LEEDS PLAYHOUSE PRODUCER SHARING

Last Friday, we shared Phobia with theatre programmers and an invited audience at the Barber Studio at Leeds Playhouse. We were supported by the Furnace Programme led by the wonderful Naomi Sumner Chan. A huge thank you to Aly Howe who plotted the show, and to Steve Watling, who recently joined our team as stage manager and who did a brilliant job at teching the sharing.

SOUND AND MOVEMENT

This week we focused on building movement sequences that explore the feeling of being trapped in a confined space, the body/mind split that someone with a phobia might experience when encountering their object of fear and the joy that can be found when killing a monster spider within a vintage computer game – all synchronized with music and sound.

🎥 Here we see Brian jamming a track while Orla and Wiebke work on their Elevator Dance.

FIRST WEEK OF R&D

We started off our research and development by bringing the whole Phobia team together for the first time. Brilliant to have such a great bunch of creative people in one room!
The week was all about generating ideas and exploring in what way the three disciplines, sound, dance and words, can intersect. We focused on overall structure, asking “What does the piece want to be?”. We don’t have an answer yet.
We talked a lot, we danced, we played, improvising around various aspects of the phobia experience.
We have come out of the week with some good ideas and a lot of questions marks. Loads to think about, loads to write, loads to compose, loads to choreograph…

🎥 Orla and Wiebke trying out a movement sequence while Sam and Brian experiment with sound.

DANCE AUDITION

Last week, we auditioned several fantastic dancers at our partner venue Waterside Arts Centre in Manchester, Sale. We set up the Fl0ck speakers in a circle and asked the applicants to improvise surrounded by eerie sounds created by Brian from We Are Stems. It was the first time the speakers were tested in a theatrical setting, and it was fabulous! Each applicant was very unique, and they all brought so much energy into the space (thank you!) that we found it hard to decide. In the end, we offered the job to ORLA COLLIER who just convinced us by her way of letting emotions emerge through movement. We are super excited to be working with her on the project.

🎥 Here are snippets of Orla moving amongst the speakers, fighting the ‘threatening sounds’.