Theatre and Performance Studies News

The Emerge Festival is a collaboration between Warwick Arts Centre and the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL). As well as showcasing the work of graduate theatre companies, we will be running a series of public events to celebrate the University’s 50th anniversary. These sessions will be experimental and participatory but accessible to the entire University community. The festival has been programmed and produced byMatt Burman and Laura Elliot (Warwick Arts Centre) in partnership withJonathan Heron (IATL). We are particularly interested in theatre and performance-making as learning and research in their own terms, and we are delighted to welcome back so many alumni and emerging professional companies.

The 2015 Emerge Laboratory is co-curated by Jonathan Heron (IATL/Fail Better Productions) and Anna Harpin (Theatre and Performance Studies/Idiot Child) with support from Warwick Arts Centre. At the inaugural 2014 Emerge Laboratory, graduate theatre companies (including Barrel Organ, Dumbshow, Fat Git, FellSwoop, Kill the Beast) and alumni practitioners (including producers, performers and writers) participated alongside Warwick students over four days of events and experiments. This year’s theatre laboratory is open to all Emerge practitioners and new members of the IATL Student Ensemble. If you would like more information, please email J.P.Heron@warwick.ac.uk.

There will be five performances from Warwick graduate companies across the festival. Dumbshow, FellSwoop and IATL celebrate the University’s 50th anniversary with a double-bill of performances, a sound installation and an exhibition of materials in Warwick 2065 on Tuesday 3 November. The critically acclaimed FellSwoop present their new show Ghost Operaand the triple National Student Drama Festival award winning Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons from Walrus returns on Wednesday 4 November. On Thursday 5 November, Tit4Twat blur lines between interactive theatre, live art and cabaret in Losers and the multi-award-winning Barrel Organ bring their latest Edinburgh success to Coventry,Some People Talk About Violence .

In the laboratory, there will be co-facilitators, guest practitioners, festival volunteers and workshop participants. While these different roles will involve variable levels of experience, everyone will have equal rights to participate, and the ethos of the collaboration is that of the ensemble. The guest practitioners will be drawn from emerging companies Barrel Organ,Dumbshow, FellSwoop, Tit4Twat and Walrus. If you are a Warwick student interested in theatre and performance-making, you can either audition for this group, volunteer to work as a festival assistant or simply come along to a panel discussion or performance. Why not use this opportunity to see where you can be when you graduate!