Current Projects
Made in Brighton are involved in a wide-selection of projects, a summary of which can be found in this section.
DREAMTHINKSPEAK
dreamthinkspeak was founded by Artistic Director Tristan Sharps in November 1999. Their artistic policy is:
- To explore the use of space light, image and text as equal ingredients in creating non-naturalistic, non-narrative theatre.
- To explore how the use of different environments can radically alter the relationship of the audience to the work.
In pursuing this policy dreamthinkspeak is committed to creating theatre that is ambitious but accessible and which seeks to engage the audience in a theatrical journey, and provide them with an environment for them to inhabit, not simply a performance for them to sit and watch. They aim to make full imaginative use of theatre spaces or any other sites that are technically able to support their work. They are also committed to collaborating with directors, designers, artists and performers on a regional, national and international level to produce theatre that will tour natioanlly and internationally.
dreamthinkspeak premieried their new piece 'Underground', based on Dostojevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' in the Brighton Festival, May 2005. The production was a major hit at the Festival and will next be seen in London as part of the Barbican's BITE:05 Festival. For more information on dreamthinkspeak, please visit their website: www.dreamthinkspeak.com
PERIPLUM THEATRE COMPANY
Periplum Tree has been widely hailed as one of the most original, gifted & exciting theatre companies to emerge in the U.K in recent years. Formed in 1999 to combine the talents of actress, director & visual designer Claire Raftery with writer/actor Damian Wright, they place equal importance on all elements of performance: producing new writing, devising striking visuals, commissioning original soundtracks, as well as stretching the actor to their physical and emotional limit. Whether in detailing the delirium of an overdosed mind or in depicting the voluptuous workings of a social revolution, they are dedicated to realising the minutiae and the massiveness of the artistic vision. They work to offer audiences rare and extraordinary experiences with a firm belief that theatre can make magic happen. They are also practicing teachers of theatre with extensive experience in running workshops for students of all ages and abilities, which often result in both small and large-scale performances.
Arquiem
Made In Brighton Ltd are a central partner in a three-way commission for the new outdoor show 'ARQUIEM' which premiered at Winchester Hat Fair to huge acclaim, following a preview at South Hill Park.
Night is falling. A medieval cart is wheeled through town, resounding with the percussion of an avenging mob. A young man is taken to his final judgement. This is Arquiem: a first-love story, a murder ballad and a public execution, featuring vibrant text and powerful performances.
Inspired by Blake’s Songs of Innocence & Experience and Browning’s Porphyria’s Lover, Arquiem is a powerful and distinctive outdoor promenade performance that uses live and recorded sound, stilts, pyrotechnics, acrobatics and beautifully crafted mobile structures to tell this simple story of a boy who murders his love to preserve the memory of that moment forever.
“Arquiem is a piece crackling with dark energy & many stunning visual moments. Periplum prove that outdoor theatre is an appropriate medium for dark and thought-provoking work, to chilling effect. This looks to evolve into a truly great outdoor piece.”
Dorothy Max Prior, Total Theatre
‘They re-inject a sense of ritual and wonder into theatre-going.’
David Gritten, Daily Telegraph
‘Their productions display incredible richness of imagination.’
Joy Hendrie, The Scotsman
‘Modern theatre doesn’t get much better.’
Matthew Gerraghty, Brighton & Hove Argus
‘How original and fantastic their style of theatre is.’
Thelma Goode, Edinburgh Guide
Arquiem is available for touring in 2006. A video and full publicity package is available on request.
3 - Monkey Productions: Artistic Director MIKE MARTINS
Mike Martins co-founded ‘Martinez & Fabrega’, a comedy street arts company, with Ivan Fabrega in 2000, after being a solo performance artist for the previous 5 years. Within this period Mike toured his solo street theatre and cabaret shows as well as performing with various venue based theatre and circus companies such as: ‘the Generating Company’ & ‘Platform 4 Theatre Company’ and more recently ‘The World Famous’, ‘Transe Express’ and Gongo Moose
As a Street Arts consultant he works with festivals such as Winchester Hat Fair (also active member of their steering committee) ,Streets of Brighton Festival and Brighton Fringe Festival and has also produced many one-off cabaret and street theatre events. For the last 4 years, Mike has also been working with ‘The World Famous Fireworkers’’ (on various projects, including a central Role in ‘Blast’) and collaborated with French “Companie Provisoire” to produce ‘The Picturescope Travelling Show’.
Mike Martins is now reforming the company as 3 Monkeys (previously Martinez & Fabrega) to work with a collective of artists from mixed art forms and aims to create a leading British Street Arts Company producing and presenting various scale of work.
Made In Brighton Ltd are the lead commissioners in the first stage of a long-term large-scale outdoor show development, beginning in 2005.
NEWS FROM NOWHERE / TIM CROUCH – AN OAK TREE
Tim Crouch is a performer, writer and teacher.
An Oak Tree is Tim Crouch's second play for adults, following the hugely successful My Arm.
It tells the story of two men, one who has turned a tree into his daughter, one who has lost his ability to make a convincing suggestion.
Set within the form of a stage hypnotist's act - ten chairs strung across the stage, gaudy pyrotechnics, cheesy jokes, ill amplified music - An Oak Tree brings these two men together. Themes of human suggestibility, art and loss are woven throughout a vivid and often absurdly comical narrative which swoops between a tree by a road and the stage of a pub.
An Oak Tree previews in the South East in June, before playing at Edinburgh Festival, with a UK tour in autumn 05 and spring 06.
He is an Education Associate at the National Theatre, Associate Artist at the Franklin Stage Company, New York, Writer in Residence at the Nationaltheater Mannheim. And the recipient of a Peggy Ramsay Foundation award.
