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Miriam Attwood

Facing Racism in Fringe PR & Media

25 September 2020 by Miriam Attwood

In July 2020 Storytelling PR Director, Miriam Attwood sent a rambling email to Black, Asian, Migrant, Indigenous and Ethnically Diverse artists and colleagues in the industry (that Storytelling have worked with) saying Storytelling was keen to use the rare time we now had in lieu of the August Festival season to hold a formal awareness raising moment about Racism in Fringe PR and Comms. As an industry leader it felt possible to get people within the industry to really face and work towards making long term change – but of course – inappropriate for Miriam A to hold that space. 

In doing this work we sought invaluable advice, accepting constant suggestions, amendments and corrections along the way. Three points specifically we would like to underline about this work are; one change can only happen when the industry welcomes Ethnically Diverse Talent to take up positions of power, and fosters that talent with real awareness and two as a white team we cannot take up room in this space, but we feel we can support with providing a platform, carrying out admin, and asking for funding. three we are a small cog in a huge space of change and we would like to thank the leaders in this space who have taught us so much. 

Manifesting from this were two forums where Tigho Feldman held the space as facilitator. Tigho is currently Head of Operations for Rambert London, and through her impressive career held senior roles within the Festival Fringe Society.

Leading on both format and content were Arusa Qureshi (Edinburgh based, Freelance Culture and Music writer) and Clarcia Parinussa (dancer, choreographer, race equalities work as ID.Y and D/ecology)

With Arusa, Claricia and Tigho’s leadership we came to a conclusion a closed forum with a group of creatives would begin the event, providing a safe space for comment and honest reflection, (Storytelling PR did not attend). Then a second industry facing forum with conclusions shared and an ask of a commitment to change with an open sign up sheet.  There was a third forum – a breakout space – for industry – namely PRs, media and marketers – to meet and reflect. We would like to fully recognise this was very much a ‘change, amend, update’ process, and we are greatly appreciative for all the honest feedback we received. 

The contributing creatives* include: 

Annie George – Artist and Writer 
Shivani Saini – Director Atelier Culturati 
Christian Graham – Writer and actor
Apphia Campbell – Writer and Actor 
Katherina Radeva – Co-Director Two Destination Language
Sage Nokomis-Wright (Producer)
Mandla Rae (Performance Artist) 
Natalie Chan (Producer) 
Arusa Qureshi (Culture and Music journalist)
Claricia Parinussa (Dancer, Choreographer and race inequalities facilitator and industry leader)

Artists and writers in the first forum were welcome to attend the second. Many of those contributors have also fed back to us specifically with suggestions and ideas that were taken on board, and shared. We are looking at how we continue to build and share on these responses and to safely make these public. 

*we have invited artists to keep their name anonymous as in the closed forum facilitated by Tigho Feldman. 

Footage of the second session will soon be available for media and PRs to engage with. We would ask anyone joining this space to commit to making at least one change in their working practice to make spaces safer for Ethnically Diverse Artists and Industry. 

Breakdown of funding:

Festival Fringe Society £240
Storytelling PR LTD £715
Industry attendees were asked to contribute £10
Artists and facilitator payments £850 
Donations in lieu of fees to Ethically Diverse led companies £150 

NEXT STEPS: Storytelling will seek to apply for funding to continue this work and then hand over the space to Ethnically Diverse Talent to own and hold the space and continue the work with the resources Storytelling can offer. 

Storytelling PR Ltd will be looking to hire a new PR in 2021 to diversify our permanent team and will be advertising with the Taylor Bennet Foundation https://www.taylorbennettfoundation.org/ and Black-led British publications and job sites. 

