Chelsea Theatre
Encyclopedia
Chelsea Theatre is a studio theatre
located on the Kings Road
in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
, London
. It presents, commissions, and produces new work and is the only theatre in London dedicated to Performance Art
. The theatre is also focused on working within the local community.They produces the live art
and contemporary practice Sacred Festival.
, Ron Athey
, Mem Morrison, Kazuko Hohki of the Frank Chickens
, Gary Carter and Third Angel. These artists mentored emerging theatre makers, including: Silke Mansholt, Dominic Johnson, Sheila Ghelani, Meline Danielewicz, Helena Hunter and Action Hero.
In 2007 Chelsea Theatre presented work from live artists including Roland Loomis and Annie Sprinkle
.
In April and May 2008 Chelsea Theatre produced and presented a new season of contemporary performance, with works from Curious, Richard Dedomenici, Marcella Puppini
of the Puppini Sisters, Lois Weaver, Dries Verhoeven, Gustavo Ciriaco & Andrea Sonnberger, Julia Bardsley, Yara El-Sherbini, Rajni Shah, Dr Roberts' Magic Bus (including Olivier Award winner Miss High Leg Kick, Breathe and Chris Dobrowolski), Ernst Fischer and Helen Spackman. There was also a complementary series of critical symposia curated by the Live Art Development Agency, Artsadmin
and New Work Network.
In October and November 2008, Chelsea Theatre played host to a string of new performances from international performers, including Lone Twin Theatre, Andrew Poppy
, Leibniz performance collective and the Croatian company BADco.
The SACRED season returned in October and November 2009, in collaboration with Thomas Frank and brut Wien, and supported by Arts Council England, The Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture and the Austrian Cultural Forum. This season contained UK premieres of Central European performance by artists including Cezary Tomaszewski, Doris Uhlich, Jan Machacek, Thomas Desi's Operation Orlac (based on the classic silent film The Hands of Orlac), Oleg Soulimenko & Andrei Andrianov.
These Central European artists were programmed alongside artists representing UK contemporary performance: 'The Divine' David Hoyle[1], Gob Squad
, Helena Hunter, Paul Granjon, Stacy Makishi, Action Hero, Julia Bardsley & Andrew Poppy
, Richard DeDomenici, Franko B
and Curious.
Alongside the performances were a series of workshops (led by Lone Twin, Bobby Baker, Franko B
and Julia Bardsley & Andrew Poppy
), lectures, an academic conference and community-led art events.
For 2009, Chelsea Theatre also presented anarchic cabaret from such talents as: Frisky and Mannish
, Frank Chickens
, Bourgeois & Maurice and Miss High Leg Kick.
2010 saw an expansion to the season with a collaboration with artists from PS122 in New York. Chelsea hosted the UK premieres of Sara Juli's THE MONEY CONVERSATION, alongside Young Jean Lee's first play PULLMAN WA, and Richard Maxwell's ADS. Symposium contributors included PS122 Artistic Director Vallejo Gantner, Ontological Hysteric Theater's Richard Foreman and Professor Lois Weaver. UK artists represented in the season included newly commissioned work from UK artists Marisa Carnesky, David Hoyle and Robin Deacon
. Early evening foyer performances came from seven early career artists including Hattie Prust and Gillie Kleiman.
in New York
.
In December 2009 Tall Stories, presented Something Else
, based on the picture book by Kathryn Cave
and Chris Riddell
.
In June 2010 peut-etre Theatre Company will present The Bug And The Butterfly, based on the poems of Federico Garcia Lorca
, and in December 2010 Tall Stories return with their new show Twinkle Twonkle, bringing together the Big Bang
and the magic of nursery rhymes.
Studio Theatre
A studio theatre is a 20th-century term that describes a small theatre space. Studio theatres often have a flexible auditorium whose stage and seating may be re-arranged to suit the specific requirements of a production...
located on the Kings Road
Kings Road
King's Road or Kings Road, known popularly as The King's Road or The KR, is a major, well-known street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both in west London, England...
in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is a central London borough of Royal borough status. After the City of Westminster, it is the wealthiest borough in England....
