We are very pleased to have been selected by the Caravan Curatorial Team to be part of the 2016 Caravan Showcase.
The showcase presents a programme of the best new English performance to a selection of international promoters, festival organisers and presenters as part of the Brighton Festival.
We will be presenting a pitch about our new project Agent in a Box, on Monday 16th May 2016 at 10am in Brighton.
Young male performer sought for new interactive performance in Birmingham
The Other Way Works – a new theatre game – ‘Agent in a Box’
We are looking for a performer to play ‘Hussein Kissar’ in a new theatre game we are developing, who fits the character brief below.
The part would suit a student performer, or someone with a playing age of 19-21. Ideally Birmingham/West Midlands based.
The part
– Short Voice recordings of voicemail messages
– Live performance (observed by audience sitting in parked cars)
– – Walking around a multi-storey car park, agitated, on the phone
– – Potential meeting with ‘Michael Makerson’ in the car park, argument/hug/kiss etc
– – Potential delivery of envelope to audience members in parked car and short dialogue with them from back seat of car.
The character
“Hussein Kissar”
Age: 19
Nationality: Saudi Arabian
Hussein Kissar is a Saudi-born young man. The son of a wealthy Saudi businessman, he has been privately educated at top UK boarding school.
He is now a University student in London. He is independently wealthy and free to enjoy his life.
He has a keen interest in environmental issues and the green agenda.
He is a homosexual and is ‘out’ to his peers in the UK, but not to his family, or to friends in Saudi Arabia. He is therefore discreet about his sexuality in public contexts where this might attract unwanted coverage.
He has been having a secret affair with the politician and Environment Secretary ‘Michael Makerson’ for over a year. Makerson met him when giving a speech at his school, where Makerson’s own children also attend. Aged 17, he was invited by Makerson to shadow him as part of the school’s work experience programme.
When
– We’d like to make voice recordings in mid September, in Birmingham (or remotely)
– Performances as part of a public ‘playtesting’ event in central Birmingham on Monday 26th September 10am – 6pm
Potential performances in London on 12 & 13th November (under separate agreement)
Fee
£100
To cover 1 day of rehearsals and performances on 26 September 2016 and recording of short vocal recordings before that, inclusive of travel.
Contact
Katie Day, Artistic Director, The Other Way Works
www.theotherwayworks.co.uk
info@theotherwayworks.co.uk
Please send an email to info@theotherwayworks.co.uk telling us about your performing experience and why you would like to be involved by WEDNESDAY 14th SEPTEMBER 2016.
Please make the Email Subject: Hussein Kissar Role.
Please attach a CV and links to any photos/showreels/profiles online.
Thanks.
We had some really lovely responses from our 2015 audiences. Thanks to all who attended.
The Other Way Works is currently recruiting Trustees to join its Board of Directors. This is a great opportunity for your skills and experience to make a real difference to the development of an energetic and distinctive charitable arts organisation. We’re looking for people with a passion for theatre, the arts, and innovation, who will help steer, support and advocate for the company.
We’re really pleased to announce that Arts Council England have awarded us a grant to support the development of a prototype of our new project: A Moment of Madness (previously being developed under the name ‘Agent in a Box‘).
Currently at concept stage, A Moment of Madness will be a new kind of spy-themed narrative game. Players provide live support as an agent in the field on a stake-out mission. The paper fragments enclosed in the packages together with a cheap mobile phone that accesses an automated interactive sms, voice call and message system deliver the hour-and-a-half-long narrative experience.
Artistic Director Katie Day will be collaborating with John Sear, an experienced game designer and software developer to create this new kind of narrative game.
We’re excited to be developing the project at BOM Lab, as an R&D Residency there over the summer.
We’ll be performing our prototype version of A Moment of Madness at Watermans Arts Centre’s Digital Weekender over the weekend of 12-13th November 2016.
All the information, including booking can be found on Watermans’ website.
This game is played in pairs so tickets are sold as pairs. Four players play at one time, so two pairs together. Sessions last 1 hour. The experience includes some strong language and is only suitable for adults 18+. A pair of tickets costs £10.
Performance times are:
Saturday 12th Nov 2016: 2pm, 3:30pm, 5pm, 7pm
Sunday 13th Nov 2016: 2pm, 3:30pm, 5pm
Two of the key ‘A Moment of Madness’ collaborators have written very useful blog posts explaining what the project is, and what its like to experience it as an audience member/player.
With so many talented, inspiring, excellent women in the world (we are half the population after all) its a rather daunting task to make some kind of shortlist. But in honour of International Women’s Day I’m going to give it a go, focusing on those women who help and inspire me personally in the course of my work.
The Other Way Works is and always has been female led (by me – Katie Day, and also at the start with the wonderful Jane Packman as well). Starting out as a didactic feminist outfit, we continue to create work collaboratively and often focus on telling the stories of marginalised female characters (see the overly sheltered daughter ‘Debs’ in Avon Calling, and the Polish hotel chambermaid ‘Lena’ in Black Tonic).
