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Academics and artists to create performance around loneliness

Photo of Northcott Theatre building at night

Exeter Northcott Theatre has joined forces with academics to bring the subject of loneliness and community to a wider audience.

The theatre has this week announced a new partnership with the University of Exeter’s Wellcome Centre for Cultures & Environments of Health with a call for performance artists and makers.

Last year, a show about epilepsy called Beyond My Control, which was inspired by cutting-edge research from the university’s mathematicians, was mini-toured around the country.

This latest collaboration will highlight the centre’s project about modern and historical understandings, experiences, and causes of loneliness.

The Northcott, which was built on the university’s Streatham Campus in 1967, has put a call out for three artists and theatre makers in what is expected to be the first in a series of collaborations over the next year.

Artistic and Executive Director Daniel Buckroyd wants the theatre to become a place where artists and academics can come together to explore the interplay between creative practise and research.

He added: “We’re keen not to prescribe what a ‘performance work’ might look like – it could exist as a live event or call on digital technologies; it might involve a written text or rely on visual or physical languages; it might be conceived as an intimate experience or demand to be staged on a large scale.”

The Wellcome Centre’s project is called Loneliness and Community: Transforming Belonging at the University of Exeter.

Academics say they want to introduce a number of performance artists/makers into their process, to consider how creative practise might impact on their research methodologies.

The aim is to develop concepts or prototypes for an original performance work inspired by the collaboration that might be used to engage a wider audience with that research.

Phase one of this process, from June 2019 to January 2020, will see three artists/makers spending time with academics and participating alongside students within workshops/activities.

Drawing on these experiences, they will then be asked to develop their ideas for an original performance work inspired by the research.

For Phase Two, running from February to November 2020, one of the concepts or prototypes will be chosen and developed into a fully realised production in the most appropriate way.

Artists/makers will be supported throughout the process by Dr Fred Cooper (lead contact at the Wellcome Centre) and Daniel Buckroyd (Artistic Director of the Northcott Theatre).

Project Fee:               

Each of the three artists/makers engaged will receive a fee of £1,500.00 (including expenses),

payable in three equal instalments; one on engagement; one at the start of the 2019/2020 Academic Year; and one on presentation of concepts/prototypes.

Project Timeline:

June/July 2019 –    initial meetings with academics

Sept-Dec 2019 –     engagement with student collaborators through workshops and activities

End Jan 2020 –        presentation of concept/prototype for the proposed performance work

We anticipate artists/makers needing to make an overall commitment of 10 days to the project.

Application Process:

To express an interest in this opportunity please send us a CV, a brief ‘portfolio’ of images of / information about your work, and a c.500 word statement setting out your interest in this project.

Applications should be sent by email to [email protected] or by post to Exeter Northcott Theatre, Stocker Road, Exeter EX4 4QB

Closing Date – 1st April 2019 (12.00 noon)

Interviews – TBC Late April / Early May

Download details here

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