Arts Atelier guests

We invited artists and performers, and some of them invited friends who they thought would also be interested. We met at Camden People's Theatre. The idea was this: To experiment with creating an environment or even culture, where performers and other artists could explore their growing edges together. Not a performance. Not a workshop, but an Atelier, to cook on the creative process at its hot spots and surprising moments. Guest companies and artists worked with Jean-Claude and Arlene.

One evening, IMPROPERA, an improvisational opera company joined us. David Pearl, Niall Ashdown, Peter Furniss, Anthony Ingle and Morag McLaren. It was thrilling. They did an improvisational opera on a story that Jean-Claude is writing as a film script, about his son, who was in a coma after an accident. Members of Impropera described being in new territory, just outside of patterns they know, where it can be scarry, but full of life and creativity. Their work was beautiful.



Christopher Leith who for many years was Director of Little Angel Puppet Theatre worked on a new area of his art - singing with puppets. He created a show with the puppets he carved. It was a remarkable spiritual love story, and we felt honoured to witness it and work with him.

Julian Crouch of Improbable Theatre, Director and artist, worked with his mask making technique, creating masks on two Atelier participants who wanted to explore and improve their improvisation skills. As he made the masks on them, we worked with Julian on following the subtle and unexpected tendencies and directions that occurred to him. This led into surprising territory, and his work with the two improvisers in turn brought them to exciting new levels of their improvisation abilities.

A group of makers and puppeteers improvised with materials. We started with a group forum discussion on our reactions to recent news, how we blank out, how we turn off around the overwhelming images of the war and disinformation. . From here, the artists began working with material, .in what became an eerie and touching portrayal of the human side and spirits, just beneath the newscast.



Other people worked with singing, acting, puppetry, music. . Many people felt the chance to experiment and/or observe among other artists in this environment was exhilarating, but also relaxing - as no one was expected to have to do anything. One was welcome to watch and enjoy.