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Clod Ensemble
Zero
world premiere
Commissioned by Sadler’s Wells and
Brighton Festival in partnership with
South East Dance
Tue 21 and Wed 22 May 2013,
7.30pm
Brighton Dome Corn Exchange
Brighton Festival programmes are supported by WSL (Brighton) Ltd
Please ensure that all mobile phones are switched off
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Zero
Direction and Choreography
Suzy Willson
Music
Paul Clark
Lyrics
Peggy Shaw and Paul Clark
Design
Sarah Blenkinsop
Lighting
Hansjörg Schmidt
Movement created with and performed by
Robert Bell
Zoe Bywater
Sarah Cameron
Karima El Amrani
Antonia Grove
Maciej Kuźmiński
Elizabeth Mischler
Ramona Nagabczynska
Uri Roodner
Alessandra Ruggeri
Musicians
Johnny Mars
vocals/harmonica
Hazel Holder
vocals
Desmond Neysmith
cello
Ian Watson
accordion
Annie Whitehead
trombone
Vanessa Domonique
drums
John Evans
guitar
Production manager
Paul Hennessey
Assistant designer
Rose Love
Company stage manager
Emma Banwell-Knight
Deputy stage manager
Gwen Taylor
Sound engineer
Ethan Forde
Rehearsal direction
Elizabeth Mischler
Class teachers
Sonia Rafferty, Aurelian Koch,
Simona Scotto
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For Clod Ensemble
Producer
Tracy Gentles
Associate producer
Fuel
General manager
Penny Mayes
Project manager
Rose Fieber
Project coordinator
Edie Culshaw
Marketing
Sam McAuley (MakesThree)
PR
Martha Oakes and
Sue Lancashire
Project intern
Holly Bragg
Thank you to Ayve Leventis, Laura De Vos, Scott Jennings, Ino Riga, Elias Lazaridis and Sita
Ostheimer for their contribution to the piece during the research and development process.
Thank you to Hackney Empire, Stratford Circus, The Miller, Clod Ensemble Board of Trustees,
participants in Clod Ensemble’s REBOOT programme, Dido Fisher, Kate Shela, Amy Shelton,
Anna Larkin, Emma Gladstone, Sally Garner-Gibbon, Poppy Illsey, Victor Tarre, Manuel
Vason, Katrin Padel, Sarah Readman, Lindsey Banwell–Knight, Khaki Films, RSC and
David Farr.
Zero is commissioned by Sadler’s Wells and Brighton Festival in partnership with South East
Dance. Research and development supported by Jerwood Studio at Sadler’s Wells and
Shoreditch Town Hall. Funded by The Leche Trust, The Hinrichsen Foundation and PRSF.
Clod Ensemble is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organization.
Photography by Hugo Glendinning
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Image by Manuel Vason
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Everything Moves
Emma Gladstone talks to Suzy Willson and Paul Clark, Artistic Directors of
Clod Ensemble
E.G.
So this is a big production! You have done several periods of research and are now
working with a large cast of dancers and musicians. Would you tell me a little about the
ideas and inspirations behind the show? Is it important for you that audiences know about
what those are when they watch it?
S.W.
There are a few ideas and inspirations that are at the heart of the piece. Right at the
centre is the observation by the French movement and theatre teacher Jacques Lecoq that
‘everything moves’: that everything has an inherent movement dynamic — elements,
materials, animals, colours, paintings, music and human passions. At the Lecoq school
you spend time embodying these different dynamics and then transposing them into
dramatic states. For example, you might work with the dynamic of fire and then transpose
it to the dramatic situation of an argument; or embody a glass shattering and transpose it
to a situation of shock; or a sun setting to a scene where a lover is leaving you.
For Zero we have been been thinking particularly about the movement dynamics of the
weather, of animals and of such human passions as jealousy, desire and ambition. We
have been considering storm systems — both literally and as a metaphor for the way in
which power relations can be incredibly complex — how they can coalesce into singular
destructive events and then utterly transform or dissipate. In the development and rehearsal
process we also always work with many images and paintings; this time we have been
particularly drawn to Goya, Brueghel, Bosch and Turner, as well as to the photographs of
Peter Beard and Sherin Neshat. Brueghel is often a great inspiration for theatre makers
because he works and populates his paintings with so much activity; he pays incredible
attention to the detail of individual lives but works on an allegorical level too. We have
also been using archive clips of audio from news broadcasts, and so on, some of which
you will hear in the piece.
P.C.
The idea for this piece started to emerge when we were invited by the Royal Shakespeare
Company to do some research round King Lear. We quickly found that we did not want
to create a production of King Lear, but we were very interested in how the play moves,
in the richness of the imagery and the thematic complexity (the family, nature, power, the
absent mother). That inspired us to make something new, and it has remained a central
inspiration for Zero.
