45North today announces artists for the first of two Seed Commission Schemes in 2021. The first initiative supports trans and gender non-conforming artists, across a variety of disciplines, who are looking to develop an idea for live performance.
The selected artists are Anna Clock, Chiyo and Gayathiri Kamalakanthan. Each receives a fee of £1000, access to rehearsal or office space for a week and £750 towards collaborator fees. In addition, they will benefit from 15 hours of mentorship and one-to-one support from Tabby Lamb, the scheme’s director, as they develop a partial, or what the scheme refers to as a ‘0.5’, draft of their work across 6-week period in March and April 2021.
Further information on the second initiative, supporting theatre-makers from another underrepresented group, will be announced shortly.
Tabby Lamb, said today, “We were overwhelmed by the vast amount of Trans folk who applied for this commission, and then once again overwhelmed by the talent and skill of each application but after passionate discussion we ended up with 3 of the most exciting artists I’ve ever had the pleasure to work with; a luminary of the cabaret world, a technical wizard and a passionate sex educator. I can’t wait to help them develop their skills and put them on the path towards creating their first full length piece of theatre.”
Anna Clock (they/them) is developing an intimate, binaural audio experience exploring a fraught encounter over a barbershop chair. It’s a conversation between two people, reunited after ten years with new names, and different genders – for the purpose of a haircut. Exploring a power dynamic, and how it is coloured by history, class, age and physical intimacy, within a genderqueer space.
Chiyo (he/they) is developing a work aimed at exploring the parallels of misogyny through a generation, confronting his own experiences as a mixed-race, gender non-conforming Trans man, and sitting with what discussions come forth in correlation to societies brutal hatred of women.
Gayathiri Kamalakanthan (they/she) is developing the story of a Tamil non-binary child, who doesn’t yet have the language to put their queerness into words. Reimagining a period party – a rite of passage into ‘womanhood’ in Tamil culture – where the intersection of Tamil-ness and queerness is celebrated and held, not as a contradiction but as an inheritance.
