AN EXCITING OPPORTUNITY FOR SHU PERFORMANCE
STUDENTS TO TAKE PART IN OFF THE SHELF FESTIVAL
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Doppelgangster is an internationally acclaimed Melbourne/Sheffield-based performance company. The group (led by Dr Tom Payne and Tobias Manderson-Galvin) have built a reputation as ‘Theatrical Saboteurs’ (The Age) for making considered and confronting performances, online, in unusual sites, and theatres, at fringe and major arts festivals around the world.
For their latest original production -CHOKE ME - they would like to work with 6-12 performers and a small crew from Sheffield Hallam University.
The show is a radical post-dramatic response to the crises of pollution. Doppelgangster do not educate or inform about the facts of the issue, but are interested in:
- consumption and its value power in relation to the individual;
- capital + health: the deteriorating potential of pollutants;
- the epic scale of related death + trauma;- the triangular relationship of civilians, subject, and authority.
WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR
With death and suppression as central themes, Doppelgangster are looking for guest performers from a variety of perspectives to take to the stage, and get behind the scenes, to help them investigate the problem of ’pollution’. They are looking for a team of 6-12 performers in total, and a team of no more than 18 overall - with all being students from Sheffield Hallam’s Stage and Screen degrees. Guests might aspire to a career in the performing arts or have spent some of their life doing so already eg. theatre/live art/dance/opera etc. Off-the-Shelf welcomes a diverse range of guests in Sheffield, our working language is English, and Doppelgangster are thrilled to welcome differently abled, queer, trans and applicants from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. Access support for guest performers will be provided if required.
'IF YOU’VE EVER THOUGHT THEATRE IS BORING, OR TIRED, OR RECYCLING OLD IDEAS -
THEN DAMMIT, YOU OWE IT TO YOURSELF TO SEE THIS’ ☆☆☆☆☆ - The Music
'WILDLY EXPERIMENTAL AND WILDLY ENTERTAINING.'
- Daily Review
NOTES ABOUT THE REHEARSAL PROCESS
Doppelgangster are extremely affable, respectful, and always aim for a fun and development driven show-making process. They often work with guest artists and performers and even audience members in their stage shows.
Guests must feel comfortable with the ‘mechanics’ of the show. In CHOKE ME there will be three Doppelgangster artists leading the process - hierarchies will shift - hese will be your directors, acting and vocal coaches, choreographers, and sometimes designers. Within the work guests take the role of live artists and collaborators. They’ll be asked to perform, to act, and to be. Full direction will be given in the preparation and rehearsal time (inc. online development; + process + technical + dress rehearsals). Some will be asked to learn text. Others dance. Or song. Maybe all. Throughout the performances guests will receive pre-recorded audio instructions via in-ear technology. Costumes will be provided tailored to the guests’ comfort in collaboration with Doppelgangster. The work is highly-structured, and while no previous experience of collaborative practice is required from the guests it is welcome in the early rehearsal stage of the work’s development. Doppelgangster play both themselves and others in their works. Guests may do the same. The work may be considered and profound, political and thrilling, and also riotous and entertaining.
SCHEDULE
The process and production will take place in Sheffield at the Performance Lab. Rehearsals begin September 25. Performances will span October 21-25 in evenings with matinees to be confirmed.
WORK EXPERIENCE
This extra curricular project is facilitated through Sheffield Hallam University as an opportunity for Doppelgangster’s guests to develop high-level employment skills.
HOW TO APPLY
If you are interested, please go to doppelgangster.com/guests and click through to the ‘CHOKE ME’ application form. You’ll be asked to attach a picture (and if possible a short video – lo-res/mobile phone is fine) of yourself with a short statement explaining why you think you are appropriate for the work (approx. 3 sentences and/or 1 minute statement on video). Feel free to be creative! Let us know if you have any access requirements, or if you would like to meet face to face.
Deadline to apply: 26th June 2019
Shortlisted participants may be required to take-part in an informal meeting in person or over Skype with a member of Doppelgangster.
More on Doppelgangster doppelgangster.com More on Off-the-Shelf offtheshelf.co.uk
ABOUT OFF THE SHELF FESTIVAL
Off the Shelf is one of the largest and most accessible literary festivals in the UK. Every year we bring the biggest names in literature and the arts to Sheffield. Previous festivals have included appearances by Sandi Toksvig, Nick Hornby, Tony Robinson, Kate Adie, John Pilger – to name just a few. Since 1991, OTF have established themselves as one of the highlights of the cultural calendar in Sheffield. Their core mission is to bring literature and the arts to all parts of the community.
Off the Shelf 2019 will take place throughout October and is programmed under the twin themes of The Environment and Working Class Voices. This is already set to include authors including Robert Macfarlane.
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