Previous work includes my arm (2003) the story of someone who lives with one arm above their head for thirty years. It opened at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Festival 2003 and has toured nationally and internationally, including opening the Brits Off Broadway Festival in New York in April 2004, a three week run at BAC in London in June 2004. It was broadcast on BBC Radio Three in July 2004. The script is published by Faber and Faber. Tim’s other work includes three shows for Brighton Festival (I Banquo will be performed in 2005) and Shopping for Shoes (commissioned by the National Theatre). A co-production by the BBC and Visible Fictions, Toto Ker-blammo, opens in 2006.
PRODIGAL THEATRE COMPANY at The Nightingale Theatre
"That which we consider to be true art is that which appears not to be art at all"
Castiglione
The Nightingale Theatre is a 50 seat fringe theatre venue situated above the Grand Central Bar right beside Brighton's main train station.
The Theatre is dedicated to supporting Theatre and Dance of excellence by new, emerging and existing artists.
There is a non-hierarchical programming policy. Performers are accepted into the programme based on the presence of integrity in their work, rather than a particular style, genre or status. All performers enjoy the same 50-50 box office split and pay no other fees or guarantees to the venue.
Thanks to the support of Made in Brighton the Nightingale is building links with the Battersea Arts Centre and is beginning to commission new works following the BAC's Development Ladder model. The Nightingale's first Scratch Night will take place in December and this will become a monthly event, followed in time by Scratch Commissions leading to full scale performances of new works.
Prodigal Theater Co., who run the NIghtingale, are currently perfoming their trilogy 'The Tragedian' at Edinburgh Fringe Festival
For more details contact dan@prodigaltheatre.co.uk or call the box office on 01273 702563
ZYGO – JULIA PASTRANA and THE FALSE CORPSE
ZYGO - formed in 2002 - is an affilitation of collaborators olod and new, dedicated to producing theatre which has been described as 'the real thing' (Time Out)
Andrea Brooks is the Artsitic Director. Her work has attracted excited audiences and enthusiastic reviews for several years.
This dynamic company will be performing The True History of the Tragic life and triumphant death of Julia Pastrana, the ugliest woman in the world along with a new commission, 'The False Corpse' at the Theatre Royal Brighton during the Brighton Festival in May 2005. For more information on Zygo, please visit their website at www.zygo-arts.com
ROSAMUND HALL
Rosamund Hall joined Made in Brighton in March 2004 as a trainee Producer. She is currently working with dreamthinkspeak, Zygo and Ape on a variety of projects. As well as this practical experience and knowledge that she is gaining, Made in Brighton are exploring means of professional development through more formal means of assessment and training.SMALL WONDER
Small Wonder is a company that works collaboratively with accomplished artists from different disciplines to create innovative site-specific visual performance work.
The main collaborators and directors for their new project 'PALMHOUSE' are Graeme Gilmour, Paul Harrington and Charlie Morrissey. All have extensive experience of devising and producing exciting visual theatre in unusual places. They will bring together an experienced team of creative and production professionals to deliver the project.
The Venue: The Palm House is a beautiful glass building lying empty on Stanmer Park Estate, behind Stanmer house and adjacent to Stanmer nurseries.
Natures Powerhouse – The story
The Palm House is a performance event which draws on notions of gardening, the cycle of the seasons, the fragility of life, germination, growth, decay, and death.
The glasshouse is a focus for the suns energy, powering natures engine. Water pumped in is the catalyst for life. The air is heavy with heat and moisture, the soil heaves with the pulse of a billion insects. It’s a jungle in there!Greenhouses are man-made constructions; microcosmic representations of human relationships with the natural world. They are a metaphor for, on the one hand, our need to create and grow, and on the other, our obsession with taming and controlling the wilder areas of our lives – a constant struggle to keep the weeds down. The English, it is said, are a nation of gardeners and it is through the gardener that the story will unfold. Exploring universal metaphors and symbolism inherent within the theme they will create a performance experience that is sure to appeal to and inspire a wide audience.
MARK WHEATLY
"You think cooking at the top level is about recipes, presentation or creativity?...It's about consistency, it's about repetition. I don't want ideas in my kitchen, I want character. I don't want a three-star cookery artist with delusions of one day having his own tv show, I want somebody who can keep up... and most of all I want blind and fanatical loyalty... And that goes for a lot of other things too."
Made in Brighton Ltd are working with Mark Wheatly (a local playwright), and 'Theatre and Beyond' to develop his proposal for a new play called 'Highlands of Mourne' - which is set in the kitchens of a restaurant in Brighton. This exciting co-commission is currently in the development stages and we are excited about its future. Following a rehearsed reading at Chichester Festival Theatre the play is now being developed for possible future production
IN SERVICE - THE WHITE DEVIL
SPYMONKEY
www.spymonkey.co Made In Brighton are delighted to be involved in SpyMonkey's return to their home town after two years working in Las Vegas with Cirque du Soleil.
More details to come......
BANDBAZI - THE PERSIAN CINDERELLA
A Persian telling of the well known fairy tale from Fringe First winners BandBazi. Made In Brighton have helped secure the show's presentation in Brighton at the Pavilion Theatre (8-10 Dec 2005)and are working with the company on the show's development
Visit www.bandbazi.co for more details
ON-GOING RELATIONSHIPS
The above is not and exhaustive list of Made In Brighton's work; we are involved in discussions with many other Brighton and South-East based companies and individuals, keeping up-to-date with their activity, offering advice, looking at longer term strategic aims, helping with technical, marketing, funding advice and providing contacts. The extent of support always varies with the needs of the company.