So, here are the excellent women …
Janice, Jess & Rachel from Women & Theatre
Generous in every way, these brilliant women are always on hand around the office with advice ranging from budgets to company governance to childcare tips. W&T has been working at the coal face of theatre in community settings for over 30 years, with energy, positivity and a good helping of humour. I’m very grateful to them for taking me under their wing.
Alison Gagen
Alison Gagen has been working in the theatre team at Arts Council England West Midlands’ office for as long as I’ve been working professionally, which is extraordinary in this sector where people move roles every five minutes. She’s a committed, hard working, strategic advocate for the region’s theatre sector, and I’ve greatly benefited from the knowledge and experience she’s amassed over the years. As The Other Way Works’ primary funder since its inception, my relationship with Arts Council England is key. In today’s stripped-back Arts Council I feel so lucky to be able to meet up and chat face to face with Alison, someone who knows me and my work, and whose opinion I always trust.
Karen Newman
As Director of BOM (Birmingham Open Media) Karen is a relative newcomer to my network. My respect for her attitude to artists and her facilitative approach led me to apply for a BOM fellowship, which I was recently awarded. This means that I am currently a 2017 BOM Fellow, able to participate in the BOM community of practicing makers across arts, science and technology. It should be an interesting year!
Delia Garratt
Delia is Director of Cultural Engagement at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and has been Chair of The Other Way Works’ Board of Directors since 2012. Joining just at the time that I went off on maternity leave, she has seen the Company through many phases, including our recent move to become a registered charity. I hugely value her time, encouragement, willingness to listen to yet another one of my crazy ideas, and her commitment to keeping the Company moving forwards. I wish her all the best in her own upcoming maternity leave, and look forward to her re-joining us at board meetings later this year.
Clare Reddington
It was a privilege to work with and learn from Clare when I took up a one year placement in 2009 to work in her (then) small team at Watershed Bristol to produce the UK wide Theatre Sandbox development scheme.
Openness, passion, a sense of fun, curiosity, and good old fashioned hard work has seen Clare promoted to Creative Director at Watershed and expand her teams and projects in new and always exciting areas. She’s very inspirational to me in the way that she leads, and the role she plays in the male-dominated tech sector.
Katherine Maxwell Rose and Louise Platt
Katherine and Lou are founder members of The Other Way Works, and much of the Company’s work has been made in collaboration with one or other of these wonderful pair. There have been so many valuable and creative times working on projects but two favourite moments are: Travelling across land and sea over 3 days to Greece with Katherine to work on design and shoot the film content for Black Tonic in early 2008; and re-creating Lou’s most treasured memory for her as a 30 second immersive physical and audio experience during our R&D retreat for the Afterlife project in 2014. They both have their own successful creative practices these days as editor/budding novelist and dramatherapist, but I always cherish the times when we can get together to create.
My Mum
Working as a university lecturer all her working life showed me that, as a woman and a mother, it’s not just possible, but normal to do a job that you love and that keeps challenging you.
I’m also hugely grateful for her incredible childcare support in recent years, without which many of my work commitments would not have been possible.
And lastly it feels important to credit those from the ‘invisible’ female workforce that facilitate my own ability to work: Virginia my daughter’s childminder; and Simone who cleans our house every fortnight.
Do follow International Women’s Day’s hashtag #BeBoldForChange today and lets all stand together for equality for women here in the UK, and across the world.
We will be presenting the 60 minute prototype version of A Moment of Madness as part of the First Bite Festival at the Attenborough Arts Centre in Leicester.
This may be the last chance to see the prototype before the project goes into its final stage of development in preparation for the premiere of the full version in 2018
Saturday 25th March 2017
Attenborough Arts Centre
University of Leicester, Lancaster Road, Leicester LE1 7HA
Performances:
2:30pm
4pm
5:30pm
9:15pm
There are only 8 places available per show
Artistic Director Katie Day will be heading over to Japan for a two week visit this April.
Supported by an Artist International Development Fund Grant from Arts Council England and the British Council, she will be making new contacts and researching contemporary and traditional elements of Japanese Culture.
As part of the visit Katie has been invited by Akiko Takeshita at YCAM to give a talk about her practice and to feed into the team’s planning for community and education projects currently in development.
Katie will take in temples in Kyoto, Buddhist monasteries and cemeteries in hilltop Koya San, and immerse herself in the high tech contemporary buzz of busy Tokyo.
The focus of her research is to explore Japanese ideas and traditions around memory, retreat, death, afterlife, community and ritual. This research will inform the development of the Afterlife project, which will go into production in 2019.
She’s hoping to catch the end of Japan’s famous cherry blossom season. Do keep an eye on the Blossom Forecast to make sure you’re up to date with all things petal-related.
