Newcastle-based Live Theatre’s Live Lab Bursaries and Associate Artists for 2017/2018 have been announced.
Live Lab aims to "find and unlock new talent by providing development opportunities that are accessible and open to all." Its Associate Artists are mentored and supported by Live Theatre’s creative team and invited to take part in projects throughout the year. The latest Associate Artists will be actor Kema Sikazwe and theatre company The Six Twenty.
Sikazwe, a musician and rapper who got his first major acting role as China in Ken Loach’s film I, Daniel Blake, was selected through open auditions as a member of the Regional Young Actors Ensemble based at Live Theatre.
The Six Twenty has already produced plays at Live Theatre such as Parklife and Breakfast Hearts/Choirplay, as well as running the cult music-quiz comedy show Mixtape. Artistic Director and Creative producer Melanie Rashbrooke hopes to develop new work at Live Theatre including new play FANS and a piece on the real-life exploits of a Butlins Redcoat.
Live Lab Bursaries have also been awarded for artists and companies with innovative approaches to text based work. Four bursaries of £2,000 will be given to help develop work from artists across the country at Live Theatre.
“We had a tremendous response to the call-out for our Live Lab Bursary this year, with over 170 applications of an incredibly high calibre,” said Graeme Thompson, Creative Producer at Live Theatre. “We were unable to give just one award so have been delighted to be awarding four Live Lab Bursaries for two North East based artists, and two nationally based artists to develop new with Live Theatre.”
North East based actor and theatre maker Christina Berriman Dawson will use her bursary to develop a piece called Ratboy exploring the impact of human geography on people’s physicality. The piece is inspired by '90s culture, rave music and a young offender found living in the ventilation system in Byker Wall who escaped from care 37 times committing multiple offences. The piece will be co-written by Lee Mattinson and Kirk Turnbull of QFX will develop the soundtrack.
Also from the North East, theatre-maker Rebekah Bowsher will develop a piece called Pro Forma: Spoon Theory exploring the places where disability intersects with femininity and individualism. Using physical theatre, comedy, and music, Rebekah will work with a performer and a BSL interpreter to develop a way of writing a physical score blended with text. She was also recently part of Graeae’s Write to Play programme through Live Theatre.
Performance poet, actress and writer for stage and screen Katie Bona’s one-woman show All the Things I Lied About was performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2016. As a bursary recipient, she will develop a new show called Not As I Do exploring why women often act in a less feminist way than they think they do. It is inspired by the Greek chorus and the golden age of musical theatre.
Finally, Gameshow is a producer of new plays. Its bursary-winning piece Nuclear Weapons is written and directed by Matthew Evans. It will explore how today’s nuclear arsenals have the capacity to obliterate all life on Earth in minutes using an explosive mix of theatre, digital soundscape and video design.