S.W.
In the spirit of King Lear, we are entangling humanity and nature, watching how quickly a
person/family/society (or any natural system) can quickly spin into chaos through the most
banal series of events — how personal pride and familial love can become ugly and
destructive, and how apparently inviolable power structures are in fact fragile and liable
to fail. Also lurking in there is the idea of risk, of the edge, of the cliff, which is very
tantalizing.
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P.C.
Our piece is structured in five acts that strongly reflect the tonal shape of Shakespeare’s
play, and even the title is drawn from the play: the idea of nothingness permeates the text.
But the research is not the piece. It is not necessary for the audience to be familiar with
any of the reference material, and we certainly would not expect anyone to look for those
references while watching the production. They are deeply embedded within it and have
been transposed, then transposed again, to create something that we hope will work in its
own right.
E.G.
Paul Clark has written a full-length score specifically for Zero. Was that always the plan?
And if so to what extent has the style of the music influenced the style of the movement?
Has it affected the structure of the show as it has been devised, or was it written to an
agreed structure before rehearsals began?
P.C.
Most of our pieces are structured by a score at a relatively early stage.
A show like Silver Swan was written without any visual element at all: Suzy has made four
visually different versions to an identical score. For Zero there was a lot more
collaboration about what the structure might be. It is in five acts with quite different
rhythmic structures and tonal priorities, which invite different movement languages. As soon
as we experimented with some bluesier music, in our earliest workshops, we liked the
counterpoint of the dancers and actors playing often high-status characters or power
structures, with this gritty music rooted in dispossession and poverty perhaps acting as an
ironic voice ‘off stage’, as a fool or witness.
E.G.
You often work with a rich mix of dancers, performers, actors and musicians. Is the range
of skills something you enjoy drawing from, or are there other reasons why you choose to
work this way? Do you work towards or away from people’s training?
S.W.
I think our stage language has always been quite eclectic, and that is certainly partly to
do with the way we create material: the pieces carry the references, experiences and
movement languages of all the people involved in its creation. Company members have
such diverse trainings as ballet, clown, mime, sculpture and contemporary dance, and
they have worked with choreographers and companies as different as Ballet Rambert, the
Cholmondeleys, Lindsay Kemp, Hofesh Shechter, Matthew Bourne and the Royal
Shakespeare Company. Inevitably, they carry all these physical memories with them. But
the idea of the chorus or ensemble is central to all our work, so everyone in the company
must find some common ground at the same time as celebrating the differences. Everyone
is encouraged to use everything they have got in the rehearsal room. So, while being an
ensemble piece, Zero also plays to the strengths of the individual performers involved.
In terms of the movement, everything begins with improvisation, which can be a scary
prospect for those dancers who are used to working with choreographers who teach them
a sequence of steps right from the beginning. Similarly, it is challenging for the performers
with more of a physical-theatre background to do a class with the dancers, which involves
a whole system of counts and demands a tremendous level of flexibility in the joints. All
the performers in Zero have been very generous and willing to push their own boundaries
and I know they draw inspiration from each other.
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P.C.
It is a similar situation with the band, as the players have very different backgrounds and
training. The youngest is 27 and the oldest is 70. We have three classical players, an
R&B drummer a blues harpist and two people from the jazz world. I have worked with
some of the players previously, and some are new to the company. But they have all been
with us in rehearsals off and on for over a year now, so I have been able to get to know
how they play (or sing) and tailor their parts for them; and in some cases I have given
them opportunities to improvise round what I have written.
E.G.
Clod Ensemble has been known to create work in an inventive range of spaces and
places, from bespoke glass jars, to building tops, to operating theatres. For Zero you are
working on large stages in big theatres. For many artists this might seem to be a
conventional choice. For you I think it is strangely rather radical, since it is not what you
are known to do. Why have you chosen to work on such big stages as Sadler’s Wells?
What do you expect will be the differences? How have you prepared for that change?
P.C.
It is not that unusual for us to work in large spaces (Trafalgar Square and the Turbine Hall
for example) but we usually have the audience moving through the space in some way
and we often limit the size of the audience. So this is the first time we have ever done an
end-on show in such a large auditorium.
S.W.
I love Sadler’s Wells. It is a very special place for me not only because of its history and
its location above a well, but also because many of my most important, life-changing
theatrical experiences have taken place there: seeing Michael Clark and The Fall with
costumes by Leigh Bowery as a 17-year-old was one of them, and that did not feel very
conventional! But of course there are many conventions that come with working in big
theatres — both in terms of the economies of labour, the in-house machine that goes into
producing work ,and also the expectations that audiences bring to these spaces. It is
impossible to divorce what is happening on stage from the context in which it takes place.
