fbpx

Storytelling PR

News

Distance Remaining

by

From the producer and writer behind smash-hit Islander The Musical comes Distance Remaining – a collection of three soaring theatrical stories made for the screen starring Karen Dubar, Reuben Joseph and Dolina MacLennan. 

Three lost souls make a break for freedom, embarking on journeys of discovery. But it’s April 2020 and no journey is as simple as A to B – even to the front door. 

Distance Remaining follows their quests to reconnect – reconnect with the people in their lives, the places where they live, and the selves they might become. Volunteer driver Lindsey (Karen Dunbar Chewin’ the Fat and The Karen Dunbar Show) on a delivery round that quickly descends into a bolt for freedom; pensioner Jess (Dolina MacLennan Still Game and 7:84’s The Cheviot, The Stag and The Black Black Oil) making an epic journey across her living room floor; and teenage Cam (Reuben Joseph NTS’s Rapunzel) finally looking up from his phone at the world around him.

Capturing delicate performances with multiple digital cameras, Distance Remaining offers a panoramic view of Scotland under lockdown from unusual angles. Ten venues, from Stirling to Mull and Edinburgh, across Scotland  have united together, to present the work as part of a four week virtual tour.

Writer Stewart Melton commented:

“Like many, I have often felt marooned this past year, cut off from the people I love and activities that bring my life shape and purpose. Perhaps as a result, I am very curious about how we all differently engage with separation and solitude and find what we need within ourselves and our immediate surroundings. In writing Distance Remaining, I have loved following all three characters’ adventures as they confront, overcome or reconcile with their loneliness – they have helped me feel less alone and I hope they will be good company to others too.”

Director Caitlin Skinner added: 

“I feel hugely grateful to be able to make work in this time – and the project has really involved a rethink and reimagine into how we will make the show in order to keep everyone on the team as safe as possible. 

“It’s really important to be producing new work at this time, I have realised more than ever that you can’t predict how that work will be interpreted when audiences see it – and it’s going to hit differently because the world will be different– we’re living in constant change. Distance Remaining speaks to many of the themes – loneliness, fear, anticipation and confusion about the right now and the promise of the next moment. I’m hoping it makes some really genuine connections with audiences this spring.”

Distance Remaining is written by Stewart Melton (Islander: A New Musical, BBC Radio 4)) with an original soundtrack by Louise McCraw (Goodnight Louisa), directed for the internet by Caitlin Skinner (NTS’s Scenes for Survival, Lament for Sheku Bayoh).

Boldly blending film, theatre and a transporting electronic score, Distance Remaining is a comic, touching and ultimately uplifting reflection on what is important now. 

Filed Under: PR

Time to Respond – a week of digital connection, exploration and creation

by

Dance Base, Scotland’s National Centre for Dance, and Two Destination Language pave the way for creative residences in the age of Covid-19 with time to respond, a digital residency running from Monday 15 – Saturday 20 February 2021. 

Dance Base Scotland alongside award-winning Scotland-based performance makers Two Destination Language explore a new way to run and share creative residencies in the age of Covid-19 with time to respond. Since March 2020, the Dance Base doors have largely been closed and the studios quiet, but from 15 – 20 February 2021, the digital residency will allow seven artists and their collaborators from across Scotland to come together, if not physically in the space, but noisily from their own. time to respond welcomes artists to create new work, play with ideas and reconnect with each other and their audiences after an extremely challenging year.

The artists participating in this week-long residency will include: Glasgow-based performance maker Jian Yi; actor, performance artist, writer and comedian Laura Paterson; mother and daughter writing and performance-making team Lindsay Oliver & Fiona Oliver-Larkin; dance artist and choreographer Lucy Suggate; installation artist Mark Bleakley; dance/performance artist Suzi Cunningham; and New Zealand born, Edinburgh-based choreographer, dancer and teacher Tamsyn Russell. 

time to respond will be curated by Katherina Radeva and Alister Lownie of Two Destination Language. With a portfolio including award-winning performance, exhibition, installation, film and print publication work, Katherina and Alister have spent much of the 2020-21 lockdowns exploring new ways to bring artists together under the new conditions imposed by Covid-19. 