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. It presents, commissions, and produces new work and is the only theatre in London dedicated to Performance Art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
. The theatre is also focused on working within the local community.They produces the live art
Live Art
Live Art is the fifth album released by Béla Fleck and the Flecktones and their first non-studio album. It was recorded live at various concerts between 1992 and 1996 and features ten guest musicians....
and contemporary practice Sacred Festival.
Past Productions
The 2006/7 season, SACRED, consisted of new work commissioned by artists including: Goat Island (performance group)Goat Island (performance group)
Goat Island is a collaborative performance group based in Chicago, USA. It was founded in 1987 and consists of the core group members Matthew Goulish, Bryan Saner, Karen Christopher, Mark Jeffrey and Litó Walkey. The group is directed by Lin Hixson...
, Ron Athey
Ron Athey
Ron Athey is an American performance artist associated with body art and with extreme performance art. He has performed in the U.S. and internationally . Athey's work explores challenging subjects like the relationships between desire, sexuality, and traumatic experience...
, Mem Morrison, Kazuko Hohki of the Frank Chickens
Frank Chickens
Frank Chickens are a female Japanese musical group based in London, who have performed songs mainly in English from 1982.Founder members of Frank Chickens were Kazuko Hohki and Kazumi Taguchi. Taguchi was later replaced by Atsuko Kamura and then Chika Nakagawa and others in the 1990s...
, Gary Carter and Third Angel. These artists mentored emerging theatre makers, including: Silke Mansholt, Dominic Johnson, Sheila Ghelani, Meline Danielewicz, Helena Hunter and Action Hero.
In 2007 Chelsea Theatre presented work from live artists including Roland Loomis and Annie Sprinkle
Annie Sprinkle
Annie M. Sprinkle is an American former prostitute, stripper, pornographic actress, cable television host, porn magazine editor, writer and sex film producer...
.
In April and May 2008 Chelsea Theatre produced and presented a new season of contemporary performance, with works from Curious, Richard Dedomenici, Marcella Puppini
Marcella Puppini
Marcella Puppini is a singer and song-writer. She is the founder of The Puppini Sisters, a musical trio specializing in 1940s-style close harmony vocal music.-Biography:...
of the Puppini Sisters, Lois Weaver, Dries Verhoeven, Gustavo Ciriaco & Andrea Sonnberger, Julia Bardsley, Yara El-Sherbini, Rajni Shah, Dr Roberts' Magic Bus (including Olivier Award winner Miss High Leg Kick, Breathe and Chris Dobrowolski), Ernst Fischer and Helen Spackman. There was also a complementary series of critical symposia curated by the Live Art Development Agency, Artsadmin
Artsadmin
Artsadmin is a UK based charity providing project management to a number of contemporary artists , as well as support and resources for artists at any stage of their career working particularly in the fields of new theatre, dance, music, live art and mixed media work...
and New Work Network.
In October and November 2008, Chelsea Theatre played host to a string of new performances from international performers, including Lone Twin Theatre, Andrew Poppy
Andrew Poppy
Andrew Poppy is an English composer, pianist, and record producer.-Biography:From 1974 to 1979 he studied music at Royal Holloway College and Goldsmiths College University of London, studying piano with Susan Bradshaw and earning a B.M...
, Leibniz performance collective and the Croatian company BADco.
The SACRED season returned in October and November 2009, in collaboration with Thomas Frank and brut Wien, and supported by Arts Council England, The Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture and the Austrian Cultural Forum. This season contained UK premieres of Central European performance by artists including Cezary Tomaszewski, Doris Uhlich, Jan Machacek, Thomas Desi's Operation Orlac (based on the classic silent film The Hands of Orlac), Oleg Soulimenko & Andrei Andrianov.
These Central European artists were programmed alongside artists representing UK contemporary performance: 'The Divine' David Hoyle[1], Gob Squad
Gob Squad
Gob Squad is a British-German collective based in Nottingham and Berlin. They have worked collaboratively since 1994 in the fields of performance, video installation and theatre.- History :...
, Helena Hunter, Paul Granjon, Stacy Makishi, Action Hero, Julia Bardsley & Andrew Poppy
Andrew Poppy
Andrew Poppy is an English composer, pianist, and record producer.-Biography:From 1974 to 1979 he studied music at Royal Holloway College and Goldsmiths College University of London, studying piano with Susan Bradshaw and earning a B.M...
