In response to the challenges of securing funding and supporting the longer term development of projects, artsdepot has announced its new cohort of artists supported by PLATFORM.
Taking its cue from the need for artists to have space to experiment without the pressure of producing an outcome, PLATFORM centres the individual needs of 8 companies. Across 2023-2024, selected artists will receive up to 4-weeks rehearsal space in kind, with up to £1000 seed funding and wrap-around support from artsdepot staff and others to develop their next projects. In response to the growing pressure on artists making their own work, artsdepot is committing to supporting the projects from this year’s cohort over the next 3 years. Rehearsal space in kind can be spread across this period, with support from the artsdepot team continuing as each project grows and develops.
Building on artsdepot’s commitment to reflecting its local community, artsdepot and Tsitsit Festival have come together to support two artist residencies.
Director of Programming Louisa Pestell said: “I am delighted to announce the 8 artists who will join us on new artist residency programme: Platform. We listened to a number of artists who told us that they value space to try something new without the pressure of having to create an outcome. Our aim is to work with artists across a longer period to give us all the flexibility to respond to funding outcomes, develop synergies and create more thinking time. Our new cohort includes: Tony Craze shortlisted writer Mwansa Phiri, hearing and D/deaf specialist theatre company OftheJackel, Cracking Slate, Maghsood Salehi, Jennifer Jackson and prolific theatre writer Rachel Barnett Jones.
Alastair Falk, Director of Tsitsit Festival said: “Our programme of support for 2 Jewish artists is one of the few in the UK. The partnership with artsdepot ensures that artists receive the benefits of working with an arts centre and the facilities within, whilst having access to our expertise and performance opportunities. This year’s Tsitsit Artist Residencies are Adam Lenson and Meryl O’Rourke.
Joshua Lewis, founder of the supported company Cracking Slate said “I’m really excited to be one of the resident artists at artsdepot. The support from artsdepot will enable us to bring the project to our target audience of young people and develop it based on their feedback. As an emerging artist this opportunity will help me grow creatively and as a leader of a new theatre company.”
PLATFORM is part of artsdepot’s wider artist development programme which includes STATIONS, a programme of development workshops and events and TRANSIT, bespoke freelancer support including 1:1 surgeries and hot desk opportunities at artsdepot. In addition to access to a number of Artist Development sessions throughout the residency period, artists from this year’s cohort will receive 1-1 support from artsdepot that’s tailored to the needs of their work, including, but not limited to, support with funding applications and approaching venues for programming.
Artist: Cracking Slate
Cracking Slate is a new theatre company founded by Josh Lewis supporting the development of creativity, collaboration and confidence in young people. We will be developing a new play about free will and making your own choices, called Lose the Path, Find Your Way.
Adam Lenson (supported in collaboration with Tsitsit Fringe Festival)
Adam is a Jewish director, theatre maker and creative technologist based in North London and he is especially interested in music led and interdisciplinary work. IS IT TOO LATE NOW TO SAY SORRY? is a play with songs about what it means to apologise and how to let go of the things that hurt us.
Jennifer Jackson is a Midlands born Latinx Anglo-Bolivian theatre-maker, movement director/choreographer and performer. ‘Pas-de-deux’, is a celebrational durational performance with a large cast in a series of encounters for two people at a time – Mixing everyday movements, social dance and physical storytelling,
Unattended Objects is a solo, multimedia performance exploring identity, migration and the idea of return. Maghsood draws on his experience as a journalist in exile to travel on an imaginary journey returning to his home, Tehran, in disguise.
Meryl O’Rourke (supported in collaboration with Tsitsit Fringe Festival)
Meryl is primarily a professional stand-up comic and TV gag writer, with a drama school background and an expensive theatre habit. “Thrown By Giants”, a play based on Meryl’s mother’s experiences in the Isle of Man camp for enemy aliens, where a panicked British war cabinet placed 10% of the Jewish refugees.
Mwansa is a London based playwright and producer. Visual Sauce is a brand-new production company with an aim of bringing untold stories to the stage and screen, and tapping into the power of art and storytelling to create social change. Mwansa will be working on Next Level a choose-your-own-adventure rap musical about four friends who get trapped inside their video game
OftheJackel make visual theatre shows for audiences of all ages. They specialise in making work for hearing and D/deaf audiences alike. Their shows are physical, playful, and deeply accessible. Featuring elements of clown, physical comedy, live music and dance, ‘Plant’ is a tender comic celebration of the natural world, abundance and sharing for ages 3-6.
Rachel is a prolific theatre writer with 20 years of experience. She has written over 70 commissioned works for stage and screen, including musicals and operas which have toured internationally. Rachel will be continuing to develop her new play, Backward Children (working title) – about her own family’s involvement in the research behind the free school milk acts of the 1930s.
Winner of the 2023 Charlie Harthill Prize winners Stroud and Notes shared the following: “artsdepot’s artist residency was a vital launch-pad for our project! As a brand-new company, the space, advice and resources they provided us were vital. The opportunity allowed us to think BIG, and collaborate as a team and with other artists with bundles of warmth and positivity. Now, less than nine months since our time at artsdepot, we are taking a full-length musical to the Edinburgh Fringe – something we would never have thought possible a year ago!”