If you have any suggestions of places to visit or people to meet for Katie whilst in Japan, do get in touch via email or Twitter.
She will be publishing a blog here, and you can also follow her on twitter and instagram.
I’ve uploaded the PDF of my Japan Research Journal and Report, so if you’d like to have a browse please do download it. Its quite long, but don’t worry, there are lots of photos.
We’re very excited to announce that we’ve been awarded funding from Arts Council England to make A Moment of Madness a reality.
An immersive theatre meets urban gaming experience, A Moment of Madness explores the morality of surveillance and our expectations of the private lives of public figures.
The project pioneers exciting new ground in the areas of digital technologies and interactive performance, bringing these together with puzzle-based gaming in a way that we have never seen done before.
We’ll be developing the production with support from our partners BOM this year, with the premiere scheduled for Spring 2019. We know that’s quite a long time to wait, but we promise it will be worth it!
In the meantime watch out for opportunities to test some of the elements in development over the next few months.
Date: Saturday 3rd February 2018, 2-3pm / 4-5pm
Location: BOM (Birmingham Open Media), 1 Dudley St, Birmingham B5 4EG
Free but advance booking essential via this link: https://goo.gl/forms/BTIB9RVMGYIalp7I3
As we continue to develop and refine ‘A Moment of Madness’ our immersive theatre meets urban gaming experience, we are looking for a group of willing volunteers to help us test some of our new material.
So if you’re happy to look beyond some very rough edges, and you’re excited about trying out a new interactive real-world game really early in its creative development, you’re exactly who we need right now!
This playtest will focus on getting to grips with the narrative, and we will be seeking playtesters’ input into what aspects of the story are making an impact, and where we need to work harder to make things clear.
Each playtest session will last 1 hour, and testers will work as a group. There will be an opportunity to provide feedback at the end with Katie Day, Artistic Director, The Other Way Works and John Sear, Technologist and Experimental Game Designer.
No experience is necessary to take part, only a willingness to engage. (16+)
Please sign up here to book your place – thank you!
Katie Day & John Sear
www.theotherwayworks.co.uk
(If you have any further questions please email them to info@theotherwayworks.co.uk)
A Moment of Madness is supported by BOM and Arts Council England.
The Other Way Works is seeking a Freelance Producer to join our team to deliver the development and 2019 tour of ‘A Moment of Madness’ – a brand new immersive theatre meets real-world-gaming experience from The Other Way Works in collaboration with game designer John Sear.
This is a key management role, working alongside the Artistic Director Katie Day to ensure that the project is delivered in a high-quality and timely manner.
For further information and application process, please download the full Job Pack PDF here.
The deadline for expressions of interest is Saturday 10th March at 5pm.
We are very pleased to welcome Tricia Coleman to the team, as Producer of A Moment of Madness.
Tricia Coleman is an arts and event producer with a special interest in interactive performance, digital arts practice and new commissions. She is producer for Manchester International Festival (MIF) a biennial arts festival of new commissions; and previously for Abandon Normal Devices (AND), a programme of new approaches to art-making, new cinema and digital culture. Recent projects include: the international tour of virtual reality exhibition Björk Digital by Björk (MIF); Joshua Sofaer’s Workshops in People’s Homes, featuring performative workshops in domestic spaces (AND); and Missing, a game-based interactive theatre experience for young people (with youth charity 42nd Street).
The prototype phase of A Moment of Madness (2016-17) was funded by Arts Council England, and supported by Birmingham Open Media (BOM).
Creative Team
Director: Katie Day
Developer/Game Designer: John Sear
Writer: Tim Wright
Performers: Zain Ellahi (live), Jill Dowse, Tim Wright, Graeme Rose, Vimal Korpal, Greg Hobbs, Louise Latter (recorded)
Touring in 2019
Birmingham 3-6 May 2019
World Premiere in association with Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Flatpack Festival.
BOOK TICKETS NOW via Flatpack Festival.
A two-day workshop for artists and makers interested in fusing theatre with collaborative gaming and new technologies.
Artists Katie Day and John Sear will share learning from the process of making A Moment of Madness, a new immersive and playful theatre experience which sees audiences thrust into the heart of a political spy thriller.
Open to artists and makers at any stage in their career – be it student, emerging or established, this practical workshop will provide hands-on opportunities to create your own mini experience.
Monday 13th & Tuesday 14th May 2019
10am – 4.30pm
BOM
(Birmingham Open Media)
1 Dudley Street
Birmingham
B5 4EG
£ 30
More information & booking via Eventbrite
http://tinyurl.com/amomworkshop
Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, with BOM, Sir Barry Jackson Trust, John Feeney Charitable Trust & Unity Theatre Trust
Here’s a few photos of the project in development.
I’ve been interviewed for two excellent podcasts recently. I talk about the origins of the company, our working style, and go into detail about some of our projects.
Have a listen, and subscribe!
