Icoloy

Falmouth University Penryn Campus

The Icology project engages young people in ecological discourse through theatre, exploring how performance can be used as a tool to examine the relationship between humans and the natural environment. 

Project details

Project leadKlaus Kruse, Camille Bonneaud, Ula Dajerling, Leanne Dmyterko 
Start dateSeptember 2024
End dateOngoing
Centre alignmentCentre for Pedagogy Futures

The Icology Project engages young people in ecological discourse through theatre, both as performers and audiences, by exploring the complex relationship between humans and the natural environment. To date, we have run three pilot projects with students from Falmouth University, in collaboration with Exeter University’s Environment and Sustainability Institute. The projects use participatory and verbatim theatre methods to transform student conversations into performance material and place diverse voices at the centre of ecological reflection. Inspired by the late Honorary Fellow of Falmouth University Gustav Metzger, the project uses news articles, public debate and environmental research as stimuli for discussion, performance-making and critical reflection on our collective responsibility towards the planet. 

Project team

Klaus

Project lead - Klaus Kruse


Klaus Kruse is a director, scenographer, performer, poet and songwriter based in the UK since 2002 and he specialises in designing and directing immersive theatre productions. He has a particular interest in the significance of the audience's physical position in the performance space. The environments he designs are contraptions that allow the performance landscape to be transformed throughout an event. His company Living Structures utilises 'changing spatial reality' as a tool for storytelling that engages audiences in unusual ways.

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External staff:

  • Camille Bonneaud
  • Ula Dajerling
  • Leanne Dmyterko 

Partners

Gustav Metzger Foundation

Providing behind the scenes input helping to develop the conceptual framework for the Icology Project Feeding into pilot projects by running sessions with students that support the devising process. 

The project was highly influenced by Metzger’s use of news articles, public debate and environmental research as stimuli for discussion, performance-making and critical reflection on our collective responsibility towards the planet. 

Living Structures

Support the Icology project through loaning and gifting of props, costume and technical equipment. The conceptual framework also draws heavily on practice-based research and design concepts that have been developed by the company over the last 20 years 

Funders

So far, the work has not received financial funding and has taken place mostly inside of module teaching. We have received donations in kind from Living Structures who lend and gifted technical equipment, props and costumes and from The Gustav Metzger Foundation who have given time and expertise to support the development of the project and have given time to feed into sessions with participating students. 

Outputs & outcomes

Trailer of Public Performance