Four emerging artists are taking part in a new Scratch programme at the Curve theatre, Leicester.
Unveiled last October, Scratch forms part of Curve’s new community engagement programme. It offers a platform to help emerging artists in the East Midlands develop their creative ideas with practical mentoring, resources and performance space.
Curve’s first Scratch artists are Jennifer Manderson, a contemporary dance artist; Leicester-based playwright and journalist Beverley Hancock-Smith; The Impulse Collective, an emerging professional theatre company; and Elaine Pantling’s one-woman theatre company Laurielorry Theatre.
Curve will arrange development opportunities for the artists including master classes and workshops with both its in-house experts and artists Curve attracts to the East Midlands.
Suba Das, Curve’s associate director (community engagement), said, “It’s thrilling to be engaging with these exciting local talents and welcoming them into our incredible building.
“I think the range of work these artists are exploring, using things like interactive projection, site-specific work and dance, shows Curve’s commitment to helping create the theatre of the future right here in the heart of the East Midlands.”
The first Scratch projects are:
- Forgotten by Beverley Hancock-Smith, a play exploring the lives of “the forgotten generation”, based on a series of interviews with elderly residents of care homes and sufferers of dementia.
- The Last Cuppa by Elaine Pantling, about the ritual of making and sharing a cup of tea and how that experience shapes our lives.
- The People Next Door by Jennifer Manderson, a piece of community-based dance theatre involving shared personal memories designed to engage elderly members of the community in the creative process.
- The Impulsive Collective, exploring whether it is possible to bring the world of the viral video into the theatre in new ways.
Leicester-based playwright, Beverley Hancock-Smith commented, “With two weeks to create and develop the piece, the intensity and immediacy of the process will force me to work in new and exciting ways, while dramaturgical and technical support from Curve will enable me to push the boundaries of my writing. Scratch promises to be both a challenging and exhilarating process.”
Twenty-two companies and artists applied for selection for Curve’s first Scratch programme. Selection was carried out by a panel including Curve associate director Suba Das, Curve assistant producer Alex Smith and Sophie Bradey, producer at Battersea Arts Centre, the venue which invented Scratch and which first uncovered the international hit War Horse.