Katherina said “We are no longer interested in focussing on the way social distancing rules limit us – we are excited to explore the many ways in which digital residencies can enhance and expand creative possibilities for artists.” 

Rooted in this idea, the digital format of time to respond looks to achieve a broader, and more creatively satisfying experience for all the artists involved. With each artist able to work in their own space, artists like Lindsay Oliver – who cannot leave her home due to chronic illness – will be able to fully share in conversation and collaboration without compromising her safety. In addition, time to respond will provide space for audiences to engage with and follow the residency in a way that they would not be able to during a face-to-face residency. 

Throughout the residency week, and later in February, each artist will share moments of their practice and creative collaborations with audiences. Dance Base will also share these work-in-progress snippets and musings on their social media channels and website daily, as well as building a full archive of sharings from the week for audiences to explore into the future. This is a reminder that artists coming together is a vital part of their practice and their role commenting on and examining the world we live in.

Morag Deyes, Artistic Director at Dance Base, said “we are so excited to reconnect with our community of artists – supporting and encouraging them to create and to share this with audiences. Myself and our Artist Advisory Group were delighted at the sense of community that Two Destination Language proposed to bring to their residency.”

time to respond is one of the many and varied artists commissions Dance Base has been proud to initiate thanks to support from Creative Scotland with funding from Scottish Government via the Performing Arts Venue Relief Fund – essential support for the sector which aims to reconnect artists, audiences and venues after this time of separation.

The time to respond digital residency will run from Monday 15 – Saturday 20 February 2021 with updates and opportunities to engage throughout the week via Dance Base social media channels. More information is available on the Dance Base website. 

Present Futures

by

This February, Scottish choreographer and curator Colette Sadler and Feral present Present Futures – a festival for 2021. Its fourth iteration, the festival brings together some of the best in digital creativity and explorations of both technology in practice and explorations of its impact on humans and the world we live in. 

The festival is perfectly positioned to directly look to the unprecedented situation facing live performance and the arts. Presenting a collection of short film, artist moving image, immersive audio, online discussion and workshops the digital edition of Present Futures will highlight Scottish and International artists whose work operates between performance, film, visual art and sound. 

Just some of the highlights include Feel My Metaverse – a gaming-engine CGI film about the world post-climate-apocalypse by Keiken. Keiken are a Berlin-London based collaborative practice, well-known for their installations and film work merging the physical and digital. Wong Ping presents video work Dear, Can I Give You A Hand addressing the tension – filled with wry and risqué humour – between an aging population and the relentless pace of the digital economy.      Drawing on queer and bicultural ancestral mythologies, Australian artist Justin Shoulder presents his work Carrion, from 2017, exploring what it means to be human in an era of destructive influence over the planet. Transforming a moving body into sound – Tim Murray-Browne and Panagiotis Tigas’ world premiere of Sonified Body will be accompanied by a conversation about the new use of AI seen in the piece. 

Sadler presents a collaboration with Mikko Gaestel & Heiko Tubbesing Re(Searching) BODY A – a sound journey with generated movement that toys with the overload of visual online information we all live with. This work is a follow up to her ongoing work Learning from the Future and Temporary Store.

Interactive phone-call 1-800-LONGING4IT by Mass Hysteria Collective and Leah Marojević is a one-on-one fifteen-minute performance right into your most often used piece of tech – your phone. Scottish artists Alicia Matthews and Robbie Thompson present AR piece Standstill of the Moon in the North – Part 1, which takes its inspiration from the cultures of the Western Isles. In a timely look at ideas of consent and ownership live zoom performance Be Arielle F sees videographer and visual artist Simon Senn share his experience of buying a digital replica of a female body online and his journey to find the woman whose body he was <virtually> inhabiting. 

Samir Kennedy’s Death Drill will be available throughout the weekend – the 25-minute piece requires audience listen with headphones in a dark room. Death Drill is an intermediate military training procedure, all those taking part are junior military personal preparing for deployment. 