We will continue to publish comments from contributors and commitments from industry in this space.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: blacklivesmatter, media, performance, pr, Theatre

Darkfield’s DOUBLE joins the official selection for the Venice International Film Festival 2020

3 August 2020 by Miriam Attwood

DARKFIELD’S ‘DOUBLE’ CONFIRMED TO JOIN THE  OFFICIAL SELECTION FOR THE VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2020 

  • First ever audio-only experience to be shown at Venice Film Festival
  • 2500 people worldwide have experienced DOUBLE in two weeks
  • London-based AR company’s run extended into September due to popular demand
  • Evening performances to begin on United States time zones from mid-August

Announced today across Europe and round the globe,  DARKFIELD RADIO’s first broadcast DOUBLE is confirmed for the Venice International Film Festival, the first ever audio-only experience in the programme.  DOUBLE is part of Venice’s ‘Best of XR’ (eXtended Reality a catch all term for immersive productions including AR and VR) category and represents an innovative shift for the immersive theatre company, from physical installations to home entertainment as a reaction to the ongoing COVID19 pandemic.

Alongside this announcement DARKFIELD are excited to announce Darkfield Radio and DOUBLE performances will open up to the US with evening performances added for Eastern and Pacific time zones . 

Darkfield Radio, a groundbreaking new project, brings DARKFIELD’s innovative audio experiences to audiences at home. DOUBLE, the first ever audio only experience to be part of the official selection for the Venice International Film Festival, will be shown as part of the ‘Best of XR’ category usually held in a site specific island in the Italian town, it will instead be hosted on well-known XR gaming platform ‘VR Chat’ opening up the festival XR programme to audiences worldwide.

DOUBLE, a strange and curious world built from 360 degree binaural sound, is a troubling exercise in familiarity for two people sitting opposite each other on either side of their kitchen table. It asks ‘‘everyone to be who they say they are”. DOUBLE explores the Capgras delusion, a condition in which the sufferer is convinced that a loved one has been replaced by an exact replica with malign intentions. This follows the theme of Darkfield’s previous shows, exploring ideas around Drug Placebos, the Multiverse and the unknown beyond the veil.

The experience is communal – not only are audiences experiencing the show in pairs, but the show is replicated in hundreds of rooms across the world with a set performance time, much like going to the cinema for a screening, or a theatre for a play. The DARKFIELD RADIO app, available on IOS and Android is designed to deliver the show at a set time and date. Part of  The magic of the show is the ability for Darkfield to deliver a powerfully immersive experience with just a pair of regular headphones, a mobile phone, and a kitchen table. 

“By turning your house into a stage, this one, fleetingly, becomes a doppelganger for the real thing” ★★★★ The Guardian 

“Darkfield prove themselves arch manipulator” Lyn Gardner, Stage Door

“Conceptually, this is sorcery” – ★★★★ Reviews Hub 

“…What has been created fills [the audience’s] senses and the room around them“ – ★★★★ The Stage

“all the classic horror tropes are here as the sinister soundscape sweeps you up in a wave of irrational fear” ★★★★ Time out

“your kitchen – so achingly well known to you – becomes an eerily defamiliarised place” ★★★★ Metro

DARKFIELD creates new innovative work at the forefront of technology and theatre, utilising binaural sound and sensory effects. Previous acclaimed pieces SEANCE, FLIGHT and COMA, sited in shipping containers, originally premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and have since toured the UK and Australia.  DARKFIELD has so far welcomed 167500+ audience members globally and with DARKFIELD RADIO, will now reach even larger audiences worldwide in their homes. The Darkfield Radio App is powered by Wiretapper, and funded by the Arts Council for England. 

Tickets are available via the DARKFIELD website and will be signposted within the ‘Best of XR’ at the Venice Film Festival on ‘VR Chat’.

Shows run every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 20:00 & 21:30. PLEASE BE AWARE SHOWS ARE 14+.

Experienced through the DARKFIELD RADIO app available for android and iphone. 

darkfield.org/radio


NOTES TO EDITORS

CREDITS

PERFORMER Chris Brett Bailey

DIRECTORS David Rosenberg & Glen Neath

WRITER Glen Neath

SOUND & TECH David Rosenberg

PRODUCER Victoria Eyton

PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Sara Codrington

IMAGERY Alex Purcell

For press information, images and interview requests please contact Miriam Attwood miriam@storytellingpr.com 07825642225 

Venice International Film Festival

Wednesday 2 September 2020 – Saturday 12 September.

https://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/2020

Best of XR

A popular new strand of Venice International Film Festival screening the best of XR / VR / AR from around the world.

