SparkFest Digital 24-30 June 2020

DIGITAL

24 - 30 JUNE 2020

Welcome to DIGITAL Embracing our creative resilience, SparkFest refuses to be cancelled this year. We always seek new stages for our graduates and now with our online festival, SparkFest Digital.

SparkFest Digital offers you a host of young creatives whose reflection, contemplation and joy celebrates how artists tell their stories in a time like no other.

This week, we invite you to laugh, cry and be touched by the imagination and hope of our graduating students and alumni. Learn new skills in our workshops. Enjoy visions of a brighter future. This programme is as exciting as it is eclectic.

Come with us and find your story.

How to book All Events are free to view, for some you will need to book to see the premiere and all others will be available just to view on demand.

Please visit www.bathspalive.com for all details.

To be the first to see these events you will need to book a ticket and you will be sent a link for the premiere screening. If you can’t make it don’t worry the event will be available to view on demand until midnight on 30 June 2020.

These shows will be available to view on demand (no booking required) from their published released date and time. Then they will be available until midnight on 30 June 2020.

Your way to help empower and support the young creatives in SparkFest to forge forward into their professional careers. See page 22 for more details.

@bathspaprods

24TH | 25TH | 26TH JUNE 10AM

TIME PINT TIME PINT is an exciting new audio comedy adventure from Dumb Found Theatre.

Three reluctant timetravellers, Kevin Breeder, Bernie Bucklefish and John McGee - venture throughout history with the help of a mysterious pint glass, causing chaos and mild inconvenience wherever they go. Tune in to find out if our three pub regulars will survive their journey into the past, and solve the mystery of the TIME PINT!

24TH | 25TH | 26TH | 27TH | 28TH | 29TH JUNE 10AM

24TH | 25TH | 26TH | 27TH | 28TH JUNE 10AM

Adventures in the Life of a Dyspractor

A Clown Named Curly

My name is Sam. I’m 21, I’m a musician and an actor and all my life I have been dyspraxic. It’s given me some difficult moments but despite some minor (and occasionally major) inconveniences, I’m pretty pleased with my life so far.

An exclusive YouTube series following Curly the Clown at home in lockdown. See Curly tackle baking, cleaning and gardening (oh and watch out for that rake). A little treat for lovers of clowning every day.

But just how does my dyspraxia affect me? To find out, I hope you can join me by listening to Adventures in the Life of a Dyspractor.

Catch up daily with our serial podcasts

SPARKFEST DIGITAL 2020

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24TH JUNE 10AM

24TH JUNE 12PM

24TH JUNE 12PM

Banana & Shots

Ben Hutcheson

From a place of birth to a place of self discovery. From a place where the queen reigns to a place where a man, his memory and his nostalgia are transported into his body as a living memory.

Ben is the new generation of the recent pedigree of fresh English singer/songwriters.

Critiqued as bridging the storytelling gap between the likes of Passenger, Ed Sheeran and Scotty McCreery.

Some New Music for the Home

An unfinished journey of growth and culture portrayed through the body, languages and objects that transport this body back to the old self.

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The graduate show for final year BA Music composers has seen them responding to the change of circumstances by making pieces that can be experienced remotely, or which they have realised with the resources available to them at home. Listen to what our graduating composers have been making and explore some of the other work made during the year at the composition website.

24TH JUNE 12PM

24TH JUNE 4PM

24TH JUNE 6PM

Songs from the Stage‌ on my sofa

Soalone

Isolation

Second year dancers have taken their choreographic practice out of the dance studio/theatre and into their individual lockdown locations. Each piece started with a personal story/lived experience and, after a process of translation and transformation, ended with a dance theatre solo work. Here is a selection of the highly imaginative responses produced.

Follow the story of a man stuck in isolation, with each tick of the clock he dives further into madness. Will he survive to see tomorrow or will madness consume him?

I will sing 5 different songs from the modern musical theatre repertoire, some that are more well-known and some that are more obscure in the hope that I can introduce you to some more amazing shows!

SPARKFEST DIGITAL 2020

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24TH JUNE 6PM

24TH JUNE 6PM

24TH JUNE 6PM

Is anyone ‘hole’?

She

Diary of a Loner

A video twist on photoperformance by Rosannah O’Connor. Nobody is born the same way. Nobody lives the same lives. Nobody’s story is the same. But the question remains … Is anybody ‘hole’?

Due to the Covid-19 lockdown, journalist Damian Rowe is confined to his flat by himself. As strange events start to occur in his apartment, he starts to wonder what is real? What is his imagination?

