Headphone Verbatim Theatre in Community 2023

KLS & Associates in collaboration with Nottingham Playhouse and Strike A Light, Gloucester.

Photos by Camilla Adams

Generously funded by Arts Council England this project followed on from the first in our series of shows with specific communities using the headphone verbatim tool to elevate the representation of marginalised voices in the arts. Our first project in 2022 was with a schools community in East London and we created a show called Wild Wild Things . With this project we worked with two different organisations and two different communities. in collaboration with Nottingham Playhouse and their ensemble players who meet once a week we produced a work called Nothing But a Number. With Strike a Light in Gloucester we worked with the queer community  producing a work as part of their Queer Fest called Sniffing the Flowers.

The Project.

Headphone Verbatim theatre is an intimate storytelling method, allowing the audience to enter into other people’s worlds. It is embodied activism. The technique allows every breath, every utterance, every idiosyncratic detail of the speaker to be brought into the room by the performer. Performers listen simultaneously to the original recordings through headphones as they perform.

We work with participants on the subject they choose to talk about. Participants are then taught the three component parts of headphone technique: Interview, Edit and Performance.  From over 30 recorded interviews gathered by participants in each group and from meticulous editing that participants deliver, a performance is created to platform often unheard stories and experience.

Thank you to the project’s funding body, Arts Council England, and our partners and most importantly, to everyone who let us interview you for this project, and allowed us to share your stories!

Conceived & Produced: Kristine Landon-Smith & Associates

Creative Consultant: Oliver Carruthers

Producer for KLS & Associates: Olivia Tetlow  

Nottingham

Lead Practitioner Nottingham: Neela Doležalová.

Facilitator & ensemble Nottingham: Jo Petch

Producer: Martin Berry

Editing assistant: Nadege Nguyen

Ensemble and Cast

Samantha Cole, Jane Russell, Looby Rumas, Diana Frempong, Jan Unwin, Linda Clarke, Fiona Boyd, Polly Johnson, Ezra Welsh, Nicola Simpson, Mandy Dickens, Louise Leybourne, Sara Dean, Patricia Culley, Angela Holden-Brabbin, Elaine Cross, Michael Pain, Atif Javaid, Linda Ledbetter, Angela Blood & Joan Beal

Technical support: Nottingham Playhouse

Gloucester

Lead Practitioner: Charlotte Everest

Researcher and ensemble: Tanya Bridgeman

Editing support: Neela Doležalová.

Produceer for Strike a Light: Zarith Hanif 

Facilitators

Jess Gibbs, Grayson Livingstone,  EJ Benning 

Curators and Cast

Tanya Bridgeman, Grayson Livingston, Danielle Tipton, Mowgli Myers  

Curators

Chloe Owen, Liah McKormack, Rhiannon Smith  

Technician: Tom Hather-Newton 

Technical support: Grayson Livingstone 

Video: Camilla Adams