✨🪩Leaving Party 🪩✨
In May last year I joined Babel Theatre’s Creation Space programme, a course where you had a whole year to develop and share 15 minutes of an idea. I joined because as a movement director, I am often bringing other artists’ ideas to life, and I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could do the same for myself. I went in with zero idea of what I wanted to make, and zero pressure of where I wanted it to go afterwards. I only had the intention of wanting to make something that a younger version of me would think was cool.
Coming in with zero idea was terrifying. And at times made me doubt that I would ever have a decent creative idea in my entire life ever again, and I may as well stop before I embarrass myself and go get a regular job like everyone else. However, from an idea of ‘discoball as god’ that I scribbled down in my notebook in the first workshop, and some rare morning pages that didn’t just read ‘God I really love tea’, Leaving Party was started.
From then to the sharing last Friday, I have drowned in post-its, procrastinated, doubted, hyper-fixated and nearly hurled my iPad down the garden trying to work out GarageBand. However, through gathering the most joyful ensemble in the world (no really) and creating this piece on 0 budget, I’ve learnt that I totally have the imagination and ability to craft the narrative of a full hour show, I’m actually quite a sick music producer guys, and that despite the frustrations, fear and doubt, I really enjoy making my own work.
Thank you to Babel
@babel_theatre for the creation of Creation Space and all of the Creation Space cohort,
@_josephlynch for all of your mentoring and encouragement,
@ephemeral_ensemble for inspiring my whacky brain,
@boldelephant_ and
@brxhousetheatre for the rehearsal space and
@benjamin_salmon for your dulcet tones. And finally THANK YOU to the Leaving Party ensemble
@charlie__bateman @robin.g.smiff @louedwardsacting @tessaradman @kennycumino @graceoxenham @aqiong.z @daisy.fairyw @blani_s @fernandasumray , whose energy, creativity and elite senses of humour are truly unmatched ✨
*scroll to see me really struggling to put up a disco ball in front of an audience