Making friends was never easy. Now, COVID-19 and isolation have made it even more difficult. One afternoon, a lonely boy with zero social skills decides it is enough. He adventures into a website which randomly creates video calls between people from all around the world. He is just looking to make friends but he will soon discover how bizarre people really are and how making friends was never easy.

Reccomended 14+

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Reccomended 16+

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PrEtty n ‘ pOntIfIcAl Presents…

isorderly and Insubordinate

Scripted, Directed and Shot by Nolwandle Lembede

The continual untold stories of the African voice, this devised digital performance is a narration echoing Tsitsi Dangarembas’ ‘Nervous Conditions’.

It is an overlapping image of the completion, our current climate and what was begun.

Edited by Francesca Halligan

24TH JUNE 8PM

25TH JUNE 10AM

25TH JUNE 10AM

Fifty Useful Tools for the Home Workshop

Framed

Disorderly and Insubordinate

7 Musicians.

12 Google Meets.

14 Homes.

15 Dancers.

43 New works.

87 Tumblr posts.

288 Useful Tools.

A brand new body of work created by dance and music students at Bath Spa University, exploring the idea of the Home as Museum and the objects within it as tools for making.

SPARKFEST DIGITAL 2020

Andrew, a middle-aged doctor practicing in London, may not be as professional and charismatic as he first seems.

When accused of multiple horrifying crimes, he is put on trial. Will four women telling their harrowing stories make for a guilty verdict? Or will the one woman stood by his side allow for him to go free?

Exploring the continual untold stories of the African voice, this devised digital performance echoes Tsitsi Dangarembas’s novel Nervous Conditions. It is an overlapping image of the completion, our current climate and what was begun.

Reccomended 16+

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25TH JUNE 10AM

25TH JUNE 10AM

25TH JUNE 12PM

Down the Road

Museum of Memories: A Research for Candle Monster

Athena

Five individuals struggle through life as lockdown is enforced across the UK. They live on the same road, in the same quaint village in the South West. Each uses social media as an outlet - but are they hiding something behind their edited façades?

Reccomended 16+

Candle Monster is a workin-progress piece that combines live performance with projected media. Our creative process explores how memories can be used to create performance material, and become a tool to express the feelings of nostalgia.

Through this research, we hope to discover a variety of different responses towards selected material. These responses will help us develop the Museum of Memories, which is a vital part of our creative process and the core of Candle Monster.

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Athena, a British based altpop soloist, is trying to find a way to be the voice for those who believe in what she stands for. Touching on themes of mental health and empowerment, she hopes her compositions will have long lasting positive effects on those who choose to listen, so they can find comfort in what she says.

Producing her own music since 2019 inspired by the likes of EDEN, Suga, Labrinth and Jon Bellion she wants to show others that the sky’s the limit when there’s self belief.

25TH JUNE 4PM

25TH JUNE 6PM

25TH JUNE 6PM

DanceScreen Space Program 1

Milk

Continue Living

In a world not too dissimilar from our own, women are raised knowing quite quickly that their bodies do not belong to them. MILK looks at the story of Daisy and Mary, two young women whose friendship is formed in a severely dystopic situation and tested continuously.

In an extract of the explicit and vulgar play, MILK questions ethics and humanity; both within our world and the worlds beyond our control.

When faced with the emotions of loss, how helpful is it really to be told ‘it will get better’ when it doesn’t feel like it ever could? How comforting is it really to know ‘they’re in a better place’ when there’s no better place than on earth with you? Does being told that ‘every feeling is valid’ really make anything better when no one can know exactly how you feel?

Losing a loved one or a friend to suicide is painful and heart breaking. But it can also be confusing, difficult to understand and force you to reflect upon yourself.

DanceScreenSpace Program 1 presents original screendance works made by year 2 BA Hons Dance students during the 2020 lockdown.

These dances can only exist on the screen, combining choreography in front of the camera, with choreography of the camera and in the edit.

Reccomended 15+

Reccomended 14+

SPARKFEST DIGITAL 2020

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25TH JUNE 6PM

25TH JUNE 6PM

25TH JUNE 8PM

Ren and the 1000 Year Sleep

Serena’s Sex Sessions

Hermia: Heaven Unto Hell

Ren and the thousand year sleep is the story of a reindeer frozen in time, who wakes up to a very different world to the one he left behind.

Humankind has burnt the forests, polluted the air and poisoned the seas, but they will soon be taught a lesson when they wake up to much more than they bargained for.

