THE COMPANY IN RESIDENCE - INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS

Urban Theatre Projects works with international partners interested in collaborating with the company in the creation of new works through an extended residency approach.

New commissions spring from dialogue with producing partners regarding the contemporary urban stories in their locale. During an initial research period, Artistic Director Alicia Talbot and Executive Producer, Michelle Kotevski conduct extensive social research and generate the blueprint for a new performance work including a conceptual framework, artistic team and logistical requirements.

The style and content of each new work portrays realtime action and events, with an emphasis on the emotional journeys of each of the characters involved in the narrative. While the work draws heavily on the conventions of theatre, the devising process also draws on live art, filmic panoramas, site-specific performance, popular and traditional cultural forms.

…Alicia Talbot, master of the split stage…

RealTime

Alicia Talbot's trademark public dialogue process grounds the project in a reality and authencity that blurs the line between theatrical artifice and everyday life. Throughout the devising process, non-arts experts and industry professionals attend rehearsals on a weekly basis, responding to material and scenes generated through extensive discussions and long-running improvisations. The experts' critical and dramaturgical feedback greatly impacts on the authenticity of the work and ensures that it captures the opinions and observations of real, lived experience. Consequently, the works have a strong connection to the human issues critical to the sites they are made on, and reflect the social and cultural make up of contemporary urban locales.

Audiences are positioned in a territory that emphaises the emotional and physical reality of the work and its direct relevance to stories and images rarely portrayed in mainstream theatre.

This is a visionary approach to arts development, placing it at the centre of audience development, cultural engagement and general concepts of cultural pluralism that have global resonance and social simpatico.
Tina Rasmussen, Director of Performing Arts, Harbourfront Centre – Toronto, Canada