Discussions will be led by a range of creatives looking both at the issues thrown at the creative industries in 2020. Dr Laura Bissell and Lucy Weir lead a discussion on the evolving situation for live arts in Performance in a Pandemic; Subverting the Dataset is an artist to artist discussion looking at AI bias with Jake Elwes and Libby Odai , Rejecting the Species Binary, chaired also by Dr Bissell looks into both connection and human’s separation from ‘nature,’ expect dynamic conversation from artists Soojin Chang and Hamshya Rajkumar. 

Present Futures 2021 also features a series of works in progress including Associateship Artists Siri Black, Clarinda Tse and Laura Fisher. Glasgow-based Black presents 500NM, a film which documents the application of Moore’s Law into the implications of Moore’s Law – the speed at which tech works and responds and its availability to users.  Hong Kong born Glasgow-based Clarinda Tse presents Textures Gestures Meshes Measures – a video collage looking at movement, dance and body along street-nature-scapes. The piece is in development for a future live performance. Laura Fisher’s Hot & Bothered: Utilising thermostatic imaging technology in the choreographic process, shares insights into their pain informed approach working with her body and sheet metal. 

Creative technologies is a space Collette Sadler has long worked in; her expertise and artistic practice form a grounding for a very detailed exploration of digital in choreography and digital art. Present Futures is a festival from before ‘art went digital’ and now in a prescient space to speak to stories, fears and identity shared through a global pandemic. The reality of the digital relationship is explored looking back through human evolution and right up to the current dichotomy – accepting the climate crisis and the impact of COVID on lived experience and art making moving between the dichotomy of virtual and physical realities

Colette Commented:

The opportunity to hold Present Futures in early 2021 was an exciting one, as here’s this huge network of creatives who have got the work ready to go – alongside the Artist ships which we would ‘in normal times’ experience live in the same space – but all work that speaks to the intersection between our human experience and the digital world. 

In constantly changing times Present Futures creates a platform for exchange and discussion on the expanded notion of choreography, digital, AI and performance art with and beyond bodies – set within a digital space. 

Tickets are on sale now, visit presentfutures.org.

Join the Storytelling PR team

by

Storytelling PR is looking for a new Publicist / Comms Expert.

This post will start in 2021 and is not a new role, but one that we are looking for someone brilliant to make their own. Interviews will be held the week of 25 January and applications close on 22 January*  (if you have an access requirement please do not hesitate to contact us).

Storytelling PR Ltd is a PR and Comms company based in Edinburgh. We work between Scotland’s capital, Glasgow and London; and are currently, proudly, working with a leading British theatre company in Wales and the North East of England. We often work with international arts companies selling mostly to British audiences and with touring work – which can range from large cities through to tiny villages. Storytelling PR has a huge focus on theatre and performance that has an interest in social change or activism. We love good stories and good storytellers. We define our work by feminist / equalitist ethics and we feel it’s important our work and our services are available to both up-and-coming and established artists and companies – this has always been key to our practice and we actively ensure our client / company list is diverse. We are intersectional feminists, Queer-positive and actively anti-racist. We seek to collaborate with artists of all identities and we take the time to do the learning and work to support our artists and staff.

Storytelling PR Ltd is an equal opportunities employer and we welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, gender, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation or age. We strongly believe that diversity in the workplace is an asset both to our organisation and our ability to deliver for our diverse client and company base.

This is a fantastic opportunity for someone who enjoys working within a fast-paced environment as part of a small and dynamic team.


Main purpose of role

  • To be an integral member of the Storytelling Team working across Publicity, Digital and Marketing with a personal specialism but a genuine interest and perspective on all areas of the business. 
  • To collaborate with artists, companies, and live event makers. 
  • To work across many varied campaigns leading on some, supporting on others. 
  • To (essentially) be a representative to the media of some of the UK’s best theatre and live performance creatives in a way that the companies feel matches their own vibe and work. 

What you will be doing

  • Delivering or supporting PR and Digital campaigns for all of Storytelling PR’s many and varied theatre, performance, and activism companies and clients across the UK. PR and Digital campaigns will include writing excellent fully finished press releases, issuing and pitching, logging all on a project WIP, keeping good records of who is engaged and interested in the work, looking for new contacts and matches for the work across a broad range of media. 
  • Engaging closely with a network of press media and with our companies to sell their work to audiences. 
  • Actively listening. As we work with Minoritised, Ethnically Diverse and Disability led companies there are often new conversations and considerations that need thought – from access, to the restraints of structurally problematic industries on all sides. You will hear often about Racism, Homophobia and Ablism. As you will be the intermediary between our brilliant companies and our colleagues in the press you’ll be expected to be aware of what support companies need. 
  • Working on our world-class Edinburgh Festival Fringe portfolio of leading performance art, dance, theatre, circus, cabaret and international theatre work. 
  • Running media calls and photoshoots for both news press and magazine coverage. 