But in making a piece, I try to concentrate on the relationship of the space to the way the
performers move, and the spatial relationship between performers and audience. It is such
a privilege to have the opportunity of making a piece for this stage.
For me, the challenge is not the size of the stage but the size of the auditorium; the
perspective of the audience is completely different depending on where people are sitting.
For our last piece at Sadler’s Wells, An Anatomie in Four Quarters, we had an audience
of only 200 at a time; we had four different viewing positions and we made each section
specifically for each perspective. The challenge of Zero is that it needs to work from all
different perspectives at the same time: the experience of the people at back of the upper
circle is just as important as that of the people in the stalls. Shifting perspective is what
theatre is all about — ways of seeing and being seen; that is a subject to which we
constantly return.
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Photography by Hugo Glendinning
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Clod Ensemble
Founded by Paul Clark and Suzy Willson in 1995, Clod Ensemble creates performances,
workshops and events in collaboration with artists working in theatre, performance, music, visual
art, photography, film and poetry. Its recent productions include Under Glass, which won the
2009 Total Theatre Award for Visual/Physical Theatre; Red Ladies, a chorus piece for 18
identically dressed women; and Must, a collaboration with the New York performer Peggy
Shaw. The company has performed in Trafalgar Square and at the Victoria & Albert Museum,
Sadler’s Wells and the Southbank Centre, London; at the Casa de Serralves museum, Portugal;
at the Public Theater and the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, New York; and at the
London International Mime Festival, the Festival of Firsts (Wirral), the Fierce Festival (West
Midlands), Glasgay! (Glasgow) and Psi (Arizona and London). Its ongoing projects include
Performing Medicine, which uses the arts to help medical students and doctors gain skills
relevant to their clinical practice and which won the 2007 Times Higher Education Award for
Excellence and Innovation in the Arts; and Extravagant Acts for Mature People, which allows
senior citizens in London to enjoy performances by internationally acclaimed artists.
Clod Ensemble’s performances are produced in association with Fuel.
Fuel associate producer
All Clod Ensemble’s performance work is produced in association with Fuel, a producing
organization led by Louise Blackwell and Kate McGrath that works in partnership with some of
the most exciting theatre artists in the UK to develop and create new work for all. Fuel is
currently producing work with Will Adamsdale, Inua Ellams, Fevered Sleep, David Rosenberg,
Sound & Fury, Uninvited Guests and Melanie Wilson. fueltheatre.com
Performance History
Feast During the Plague (1995) Battersea Arts Centre
A musical adaptation of Alexander Pushkin’s little tragedy, for seven actors and nine musicians.
Musical Scenes (1995) London International Mime Festival; Battersea Arts Centre; British
Council tour — Czech Republic
An evening of seven short, wordless pieces including Schmooze, Frère Jacques and Three.
Metamorphoses (1996) Battersea Arts Centre and UK tour
Based on myths from Ovid’s epic poem.
The Overcoat (1998) Battersea Arts Centre and UK tour
An adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s classic tragic-comic tale.
Lady Grey (1999) Purcell Room, Southbank Centre
Inspired by Paul Delaroche’s painting, a piece featuring five performers, a string quartet and a
tightrope-walking violinist.
It’s a Small House and We Lived in it Always (1999) Purcell Room, Southbank Centre;
international tour
A collaboration between Clod Ensemble and Split Britches (Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver) with
a recorded score inspired by bluegrass music.
Silver Swan (1999– ) Battersea Arts Centre; McEwan Hall, Edinburgh; Raphael Room of the
V&A; ROH2; Turbine Hall at Tate Modern
A piece of music for seven unaccompanied female singers; it has had several incarnations —
either with choir alone or with dancers and actors.
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Songs for the Dead (2000–01) Battersea Arts Centre
An installation concert featuring music written as a response to death, including pieces by
Ligeti, Elliott Carter and Purcell.
For One Night Only (2000) Battersea Arts Centre
An evening of short pieces for different combinations of actors, dancers, physical comedians,
aerialist and musicians, including Wrestling, Babycase and Egg and Spoon.
Kiss My Echo (2001) Battersea Arts Centre
Inspired by seven centuries of medical imagery — from medieval manuscripts to
contemporary studies of ‘unexplained symptoms’.
Miss Risque (2001) Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster University; Glasgay!; Oval House, La Mama
— New York
A collaboration with Split Britches, inspired by the spies and showgirls of turn-of-the-20thcentury Paris.
