SOLO

SOLO is a South West based solo performance forum co- ordinated by Misri Dey, which has been set up for regional, national and international solo devisor / performers to develop, show or simply work their work in a non-isolated environment. It consists of a laboratory which takes place over four days in which practitioners bring work and have allocated session time to show, receive feedback or work their material in any way they need to.

Through the sharing of specifically solo practice and experience, it seeks to create an environment for practitioners at all stages of their careers who are seeking to receive feedback and / or work in new ways or with new skills. It has consisted of a small group of devisor/performers through a phase of research and development to find the best working structure and is now opening up the labs to invite five performance makers who devise and perform their own solo works to attend.

SOLO is unique in being a development and performance forum for solo theatre practitioners and aims to meet a need for individuals to take some focused time to work with others and receive feedback.

Work to date

The fourth SOLO performance lab took place at the Dartington campus from 12-16 July 2008.

It was co-ordinated by Misri Dey, solo performer and Senior Lecturer in Theatre. Eva Meyer-Keller from Berlin and Mary Oliver from Salford University were invited to take part in the five day lab. It was funded by Dartington campus and HEFCE.

Mary Oliver is a performer who works with interactive live performance and video and film.

Eva Meyer-Keller is a devisor performer who works with live performance, objects, film, light and currently young people.

Misri Dey is a devisor performer who works with live performance focusing on mixed ethnicity, voice, music and direct address.

We decided to focus on working on relatively new materials, in the fragile zone of unfixed ideas and practices that were being created. To this end, we worked individually on material in the morning and then showed it in the afternoons and gave and received feedback.

Misri Dey writes, "I was interested to explore what might happen when my voice falls apart. I had an idea to make a piece of work called ‘Vibrato' - exploring my controlled voice and how it stays smooth and strong and how I am much more interested in the sounds of it falling apart.

"This happens when I cry or laugh - and vibrato arrives. I wanted to film this, to see what my voice becomes when it is under pressure and how the ‘ugly' sound of breaking, wobbling, gulps and spit change what I am performing and what it can mean. Crying. Laughing. Trying to copy Cher singing ‘Half Breed' or imitate the vibration attained by an alligator's under water mating call.

"This sits amidst my on-going performance research - of how to no longer perform being a second-generation child of immigrants wanting to ‘succeed'."

Mary Oliver writes, "During Solo I was attempting to further develop my relations with my digital self. I explored the 'miniature' by playing with the solo monologue on mobile phone and the 'unstable' with a suspended television, avoiding cinematic scale. I am extremely interested in changing my performance persona through the use of recording in quite lo-tech ways, to keep my relationship to the technology as human as possible. To this end, torturing my recorded self, hanging her upside down on a swinging, spinning television produced some darkly comic and quite disturbing material for further development."

Eva Meyer-Keller writes, "I came to Dartington to explore further the possibilities of shadow games. I see a great potential in it... I was looking for something in combination, or more something in contrast to make the qualities of the medium stand out more..."

Two labs took place in April and Sept of 2006 at the Dartington campus, Devon, UK, which were then followed by one performance premiere of three solos in November 2006. These were funded by the Higher Education Innovations Fund (HEIF) part of the Centre for Creative Enterprise and Participation (CCEP) at Dartington College, Dartington College of Arts and Dartington Arts.

People involved so far:

Misri Dey is an experienced international theatre devisor, performer, director and lecturer. She works with text, movement and voice. She co-ordinates the forum.

Mark Stephens is a successful graduate from Dartington College of Arts (2005), with a wide range of devising, performing and writing skills.

Jeremiah Krage is an experienced Southwest based theatre practitioner, specialising in movement, theatre and aerial based performance. He is currently engaged in research and development of working with improvisation, supported by the Arts Council.

Other associate artists have included Barbara Bridger (Devon - writer) and Chris Crickmay (Devon - visual artist, writer and dancer).

Contact

For more information email: m.dey@dartington.ac.uk