CLASS OF
In 2019 and 2020 (extended to 2021 due to the pandemic), Class Of was an annual programme that supported a cohort of Greater Manchester-based artists and producers to build their understanding of the business of the performing arts sector.
Over the course of a year, we worked with our cohort on a collaboratively designed training programme aimed at providing a deeper understanding of the performing arts – industry, production and general survival. An opportunity for The Lowry and our Class Of artists to build long-term, meaningful working relationships as we structure and then work through a unique, bespoke course of professional development together.
An opportunity for The Lowry and our Class Of artists to build long-term, meaningful working relationships as we structure and then work through a unique, bespoke course of professional development together.
DEVELOPED WITH ALUMINI
TalkShow
TalkShow is Co-Artistic Director’s Stu Barter, Clare Dunn and Executive Producer Faith Dodkins.
We create live performance, participatory projects and work for online platforms where the audience has a role to play.
Twitter: @TalkShowTheatre
Instagram: @talkshowtheatre
Facebook: @TalkShowTheatre
Web: talkshow.org.uk
Read more about TalkShow’s work
Our work flips modern fears and anxieties into collective experiences, often taking a familiar setting (a classroom, a focus group, a TV studio) and transforming it to something new
We work with a wide array of collaborators and invite everyone, audiences and performers alike to dive in, but don’t worry, we’ll take good care of you!
The Associate Artist relationship builds on from the Developed With programme with the development and creation of two new pieces of work over the last two years – digital work, Take This Test and live performance piece Telethon.
Furthermore, the company was supported through a period of Organisational Development – an invaluable resource which has helped us navigate our future as an independent company through a period of change, in the middle of a global pandemic.
Developed With has also helped connect us with artists based in the North West, who have gone onto collaborate with TalkShow in Take This Test and onstage as part of Telethon. As a company based in the South East, The Lowry has provided us with a cherished link to another region, opening up and presenting our work to audiences and creatives based in the North West.
Thick & Tight
Daniel Hay-Gordon and Eleanor Perry established Thick & Tight in 2012.
Their award-winning work mixes dance, mime, theatre, parody and drag, influenced by a wide range of historical, political, literary and artistic subjects. The work has been shown extensively in the UK and beyond, often within a queer context where it is most at home. Thick & Tight are interested in promoting queer culture and anti-elitism, exploring dance theatre as a political art form with the power to challenge and dispel social stigma. Trained at Rambert School, Daniel and Eleanor work extensively as freelance performers and choreographers.
Instagram: @thicktightdance
Facebook: @thicktightdance
Twitter: @thicktightdance
Web: thickandtight.com
Read more about Thick & Tight’s work
Developed With is supporting Daniel and Eleanor as they rethink how Thick & Tight should run, ensuring the company’s ethos and artistic output is matched by its organisational set-up, for greater accountability and impact. This includes considering new ways of collaborating; expanding and diversifying decision-making; interrogating the company’s working practice. Developed With is helping Thick & Tight find new contexts for their work in the region.
As part of this support, the Lowry presented Thick & Tight’s new show Short & Sweet, a collection of 9 recent works, in the Quays Theatre in January 2022. Later this year, Thick & Tight hope to work with the gallery team to research the life and work of L.S. Lowry for a new work about dour stoicism, northern humour, loneliness and people who are carers for their family members.
“We are delighted to be working with The Lowry and very grateful to be supported through Developed With as we undertake lots of changes as a small company. It’s wonderful to keep returning to the north west to research, create and present work and to begin to feel part of a community connected with the Lowry. Thank you!” – Daniel & Eleanor
Tian Glasgow
Tian Glasgow (he/him) is a queer cis Black man who grew up in London and has been based in Salford since 2020. He founded the theatre company New Slang Productions in 2011.
The thread running through Tian’s work is social concerns such as race and class and how it affects communities.
Instagram: @newslangprod / @glasgae_sky
Twitter: @newslangprod /@tianglasgow
Web: newslangproductions.com
Read more about Tian Glasgow’s work
Most recently, Tian has been awarded the STUN x Lowry Associate Artist award to create his new piece Tomorrow is Not Promised in 2021 and secured Arts Council support for its R&D process. This was staged with support of the Lowry and Arts Council in 2022 in the Aldridge studio.
Outside this, Tian is a Senior Creative Producer of theatre, arts and music events. Previously working on Fertility Fest, Walthamstow Garden Party, The Sick of the Fringe: Care and Destruction Festival, Love Supreme and London Jazz Festival.
Developed With is supporting Tomorrow Is Not Promised, a new theatre show by writer and director Tian Glasgow as a part of The Lowry’s Developed With artist development programme.
