Work with Groups
Over the years we’ve made a practice of rooting ourselves in communities, working with groups in longer term engagements to better learn from the people we work with and help them unearth a creative voice. These engagements have taken many forms, including working at Universities leading classes or projects.
Recently our work with groups has included:
Lois’s Residency with Magic Me
Sexuality Summer School
On March 21st, Lois completed her 10-week Artists' Residency with intergenerational arts charity Magic Me. At a private showing at Rose Court Rose Court Anchor care home in Surray Quays, Lois-as-Tammy and her team presented materials from workshops conducted with the residents, introduced them as their fantasy personas, and screened a short film by Claire Nolan, featuring them telling their stories.
As part of the same programme, care homes Greenhive, Norton House, and Silk Court will also be hosting residencies with one of a varied selection of arts organisations: immersive theatre company Punchdrunk; performance & events collective Duckie, and circus and aerial theatre company Upswing.
More information here.
The Sexuality Summer School is a five-day event for postgraduates, organized by the Centre for the Study of Sexuality and Culture at the University of Manchester since 2008 and funded by the University of Manchester Faculty of Humanities, Manchester Pride and Screen. The Sexuality Summer School brings together postgraduates, researchers and international scholars, as well as artists and filmmakers, to facilitate dialogue and discussions that speak to contemporary debates in queer and feminist sexuality studies, with a particular emphasis on the interdisciplinary study of culture.
Lois has been involved in the program for many years, allowing her to engage on a deep level with an intergenerational group of scholars and artists.
Our team for our 2016 residency on Governor’s Island during the development of unexploded ordnances (UXO)
Examples of past work with groups Include:
Taiwan Women’s Theatre Festival
A three-week performance translation workshop with a Taiwanese women's theatre company creating a cultural and linguistic translation of Dress Suits For Hire. The resulting performance was presented at the Taiwan Women's Theatre Festival in Taipei, Taiwan, (Spring 2004). This project was funded in part by the British Council.
In the House
From 2002-2003 we designed and ran workshops in four women’s prisons in Brazil and the UK as part of a People’s Palace Project titled Staging Human Rights. This project resulted in a performance installation In the House and an article written by Lois, ‘Doing Time’, published in the Applied Theatre Reader in 2009.
Honey I’m Home
In 1989 we developed the performance Honey I’m Home: The Alcestis Story with students we were teaching at Hampshire College. This script has been published in Diversifying Greek Tragedy on the Contemporary US Stage. This was one of many longer term teaching engagements we undertook, several of which also produced new performances.