Greed (2003) Battersea Arts Centre; UK tour; British Council tour to Sri Lanka, Thailand,
Armenia and Bulgaria
A show inspired by the melodrama and comedy of the silent movie era of the 1920s
Red Ladies (2005– ) Institute of Contemporary Arts; Serralves Museum, Portugal; Old Fire Station,
Oxford; Hackney Empire; Warwick Arts Centre; Trafalgar Square: British Architecture Week
An ongoing performance piece featuring a group of identically dressed women; it is
incarnated in different ways — as interventions in public places, installations and a ‘theatrical
demonstration’ in conventional performance venues.
Must: the Inside Story (2007) Wellcome Collection; Edinburgh Anatomy Theatre; Public
Theatre, New York; UK tour
A solo show with live band, made in collaboration with Peggy Shaw, Must is a poetic look at
what it feels like to have a body; it is published in A Menopausal Gentleman (Michigan
Press), a collection of Peggy Shaw’s work.
Under Glass (2008–11) Sadler’s Wells (off-site at the Village Underground); McEwan Hall,
Edinburgh Fringe Festival; UK tour
Under Glass takes place within a collection of glass jars, cabinets and test tubes and has a
text by Alice Oswald; it was commissioned by Sadler’s Wells and won the 2009 Total
Theatre Award for Physical and Visual Theatre.
An Anatomie in Four Quarters (2011) Sadler’s Wells
An Anatomie in Four Quarters is a promenade performance in which the audience cuts a path
through the auditorium of a theatre, changing viewing positions for each of the four movements.
Image by Manuel Vason
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Biographies
Performers
Robert Bell
Robert Bell trained at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Perth, and the State
University of New York. Since graduating in 2005 he has been based in London and Germany,
and has performed work by Will Tuckett, Aletta Collins, Michael Keegan-Dolan, Tom Dale, Ruis
Horta, Gary Stewart, Eva-Maria Kupfer, David Massingham, Yael Flexor, Liv Lorent, Jan Pusch, Jo
Strømgren and Helga Latonja. He was the recipient of a danceWEB scholarship in 2007.
Zoe Bywater
Zoe Bywater trained largely with John Wright in physical theatre, devising, clown and mask. She
has performed in national and international tours of Romeo and Juliet with the English Shakespeare
Company and Animal Farm for Il Palchetto Stage, among others. She has worked with Fevered
Sleep and Blind Summit; with Ken Campbell in The Warp at London Bridge; and as a performer in
The Mouse Queen at the Little Angel Theatre, London, the Polka Theatre, Wimbledon, and the New
Victory Theatre, New York; she also choreographed The Mouse Queen at the Unicorn Theatre. She
performed in Clod Ensemble’s recent pieces Red Ladies, An Anatomie in Four Quarters at Sadler’s
Wells, and Silver Swan at Tate Modern. She also creates and directs her own work.
Sarah Cameron
Sarah Cameron is an artist, performer and writer who studied sculpture at the Chelsea School of
Art and theatre at L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, Paris. She has worked with a
wide range of companies, including Clod Ensemble, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the West
Yorkshire Playhouse and the Young Vic, where she was a resident member of the company that
created the award-winning Grimm Tales. Her performance and installation projects include Iraq
and Every Other Bloody War No. 1 for Propeller Island; Vacant with The Space Project for the
Architecture Foundation; and Stretch for Sophia Clist and Crying Out Loud. Her first novel, The
Red Chair, had its first public reading at the Port Elliot Literary Festival and is being adapted for
the stage by Clod Ensemble.
Karima El Amrani
Karima El Amrani began dancing at the age of ten. She subsequently joined the contemporary
section of the Paris Conservatoire and also worked with Yutaka Takei, Serge Ricci, Cristiana
Morganti, Martin Kravitz, Françoise Dupuy and Samuel Mathieu. She worked with the Hofesh
Shechter Company from 2011 and is now a freelance in France, Switzerland, Germany and the UK.
Antonia Grove
Antonia Grove trained at the Rambert School and was a member of the Rambert Dance Company
(1998–2003). She has also danced with Walker Dance Park Music, the Royal National Theatre,
Random Dance, the Bonachela Dance Company, The Cholmondeleys, the Charles Linehan
Company, the New Art Club, Fabulous Beast and Matthias Sperling, among others; she joined
Clod Ensemble last year. As a performer she has been nominated for two Critics Circle National
Dance Awards and a Time Out Live Award. Since 2004 she has been the artistic director of the
dance company Probe, which is currently touring Small Talk, her solo show directed by Wendy
Houstoun, and working on a new production, Running on Empty.
Maciej Kuźmiński
Born in Poland, Maciej Kuźmiński trained in dance theatre and choreography at the Trinity Laban
Conservatoire of Music and Dance. A freelance performer, he has worked since 2007 with Nigel
Charnock, Liz King, Rose Breuss and Witold Jurewicz and, as a soloist with Polish Dance Theatre,
has performed works of Ohad Naharin and Paulina Wycichowska. As a choreographer he has
created several works, including commissions by Mumuki Company, Shoreditch Youth Dance and
London’s Artmongers.
