A Book

We have finished our book. It's kind of about our work & why we make work. It has images, bits of scripts and ideas.
Please have a look:
http://issuu.com/mattallen6/docs/read1

‘What is this Newk thing you guys run anyway?’

Newk is platform for emerging and established practitioners to test a performance to a supportive audience which includes invited guests, informed peers and people who may never experience your work if it was not for this platform.

Newk is short for NEw and unfinished WorK. The platform is for solo artists, performance companies and collaborations of any size. Each event showcases three performances selected by The Skeleton Project. The simple application form includes what will be seen on stage, what is the context of the work and why you will benefit from showing it at this stage; this helps us select interesting, well thought out work that will truly benefit from audience feedback.

The event is for those working in new and contemporary theatre, dance and live art. At the end of the performances supportive audience feedback and questions for the artists is led by the host. Each event is hosted by an established practitioner who also offers individual feedback to each performance.

The event will run three times in 2012, twice at Stage@Leeds in the Alec Clegg space, A 52 seat black box stage with raised seating, theatre lights, projection and PA. University of Leeds and once in the Summer at Test Space. Test Space is a flexible exhibition space with 40 detached seats and room for a standing audience. This space is ideal for performances that would benefit from being presented in a non-traditional theatre space and performances without the need for rigged lighting.

If you are interested in applying for Newk please e-mail Matthew Allen at info@skeletonproject.co.uk with NEWK in the subject line and request a form. 

The next NEWK will take place at Stage@Leeds on February 2.

The deadline for applications is mid-day on January 8.

Tickets to attend NEWK are only £2 to see all three performances. Audience feedback is optional.

After Furnace

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.

http://www.mylifeinleeds.co.uk/guide/leeds-theatres-whats-on/#.TptPkDqmmlI.facebook

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 26^th 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 2^nd 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.

Broken Bones

I've done it again. This is the 8th & 9th bone I've broken, these two are in my left foot and add to the collection of compound fractures, broken ribs, arms, knuckles and toes.
This seems as good a time as any to begin a blog as I will now be spending more time inside.
I'm going to start with a very simple Top 5 things I'm missing this weekend until I get changed to a pot that I can walk on next week.


1: Light Night - Friday 7th
http://lightnightleeds.co.uk/events/a-body-of-work/
I am working with  Indivisible, Pocket Mirror, Studiofiftyfive, Testing The Razor & Woolgather. But I'm not any more as I can't walk. Please go & let me know what I'm missing via twitter @skeletonp


2:What I heard about the world.
Read Alex's blog about the show on Culture Vulture here:
http://theculturevulture.co.uk/blog/radar/what-i-heard-about-the-world/
& then go see it at Leeds Met Gallery & Studio Theatre At Northern Ballet, Quarry Hill, Leeds LS2 7PA today at 7.30pm and tell me how good it was and make me even more angry at my foot.


3: Printing NEWK flyers. I can't go out and make flyers to our event next week that I will now by on crutches for, so this is shameless self promotion, only it's not because even though we are running it the promotion is for the great pieces that will be performed next week. Check it out and please come support the new work being made in Leeds. http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=181804758560393


4. The re release of Lion King.


5: RedCape theatre Presents 1 Beach Road: I don't know a lot about this but I was going & now I'm not. Theres also a workshop during the day.
Saturday 8 October, 7.30pm at The Carriageworks.
So thats it. I'll do a real blog later. This was just more constructive than shouting at my foot.