In the ongoing pandemic we find ourselves having to adapt to lockdown life while trying to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe.

Whilst this is of paramount importance, other life issues still need to be addressed.

I have taken it upon myself to address our more basic human needs and worries ...the sexual ones. Yes, you did hear me right!!! My name is Serena the Sex therapist and I am here to assure you the people that not only am I an educated professional, but I also consider myself a person who can offer my expertise in these isolating times.

Hermia: Heaven Unto Hell is a short horror film using the text from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Filmed in lockdown by a young UK theatre company and based on our ‘would’ve been’ tour, we are trying to make the most of lockdown.

Reccomended 16+ 10

The characters will be livetweeting from our twitter account so head over there if you want to interact with them... https://twitter.com/ freshlifetheatr

26TH JUNE 10AM

26TH JUNE 12PM

26TH JUNE 12PM

Julius Caesar: a Radio Drama

Pulling The Strings

Keep in Touch

Julius Caesar: the Radio Drama is a shortened version of William Shakespeare’s play, adapted for an audio-only experience. Though this project was born out of necessity, as we can no longer convene to produce or participate in theatre in person, it has given the actors a unique opportunity to hone their voiceover skills, and has allowed the team to explore the benefits and challenges of audio work.

The team was also able to investigate what it means to work as a socially-distanced ensemble in a time when ensemble theatre seems like an unattainable goal.

Pulling The Strings is an Improvised Game Show Produced and Recorded during the 2020 CV19 Lockdown. Hosted by Natasha Bye, 7 Contestants compete for bragging rights across 5 improv games in an online format.

SPARKFEST DIGITAL 2020

In the not too distant future could a single touch kill you?

The law on social distancing has long passed, the world is now operating in a constant state of lock down and its inhabitants must reach out and connect via virtual togetherness, alone. Emojis replace emotions, familiar faces are flat screens, and in the comfort of your own home the latest nifty apps are downloaded to re-establish a new ‘safe’ way of interacting with friends, loved ones and colleagues. This is our new world. But not everyone can follow the rules.

Keep in touch. explores the need for human contact in an ever-increasing virtual world.

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26TH JUNE 4PM

26TH JUNE 6PM

26TH JUNE 6PM

Dance ScreenSpace Program 2

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Scenes)

Tis Pity She’s a Whore (Scenes)

DanceScreenSpace Program 2 presents original screendance works made by MA Dance students during the 2020 lockdown. These dances can only exist on the screen, combining choreography in front of the camera, with choreography of the camera and in the edit.

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By William Shakespeare Enter a world of dreams, magic and romance where a feuding fairy King and Queen cross paths with four runaway lovers and a troupe of actors trying to rehearse a play with hilarious, but dark consequences!

By John Ford

This vivid and violent Jacobean tragedy shows a brother and sister’s passionate descent into hell.

Incest, religion and corrupt morality collide in this classic text, making this play as shocking and controversial today as it was almost four hundred years ago.

26TH JUNE 8PM

27TH JUNE 10AM

27TH JUNE 10AM

Renegade

Close Your Eyes, I’m Filming

Helena: Ugly As A Bear

“You guys won’t BELIEVE what happened this time!” Vlogging her daily life, Daisy has started waking up to increasingly worrying occurrences in her house. Her boyfriend, Nathan, is insistent it’s nothing to do with him, but when Daisy takes matters into her own hands, suddenly her vlogging career is set on a new sinister path.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream was never meant to be a sweet romcom. This new darker take was created for the Bristol Shakespeare Festival. But that was cancelled by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Renegade Presents: Vinyl on The Dance Floor. Spinning vinyl tunes from the past 5 decades and celebrating all genres of music. In light of recent events we want to show our support for the BLM movement and invite you to join us in a celebration of music which has its roots in what the movement is standing for. This will include music from top artists in the music industry right now and we’ll be throwing it back with some classics.

SPARKFEST DIGITAL 2020

Greedy Pig Theatre Company present a “film in a fortnight” in the form of ‘Close Your Eyes, I’m Filming’, going from conception to completion in two weeks, all the while under lockdown.

So we regrouped (separately) and split the stage version into two online pieces charting the journeys of Helena and Hermia. Helena: Ugly as a Bear is the first of these.

The characters will be live tweeting from this account through the show, so you can talk directly to them!

