Performance
Part of my creative practice involves curating literary experiences and events that play with the possibilities for literature, and explore connections with other art forms, media and spaces. I developed this curatorial practice in conjunction with my live literature research and writing.
Ark: Immersive literary performances
In 2014 I founded Ark: an experimental live literature project to stage immersive short story performances in library and gallery spaces, initially generously funded by Arts Council England, and then through new commissions from The British Library and other organisations.
Ark is about finding new and creative ways to share and experience short stories, to connect literary writing with new audiences, to reanimate libraries as dynamic performance spaces, and to push the boundaries between live literature, theatre and live art. All Ark shows are curated around a theme, and are site-responsive, featuring cross-arts collaborations between short fiction and other art forms, including film, live illustration, shadow puppetry, sound, live and recorded music, and dance, as well as audience interactions and interventions. Stories have included new commissions and published classics. For more about Ark and the ideas behind it, see this essay published by the Library As Incubator Project, and an article for the International Literature Showcase.
Ark shows
SOUNDING THE SKY
The British Library, 2018
This immersive audio story show was commissioned by the British Library in response to their Sound exhibition. We led audiences on a journey around some of the building’s most spectacular and secret spaces to experience an aerial sequence of sound-rich stories linked by a theme of the sky. The experience involved lying in a summer meadow, migrating with hummingbirds in a reading room with projected illustrations, preparing to skydive from a high balcony, and stepping out into a constellation on a roof terrace. The show included work by award-winning audio makers Cathy FitzGerald and Hana Walker-Brown, poetry by Ruth Padel, music by Aurora Orchestra, a story by Susanna Hislop and illustration by Gayna Wiles. Director – Ellen Wiles; Assistant producer and Stage Manager – Susanna Hislop; Lighting Designer – Rory Beaton; Sound designer – Ian Dearden; Sound engineer – Marco Carpegna.
TIME TRAVELLERS
Palace Green Library, Durham University, 2017
This show was commissioned by the Library as a response to their remarkable Time Machines exhibition. We immersed our audiences in the fourth dimension, exploring fiction about time travel and fiction as time travel. Our audiences were led on a journey around the exhibition and library spaces for stories staged in collaboration with music, illustration, yoga and shadow puppetry. Laurence Owen and Lindsay Sharman performed their musical adaptation of H.G. Wells's The Time Machine next to the original manuscript. Jacqueline Phillips performed Ursula K. Le Guin's dystopian story, the 'The Phoenix' in which a librarian rescues a stash of books from the flames, in a research library-made-apocalyptic. 6/100 'Apocalypses' by Lucy Corin were performed with projected illustrations by Gayna Wiles. The audience co-wrote and performed flash fictions. Neil Gaiman's dark tale 'Other People', about a man encountering a demon and being forced to looking back in time, was powerfully performed by actor Jamie Brown, with evocative new shadow puppetry.
The video below is a short story of Ark’s Time Travellers show, which included collaborative performances from members of the audience, as well as professional actors, writers, puppeteers, and musicians. You can watch more videos of complete short story performances from the show on Ark’s YouTube channel, here.
LITERALLY FANTASTICAL
The British Library, 2015
This show was commissioned by the British Library as a response to their major Alice in Wonderland exhibition. We led audiences on a journey to experience a sequence stories on a theme of the fantastical, the fabulous and the fairy tale. Ross Sutherland performed a twisted retelling of Little Red Riding Hood with all nouns shifted 23 places in the dictionary, accompanied by old film footage, in the Writers and Scholars Room. A site-specific audio story about a disgruntled bibliophile pigeon by Ellen Wiles was played as an installation on the roof terrace with the audience gathered around a book sculpture. We transformed the Manuscripts Reading Room into an enchanted forest, where Maeve Leahy performed fairy tale-themed songs interacting with dancer Rob Hesp, and audiences collectively performed a traditional tale. Emma Jane Unsworth performed a new story about a jogger's encounter with a vampire from one distant balcony to another across the chasm of the Library's main atrium, via silent disco headphones. Timothy Allsop performed Neil Gaiman's story about memory, writing and imagination: 'The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury'. Adjoa Andoh performed Angela Carter's feminist gothic classic, Wolf-Alice, with live illustration by Gabi Froden. Grace Chilton performed the tea party scene from Alice with vintage illustrations. Ark also co-curated the Library's Fairy Tales and Wonderlands Late, which art film maker Sebastian Buerkner, book artist Chloe Spicer, and postcard poet Michelle Madsen.
The video below tells a short story of Ark’s Literary Fantastical show. You can watch videos of complete individual short story performances from the show on Ark’s YouTube Channel, here.
A LITERARY BESTIARY
Swiss Cottage Library, 2015
This show was created around a sequence of stories involving curious creatures real and imagined, human relationships with animals, notions of the bestial, the feral and the wilderness. We reanimated the splendid modernist spaces of Swiss Cottage Library out of hours, and took the audience on a journey across three floors, with stories performed from spiral staircases and in alcoves. Every short story or set of stories took place at a different staging post, and all the readings involved experimental performance concepts and creative cross-arts collaborations, including an interactive audience story involving creating, reading from and devouring edible books. Stories included new commissions, classic tales, and a story by the contemporary genius of the micro short story form, Lydia Davis. Artists included Gemma Whelan and Grace Chilton, writers Joe Dunthorne (Submarine), Nicholas Royle and Ellen Wiles, actress and singer Maeve Leahy, artists Chloe Spicer and Ruvienne Doran, dancer Rob Hesp and guitarist Maria Jose Andrade. It was curated and directed by Ellen Wiles with technical production by Rich Irvine.
The video below tells a short story of Ark’s Literary Bestiary show. You can find videos of complete short story performances from this show and others on Ark’s YouTube Channel, here.
A LITERARY COUP:
Primrose Hill Community Library, 2014
For this show, Ark took over Primrose Hill Community Library on World Book Night. Curated around the theme of libraries and reading, it involved story performance collaborations with art forms including film, dance, sound and interactive book art. Stories included new commissions by Nikesh Shukla, Hannah Silva, Sarah Grochala, Lucy Coggle, Ellen Wiles, and classic short stories by Isaac Babel and Walter R. Brooks performed by actors Susanna Hislop and Charlie Partridge. There was street dance and lindy hop by Michelle Bailey, interactive book art by Chloe Spicer, and live viola music by Christoven Tan interacting with a new recorded composition by Kate Denholm.
The video below tells a short story of Ark’s Literary Fantastical show. You can watch videos of complete individual short story performances from the show on Ark’s YouTube Channel, here.