Ockham's Razor Program

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OCKHAM’S RAZOR UK

OCKHAM’S RAZOR YORK THEATRE SEYMOUR CENTRE 21–26 JANUARY 85MINS INCLUDING INTERVAL

TRIPLE BILL CREATED AND DEVISED BY Ockham’s Razor PRODUCER Turtle Key Arts ARTISTIC DIRECTORS Alex Harvey, Tina Kotch & Charlotte Mooney PERFORMERS Alex Harvey & Charlotte Mooney SPECIAL GUESTS Steve Ryan and Grania Pickard SOUND ENGINEER Shaun Dawson TECHNICAL MANAGER Nick Blower COSTUME DESIGN Tina Bicat LIGHTING DESIGN Justin Farndale

All photos: Nik Mackey

ARC DIRECTOR Ruth Naylor-Smith MUSIC COMPOSITION Derek Nisbet INTERVAL MEMENTO MORI DIRECTOR Deb Pope MUSIC COMPOSITION Patrick Larley EVERY ACTION ...

ORIGINALLY DEVISED WITH Meline Danielewicz DIRECTORS Samuel Jornot & Bim Mason MUSIC COMPOSITION Penguin Café Orchestra

ALEX HARVEY Artistic Director/Performer Before training in acrobatics and aerial, Alex Harvey spent 12 years studying singing. He also has a Fine Art degree specialising in video art.

Since graduating from Circomedia (UK), he has been devising and performing work that combines these disciplines with physical theatre.

In 2004, he co-founded Ockham’s Razor. The company has performed in theatres and festivals across Europe. Alex is also performing with Improbable theatre in ENO’s (English National Opera) production of Satyagraha – Philip Glass’ opera about Gandhi’s political awakening. Alex teaches aerial and acrobatics at The Hangar, Circomedia and The Circus Space.

CHARLOTTE MOONEY Artistic Director/Performer Charlotte Mooney initially trained as a dancer. She discovered theatre while studying Literature at university, where she earned a First Class Degree. She went on to train in physical theatre and aerial at Circomedia (UK). Since then she has been devising and performing work with Ockham’s Razor that combines theatre and aerial. She has also worked for Company FZ and Jade and performed at festivals all over the world with Bim Mason’s masks,

The Big Heads. In the last year she has performed with integrated dance company Blue Eyed Soul at Sadler’s Wells and in Hong Kong.

She is currently working on two operas: Stumbling Over Infinity with Roswitha Gerlitz as part of Royal Opera House’s Opera Genesis and Satyagraha with Improbable theatre and the ENO. She helped devise the aerial choreography for the National Theatre’s Coram Boy, teaches trapeze and rope at the Hangar in East London and is also a home tutor of English literature.

GRANIA PICKARD Performer Grania Pickard originally trained as a dramaturg at Bretton Hall, UK, focusing on devising live art and site-specific theatre. She went on to direct shows with Out of the Box Productions, Sensory Labyrinth Productions and Creative Carnival, and was assistant director for Hot House Productions at the Edinburgh Fringe. She attended Circomedia (UK) specialising in physical theatre and aerial circus, and has since devised site-specific aerial performances for the Bristol Shakespeare Festival, Brick Box and Drunken Chorus, alongside performing aerial acts for Circomedia and Circus Malabaristas in Kuwait, Italy and across the UK. Additionally Grania is a circus tutor for Circomedia and has had training in Circus Holisitic Therapy.

STEVE RYAN Performer Steve Ryan is a physical performer, actor and director. Originally from Ireland, he studied at École Philippe Gaulier and Circomedia. He has toured nationally and internationally with companies such as Ockham’s Razor, The Invisible Circus, Wildworks and Fidget Feet. As a director he has worked with Arcadia, Cirque Bijou, Ramshackilicious, The Ship of Fools and Edward Rapley. He is interested in the role community plays in theatre making and finding the joy of the performer on the stage.

OCKHAM’S RAZOR Ockham’s Razor is a critically acclaimed aerial theatre company, formed by Alex Harvey, Charlotte Mooney and Tina Koch, which specialises in creating arresting, entertaining and unconventional theatre on new pieces of aerial equipment. The company’s work focuses on the relationships between people in the air, creating stories from the vulnerability, trust and reliance that exists between them.

The name Ockham’s Razor comes from the medieval philosopher William of Ockham and reflects the way the company works: given a choice between two theories, go for the simpler one; thereby, keeping the work cogent and artful.

TURTLE KEY ARTS Turtle Key Arts produces, manages and devises performance arts projects with a particular focus on original and groundbreaking work.

The company’s main objective is to make participation in the arts accessible for all, with an emphasis on disabled, disadvantaged or socially excluded people.

Turtle Key Arts has played a committed and innovative role in advancing disability arts, and is widely recognised as a leader in this field. Turtle Key Arts produce and manage several performance arts companies including Ockham’s Razor, Amici Dance Theatre Company, RedCape Theatre, SMITH dancetheatre, Flying Cloud and Arc Dance. This year, Turtle Key Arts projects have reached 25,000 audience, 2000 participants and involved 180 artists.

ARC PREMIERE: JANUARY 2007 LONDON INTERNATIONAL MIME FESTIVAL Three people find themselves stranded together, suspended in the air. Arc examines the instability of a triangle where relationships form and break apart and explores the experience of isolation in close proximity.

MEMENTO MORI PREMIERE: SEPTEMBER 2004 THÉÂTRE DE LA CITÉ INTERNATIONALE, PARIS Memento Mori is a powerful duet performed on a suspended metal frame. It is based on Holbein’s woodcuts of “The Dance of Death”, where death is represented as a skeleton that dances each of us to our grave.

EVERY ACTION ...

PREMIERE: MAY 2005 AH! LES BEAUX JOURS, PALAISEAU, FRANCE Every Action is a playful look at the bonds that form when people are thrown together. Four strangers meet before 25 metres of suspended rope. As they explore this elevated set of scales, they discover a world where everything you do will affect someone, somewhere.

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