A woman awakens to find herself homeless and alone after an earthquake. Her house destroyed, leaving only her door which she can’t seem to leave behind. While deciding if to rebuild or to start again, she encounters Suzanne who has suffered her own loss.
The two embark on a journey to help others in the hope of finding healing for themselves.
A co-production between New Slang Productions, The Lowry and Sustained Theatre Up North, Tomorrow is not Promised incorporates movement and live music to tell a beautiful engaging story.
‘Glasgow wanted to represent this universally understood theme through two black women, giving them a story that was their own.
He said: “It was really lovely to be able to put these two black performers on stage, and for them to have that hero’s journey.”’ – Article in Salford now
Melissa Johns & Lily Levin
Melissa Johns is a TV and theatre actor and disabled artists advocate and Lily Levin is a theatre and film director.
In 2019, Melissa Johns was shortlisted for the Positive Role Model award at the National Diversity Awards.
Twitter: @melissa_clare_j / @levinlily
Read more about Melissa Johns’s Lily Levin’s work
In 2018, she was listed as one of Shaw Trusts 100 Most Influential Disabled People in the UK.
And in 2017, while working on Coronation Street, explicit photos of her were hacked from her phone and sold to the tabloids for everyone to see.
Funny, frank and brutally honest, SNATCHED is an autobiographical show looking at how the stories people tell us about our bodies shape who we are.
Developed With is supporting SNATCHED, Melissa’s first solo show, co-devised with long term collaborator and director Lily Levin and supported by Live Theatre in Newcastle.
Melissa and Lily are exploring new creative and directorial approaches to making work with both disabled and non-disabled collaborators and developing relationships around the country to support the show’s further life after its future premiere at The Lowry.
CTRL 2023
In partnership with Submerge Festival, CTRL (Creative Technology Research Labs) is a new development programme for artists based in Greater Manchester looking to learn and develop skills in creative technology performance, immersive experience making, and digital creation tools.
In January to July 2023, CTRL supported 14 artists who are under-represented in the sector to learn from inspirational creative technology artists, gain new skills and knowledge, connect with local and national artists and organisations, and start to develop ideas for the creation of new creative technology performances and immersive experiences.
From January – July 2023, the CTRL cohort took part in:
– 6 practical workshops exploring immersive storytelling, spatialised sound, eXtended reality, projection, light, gaming, robotics, and AI led by inspirational artists such as BRiGHTBLACK, Limbik Theatre and Rebecca Smith Urban Projections
– 3 curated panel talks on creative technology and the arts
– Visits to leading digital studios / galleries across the country
– 3 online mentoring sessions with an established artist/company of their choice
Meet Amy Townsend-Lowcock
Amy Townsend-Lowcock is a multimedia artist and designer based in Manchester. Her work incorporates elements of theatre, video art, documentary filmmaking and projection. She is interested in using creative technology to uncover hidden histories and inspire empathy across different cultures.Amy co-wrote and performed in ‘Handle with Care’ at Contact Theatre in July 2022. She also designed ‘DISPVPT: Fright Night’, following a six-week placement at the Royal Exchange Theatre. Her performance work, ‘My Fruits’, be seen at HOME’s 2023 PUSH Festival and her short film, ‘Lily Kwok’s Chicken Curry’, at Manchester Museum.
As an emerging artist, she is interested in creating work that is accessible, decolonising and inclusive.
Web: ajlt.myportfolio.com
Meet Andee Collard
Andee Collard is a visual artist based in Bolton. He is interested in making art everyday and has several ongoing projects. Andee’s current practice uses CNC machines to make analogue paintings and drawings. His practice is a hybrid approach that combines aspects of painting, drawing, photography, printmaking, design, coding, engineering, writing, performance and education. The mash up and the cross pollination of ideas and techniques is important to him. He works across media, processes and genres.
Andee is interested in exposing the creative process and is exploring methods to share this with the public. He co-runs Bolton Contemporary, a socially engaged CIC.
Instagram: @andeecollard
Twitter: @andeecollard
Web: andeecollard.com
Read more about Andee Collard’s work
Project outline:
During this residency, Andee aims to explore further working with painting and drawing machines live in public. His primary focus will be to experiment with machines as co-performers and collaborators to enhance the audience’s experience by highlighting the unique, mesmerising sounds and movements they produce whilst making analog paintings.
He is particularly excited to delve into collaborations with musicians and the field of real-time video/audio input methods and MIDI control. The ability to manipulate and process data in real time could open up innovative ways of creating performances that are dynamic, spontaneous and engaging. He also wants to find ways to document these performances.
Communicating my creative process through performance and collaboration forms a key aspect of this project. He wants to demystify the technology for audiences, making it accessible and comprehensible, so they can better appreciate the art that it helps to produce. He envisions performances that showcase the relationship between human creativity and machine precision, ones that engage the audience by revealing the “behind-the-scenes” operations of the technology he uses.
