want to hold your attention while black lives are in true crisis.

We, instead, would like to encourage you to support Black Lives Matter in whatever way you can. We’re linking to BLM Toronto specifically for a host of reasons, but will just share this quote from a leader in that organizations:

” The root of my activism is to make changes to ensure an intersectional sustainable future, which means showing up for the communities that are the most vulnerable.”

You can donate here: https://blacklivesmatter.ca/donate/

Collect and complete ecosystem sets while learning about connections in nature. Happy Ecosystems is appropriate for players ages 7 and up and is intended for groups of 2-6 players.

The game includes facts about 10 endangered or threatened animals and the plants, animals, and environmental factors they depend on for survival. It introduces concepts of interdependence, adaptation, conservation, and protection.

More Information and to Download (Name your own price)

Due to COVID-19 and this period of social distancing, ECOLOGICAL CITY: Procession for Climate Solutions has transitioned to ECOLOGICAL CITY: Art & Climate Solutions VIRTUAL PAGEANT. 

Saturday, May 9 2020 
LIVE EVENT – EARTH CELEBRATIONS FACEBOOK – https://www.facebook.com/EarthCelebrations/

Over 100 PARTICIPANTS - artists, performers and garden and partner organizations videos contributions of gardens and performers are shared from remote locations on Earth Celebrations Facebook page  – 11am – 4pm

BECOME A CLIMATE SOLUTION – SIGN-UP & PARTICIPATE
PARADE-in-PLACE from HOME 1-1:30pm — JOIN – CLIMATE COSTUME – ZOOM VIDEO
Create a nature-inspired homemade costume celebrating the natural world, gardens, rivers and climate solutions and share a selfie video PARADING-in-PLACE from HOME!

TKTS – Free – REGISTER https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ecological-city-art-climate-solutions-virtual-pageant-tickets-92293487305
(request to receive ZOOM LINK)

Create a nature-inspired homemade costume celebrating the natural world, gardens, rivers and climate solutions and share a selfie video PARADING-in-PLACE from HOME!

PARTICIPATE – #VOLUNTEER – CONTACT
Earth Celebrations-Ecological and Social Change through the Arts or https://earthcelebrations.com/volunteer-ecological-city-sign/

The Greening Arts Practice Guide [GAP Guide] is a guide for artists and arts organisations who want to develop a more environmentally responsible arts practice. The guide is free, and can be downloaded from the Chrysalis Arts Development website. An online version will follow in the near future. It brings together what we at Chrysalis Arts have learned about addressing the cli-mate crisis, and other related issues, through over a decade of work in the area. It also features 11 case studies from a diverse range of artists and some examples of our own recent work.

The Guide aims to offer a range of entry points and approaches for artists at different stages in their creative practice. It is not intended to be a ‘how-to’ or a definitive tool kit, but instead aims to create an opportunity for artists to question and develop their work, supported by the range of knowledge we can share. We hope that the Guide will help artists to tackle the issues and constraints which will inevitably arise in their practice by learning from the direct experiences and reflections of others.

As we all try to become more environmentally responsible, sharing the knowledge we have is of upmost importance. We plan to evolve the Guide over time, as we continue to focus our efforts in this area.

You can download the guide here:

GAP-Guide