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Elizabeth Mischler
Elizabeth Mischler grew up in Wisconsin and trained at the Juilliard School, New York. She has
worked with Ballet Theatre Munich, the Mark Bruce Company, National Dance Company Wales,
Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and English National Opera, and at the Royal Exchange
Theatre, Manchester, and the Royal Opera House. She was assistant to the director/company
manager for DV8 Physical Theatre’s production Can We Talk About This? and recently joined
South East Dance as Producer of Artist Development.
Ramona Nagabczynska
Ramona Nagabczynska trained at the National Ballet School, Warsaw, the Hochschule fur Musik
und Darstellende Kunst, Frankfurt, and the London Contemporary Dance School. She has danced
with the Polish Dance Theatre, the Darkin Ensemble, the Tom Dale Company, Ula Sickle, David
Wampach, Les Gens d’Uterpan, Good Girl Killer and Emma Martin, among others, and also
creates her own work. She has been working with Clod Ensemble since 2008.
Uri Roodner
Uri Roodner has performed in numerous major theatres as well as in films and on television. He cofounded the Tottering Bipeds, an award-winning theatre company that toured throughout the
1990s. He has directed physical comedies on stage and on screen, made several documentary
films for the BBC, worked as a movement director and trained Arabian horses. He is mentor to a
number of young theatre companies and currently leads the contemporary theatre acting course at
the East 15 School of Acting.
Alessandra Ruggeri
Alessandra Ruggeri is a freelance performer who was born in Rome, where she competed as a
gymnast and studied economics and international cooperation. In 2007 she moved to London to
train at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. During her studies she collaborated
with several musicians and visual artists and presented her own work at the Siobhan Davies
Studio. She has performed with Freddy Opoku-Addaie, Jasmin Vardimon, Tilted Productions
and Aletta Collins, and with Clod Ensemble in An Anatomie in Four Quarters.
Musicians
Vanessa Domonique drums
Vanessa Domonique has been playing the drums professionally for the past five years. She was
playing at clubs, concerts and events by the age of 15 and has subsequently performed in
productions, television appearances, tours and sessions with a wide range of artists, including
Nicola Roberts, Natasha Bedingfield and So Solid Crew. She is also a minimalist composer,
writing under the alias Sashi.
John Evans guitar
John Evans has performed with Ray Davies, Chris Difford, Marti Pellow and The Divine Comedy.
He has also released his own records with The Bardots and The Honey Buzzards, and has
appeared on soundtracks for the BBC, Channel 4 and Film4. He also composes and performs for
Roxbury Music.
Hazel Holder vocals
Hazel Holder trained at the Mountview Theatre School and the Academy of the Science of Acting
and Directing, London. She is a member of the song and theatre groups The Helen Chadwick
Group and The Shout, and a vocalist with the jazz/swing bands Ronnie Scott’s Rejects and The
Rag and Bone Club. Her theatre credits include Sleeping Beauty at the Young Vic; The Tempest for
the Royal Shakespeare Company on an international tour; Carmen Jones at the Old Vic; and Ain’t
Misbehavin in the West End.
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Johnny Mars vocals, harmonica
Johnny Mars received his first harmonica at the age of nine. When he was 14 he moved to New
Paltz, New York State, where he sang and played the harmonica in his first blues band, The Train
Riders. He performed at Woodstock in 1960 and at many clubs in Greenwich Village throughout
the 1960s. In 1967 he formed The Johnny Mars Band in San Francisco and in 1972 he made his
first European album, Blues From Mars. In 1991 he featured as soloist on an album by
Bananarama; he has also recorded with the Gypsy Kings, the Barrelhouse Orchestra, Howard
Casey and Mick Taylor, among others. He continues to perform at major blues festivals and in
concert throughout the UK, Europe and the USA.
Desmond Neysmith cello
Desmond Neysmith has appeared as a soloist with many leading orchestras in the USA, including
the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the New World Orchestra, Florida, and the National,
Atlanta, Baltimore, Hartford and Louisiana Symphony Orchestras. As the founding cellist of the
Harlem Quartet, he has worked with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Carter Brey, Paul Katz and
Chick Corea. He toured worldwide with The Gogmagogs and has collborated with the Hofesh
Shechter Company and Clod Ensemble.
Ian Watson accordion
Ian Watson trained at the Royal Academy of Music and has performed with numerous orchestras,
including the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, the Britten Sinfonia and the Scottish
Ensemble. He has collaborated with many leading composers, including David Gorton, Howard
Skempton and Michael Zev Gordon, and has performed and recorded with Blur, The Divine
Comedy and Sophie Solomon. He was the music director of Jonathan Dove’s family opera The
Enchanted Pig at the Young Vic; he also works with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the
Royal National Theatre and in the West End.