, Richard DeDomenici, Franko B
Franko B
Franko B is a London-based performance artist. He studied fine art in London at Camberwell College of Arts and Chelsea College of Art . His work was originally based on the bloody and ritualised violation of his own body...
and Curious.
Alongside the performances were a series of workshops (led by Lone Twin, Bobby Baker, Franko B
Franko B
Franko B is a London-based performance artist. He studied fine art in London at Camberwell College of Arts and Chelsea College of Art . His work was originally based on the bloody and ritualised violation of his own body...
and Julia Bardsley & Andrew Poppy
Andrew Poppy
Andrew Poppy is an English composer, pianist, and record producer.-Biography:From 1974 to 1979 he studied music at Royal Holloway College and Goldsmiths College University of London, studying piano with Susan Bradshaw and earning a B.M...
), lectures, an academic conference and community-led art events.
For 2009, Chelsea Theatre also presented anarchic cabaret from such talents as: Frisky and Mannish
Frisky and Mannish
Frisky & Mannish is a musical comedy cabaret double act based in London, England.Formed in March 2008 by writers and performers Laura Corcoran and Matthew Floyd Jones, the duo is best known for a style of pop culture parody that consists of the musical and dramatic rearrangement of well-known pop...
, Frank Chickens
Frank Chickens
Frank Chickens are a female Japanese musical group based in London, who have performed songs mainly in English from 1982.Founder members of Frank Chickens were Kazuko Hohki and Kazumi Taguchi. Taguchi was later replaced by Atsuko Kamura and then Chika Nakagawa and others in the 1990s...
, Bourgeois & Maurice and Miss High Leg Kick.
2010 saw an expansion to the season with a collaboration with artists from PS122 in New York. Chelsea hosted the UK premieres of Sara Juli's THE MONEY CONVERSATION, alongside Young Jean Lee's first play PULLMAN WA, and Richard Maxwell's ADS. Symposium contributors included PS122 Artistic Director Vallejo Gantner, Ontological Hysteric Theater's Richard Foreman and Professor Lois Weaver. UK artists represented in the season included newly commissioned work from UK artists Marisa Carnesky, David Hoyle and Robin Deacon
Robin Deacon
Robin Deacon is an artist, writer and filmmaker currently based in the USA. Working since the early 1990’s, much of his work encompasses live performance with a series of performed lectures that have explored journalistic and documentary approaches to arts practice...
. Early evening foyer performances came from seven early career artists including Hattie Prust and Gillie Kleiman.
Current and Upcoming Work
SACRED will return in 2011, and will be presented in collaboration with a new partner, Sergio Porto in Rio de Janeiro, together with existing collaborators brut in Vienna and Performance Space 122Performance Space 122
Performance Space 122, generally known as P.S. 122, is a not-for-profit arts organization and one of the longest standing venues dedicated to contemporary performance art in New York City. Founded in 1979 in the abandoned Public School 122 building at 150 First Avenue at East 9th Street in the East...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Theatre For Children
Since 2003, Chelsea Theatre has been presenting children's theatre, including companies like Monster Productions and Tall Stories. Past shows include: Weather Kitchen (2004), Feast (2005), A Handful of Sand (2006), Hogwash (2007), William's Monster (2008) and Room on the Broom (2009).In December 2009 Tall Stories, presented Something Else
Something Else (book)
Something Else is a children's picture book written by Kathryn Cave and illustrated by Chris Riddell.Cave and Riddell were awarded the very first international UNESCO prize for Children's and Young People's Literature in the Service of Tolerance for Something Else.The book was later made into a TV...
, based on the picture book by Kathryn Cave
Kathryn Cave
Kathryn Cave is an award-winning British children's book author. She was awarded the very first international UNESCO prize for Children's and Young People's Literature in the Service of Tolerance for Something Else. The book was later made into a TV comic series by TV Loonland...
and Chris Riddell
Chris Riddell
Chris Riddell is a British illustrator and occasional writer of children's literature, and a political cartoonist for The Observer. He has won the Kate Greenaway Medal twice and the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize seven times....
.
In June 2010 peut-etre Theatre Company will present The Bug And The Butterfly, based on the poems of Federico Garcia Lorca
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
, and in December 2010 Tall Stories return with their new show Twinkle Twonkle, bringing together the Big Bang
Big Bang
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
and the magic of nursery rhymes.