Head to twitter to tweet along: https://twitter.com/ freshlifetheatr

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27TH JUNE 1PM

27TH JUNE 12PM

27TH JUNE 12PM

Fizz

Covid 2020 Vision Bert & Ernie

A collaboration between mother and daughter. Debbie Beale a third year Drama and Creative writing student with her daughter, Sarah Clayton, a third year Psychology and Drama student at Worcester University. Let a nice soothing bath wash away life’s stresses.

Debbie Beale is an extramature 3rd year student about to complete her degree in Drama and Creative Writing. She has created a piece about life during the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID life through Gogglebox vision. Fear, isolation, conspiracy and wine with a dancing Mr COVID. Reccomended 16+

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Bert and Ernie are best friends.

They do everything together; even share a bed. After being unexpectedly evicted and moving into a single room together the days turn into weeks and the weeks turn into months as their friendship is pushed to the limit. A light-hearted comedy, based on real events, about love, friendship and who gets to sleep on the right side of the bed.

27TH JUNE 2PM

27TH JUNE 4PM

28TH JUNE 1PM

theatreLab

Third Space

OTHELLO

ProducerWorks presents an explosion of brand new theatre performance and writing in this theatreLab event. We have given theatre makers and writers space to explore their creative ideas and a platform for their voice to be heard. This event of original work in all stages of development promises to be an exciting and dynamic event as we watch the creatives of the future break new ground.

Welcome to Third Space 2020, the annual BSU Dance Degree Show. This year our dancers have been able to demonstrate their extraordinary capacity to re-invent, re-imagine and represent their ideas. In times of crisis, the class of 2020 show how dance can be used as a powerful tool to explore and understand the world around us. We hope you enjoy this selection of work.

Producer Matthew Emeny (Calf2Cow) discusses his approach to reimagining Shakespeare for film.

www.producerworks.org

SPARKFEST DIGITAL 2020

This Q&A will offer insight into the route to market, budgeting, fundraising, crew building and timelines for the Award Winning film, Othello.

A screening of Othello is included in this event.

Reccomended 12+

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28TH JUNE 2PM

28TH JUNE 8PM

29TH JUNE 8PM

Two Moles Going Home – An Absurd Play for Little Ones

Plus Minus MA Compositions

COVEN

By Diede Daalman

Two blind Moles wake up in the middle of the night, in a cold and pitch dark forest. But where are their noses? How are they supposed to find their way back home now, if they can’t smell it? Will any of those other confused animals be able to help?

Two Moles Going Home is a funny, absurd play for 4+ about being stuck somewhere, hope, despair and finding the way home.

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This year our regular project with Plus Minus Ensemble moved online, with the postgraduate composers writing pieces for clarinet, cello and piano for remote recording. The composers spent time workshopping material with the players, before the trio recorded their parts separately to make the edited recordings you will hear in this event. The other pieces in the programme are drawn from their portfolios over the past year and include work for acoustic and electronic resources.

Coven is a celebration of sisterhood… even in isolation. Through the medium of spoken word, eight female-identifying performers take the audience on an exploration of what it means to be a woman today. Drawing on a five week process of discussion, creation, and investigation, each performer speaks authentically and honestly about their experiences of living and creating in today’s society. Coven invites an audience to consider the similarities and differences between how each performer experiences their existence as a woman in our current society.

INDUSTRY EVENT

28TH JUNE 4PM

Stages of the Future (Lockdown Landscapes) This event we will be presenting the short documentary of our Lockdown Landscapes project. This was a creative response to how we create a working environment for creatives, technicians and actors to collaborate and present performance. Lockdown Landscapes, explores how technology can enable our creativity in this time of space physical restriction.

The screening will be followed by a live panel discussion with Q&A to explore the possibilities of where this technology can take us in the future, how it can facilitate training and the opportunities this new software presents to the industry.

The Panel Elise Davison. Director of Lockdown Landscapes Chris Barham : Senior Lecturer & Researcher in Lighting, Sound and Digital Production Elliot Spirito-Cooper: Video Streaming Designer of Lockdown Landscapes Jack Knibbs: Lighting Designer of Lockdown Landscapes

SPARKFEST DIGITAL 2020

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INDUSTRY EVENT 29TH JUNE 5:30PM

Neverthere Festival Panel Event with Q&A How do we take performance online without losing the “live” performance?

Following on from Neverthere residencies today, mentors Alan Richardson (Artistic Director, Surge), Sumit Sarkar (Visual Artist) and Barra Collins (Director, Netherthere Festival) reflect on the days activity and the wider questions on how we can retain the ‘live’ in our performance when taking performance work online with the participants of the workshops.

