Without Warning Programme - Lizzi Kew Ross

Laban Theatre & Without Warning Company present

Supported by

Programme design | Mark Bromley www.markbromley.net Photographs | Merlin Hendy, Peter Anderson, Fay Patterson, Mark Bromley

“It comes as all things that change a life must come: without warning.”

An Evil Cradling Brian Keenan Every idea has its moment of genesis. Sometimes we don’t recognize them; sometimes they appear accidental to us; at other moments, they seem dredged up from some memory bank that is hardly conscious. So came the inspiration for Without Warning.

With a commission from Brian Brady, Head of Theatre Programming at Laban Theatre, support from Trinity Laban and a 5-week rehearsal period with a cast who did not know each other, the piece was shown at Laban in November 2010.

I had read An Evil Cradling when it came out in the early 90s and had always wanted to work on developing ideas inspired from the images; Keenan writes so powerfully and with such clear and visceral word portraits. In the introduction of the book, he talks of his account as a love story. His description of the reliance and engagement with another, through humour and pain, was deeply moving to me - as it was to many other people. The kindness and care for another, when there is nothing left, is the only thing in the end we can give each other.

There was much good will, flexibility and kindness through the initial phases of the making of this piece and the rehearsals were created through people’s mixed availability. I had asked the cast to read the book, and they came with an immense sensibility concerning the material, and an openness to devising the work together.

“Waiting there, waiting to go to where I did not know I felt a hand touch my foot. This was not the hand of a guard. Some other prisoner had reached out and touched my foot. I took some reassurance from it and I am sure the man who touched me was reassuring himself. I fumblingly put my hand upon his and patted it gently. It was a strange first human touch conveying such warmth and companionship in such desperate circumstances. I remember it still that first mutual reaching out of concern.”

An Evil Cradling

I have been influenced by Augusto Boal’s work and the trust tasks he devised; for me, taking away the sight, and asking the cast to work ‘blind’ became a way of connecting them with each other quickly, and touching the core of the material. This vulnerability and fragility of experiment were key to the working process.

Artistic Director Lizzi Kew Ross

CREDITS Director/Choreographer Musical Director Lighting Design Dramaturg Costume Design Lighting Operator Lighting Assistant Project Co-ordinator Marketing Co-ordinator Public Relations

Lizzi Kew Ross Natasha Lohan Fay Patterson Mary Ann Hushlak Susan Kulkarni Mickie Mannion Leon Smith Fionna McPhee Caroline Schreiber Martha Oakes PR

Performers Dario Dugandzic David Leahy Natasha Lohan Lauren Potter Sonia Rafferty Megan Saunders Simon Wehrli Understudy

Rosalie Wahlfird Executive Producer

Brian Brady

Thanks to: The original cast members (James Keane, Daisy Thompson and Peter Wilcock),Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, Arts Council England, Kevin Spacey Foundation, Tim O'Dell at Lambeth Libraries, Merlin Hendy, Peter Anderson, Oliver Ross, Karsten Tinapp, Andy Hammond, Ashley Bolitho, Janine de Weera and Guillaume Aufray.

Without Warning was devised with the creative team and cast.

Lizzi Kew Ross trained at Roehampton University and London Contemporary Dance School, graduating with a BEd and MA in choreography. She has been involved in performing, teaching and choreographing in many different contexts: working in theatre companies as a movement director, choreographing musicals with commissions for Arts Theatre Cambridge, performances for Yorkshire Arts with mime artist Geoffrey Stevenson, performance work in Uganda and cabarets for Hilton Hotels. Lizzi works at Trinity Laban and has worked at The Place, Birkbeck College, Guildhall for the Opera Course and at Arts Ed in Chiswick. Latest choreographic credits include December 1952, graphic score by Earle Brown for Chelsea Space, curated

by Cally Spooner; Harmony of the Spheres at The Royal Observatory, Colourscape on Clapham Common, both directed

by Stephen Montague; Mapping the Hand, installation with dancers in collaboration with artists for Wallspace, Gallery London Wall; Space Between the Notes for Excellent at Sadlers Wells. With Douglas Finch she co-directed In The Moment Improvisation Festival with 350 performers over three days in site specific locations. Lizzi’s work abroad includes teaching at Taiwan University of the Arts and community dance projects for drug charities in Hong Kong. Her latest work includes Speak but one word to me, a commission for Dance United and Bulldog Trust in response to the William Morris exhibition there.

Natasha Lohan trained in Music and Drama at Trinity College Dublin and holds a Masters in Performance from Trinity College of Music. Her career spans composer, performer and music animateur, specialising in exploratory uses of the voice in performance. She is a founder member of Irish new music group Crash Ensemble, has premiered many works created for her and enjoyed many collaborations with artists from other genres (Daghdha Dance Company; Pan Pan Theatre (Irl); visual artist, Dorothy Cross; composer, Heiner Goebbels). In 2009/10, she

toured with Linda Hirst in performances of Nicholas Brown’s interdisciplinary work As I Have Now Memoyre and was awarded an Arts Council of Ireland Artist Bursary to research and devise new performance work in 2011. Other current projects include a new collaboration with Nicholas Brown, entitled Against Melancholy (May 2012).

