Analog Beachy Head - image by Geraint Lewis

Watershed is delighted to announce the six recipients of this year’s Theatre Sandbox commissions, supported by Arts Council England. Theatre Sandbox: making space for great ideas, is an opportunity for theatre artists to research and develop new ideas that use pervasive media technologies, and is a unique chance to experiment, explore and take risks within a supported environment. This is the first commissioning scheme of its kind in the UK in the theatre sector.

Each of the six successful recipients receives £10,000 to develop their groundbreaking projects at prestigious partner venues across the country (including Bristol’s Old Vic) ready for public events and testing in September. This will be followed by a final showcase event at Watershed in November.

Theatre Sandbox seeks to grow an active community of experimentation and learning and includes a structured programme of commissioning and knowledge exchange to grow awareness of technology in the theatre sector. IShed aims to encourage innovation and to leave a lasting legacy as part of the scheme.

Technology is an enabler: it's only as exciting as the story it is telling or the experience it is helping to create. Recipients will have unprecedented access to technology experts, leading theatre professionals and the chance to work with one of our venue partners: Bristol Old Vic; mac, Birmingham; Contact, Manchester; The Junction, Cambridge; Soho Theatre, London; and Lyric, Hammersmith.

One of the winning projects sees Bristol-based artist Duncan Speakman hosted by London’s Soho Theatre, where he is collaborating with Uninvited Guests, (also a Bristol company) to explore how audiences can collectively imagine utopian futures in real locations using performance and networked maps. Artists Ed Collier and Melanie Wilson will be hosted by the Lyric, Hammersmith while they work on The Observatory an adventurous fairy tale about a parallel magical world that exists alongside city life.

The commissions were selected following an intensive application period, during which 275 theatre makers attended nationwide introductory workshops and almost 100 applications were received. Katie Day, Theatre Sandbox Producer said:

‘I'm delighted to be working with such talented and diverse theatre makers for Theatre Sandbox 2010. Artists will be hosted by a forward-thinking group of venues from around the country whose support is vital.  It's been great to see such hunger from the theatre sector to engage with new technologies, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the learning generated by this year's Theatre Sandbox commissions can seed wider development in the future.’

Theatre Sandbox is produced by iShed and supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. iShed is part of Watershed, a cross art form venue in Bristol.
For further information see www.theatresandbox.co.uk or follow Theatre Sandbox on Twitter: twitter.com/theatresandbox

Theatre Sandbox Commissions 2010 in full

Ed Collier & Melanie Wilson

Hosted by Lyric Hammersmith

The Observatory is an audio led adventurous fairy tale for children aged between 7 and 10 and their adults. Staged both on a high street and in a theatrical playspace it is about a parallel magical world that exists alongside the city. It can be heard only by those who want to hear it and glimpsed through keyholes and cracks in the pavement by a lucky few.

The Observatory will be made Ed Collier of China Plate and award winning theatre and sound artist Melanie Wilson.

FFI www.chinaplatetheatre.com / www.melaniewilson.org.uk

Duncan Speakman & Uninvited Guests

Hosted by Soho Theatre, London

Duncan Speakman is an artist who creates experiences in public spaces, often using mobile audio technology. He is collaborating with Uninvited Guests, a Bristol based company whose recent work blurs the line between theatre and social festivities. Together they are exploring how audiences can collectively imagine utopian futures in real locations using performance and networked maps

FFI www.duncanspeakman.net / www.uninvited-guests.net

Proto-type Theater

Hosted by Bristol Old Vic

Fortnight is a two-week long performance experience located in the spaces, technologies and occurrences of our daily lives: an unfolding adventure into the limitless 'local'.

Proto-type Theater is a company of multi-disciplinary artists interested in live and digital performance. Proto-type has created demanding, intricately crafted original works, differing in scale, subject and medium for a diverse audience of intelligent, modern humans. FFI www.proto-type.org

Analogue

Hosted by The Junction, Cambridge

Analogue will use 21st century connectedness to explore disconnections between ourselves in the present, and the semi-remembered events of our childhood. The audience will navigate through events in May 1985, beginning with a phone call that has long since vanished from history.

Analogue aims to produce challenging, highly inventive via theatrical traditions from the past.FFI www.analogueproductions.co.uk

Tin Bath

Hosted by mac, Birmingham

Sophie Woolley and Gemma Fairlie of Tin Bath are developing a new comedy called You’re So Happy I Want to Die. The project experiments with dynamic, evocative captioning that responds to the live nature of theatre.

Tin Bath produces exciting interactive theatre that is accessible to deaf and hard of hearing people. FFI www.tinbaththeatre.com

Mind the Gap

Hosted by Contact, Manchester

Mind the Gap will make a sonic maze where the audience are moved through a space, attracted and repulsed by sirens. Mind the Gap makes professional theatre with learning disabled people. FFI www.mind-the-gap.org.uk

Theatre Sandbox is originated and produced by iShed, part of Watershed. It is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, and delivered in partnership with Bristol Old Vic, Soho Theatre Lyric, Hammersmith, mac, Contact and The Junction.