Annie Whitehead trombone
Annie Whitehead began her career at the age of 16, performing with Ivy Benson’s All Girl
Orchestra. She has worked with a wide range of artists, including Joan Armatrading, Chris Rea,
Elvis Costello, Carlene Carter, Paul Weller, Jerry Dammers, Amazulu, Robert Wyatt, The
Communards and Bananarama, and toured extensively with Fun Boy Three, Joe Jackson and Jah
Wobble. She was also a founder member of Working Week. In 1991 she joined the Penguin
Café Orchestra, with which she has toured worldwide. With the horn section The Kick Horns, she
has done session work with Rufus Wainwright, Blur, The Beautiful South, Jamiroquai, Maverick
Sabre, Dr John and Eric Clapton, among many others. Her current band, The Experience, was
originally formed in 1994 and has performed at many festivals in Europe and beyond. Recently
she has recorded albums and currently tours with the blues singer–songwriter Carol Grimes, the
soul diva Sarah-Jane Morris and the beat poet Michael Horowitz.
The Company
Suzy Willson director, choreographer
Suzy Willson is Co-Artistic Director of Clod Ensemble and has directed all its productions to date.
She also leads the company’s award-winning Performing Medicine project and is an honorary
senior lecturer at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry. She studied drama at
Manchester University and at L’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, Paris.
Paul Clark composer
Paul Clark has written original scores for all Clod Ensemble’s productions. He has also written four
chamber operas, including The Weather Man for Opera North and liebeslied/my suicides for the ICA
and the Genesis Foundation. He has written dozens of scores for theatre productions in the UK and
internationally, for directors including Katie Mitchell, David Farr and Judy Hegarty Lovett; he has also
written film and television scores for such directors as Arnaud Desplechin and Emily Young and has
collaborated with a wide range of musicians, from Dangermouse to Mark E. Smith.
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Sarah Blenkinsop designer
Sarah Blenkinsop trained at the Wimbledon School of Art and was a finalist in the Linbury Prize
for Stage Design. As Clod Ensemble’s resident designer, her credits with the company include The
Silver Swan, An Anatomie in Four Quarters, Greed and Lady Grey. Her stage design credits
elsewhere include Titus Andronicus at the Riverside Studios; Volpone, Thirst, The Importance of
Being Earnest and Alice for Kaos Theatre; A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest at the
Salisbury Playhouse; Mary Stuart at the Derby Playhouse; and Linda di Chamounix for English
Touring Opera. She also designs costumes for film and television, including Lynne Ramsay’s The
Swimmer and Morvern Callar.
Hansjörg Schmidt lighting designer
Hansjörg Schmidt is the director of the lighting design course at Rose Bruford College. His recent
lighting design credits include Above Me the Wide Blue Sky and On Ageing for Fevered Sleep at
the Young Vic; Silver Swan for Clod Ensemble at Tate Modern; An Anatomie in Four Quarters for
Clod Ensemble at Sadler’s Wells; Kursk for Sound & Fury at the Young Vic; The Forest for Fevered
Sleep; Under Glass and Red Ladies for Clod Ensemble; and, with David Harradine, Stilled and
Camera Obscura.
Peggy Shaw lyrics
Peggy Shaw is a performer, writer, teacher, poet, producer and co-founder of the renowned
company Split Britches, which has featured on the performance-art circuit for over 27 years. Since
the 1980s she has become a signature artist on the New York performance scene, winning three
Village Voice Obie Awards and, in 2005, a Theatre Performer of the Year award from the
Foundation for Contemporary Performance.
Rose Love assistant designer
Rose Love trained in performance design at the University of Leeds and also studied costume
making at the Northern College of Costume, York. This is her third production with Clod Ensemble;
she previously worked on An Anatomie in Four Quarters at Sadler’s Wells and Silver Swan at Tate
Modern. She has also worked in film, television and theatre, and for such companies as Warp
Films (on Tyrannosaur and Swimmer), the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.
Tracy Gentles producer
Tracy Gentles studied performing arts at the University of Salford and directed her own small-scale
theatre company and lectured extensively in arts management before joining Clod Ensemble in
2008. She has worked with Sadler’s Wells and with a wide range of artists, including the Turner
Prize-winner Martin Creed and the Obie Award-winning New Yorker Peggy Shaw.
Tweet us a rapid review for your chance to win Festival tickets.
Simply @brightfest for us to see your review. If we like it we’ll retweet it.
Can you get it all in one tweet? Here’s the challenge. You can even throw in
a hashtag for good measure – #BF2013
If your review is retweeted by @brightfest you will win a pair of tickets.
