On Saturday (15) I attended the Furnace Symposium at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. I’m really looking forward to more symposiums at West Yorkshire Playhouse. The Furnace symposium was also broadcasted online and had a live twitter stream on stage. The symposium was a great reminder of that even though ‘times are hard’ there are plenty of opportunities in West Yorkshire for people making work, not only great spaces and events to show your work but support making work and places to promote your work.
This is my no means an exhaustive list; please add anything important that I’ve missed on the comments. As I am Leeds based this article is just about Leeds.
Theatre spaces:
There are a number of theatre spaces in Leeds, large and small. If you don’t know about the bigger spaces: West Yorkshire Playhouse, Varieties, The Grand and The Carriagworks read Dick Bonham’s what’s on in Leeds Theatres guide.
There are numerous other performances spaces including:
Stage@Leeds is a public licensed theatre inside Leeds Uni with two spaces, stage one (180 seats) and Alec Clegg (50 seats) Leeds Uni also own the woodhouse lane Workshop Theatre.
Upstairs@thecarriageworks is a flexible studio space (up to 65seats) which hosts a selection of fresh and exciting new work.Seven Arts Centre in Chapel Allerton is a versatile venue available for hire. (70 to 120 seats) http://www.sevenleeds.co.uk/
Otley Courthouse in Courthouse Street, LS21 3AN programmes more than 70 performances a year and is available to use for arts hire and rehearsal. (132 seats)The Stanley and Audrey Burton Theatre (230 seat) is the new location for the Leeds Met Studio Gallery Theatre programme.
Leeds Town Hall’s Victoria Hall is a 1200 seat venue available for hire through http://www.conferenceculture.co.uk/
Yorkshire Dance in St Peter’s Square has space available to hire for rehearsals but the website says only until March 2011 (so you may want to look into that if you are interested)
Arts@Trinity at the holy Trinity Church on Boar Lane has both the church building and the café area are available for hire and to host art events. http://www.artsattrinity.co.uk/
Leeds College of Music has a venue situated above the BBC and adjacent to the College available for hire. (up to 350 seats)
Other spaces:
The Hub:Slung Low’s Holbeck Underground Ballroom (The Hub) in 5 railway arches on Bath Road in Holbeck, South Leeds is a fantastic space that is generously shared with the artistic community. At the Furnace Symposium Alan Lane reminded us that the space can not only be used for making work but for showing work. A full artistic statement and a very brief form to describe what project you want to use the space for can be found here: http://web.me.com/slung.low/Slung_Low/The_HUB_home.html
Alan generously has let us use the space to work on our shows and for us having the space, outside our own living rooms or sat at a bar to work on shows has been one of the most valuable resources for us as theatre makers since graduating from Uni.
Test Space:We love Test Space and have used the studios on Melbourne Street for socials, comedy gigs and performances. The space is cheap to rent, there’s very little tech set support for theatre performances but it’s a different space for those who for whatever reason don’t want to use traditional theatre spaces. I can never get their website to open on my PC (but it’s here: www.testspaceleeds.com) you can search for them on facebook though.
East Street Arts:East Street Arts is a contemporary arts organisation. They focus on the development of artists through a programme of events, membership activities, professional development and studio/facility provision. You can find out more and join their mailing list on their website.http://eaststreetarts.org.uk/
Mailing Lists and online resources:
NWY: New Work Yorkshire is a network of practitioners practicing artist, promoter, programmers and curators. Alongside a program of events run by and for new work yorkshire members the yahoo email group offers you a chance to discuss work, promote your events and contact other members. Join here for free: http://www.newworknetwork.org.uk/userinfo.php?uid=1201
Leeds Visual Arts Forum (lvaf) is a website, message board, calendar and mailing list. It’s good to see what everyone else is up to, promote your work and get information on local opportunities. More here: http://www.lvaf.org.uk/
Fabric: The new fabric website has opportunities, professional development and links to Bradford based networks. This ones based in Bradford but its great so I thought I’d put it up here anyway. You can publicise your event on the Fabric website to over 1000 members. http://www.fabricculture.co.uk/
Leeds Contemporary Theatre Club is a facebook group for group for anyone who is interested in progressive or contemporary theatre and performance that is based in or near Leeds. http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/157777914253006/
West Yorkshire Theatre Network (WYTN): Is a network of theatre makers, directors, enthusiasts etc who run skill sharing workshops with established practitioners, host socials and casting events for actors. They have an upcoming re-launch on November 26th to promote their new membership alongside guest speakers, music and networking at Alea Casino Leeds.
NEWK: Our very own event that runs 3 times a year at stage@leeds and once a year at Test Space. The event gives space for three collectives or individual artists to present a short performance, an extract of a longer piece or a work in progress to a supportive audience to gain feedback on their work and to get it seen by a new audience. To get an application form contact me at info@skeletonproject.co.uk
The next NEWK is February 2nd 2012 at stage@leeds.
Local Festivals:
On The Edge: A new festival that launched this year at Temple Works. The main festival will launch in 2012. http://www.fringeleeds.co.uk/
Light Night Leeds:
Light night Leeds is an annual event run by Leeds city council. The event offers funding to support artists to make new work to be presented around Leeds. This year had over 75 events over 40 venues all of which were free. http://lightnightleeds.co.uk/
Compass Festival of Live Art: This festival is running November 25-27 and includes Third Angel, Reckless Sleepers, Forced Entertainment and much more. This is going to simply be great and we should all go. http://compassliveart.org.uk/
Emerge Festival:A partnership between The Carriageworks, 7arts and stage@leeds this annual festival offers a scratch platform to test work, mentored support for artists and commissions for site specific work. The festival is then followed up by workshops across the year. As one of this years mentored companies we can’t stress enough the value of this platform. http://emergeleeds.co.uk/
That’s pretty much all I’ve got time for today. I’m sure I’ve missed out lots of great things. Please excuse my many spelling mistakes and if I have written anything wrong.
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