He is enthusiastic about exploring how machines can work alongside human artists in a live setting. The challenge lies not only in coordinating the technological elements with human performers but also in fostering an artistic dialogue between the two. This pursuit could redefine conventional notions of a “band” or an “orchestra”, by integrating machines into these ensembles as contributing members.
Hes aspiration for this residency is to push the boundaries of what’s possible in live performances, embracing the symbiosis between technology and art. He aims to engage his audiences in a deeply immersive experience that transcends the traditional concert setup, presenting a sensory spectacle that melds human and machine-made visuals, sound and movement.
Meet Cally Statham
Cally Statham, better known as the stage name PLUS44KALIGULA, is an English electronic music producer, composer, songwriter and performance artist from Oldham, UK.
Initially inspired by her dad’s glam rock record collection, and her grans love of classical and old time music, Cally’s later discoveries of Bowies Thin White Duke, electronic music, and artists such as Scott Walker have made for a dark and dramatic music and performance style, blending teen pop structures into howling choirs of biblical angels, lamenting on the bleak, and the brilliance of human of nature.
Instagram: @plus44kaligula
Twitter: @plus44kaligula
Facebook: facebook.com/plus44kaligula
Web: https://plus44kaligula.com
Meet Chloe Malandra
Chloe Malandra is a multidisciplinary freelance Artist and co-founder of Malandra Jacks, a theatre and creative company from North Manchester.
Chloe is a theatre, film and installation maker. She uses digital storytelling across her work to amplify the voices of the communities and young people she works with.
Chloe’s practice is ever expanding, she is currently exploring new skills in projection mapping, creating music using loop pedal and is studying level 2 BSL.
Instagram: @chloe_malandra // @malandra_jacks
Twitter: @ChloeMalandra / @malandrajacks
Web: malandrajacks.co.uk
Meet Heather Alice
Heather Alice is a northern theatre maker whose work is rooted in dance and contemporary movement, but encompasses poetry, film, comedy and aerial performance. She has previously featured in TV, film, music videos and recently became a member of the National Youth Theatre. Her personal projects are of a feminist nature delving into women’s healthcare and neurodivergence which aim to empower women and build community. In 2023 she founded Weird Alice Entertainment to pursue immersive performance utilising creative tech.
Instagram: @heatheraliceartist
YouTube: @heatheraliceartist
Twitter: @HAliceArtist
Tiktok: @twentypercentdisgusting
Read more about Heather Alice‘s work
Project outline:
‘Sanspective’ is the debut project of immersive arts company Weird Alice Entertainment. The project explores neurodivergency through the use of a folkloric sci-fi narrative in a trans-media performance. Born out of the CTRL Programme, ‘Sanspective’ aims to create an atmospheric, interactive and gripping experience using spatialised sound, contemporary movement practices and projected visuals to layer and enhance storytelling.
Holly Rush is a Northwest based Dance Artist, specialising in Cross-Art Collaboration. Holly’s creative practice focuses on storytelling, shaping alternative landscapes for audiences to experience. Holly’s work has led to collaborations with numerous artists from varying creative backgrounds, expanding skills in shaping imaginative, cross-collaborative work.
Holly’s practice has been focused on developing inclusive and engaging projects for a range of audiences. Holly has found story-telling an inspiring tool for creation, enabling people to learn and be inspired by characters, tales and shared lessons.
Instagram: @hollyrushdance
Twitter:@hollyrushdance
Web: hollyrush.co.uk
Meet John Wong
John Wong loves Chinese ancient fortune-telling algorithms & cultures. He treats I-Ching (Book of Changes) as an ancient form of big data & pattern analysis. His work is always questioning the idea of trust, self-identity & realities, modern superstition over the intersection of Chinese traditional cultures & new technology. And how it relates to the idea of balance & imbalance, oneness & unlikeness, decentralization & personalization.
RUSHI is an award-winning algorithmic interactive installation art, exhibited at Microwave International New Media Arts Festival 2018, ISEA 2019 at Gwangju, SIGGRAPH 2019’s Art Gallery at Los Angeles, and awarded the Best in Show of Art Gallery. RUCHU AR was selected by “Peer to Peer UK/HK” online exhibition 2020.
Instagram: @johnwong336
Web: johnwong.uk
Meet Melissa Boyle
Melissa Boyle is a performance artist making work that explores identity, social-commentary, and the powers of storytelling through performance. She is heavily influenced by popular culture and her work is often messy, comical, and playful and makes space for discussions surrounding feminist issues such as, women’s healthcare, AI Sex Dolls and the fragmentation of identity felt by women.