Happy tweeting!
brightfest
BF16_2013ClodAW6:BF1 / LSO artwork 17/05/2013 11:55 Page 15
Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival
Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival is a registered charity that runs the year-round programme at Brighton
Dome (Concert Hall, Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre) as well as the three-week Brighton Festival that
takes place in venues across the city.
Chair
Ms Polly Toynbee
Board of Trustees
Ms Pam Alexander, Cllr Geoffrey Bowden, Mr Donald Clark, Prof. Julian Crampton, Mr Simon Fanshawe,
Mr Nelson Fernandez, Prof. David Gann, Mr David Jordan, Mr Alan McCarthy, Cllr Mo Marsh,
Mr Dermot Scully, Ms Sue Stapely
Producing Brighton Festival each year is an enormous task involving hundreds of people. The directors would like to
thank all the staff of Brighton Dome and Festival, the staff team at our catering partners Peyton & Byrne, the staff at
all the venues, the volunteers and everyone else involved in making this great Festival happen.
Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival Staff
Chief Executive Andrew Comben
PA to Chief Executive Heather Jones
Senior Producer Tanya Peters
Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival Artistic Planning
Music Producer Laura Ducceschi
Theatre Producer Orla Flanagan
Programming Coordinator Martin Atkinson, Rosie Crane
Programme Manager Jody Yebga
Venue Diary Manager Lara Hockman
Brighton Festival Artistic Planning and Production
Production Manager, External Venues Ian Baird
Production Manager, Outdoor Events Polly Barker
Producing Assistant Charlotte Blandford
Associate Producer Sally Cowling
Festival Classical Producer Gill Kay
Literature and Spoken Word Producer Mathew Clayton
Artistic Planning Volunteers Maddie Smart, Martha Bloom,
Grace Brannigan, Chloe Hunter
Volunteer Coordinator Melissa Perkins
Peacock Poetry Prize Volunteer Annie Tomlinson
Learning Access and Participation
Head of Learning Access and Participation Pippa Smith
Creative Producer/26 Letters Programmer Hilary Cooke
Learning Access and Participation Manager Rebecca Fidler
Learning Access and Participation Assistant Alex Epps
Learning Access and Participation
Volunteer Coordinator Kelly Turnbull
Director of Development Barbara MacPherson
Development and Membership
Trusts and Foundations Associate Carla Pannett
Development Manager (maternity leave) Sarah Shepherd
Development Officer Ceri Eldin
Membership Officer Kelly Davies
Development Administrator Dona Crisfield
Development Communications Volunteer Patricia Nathan
Director of Finance and Deputy Chief Executive Amanda Jones
Finance
Management Accountant Jo Davis
Senior Finance Officer Lizzy Fulker
Finance Officers Lyndsey Malic, Carys Griffith, Donna Joyce
Human Resources
Human Resources Officer Kate Telfer
Administrative Assistant (HR) Emma Collier
Human Resources Volunteer Melissa Baechler
Contracts and Information Technology
Head of Management Information Systems Tim Metcalfe
Contracts Manager Gwen Avery
ICT Support Officer Paul Smith
Administrative Assistant (Contracts) Cathy Leadley
Director of Marketing Carole Britten
Marketing and Press
Press and PR Manager Nicola Jeffs
Head of Press (maternity leave) Shelley Bennet
Marketing Manager Marilena Reina
Senior Marketing Officer (maternity leave) Georgina Harris
Acting Senior Marketing Officer Carly Bennett
Marketing Officer James Barton
Freelance Marketing Officer Rasheed Rahman
Senior Press Officer Chris Challis
Design and Print Production Officer Louise Richardson
Digital and Administrative Officer Annie Whelan
Broadcast PR Anna Christoforou
Festival Photographer Victor Frankowski
Marketing Volunteers Muna Amor, Alice Garside
Design Volunteer Jason Wilkinson
PR Volunteer Elizabeth Hughes
Ticket Office
Ticket Services Manager Steve Cotton
Deputy Ticket Services Manager Steve Bennett
Ticket Services Supervisor Phil Newton
Senior Ticket Services Assistant Dom Plucknett