VR Chat

https://www.vrchat.com/ create and play in virtual worlds 

PRAISE FOR DARKFIELD CONTAINER SHOWS

“[Darkfield] harness the very Uncertainty Of Pretending, and In Doing So Create An Experience That’s Properly

Exhilarating. It’s A Perfectly Programmed High-art Theme Park Ride That Spits You Out Into The Sunlight Feeling Palpably, Certainly, alive.”

Exeunt Magazine

SEANCE PREMIERED 2017 EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE

★★★★

Natasha Tripney, The Stage

‘It’s skin-tingling, breath-quickening stuff’

★★★★

Lauren Mooney, The Stage

‘Perfectly contained and completely absorbing, spine-tingling’

FLIGHT PREMIERED AT SUMMER 2018 AT LATITUDE AND THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE 

★★★★

Hannah Wright, The Wee Review

‘Outstanding…an all-consuming experience that takes you away from the busy streets of Edinburgh and into a different reality’

★★★★

Niki Boyle, The Scotsman

‘…Absolutely unsettling. The sound and production design are both excellent – in addition to the authentic interior, boarding passes and Kafkaesque safety cards are distributed, all of which enhance the creeping unease.’

COMA PREMIERED AT THE 2019 EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE 

★★★★

Fest Mag

’An immersive experience that takes audiences to another realm’

The Independent

‘If you’ve never experienced one of Darkfield’s shows, absolutely go: it is technically astonishing, completely uncanny, and deeply unnerving. You start to question your own senses. You may start to feel a rising panic. It’s not for faint-hearted.’

THE INVISIBLE

In 2020 DARKFIELD partnered with Universal Pictures to create ‘The Invisible’ – a bespoke experience in a container created to partner the  launch of Universal’s  ‘The Invisible Man’. The experience was sited at Universal Citywalk, Los Angeles, and gave audience members a unique experience inspired by the film.

Filed Under: Blog, PR Tagged With: audio reality, entertainment, live, news, tech, xr

Man Up!

12 March 2020 by Miriam Attwood

The world’s biggest and most exciting DRAG KING battle comes to Edinburgh

2019 Man Up! Winner Louis FU C.K.

Man Up! Scotland Heat
22nd March @ Summerhall, Edinburgh
19:00 – 23:00

London’s legendary drag king battle Man Up is coming to Edinburgh this month! 

For the first time ever, Jonny Woo, creator of Man Up! and star of Fringe favourites A Night at the Musicals and All Star Brexit, is on the look-out for the next (drag) King of Scotland. 

Kings will battle it out at Summerhall this month for a place in the Grand Finale at the Glory in London on Thursday 9 April, where they’ll get a chance to win a cash prize and be introduced to London’s queer performance scene. 

This queer, trans, AFAB (assigned female at birth), female-led tournament is at the centre of East London’s unstoppable gender revolution, attracting over 100 contestants year on year, commanding an audience of 1000s and bringing together some of the capital’s best breakthrough female, trans, non-binary and intersex artists.

Kings entering have 4 minutes to impress the judges and can lip-sync, sing live, play with a band, do stand up, dance or a performance, this is a multidisciplinary tournament. Hosted by London drag legend Jonny Woo alongside local troublemakers Oasissy, and a judging panel of Scotland-based performers, journalists, Man Up alumni and celebs. 

JUDGES

Heather Marshall – multi award winning, socio political artist and writer, often for Creative Electric www.creative-electric.org/ (she/her)

Arusa Qureshi – Editor of The List www.list.co.uk/ @arusaqureshi (she/her)

Eli Buck – Edinburgh’s top Drag King extraordinaire @EliBuck82 (he/him)

Miriam Attwood – Director of Storytelling PR storytellingpr.com @miriamattwood (she/her)

Claricia Parinussa – artist, producer, House of Revlon @clariciakr

Jess Brough – writer, producer and psycholinguistics PhD student at the University of Edinburgh and founder of Fringe of Colour @Jessica_Brough @FringeofColour (they/them)

Oasissy – Drag clowns Biff and Cooper are the world’s first and only queer Oasis tribute act/cabaret hosts. “Madferrit monobrowed mayhem with a lairy twist”- The List 

Man Up! Scotland Heat
22nd March @ Summerhall, Edinburgh
19:00 – 23:00
Tickets; £5 www.summerhall.co.uk/event/man-up-scotland-heat/
FB event; www.facebook.com/events/224406298736479/ 

Images; https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-uiD9tJhkbyOKyA9MeObqcOS7DrsvwBt 

To take part, email drag@glory.co. 

