In 2011 the New Wolsey Theatre co-producted 'Transport' with the company Invisible. They've sent us an overview of their 2011 which we thought you'd like to read!
Emma and I are sitting in cafe in Kolkata, India thinking back over Transport's last twelve months and we want to say a big THANK YOU...it has been an important year for us and it wouldn't have been possible without you.
This has been our 2011:
We've just finished 3 weeks of research & development with Indian dance/theatre company Ranan working on a new piece entitled 'The Edge'. A week of this time was spent in the Sundarbans: the largest single block of tidal mangrove forest in the world which lies in the vast delta on the Bay of Bengal. The Sundarbans is an area on the frontline of environmental change and there we met villagers, and NGOs working in the region, many of these peoples' narratives will find their way into the 'The Edge'. This trip follows on from a visit from Vikram and Amlan from Ranan to the UK this August, during which we worked together in Folkestone and at the National Theatre Studio.
In fact we've ended this year pretty much as we began it....working on 'The Edge'. The year started with a trip across the English Channel to Calais with 3rd year collaborative and devised theatre students from Central School of Speech & Drama. This was followed by 6 weeks of work (Vikram and Amlan were skyped into rehearsals and a performance) resulting in performances at the New Diorama Theatre and a sharing Southbank Centre's Alchemy Festival. It's been a pretty fruitful yearlong collaboration and we hope to realise the project in 2013.
In June we created ‘Elegy' a new devised solo piece with actor Jamie Bradley. Inspired by a series of photos of and interviews with gay Iraqi refugees in Syria taken by the photojournalist Bradley Secker, ‘Elegy' previewed at the Quarterhouse Folkestone and premièred at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August in a beautiful gallery space. 'Elegy' would not have been possible without the generous support of philanthropist Mariann Wenckheim. We hope to revive Elegy for 2012. It was an important piece for us not only politically but because it was our first devised project.
For 3 months during the summer we opened an interdisciplinary space, LOW&HIGH, in an old chip shop in Folkestone. As part of the Folkestone Triennial Fringe, LOW&HIGH was used as a rehearsal space, artists' in residence studio, and a venue for presentations, workshops and discussions. For a full view of the programme of work undertaken during this time check out http://lowandhighplatform.wordpress.com/about/. LOW&HIGH was curated by Zbigniew Kotkiewicz.
In September we started rehearsals for ‘Invisible', a piece that we'd been developing since 2008. ‘Invisible' opened with our co-producers The New Wolsey Theatre in October and has since toured to the Canterbury Festival/Theatre Royal Margate, Plymouth Theatre Royal and Les Theatre de la Ville de Luxembourg. ‘Invisible' returns in January 2012 touring to Salisbury Playhouse, Lawrence Batley Theatre - Huddersfield, Winchester Theatre Royal and Newbury Corn Exchange. The text of ‘Invisible' was also published by Nick Hern Books. If you haven't seen 'Invisible' do catch it, we are immensely proud of the show.
We have also held workshops for adults and young adults in Poland, Luxembourg, Folkestone, Ipswich, and London and at The University of Kent.
It has been an extraordinarily productive year for us. We are a small team and your work, advice and support has been invaluable, so THANK YOU and here's to 2012!
Happy New Year
Much love
Douglas and Emma