Ticket Services Assistants Laura Edmans, Emily Adams,
Marie-Claire De Boer, Jacqueline Hadlow, Josh Krawczyk,
Bev Parke, Florence Puddifoot, Jamie Smith, Caroline Sutcliffe
BF16_2013ClodAW6:BF1 / LSO artwork 17/05/2013 11:55 Page 16
Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival
Director of Operations Maxine Hort
Production
Head of Production Rich Garfield
Event Production Manager Olly Olsen
Operations Production Manager Kevin Taylor
Production Coordinator Erica Dellner
Concert Hall Senior Technician Nick Pitcher, Sam Wellard
Corn Exchange Senior Technician Andy Furneaux
Studio Theatre Senior Technician Beth O’Leary
Technicians Jamie Barker, Sam Burgess, Bartosz Dylewski, Scott McQuaide, Jem Noble, Adam Vincent, Seth Wagstaff, Csaba Mach,
Mike Bignell, Al Robinson, John Saxby, Jon Anrep, Chris Tibbles, Dan Goddard, Nick Goodwin, Nick Hill, Philip Oliver,
Peter Steinbacher, Christos Takas, Youssef El-Kirate, Daniel Harvey, Marc Beatty, Rebecca Perkins, Owen Ridley, Graham Rees,
Eliot Hughes, Matt Jones, James Christie, Robert Bullock
Conference and Event Sales
Business Development Manager Donna Miller
Conference and Event Sales Manager Delphine Cassara
Marketing Assistant Helen Rouncivell
Maintenance
Maintenance
Maintenance
Maintenance
Maintenance
Manager John Rogers
Supervisor Chris Parsons
Plumber Colin Burt
Apprentice Matthew Ashby
Visitor Services
Head of Visitor Services Zoe Curtis
Visitor Services Manager Sarah Wilkinson
Event Managers Morgan Robinson, Tim Ebbs, Simon Cowan, Josh Williams
Duty Event Managers Jamie Smith, Adam Self
Visitor Services Officer Emily Cross
Senior Visitor Services Assistant Kara Boustead-Hinks
Visitor Services Assistants Peter Bann, Graham Cameron, Melissa Cox, Anja Gibbs, Valerie Furnham, David Earl, Andrea Hoban-Todd,
Tony Lee, Jules Pearce, Joe Pryor, Alex Pummell, Josh Rowley, Thomas Sloan, Adam Self, Claire Swift, Carly West, Nicky Conlan,
Matt Freeland, Matthew Mulcahy, Richard Thorp, Emily Cross
Visitor Services Volunteer Coordinator Lizzy Leach
Front of House
Front of House Manager Ralph Corke
Front of House Supervisors Bernard Brown, Kara Boustead-Hinks, Bill Clements, Gabi Hergert, John Morfett, Jeff Pearce, Betty Raggett,
Michael Raynor, Adam Self
Stewards and Security
Paul Andrews, David Azzaro, Peter Bann, Janey Beswick, Hannah Bishop, Jim Bishop, Penny Bishop, Andy Black, Sarah Bond,
Sara Bowring, Alice Bridges, Frank Brown, Andy Buchanan, Johanna Burley, Carole Chisem, Julian Clapp, John Clarke, Tricia Clements,
Joyce Colivet, NIcky Conlan, Mary Cooter, Fraser Crosbie, Darren Cross, John Davidson, Marie-Clare De Boer, Lawry Defreitas,
Paddy Delaney, Emma Dell, Kathy Dent, Judi Dettmar, Alan Diplock, Melanie Dumelo, Maureen East, Jan Eccleston, Abigail Edwards,
Daniel FlowerDay, Maria Foy, Valerie Furnham, Betty Gascoigne, Anja Gibbs, Vivien Glaskin, Matt Goorney, Debbie Greenfield,
Louise Gregory, Ellie Griffiths- Moore, Paul Gunn, Gillian Hall, Kezia Hanson, Thomas Haywood, Martin Henwood, Al Hodgson,
Mike Hollway, Peter Holmes, Frances Holt, Tony Jackson, Emily James-Farley, Mick Jessop, Julie Jones, Mark Jones, Julia Jupp,
Jim Killick, Kev Koya, Jon Lee, Emma Levick, Ady Limmer, Samatha Lucus, Vicki Lywood-Last, Carol Maddock, Ivica Manic, Tania Marsh,
Carole Moorhouse, Nick Morgan, Lisa Murray, Richard Nast, Mlinh Nguyen, Paley O’Connor, Brendan O’Meara, Lucy Paget,
Simon Pattenden, Jules Pearce, Noele Picot, Rachel Potter, Will Rathbone, Grant Richie, Jenny Ridland, Ruth Rogers, Joshua Rowley,
Eve Saunders, Rossana Schaffa, Laura Scobie, Samantha Sharman, Joe Simmons-Issler, Caroline Smith, Graham Smith, Jamie Smith,
Alex Sparham, Sheila Stockbridge, Richard Thorp, Brigitt Turner, Carly West, Geraldine White, Cicely Whitehead, Geoff Wicks,
Linda Williams.
Programmes
Editor Alison Latham | Biographies editor Oliver Tims | Design Heather Kenmure 020 7931 7639 | All articles are copyright of the author