Fay Patterson is currently senior technician for Trinity Laban and works on a freelance basis as a lighting designer and production manager. She is a graduate of Bretton Hall, the University of Leeds where, under the guidance of her tutor Tim Skelly, she developed a strong interest in perception and how the variable qualities of light impact on our understanding of our environment.

Fay has toured extensively with companies such as Carole Brown, Retina Dance and Shobana Jeyasingh, and has been lucky enough to see the insides of theatres and hotel rooms all over the world. Her design credits include works for Wendy Houstoun, Marie Gabrielle Rotie Productions and Charles Linehan.

Mary Ann Hushlak is a writer and dance dramaturg. Originally Canadian, she first came to the UK to do a PhD on the subject of political language. Instead she became immersed in performance art and trained as a screenwriter. She’s worked with Augusto Boal, in particular his Image Theatre and, in her search for vocabularies of dance and movement, Rosemary Brandt’s choreology workshops have been indispensable. She writes short stories and collaborates with artists, writing text for artist books. As part of the ongoing Without Warning project, she is taking the lead to develop Without Warning as an artist e-book.

Other current performance projects include <<equilibrium point>> with Athina Vahla and Nick Rothwell, which received a Special Mention of the Jury from MADE, Mobility for Digital Arts in Europe (2011).

Detroit at the Royal National Theatre and an Olympic film project for Dancefest. Susan is currently head of costume for Secret Cinema and Future Cinema and designs all of their events, including the recent critically acclaimed Top Gun and Lost Boys.

Fionna McPhee trained at Dartington College of Arts and the Rotterdam Danse Academie under Lucas Hoving. After working as a dancer and teacher with Scottish Balletâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Moveable Workshop, she joined Janet Smith and Dancers, touring extensively in England and Europe. She was on the dance technique faculty at Laban, Goldsmiths College and London College of Dance & Drama. She has been an external examiner for the Council for National Academic Awards and an independent member for the Council for Dance Education and Training. For the last ten years she has been Executive Assistant to the Director of Trinity Laban, leaving recently to work as a freelance administrator.

Susan Kulkarni is a freelance costume designer and milliner.

She read English at Somerville College, Oxford University, where she was awarded a travelling fellowship to travel around the world studying costume. Susan then undertook a postgraduate course in Costume at RADA. Most recently she worked on Downton Abbey 11 and Dancing on the Edge, a BBC drama by Stephen Poliakoff. Upcoming projects include costume designing

Dario Dugandzic completed his undergraduate studies at Trinity College of Music in 2009 and currently studies with David Barrell.

Stage credits include Death, 2nd Commissaire, Edward Harris, Simone, Nardo, Luka, Titone, Fiorello, Zuniga, Mohammed, Dancairo, Ben, Yakuside and ensemble in Coram Boy at the National Theatre. As well as various oratorios and concert works Dario has premiered several new works including Scenes of Travel and Longing by Nick Jones, The Evil Magician and CafĂŠ des Artistes by Simone Spagnolo, Meadows of Gold by Jamie Brown and In the Dark, an improvised opera. www.dariodugandzic.com David Leahy is a professional double bassist/dancer working mostly within the world of improvisation, performing regularly on the free music scene and with contact dance improvisers throughout Europe. Some of his current projects include Lode, a violin/double bass and electronics contemporary music duo, Sichtlaut Trio with former Pina Bausch dancer Geraldo Si (and his double bass) and the London Improvisers Orchestra, which he plays in and conducts regularly.

Laura Moody is a cellist, singer, songwriter and theatre performer.

She studied at York University and Trinity College of Music. A member of the innovative string quartet Elysian Quartet and physical theatre string ensemble The Gogmagogs, she has also performed frequently at the National Theatre and the Royal Opera House Linbury Theatre and recently featured as the solo cellist in Broken Glass in the West End. In her highly individual solo work she simultaneously performs with both cello and voice to create

unique acoustic avant-pop music. Her debut album will be released later this year. www.lauramoodymusic.com Sonia Rafferty is a Laban BA (Hons), Transitions Dance Company and MSc Dance Science graduate. She is a performer, teacher, choreographer and dance science researcher who has performed extensively (live, TV and recording) with the electric voice dance company, La Bouche, as well as V-Tol, Nikky Smedley, Erica Stanton, Mothers of Invention, Lizzi Kew Ross and with Athina Vahla on several site-specific productions. She also directs her own company, Double Vision, with Amanda Gough. Now a part-time Senior Lecturer at Trinity Laban, Sonia also frequently teaches open professional/company classes and workshops in technique, dance fitness and wellness, and safe dance practice.