Melissa uses a variety of mediums from digitally augmented autobiographical performance to video art and live performance to make work that challenges audiences by addressing topics that are often uncomfortable to talk about.
Instagram: @melissajadeboyle
Meet Niki Colclough
Niki Colclough is an artist working on social practice, exploring how art can address societal issues, with a focus on care, wellbeing and the environment. In 2021 Niki trained as a Shinrin Yoku (forest bathing) leader and has since been incorporating these techniques into her arts practice.
Niki has previously been commissioned to make work with contemporary art galleries including; The Lowry (Young Leaders), The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery, Up Projects, Flat Time House and Camden Arts Centre. Niki currently leads the module ‘Approaches to Engagement’ on the MA Socially Engaged Art Practice at the University of Salford.
Instagram: @nikicolclough
Web: https://nikicolclough.com
Meet Nikta Mohammadi
Nikta Mohammadi is an Iranian artist and producer based in West Yorkshire, working across moving image, performance, sound and text. Her practice is rooted in her dreams. It examines the relationship between personal and political, outside and inside, private and public, documentary and fiction.
Currently, she is building a body of work that investigates British rural landscape, incorporating literature, myths and rituals from Iran and Britain with an interdisciplinary formal approach. Through this body of work, she wants to reflect on her fragmented living experience as an outsider. Previously she has worked with The Tetley, Institute of Contemporary Arts and Tate among others.
Instagram: @nik_la_flaneuse
Web: niktamohammadi.com
Image credit: Phil Tragen
Meet Scarlett-Rose
Scarlett-Rose Lovette (they/she), is a self-affirming “professional amateur”, poet, theatre-maker, musician, (and aspiring short-film maker), who uses their lived experiences, outreach, and research to inform systematic change. Their work is a sublime swirl of spooky and ethereal – divergent, minimal (DIY) yet striking.
Project outline:
‘PSEUDO: SEIZURE DIARY (A SHARING)’ is an extract of work-in-progress play ‘PSEUDO’: a cross-form gig theatre play led by Scarlett-Rose Lovette exploring where agency lies in a person experiencing NEAD (None-Epileptic-Attack-Disorder), and the marginalization and imposter syndrome associated with invisible disability today.
In a surge of poetic storytelling, an original electronic/rock soundtrack, and AI multi-sensory video and light projections, this autobiographical sharing, (inspired by Scarlett’s real seizure diary), challenges pseudo truths about Dissociative Seizures and self-image.
Meet Shawn J Stephen
Shawn J Stephen is a freelance visual artist with a background in visual anthropology. Specialising in photography, film and sound, Shawn has also developed an interest in creating immersive experiences using creative technology. He is keen to explore the potential that immersive experiences, facilitated by creative tech, can offer in meaningfully representing the lived experiences of the collaborators in his projects.
Instagram: @shawnjstephen
Twitter: @shawnjstephen
Facebook: Shawn Stephen
Website: shawnjstephen.com
Read more about Shawn J Stephen‘s work
Project outline:
For this residency, Shawn would like to develop a project around the theme of Care. Working with a number of participants, he aims to research and record a diverse range of narratives around what Care is and how it manifests itself in each of our lives. Particularly, he would like to explore what Care ‘sounds’ like to his collaborators and experiment with ways of representing these sonic manifestations in a culminating and hopefully immersive installation of projected light and spatial sound.
Meet Tania Camara
Tania Camara is a solo performance artist based in Manchester currently working in different mediums: devised theatre, dance, live art, video, voice-work and music.
Tania’s artistic focus is to create work that generates conversations about race relations in Britain to tell untold stories and bring marginalised lived experiences to the forefront.
Tania brings together stories from Cape Verde, Britain, Portugal, Guinea Bissau, and is inspired by her MA in Artist Research at the University of Amsterdam into the traditional dance/music genre Batuku as social performance and its place in the Cape Verdean Revolution as a form of holistic healing.
Facebook: @TaniaCamara.Performance.Artist
Instagram: @Taniacamara20T
Twitter: @Taniacamara2T
Web: taniacamara.com
Image credit: Phil Tragen
Meet Valentina Achieng’ Vettore
Valentina Achieng’ Vettore is a recent graduate from the Manchester School of Theatre. Valentina is excited to start developing ideas and works for a wider audience outside of Grosvenor East.
Thematically, Valentina’s work is interested in parental relationships, race, as well as horror as a genre and its representation of marginalised communities.
Valentina is also very keen on exploring audience interactivity, whether it may be through artefacts in immersive installations or exploring the relationship and social contract between performer and audience, which became of even more interest to during the pandemic when we no longer inhabited the same physical space.
Instagram: @valshauntedigaccount
Twitter: @valvettore
Web: valvettore.com