Essential

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
  • Be a strategic and creative thinker.
  • An ability to interpret creative practice for paper or pitching in a way that is clear and concise. 
  • Demonstrable knowledge of, and interest in, issues surrounding diversity and inclusion in the arts.
  • A keen interest in culture – be that music, theatre, performance, pop culture or anything else.
  • Excellent interpersonal skills, and proven ability to collaborate with team-mates on projects.
  • Ability to be based in Edinburgh for work from March / April 2021.
  • Press contacts and a keen interest in culture media and reportage. 
  • Highly organised, with a demonstrable ability to keep track of tasks, prioritise work under pressure and deliver against set targets to agreed deadlines. 
  • Someone who thrives in a busy environment – you can decide what resources you wish to rely on (be that a trusty notebook, a gsheet or trello) but you’ll need to be across your work and feel comfortable multitasking on busy days.
  • Significant demonstrable experience in the media world (be that as a journalist / PR / communications specialist) and experience working in a busy comms office or working within a press outlet. 
  • Active listening skills

Desirable

  • Social media and marketing know-how
  • A keen interest and enthusiasm in seeing work live (when we can) and engaging with the Scottish and British theatre and performance art scene.
  • An interest in activism and changing the world. 
  • Experience leading on content creation ideas through to execution and in close collaboration with colleagues. 

Storytelling PR Publicist 

Salary – salary will fit the applicant and will be offered based on experience between £22,000 – £28,000 annually. Storytelling staff receive an annual payrise and there is opportunity for staff to have a contribution towards counselling or therapy, because we think it’s very important to have good mental health! 

We work from a light, buzzy (and often busy) office in Summerhall, Edinburgh. 

We welcome applicants to send a cover letter and CV to miriam@storytellingpr.com. The deadline for applications is 18 January and applications are welcome any time before then. 

Have a look at our equal opps doc here. 

This role will be based in Edinburgh as soon as it’s safe to go to the office. There is opportunity to travel for work across the UK through the year as required for meetings with companies and media and to see work. For further information please contact our Director on email miriam@storytellingpr.com 

MANIPULATE Festival 2021 Launch

by

Manipulate Festival 2021 trailer

Tickets go on sale today for Puppet Animation Scotland‘s 14th MANIPULATE Festival. The festival will combine a bespoke multi-city outdoor installation artwalk, and a digital programme packed with performance, screenings and workshops. MANIPULATE Festival returns in brand new form against the odds this January.

The innovative festival of international, award-winning visual theatre, puppetry and animated film will return in a new hybrid format. Festival fans can enjoy MANIPULATE Digital Festival (29 January – 7 February 2021) from the comfort of their own homes. Those in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow can experience a specially commissioned outdoor kinetic sculpture series called Restless Worlds (21 January – 21 February 2021).

Eat Me, by Snap Elastic. Photo credit Brian Hartley.
Judy Rosenthal, Manual Cinema, The End of TV.

A note from Dawn Taylor, Puppet Animation Scotland’s new director


“In the challenging circumstances that the pandemic has thrown up for our sector, the immediate priority for myself and the Puppet Animation Scotland team was finding a way to generate work for as many artists as we could. Commissioning, hosting installations and digital theatre – all these represent uncharted territory for Puppet Animation Scotland, but we have been overwhelmed by the creativity and ingenuity of artists in meeting this brief, said Dawn.
 
“It’s clear that there are challenges to come for us as a society this winter, and so we also wanted to create something exciting and concrete that audiences can put in their diaries and look forward to.  We’re thrilled to be able to keep providing boundary-pushing creative experiences through MANIPULATE in 2021.”

The full programme and tickets are available on the MANIPULATE Theatre website.