Since my trade is in dialogue a statement can feel inappropriate insufficient lofty...not authentic. Let’s take the following text as an introduction to a conversation about my work, and the values that drive my creative practice.
I make theatre which relies on interviews and research structured to create conversational narratives that capture the messy reality of big problems so audiences find their part in the solutions.
applied theatre artist
As an applied theatre artist, making performance work created through participatory processes, I am often in relationship with communities specific to the themes of the work. My background as a dancer, and my training as a deviser, means that my writing and direction aligns more with the non-hierarchical models of collaborative creation than traditional theatre-making.
My plays approach endemic societal issues through attention to scale and scope, theatricality, and physicality. The boundaries of reality bleed into surreality and farce in these, nearly always, ensemble-based works, where each character is the protagonist of their own narrative. Audiences are encouraged to attach themselves to the representation of their belief system, while they are simultaneously presented with characters who have morals, values, and experiences outside their own.
I believe it is my attention to theatricality that affords the easiest avenue into challenging subject matter. If I can’t answer the question, “why does this have to be a play?” then I know my work is not done.
My work is in conversation with the tradition and future of theatre as a civic institution vital to the democratic society. By seeing the real world estranged through theatrical devices my work poses an opportunity to come to know an experience that may not be your own, which I believe to be a foundation to making stronger societies and the goal of my work as whole.