Bristol Old Vic Ferment Reveals Artists Taking Part in Major Commissions Project

Bristol Old Vic's Ferment programme has announced the artists who will be part of the theatre's new commissioning initiative, launched in June this year, with the announcement that the theatre would be more than tripling Ferment's commissioning budget.

The aim of this pilot year is to road-test longer-term, more meaningful relationships with early and mid-career artists & companies and work with them in more accessible, varied and innovative ways.

This will allow greater financial and in-kind investment and deeper commitments to the projects below. Artists will be supported by Ferment to undertake projects that employ more people, pay themselves a fair wage and create opportunities for greater professional development for everyone involved.

This has been made possible in part by a new grant from the John Ellerman Foundation, enabling the commissioning and support of early and mid-career artists.

Each project receives:

A financial commission
Producing support to fundraise the rest of the project budget and deliver work
A bespoke package of other in-kind support from Bristol Old Vic

The call-out took place in June and nearly 200 projects were submitted for consideration. Of those, 60 projects were invited to submit a full application. 30 projects were then invited to develop a pitch to a panel comprised of the Ferment team, independent artists and our city-wide colleagues. At each step in the process the artists were paid an honorarium for the time spent on the application and offered 1-2-1 consultation before submission.

16 projects have now been greenlit for processes taking place over the next 12-18 months. We have committed £91,000 of cash support to these 16 commissions and will then make a sizeable in-kind contribution to each one.

While this initiative is still a pilot, it will continue to change and develop, with the aim to be as transparent as possible, and to keep providing open routes for new artists, alongside established relationships Bristol Old Vic currently hold across the South West.

Three projects have been selected as co-productions with Ferment with commissions of between £10,000-£20,000. They are:

Babel's Cupid, written by Timothy X Atack & directed by Tanuja Amarasuriya. A star-crossed love story set on the edge of global apocalypse, where the lovers share no common language, this play will look at how the languages we use exert power over bodies, land, hearts. Part political negotiation; part ritual dance; entirely love triangle.

Writer and performer Pete MacHale's Dear Young Monster, a story exploring queerness, identity and otherness. A solo show which centres on a young trans man in early stages of medical transition; isolated and othered he finds comfort in a midnight screening of Frankenstein, leading him into a tumultuous exploration of gender euphoria and dysphoria, discovering what can happen when you embrace being the monster the world is telling you that you are.

Otic are a Bristol based collective of musicians, makers and performers who make playful, exciting shows inspired by science, curiosity and big ideas. The Colour of Dinosaurs will be a brand new show for families inspired by Bristol based Palaeontologist Dr Jakob Vinther and his fascinating exploration of the colour of dinosaurs. Featuring soaring music and powerful poetry, it will spark imagination and encourage questioning minds to keep questioning.

In addition, 13 artists receive research and development commissions of between £3000-£5000. They are:

Amy Mason is a comedian, writer and performer from Bristol. Odd Mortals will be a new bold, funny play about the 1700s queer theatre-maker and writer, Charlotte Charke.

Amy Bethan Evans is playwright, dramaturg and disability activist from Bristol. LilyPower is a play in development about three generations of neurodivergent women.

Brenda Callis is an emerging queer playwright from the South West. Smalltown Boy is a heart-warming play in development which explores grief, connection, and queerness in a rural setting.

Sasha Frost is a performer and writer, she started acting in the Bristol Old Vic Young Company before training at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts. Froggy is a new play in development. Based on real life events and taking inspiration from Bristol's sound system culture, a young mixed-race woman works to rebuild her relationship with her estranged father.

Elana Binysh, Maisie Newman & Ben Osborn work across performance, literature, sound and visual art. מחלקת לשם שמים [arguments for the sake of heaven] will be a formally experimental documentary playing with ideas of the sacred and the casual; a poetic, reparative and tender exploration of Jewish assimilation and forgotten identity.

Jenny Davies is a Bristol based director committed to making regional work that is politically and socially engaged. The Roaring One will be an anarchistic, queercore punk restructuring and reimagining of Middleton and Dekker's Jacobean play The Roaring Girl, experimenting with video and sound technology to create a unique onstage aesthetic.

Hazel Grian is an innovative and original storyteller in many different areas - writer, street performer, filmmaker, and pioneer of digital interactive storytelling. We Sing In Fire And Blood is a trailblazing musical about violence.

Manu Mauganidze has dipped in and out of both writing and performance his whole adult life. This untitled project will focus on the mythology of multicultural Britain and inequality with a specific focus on a particular street corner in East Bristol.

Beyond Face are a South West based theatre company recognised for amplifying and celebrating Global Majority people in the arts and cultural sector. Snapshots will become five short pieces of episodic theatre which explore glimpses into the lives of five women.

Elizabeth Westcott has spent much of her career performing as an onstage violinist and composer. She is stepping into new territory as lead artist and adaptor of Pip Jones' book Izzy Gizmo, the story of an ambitious little girl who builds mad inventions that often do not work. It is a story about determination, engineering and love.

Leila Navabi, Priya Hall, Jasmine Morton and Pravanya Pillay are South West based artists, specializing in character driven comedy and storytelling. Taking Its Toll is a show in development that refuses to make a point. It will be proudly and unapologetically pointless.

Florence Espeut-Nickless, Stef O'Driscoll & Tom Bevan are working on a cross artform collaboration Blinded By Your Grace, an epic ensemble community-based theatre show made with, by, and for young people in the South West. It celebrates the power of community, of coming together and uniting in a time of trauma.

Julia Head, Naomi Obeng and Cat Fuller are a director, writer and designer collaborating on A Cherry Orchard, a radical redevelopment of The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov set in the orchard of a decaying rural English estate & interrogating ideas of inheritance, nature and privilege.

Speaking today, New Work Producer Ben Atterbury said:
"We couldn't be more excited to be piloting this new process with all of these incredible artists and companies based in or from the South West. We hope that our commitment to support them with cash, time and resources across the next 18 months is just the shot in the arm these projects need to attach rocket boosters to their ideas as they find their way into our rehearsal rooms and artistic programme very soon.

It's been such an invigorating process over the past few months to meet with some many artists and companies and hear the depth and breadth of incredible projects that are rooted here in the South West artist community and I'm not exaggerating when I say that we could have commissioned these projects several times over & I hope to see many of them find homes all over the region and the country.

It is undoubtedly an intensely challenging moment for the whole industry, and we sadly can't hope for this process to speak to all of the issues we face; but we hope at least that it is a start, and a move in the right direction. We can't wait to share this work with you over the coming months."

Bristol Old Vic's new Artistic Director NANCY MEDINA said:
" I am really proud that BOV has increased its investment in the area of artist support, connecting with more artists and companies across the region. 16 projects were selected which came through this year's commission process that represent a richness and diversity of lived experiences here in the south-west from a range of artists at various stages in their careers and a range of disciplines.

"The commitment to originating new work here in Bristol is particularly important to me. And in the current climate, where artists and independent companies are fighting harder than ever to exist, Bristol Old Vic has a vital role to play in supporting the lifeblood of the industry. Ferment and our whole artist support programme represents our commitment to playing that role"

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