Weekly heats; Feb 12th – April 1st @ The Glory, London
Grand Final 2020 – Thurs 9th April at EartH
£12 – £15, earthhackney.co.uk

www.theglory.co

https://www.facebook.com/TheGloryLondon
https://twitter.com/theglorylondon
https://www.instagram.com/thegloryldn/

Filed Under: Blog

Christopher Green: No Show

23 January 2020 by Miriam Attwood

Presented by Christopher Green and The Yard Theatre
25th February – 8th March 2020

(c) Holly Revell

Olivier Award winner Christopher Green (The Home, Tina C, Office Party) has, for once, got cold feet.

Renowned for creating spectacle after spectacle which have wowed, intrigued and beguiled audiences internationally, this time the responsibility may become a little bit much.

‘Christopher Green: No Show’ has been over two decades in the making. It’s the culmination of 25 years of entertaining tens of thousands of audience members and learning exactly what makes them tick, what they want.

For his next trick, our hero toys with what keeps an audience in the room. Tension? Anticipation? Entertainment?

Christopher Green: No Show

In an moment when political leaders fly to Hawaii while their country burns; would rather play golf than actively govern; and where hiding in a fridge is a better option than allowing press to see you are vastly unprepared; Christopher Green asks who will step in when the person who’s meant to be ‘running the show’ just doesn’t. Is this the perfect metaphor for the state of everything – or just another gimmick?

Christopher Green has decades of experience in the industry – creating bespoke, immersive and experiential work around the accepted areas of live art like The Home – an overnight stay in a nursing home – Office Christmas Party, a massive night out in, well, an office. He is a Music Hall cabaret legend, has had a successful career in comedy and play writing for BBC Radio 4 and has really lovely hair.

Join Christopher Green, the reluctant performer. So what if he’s a No Show?

On ‘Ida Barr’s Mash Up’

“Marie Lloyd meets Missy Elliott. Awe inspiring” – The Guardian

On ‘The Home’

“an unforgettable feat of emotional engineering.” – ★★★★ The Guardian

On ‘Prurience’

“… a disorientating, provocative experience….  Theatrically the piece is audacious, springing a series of head-spinning surprises.  This is the kind of art that leaves its mark on you.  Unnerving, and uncomfortably compelling” – The Times

Green creates “..a deeply unsettling experience; one that gets right to the core of contemporary life” – ★★★★ What’s On Stage

“Tests the limits of theatre…. Very funny and genuinely discomforting…at its fiendish, exhilarating best it makes you question not just attitudes to porn but how we experience reality.” – Lyn Gardner

Tickets are available here

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Press Release, Theatre

MANIPULATE Festival 2020: Young Critics Programme

18 December 2019 by Miriam Attwood

A Wire Apart, Manipulate Festival 2020

MANIPULATE Festival is piloting a young critics programme this year, offering free tickets to a full day of shows, lunch and travel expenses on SAT 1 FEB. 

For more information on what’s on that day, visit the website and we will work with you to design a programme for your day!

The aim of this pilot programme is to invite five younger and emerging writers to engage creatively and critically with the wide range of visual theatre performances on offer at the festival.

Puppet Animation Scotland work incredibly hard to support visual theatre makers, puppeteers and animators in Scotland, and their work has paid off – the 2020 programme is 90% Scottish. This Young Critics Programme is a move towards fostering critics and critical language around visual theatre, supporting the rich culture there now is in Scotland.

The Summerhall cafe turned cabaret space will provide a space to reflect and we are hoping to invite some Scottish critics to come and talk about writing on visual theatre, puppetry and animated film.

We have outlets available to host content, and StorytellingPR can also support with pitching elsewhere.

Interested? Get in touch with Mim Black!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Press Release

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