There has been a strong desire from members of the South West JMK group to seek routes of collaboration with other artists and practitioners who are based regionally.
As such, the JMK are facilitating Routes to Collaboration - research and development periods at Reading Rep, where artists based in the Wiltshire, Hampshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire area will have the opportunity to explore, in a non-outcome focused environment, new ideas and potential future collaborations with other artists.
The call-out will work in two stages.
Firstly, we will be accepting ideas from lead creatives. These ideas should focus on a singular question around a topic or theme you are interested in exploring. It may be that the work already exists, i.e. in the form of a new play or you may wish for it to take a more discursive and open approach to the question.
There is no expectation about what this idea should be, however, you should feel confident that you can meaningfully explore it over the course of the day, with up to 5 collaborators.
You do not need to be a director to submit an idea at this stage. We will accept ideas from artists and practitioners regardless of background or discipline. This call-out will be circulated to all the artist networks at Reading Rep, Wiltshire Creative and Nuffield Theatres.
We are unable to offer technical support during the R&D days, therefore your idea should not require sound or lighting.
The deadline for submission of ideas is: Monday 18th February 2019 and these should be emailed to nik@jmktrust.org
For your submission please send a document or email, identifying your area of exploration, they key question you would like to explore and no more than a paragraph detailing how you would like to explore this and why you feel this will be beneficial to you.
Ideas will be selected by Saturday 23rd February.
The R&D period will run from Monday 8th- Friday 12th April. Each lead artist will be given the space for one day, from 10am - 6pm.
If there are any days which you would be unavailable for in this period, please identify these at the bottom of your application.
On the back of this, we will be doing a second call-out in late February where the five selected ideas will be announced and an invitation for interested collaborators will be announced.
14th February - 2nd March
FEST WEST 2019
There's two weeks of incredible South West work on offer and some can be seen while in Salisbury for JMK events. Great opportunity to see what's being made in the region, find out where your work sits and then apply to be part of next year's festival. All info online here and full brochure here
There is also the South West Symposium on Thursday 28th Feb- a chance to meet other artists and industry professionals and discuss cross art form practice, it's a jam packed day and always a really useful way to make connections. A lot of the Venues South West network and national promoters will be there too.
Friday 1st March, 6.30-9pm
Media Space, Salisbury Arts Centre
with Tanuja Amarasuriya
Noise vs Space: ways to think about, talk about and work with sound as a director
Sound and music can be powerful storytelling tools, but they can be tricky to talk about and conventional theatre processes often leave little time for integrating sound in anything other than a supporting role. This discursive workshop will look at approaches to using sound dramaturgically and tips for collaborating with sound designers.
Tanuja Amarasuriya is a Director, Dramaturg and Sound Designer who works across theatre, film and digital sound. As a Director and Dramaturg, she has worked with playwrights and theatremakers including Improbable, Eno Mfon, Timothy X Atack, Dipika Guha, Sam Halmarack and Raucous. As a Sound Designer her work includes with Selina Thompson, Chris Thorpe & Rachel Chavkin, and forthcoming work by Inua Ellams. She is a resident at Watershed's Pervasive Media Studio, a Leverhulme Arts Scholar attached to Bristol Old Vic, and co-Artistic Director of Sleepdogs, a wide-ranging collaboration with writer/composer Timothy X Atack. Sleepdogs' work has been developed and presented nationally and internationally, including at: the National Theatre (London), Bristol Old Vic, Seattle International Film Festival, Manchester Royal Exchange, New Wolsey (Ipswich), Brighton Festival, NexT International Film Festival (Bucharest), BIOS (Athens) and Sura Medura (Sri Lanka). www.sleepdogs.org
Saturday 2nd March, 11am
Salisbury Arts Centre
Director’s Brunch
A chance to meet with Jo Newman, Associate Director at Wiltshire Creative and Nik Partridge, JMK Director Practitioner, as well as connect with other local and regionally based directors in an informal setting. Tea and Coffee will be provided.
From 12pm onwards there is a chance to catch live music and performance at Salisbury Arts Centre as part of Fest West including Jo Bannon's Exposure
Saturday 2nd March, 2-5pm
White Room at Salisbury Arts Centre
Staging Memory with Melly Still
More details to follow.
There’s also a ticket offer for The Mirror Crack’d directed by Melly Still at Salisbury Playhouse for 2nd March 7.30pm. Tickets are availble at £9. Please email jo@jmktrust.org to reserve your ticket by Monday 25th February.
Wednesday 3rd April
Main stage at Salisbury Playhouse
Invitation to sit in on tech and dress rehearsal for Handbagged.
Times tbc
Directed by Jo Newman, this is an opportunity to sit in and observe the process as a show moves from tech to final dress rehearsal. Final timings will be confirmed with participants upon signing up, but they should expect this to be a full day of observation.
Saturday 27th April, Wiltshire Creative, 4-6pm
Rehearsal Room, Salisbury Playhouse
Making your own theatre - Producing Workshop - Lizzie Stables
As artists, we often hear that the best thing we can do is to make our own work. The question is how, and where do you start? In this two-hour workshop, we will explore ways to approach getting projects off the ground - looking at the process of creating a show from the seed of an idea through to production.
Lizzie Stables is an actress, theatre producer and Artistic Director of Folio Theatre Company, which she formed in 2015 in order to create and produce new plays for touring. Folio's debut show, Unearthed, received critical acclaim and was subsequently listed in The Guardian as one of their readers' favourite stage shows of 2015. Folio's next production, The Edit, will tour in Spring 2019 in association with Wiltshire Creative, premiering at Salisbury Playhouse's Salberg Theatre. @lizzie_js / @foliotheatre / www.foliotheatre.co.uk