Lauren Potter is an independent dance artist/teacher. Originally trained at The Place, she was a member of London Contemporary Dance Theatre for many years and, following this, a founder member of Siobhan Davies Dance. She has since performed and taught with a diverse range of companies and choreographers both nationally and internationally, most recently with Rosemary Butcher at the RFH, reinventing the work of Alan Kaprow and as a performer in the Barbican exhibition Pioneers of the Downtown Scene New York 1970s. She spent some years in the post of Artistic Director for Edge, the Postgraduate Performance Company at London Contemporary Dance School, and teaches regularly within the independent circuit.

Megan Saunders completed her BA at Laban and continued as a member of Transitions Dance Company 2008. She has had a varied career so far, working as a performer in works such as Xavier Le Roy and Marten Spanbergâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Production and Layla

Rosaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s What If...? She has choreographed and performed in Dance Films for BBC Learning and has worked as a movement director and choreographer for operas and plays. She is an Emerging Dance Artist in Residence at The Southbank Centre.

Education work includes roles for Richard Alston Dance Company, Laban, Iceandfire Theatre, Luca Silvestrini and The Cholmodeleys.

Rosalie Wahlfird is a Swedish-born dancer who received her BA (Hons) from Laban. She was awarded the Simone Michelle Award for excellent achievement in choreography in 2010 and has a deep interest in the body, mind and performance. Rosalie often works with improvisation as research or as performance. She has worked with artists such as Pablo Bronstein, Rosalind Crisp, Joe Moran and is in an ongoing collaboration with Finnish Dance artist Helka Kaski.

Simon Wehrli graduated at Swiss Scuola Teatro Dimitri (BA in the Arts of Physical Theatre) and subsequently developed his knowledge of contemporary dance at Laban. Since then he has been touring internationally as part of the movement theatre collective Spettatori and with the dance improvisation group 50collective. As a dancer, actor and musician he works for choreographers in London and New York and creates his own pieces in Switzerland. In 2010 he was selected to participate at the international project of 50 days of flying low and passing through Costa Rica with David Zambrano.

Peter Anderson attended Glasgow School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London. He was a staff photographer at New Musical Express in the 1980s and has also worked for publications that include The Face, iD and Rolling Stone. His exhibitions include: Rock Star Portraits, Fukuoka, Japan and Art Mix 802, Osaka, Japan (1992) Saatchi and Saatchi (1993 - 1995) CAR, The Chamber of Pop Culture (1999) Surveillance, Deptford X, London (2003) Sanctuary at APT Deptford, London (2005) Photographs of Film Directors, Greenwich Picturehouse, London (2007) Xposure, Deptford X (2007)â&#x20AC;¨ Urban Art, Bonhams (2008) Vision 21, Bonhams (2008/9/10) No Inhibitions, Lyon&Turnbull (2009) Then and There, Here and Now, APT Gallery, Deptford (2010) Ray Lowry, London Calling, Idea Generation, Shoreditch (2010) Pioneers of Popular Culture at Goodwood (2010) Then And There Here And Now, The Book Club, Shoreditch (2010) Urban Art Night, Nottingham Contemporary (2010) Deptford X Photography Project. Here And There Arch Gallery, Deptford (2010) Steak & Brew, Arch Gallery, Deptford (2010) Then And There, Here And Now, The Civic Suite, Lewisham Town Hall (2010) Deptford X Mural Project .Out on the Wall. a painted photo exhibition Douglas Way Sq. (until 2014) 2nd Ghetto Biennale Haiti Street Portraits (2011)

Without Warning: A Photographic Exhibition Peter Andersonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s DARKROOM is an installation.

It embodies containment and confinement. Functioning as a gallery, it presents the photographs of the cast of Without Warning captured in rehearsal by artist Peter Anderson. The darkroom soundscape, created by Natasha Lohan, gathers and accumulates moments from previous performances and rehearsals of Without Warning.

DARKROOM can be accessed via the Bunker Bar.

ACCOMPANYING EVENTS Book Club In conjunction with Lambeth Libraries, Brian Keenanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s An Evil Cradling is the book for discussion.

(His Four Quarters of Light: An Alaskan Journey will also be referred to.)

Tuesday 31 January 8.00 - 9.30pm Thursday 2 February 8.00 - 9.30pm Tuesday 7 February 8.00 - 9.30pm An Audience with Brian Keenan Brian Keenan will be reading extracts from his new book, to be published in Autumn 2012.

Saturday 4 February 11.30am Sunday 5 February 11.30am and 3.15pm A Dramaturgy Workshop Dramaturg on the project, Mary Ann Hushlak, will host the workshop.

Wednesday 8 February 3.00-5.00pm Post-Show Q&A Lizzi Kew Ross, the choreographer and director, will be joined by members of the creative team and cast.

Friday 10 February 8.00-9.00pm Further information on all events and how to book tickets is available on The Old Vic Tunnels website: www.oldvictunnels.com

A HEALTHY NEW COMMUNITY MUSICAL

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With additional support from Andor Charitable Trust, IdeasTap, The MacRobert Trust, Norton Rose LLP, Schroder Charity Trust and Unity Theatre Trust