This public event is an ideal opportunity to gain insights and discuss how digital technologies can be harnessed in the making of live performance.

About the residency Neverthere Festival is offering free places for emerging artists to explore how digital technologies can be harnessed in the making of live performance in this digital residency.

Neverthere Festival residency is divided into two workshops: 10am - 1pm Making Live Performance on Zoom 2pm - 5pm Taking Live Performance Online – Mozilla Hubs Interested in attending the residency?

Places on the residency are limited and booked via a simple application process. For more information please email Kerry Irvine on K.irvine@bathspa.ac.uk or visit our Google Site for more details: https://sites.google.com/bathspa.ac.uk/sparkfest-digital/home Neverthere Festival are partners of Bath Spa University and Bath Spa Productions.

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INDUSTRY EVENT

30TH JUNE 6PM

What’s Next?

The Future of Producing Theatre

March 2020 saw the UK industry close its doors, cancelling all theatre performances and upcoming productions until further notice in response to Covid 19.

This panel event brings Producers and Theatre Makers together to reflect on the current Covid torn theatre landscape and question what opportunities may be presented to us as we look to recover in our industry.

Each panel member will be looking at producing, collaboration, technology and new ways of working, giving a short response, inviting us all to discuss and consider what paths we may forge for the future development of performances and audiences.

For full details of panel and bio’s please see our website: www.producerworks.org

SPARKFEST DIGITAL 2020

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WEDNESDAY THURSDAY 20

Performance

Date

Time

Time Pint

24 - 26/6

10am

Adventures in the Life of a Dyspractor

24 - 29/6

10am

A Clown named Curly

24 - 29/6

10am

Banana & Shots

24/6

10am

Ben Hutcheson

24/6

12pm

Some New Music for the Home

24/6

12pm

Songs from the Stage… on my sofa

24/6

12pm

Soalone Dance Solos

24/6

4pm

Isolation

24/6

6pm

Is anyone ‘hole’?

24/6

6pm

She

24/6

6pm

Diary of a Loner

24/6

6pm

Fifty Useful Tools for the Home Workshop

24/6

8pm

Framed

25/6

10am

Disorderley and Insurborinate

25/6

10am

Down The Road

25/6

10am

Museum of Memories: A Research for Candle Monster

25/6

10am

Athena

25/6

12pm

DanceScreenSpace Program 1

25/6

4pm

Milk

25/6

6pm

Continue Living

25/6

6pm

Ren and the 1000 Year Sleep

25/6

6pm

Serena’s Sex Sessions

25/6

6pm

Hermia: Heaven unto Hell

25/6

8pm

FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MON TUE

Performance

Date

Time

Julius Caesar: a Radio Drama

26/6

10am

Pulling The Strings

26/6

12pm

Keep in Touch

26/6

12pm

DanceScreenSpace Program 2

26/6

4pm

Midsummer Night’s Dream

26/6

6pm

Tis Pity She’s a Whore

26/6

6pm

Renegade

26/6

8pm

Close Your Eyes, I’m Filming

27/6

10am

Helena: Ugly as a Bear

27/6

10am

Fizz

27/6

12pm

Covid: 2020 Vision

27/6

12pm

Bert & Ernie

27/6

1pm

theatreLab

27/6

2pm

Third Space

27/6

4pm

Othello

28/6

1pm

Two Moles Going Home – An Absurd Play for Little Ones

28/6

2pm

Stages of the Future (Lockdown Landscapes)

28/6

4pm

Plus Minus MA Compositions

28/6

8pm

Neverthere Festival

29/6

5pm

COVEN

29/6

8pm

What’s Next - Industry Event

30/6

6pm

DIARY

24th – 30th June 2020 All events are free – visit www.bathspalive.com to book tickets or access view on demand.

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Your way to help empower and support the young creatives in SparkFest to forge forward into their profession careers.

Tickets for SparkFest Digital are free. Instead we are inviting our audiences to invest in the creatives of tomorrow by donating to our new funding initiative: NewSparks.

Supporting young artists in a world that they are yet to explore.

All SparkFest entrants this year will be eligible to apply for funding from NewSparks to kick-start their professional careers.

Your Donation will give young creatives access to a support and an advice network that will encourage and advise them on getting their work to audiences. Your money will plug the missing gap that is funding for these projects and allowing recent graduates the opportunity to perform their work.

Visit www.bathspalive.com for more information or to donate before during or after the performance.

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