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Alchemy Productions is a creative production company that works with the brightest talent to make exceptional things happen. We work alongside artists and audiences to develop inspirational and ambitious creative experiences that can be enjoyed by everyone. We don't believe in boundaries and we don't believe in art for the few. You will find our projects in everyday places; on the streets, in the park, even in your own back yard...
The company was founded by creative producer and festival director, Kate Hazel in 2007.
Small Wonders is a national commissioning and professional development initiative creating outdoor work for the under 5s. The project is funded by Arts Council England and seven national festival partners:
•Activate Performing Arts
•FUSE Medway Festival
•Hat Fair
•IF Milton Keynes
•Lakes Alive
•Norfolk and Norwich Festival
•Chelmsford Borough Council
High quality visual and performing arts projects for the under 5s have been blossoming and developing for many years in theatres, galleries, museums and other indoor spaces across the UK. This work has engaged very young children in unique and innovative ways that not only succeed in introducing the next generation to the arts but also provided distinctive educational and learning experiences.
Similarly, through investment and support over the last twenty years, the outdoor arts sector has produced some of the most memorable and talked about festivals, spectacles and community celebrations in recent times. However, there are very few companies who are creating exceptional indoor work for early years audiences that have made the transition to the outdoors, and work that is created for young people outside is largely unsupported and often targeted towards those aged 5+. With such large platforms to engage the wider community, we believe it is important that the under 5s are catered for.
Funding has been secured for the consortium to deliver two strands of work from 2011-14:
1) Commissioning, creation and performance of three new outdoor works for early years audiences.
2) Provision of professional development and training for artists and companies in making outdoor work for under 5s audiences.
Small Wonders is produced and managed by Alchemy Productions.
The Forest is a 12 month creative initiative that will take place in Bristol from Dec 2013 - Dec 2014. Using trees as a universal representation for growth, change and renewal, the project aims to unite community, education and business to create a unique artistic intervention. It will provide a local, national and international platform to raise awareness of environmental issues such as sustainability and climate change, encouraging people to become responsible global citizens.
The project will grow in three phases:
PHASE 1 - CREATION
The Forest will begin with a large-scale outdoor commission that will take place in the centre of Bristol on the Winter Solstice in 2013. The aim of this commission is to launch the project; providing a starting point and focus from which to move forward. Internationally renown artists including pyrotechnicians, musicians, circus artists, theatre makers and visual artists will come together to create a spectacular event.
During the launch event representatives from 11 partner schools will be presented with ten trees each to begin the physical development of The Forest; this will play an integral part in the legacy of the project. Each school will look after and nurture the trees for the next 12 months.
PHASE 2 - COMMISSIONS
Following the launch event, from Jan - Nov 2014 The Forest will enter its next phase. A series of 11 visual art, site specific installations will be commissioned to take place across the city of Bristol. Each commission will be installed for a period of one month, with a new commission appearing each month. The commissions will form the core of our partnership work bringing together an artist, an environmental charity, a business sponsor and a school. Each commission will be developed around the themes pertinent to the charity/business involved with the overall aim of the commissions being to highlight a number of different environmental themes. All the work created will uphold the project's mission: to be sustainable and to have minimal impact to the environment. A workshop programme will also be undertaken with partner schools during this time, again to enhance the learning and understanding of the project's themes.
PHASE 3 - LEGACY
The final aim of The Forest is to create a sculpture park and outdoor performance/event area within the city which will be used and enjoyed by members of the community for years to come. The space will be created by planting the trees nurtured by the 11 partner schools. The founding works within the sculpture park will be those that have been commissioned across the project.
The Forest is a co-production between Alchemy Productions and Artfully Aware.
In 2011 the Pole National du Cirque et Arts de la Rue in Amiens presented the 34th edition of the Fete dans la Ville . As a result of their involvement in the franco-anglo cross border partnership ZEPA (Zone European des Projets Artistique), Alchemy Productions was commissioned to create a programme of UK artists to be presented in the St-Acheul district of Amiens and in the city centre over the course of the three-day festival.
15 companies appeared at the Fete dans la Ville making a significant UK contribution to this established French street arts festival. The artists included:
Stuff and Things
Mario Queen of the Circus
Shirley Sunflower
Abi Collins
The River People
Larkin About
Rimski's Bicycle Piano
StopGAP Dance Company
Whalley Range Allstars
Ragroof Theatre Company
In 2010 Alchemy Productions was commissioned by Arts Council England (SE), Kent County Council and Medway Council to undertake an action research project to establish the the feasibility of opening one of the UK's first large-scale creation spaces in the heart of Chatham's historic dockyard.
Slip 6 Creation Centre is situated 40 minutes south of London, by road and rail; it is a Scheduled Ancient Monument & Grade I listed building. Slip 6 is one of five Covered Slips that formed the industrial heart of the dockyard in the Age of Sail. It is a very large, tall, warehouse-style building, which can be configured in a number of ways to accommodate multiple different activities, art forms and companies from small to large scale. The space could be left as one large 'dirty' space or can be broken down into smaller, heated spaces to allow for maximum flexibility and usability.
Over the course of 12 months Alchemy worked in partnership with artists, producers, funders, local businesses and residents to look at how Slip 6 could best be utilised and what it needed to be in order to cater for the arts sector.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the artists and producers involved:
The World Famous
Circus Space
Periplum
Kinetika
Arts Agenda
Karen Poley
Zap Art
No Fit State Circus
Loop Dance Company
Wet Picnic
Dizzy O'Dare Presents
Jane Pitt
Wendy Daws
Emergency Exit Arts
Paivi Seppala
Gary Weston
Dodgy Whiskers
Scarabeus
Art, Youth and the City was a two year EU funded initiative designed to facilitate cultural and artistic exchange between young people from five different European countries. Alchemy Productions was the UK producer for the project alongside counterparts from Romania, Czech Republic, Italy, France and Belgium.
Over the course of the project young people from the five countries participated in residencies and workshops at home and abroad creating an online database of their creative exchanges, ideas and collaborations. All project participants developed a common metholodology known as collective creation; a process based method of creating art and performance that does not rely on language for communication.
The project culminated in an International Youth Arts Festival in the UK and a final collective creation residency in Italy.
Wet Picnic is one of the UK's most exciting young theatre companies. They create high quality work with a strong focus on content and visual style. They are inspired by the weird and wonderful drawing on clown, bouffon, mask and absurdism to create unique theatrical experiences.
Devising work from varied stimuli Wet Picnic work as a collaborative ensemble, and allow their process and play to guide the creation. Imaginative and accessible, the company create shared experiences that aim to transport and involve their audiences. We like to take life, explode it and then put it all back together again, using elements of clown, bouffoon, mask and absurdism to help us in our wicked explorations where the ordinary becomes extraordinary.
We are currently working with Wet Picnic as mentors, consultants and creative producers to support the company in the next stage of their development.
Current outdoor shows on tour:
The Dinner Table and Time for Tea
Outdoor shows in development:
The Birthday Party (available for booking in 2012)
Indoor shows in development:
Death & Gardening
Ramshacklicious Theatre Company is the playground of siblings, Holly and Jack Stoddart. They have toured street theatre festivals around the UK, Ireland and Europe since 2006 with their anarchic blend of character comedy, storytelling, live music and puppetry.
We are very pleased to be working with Ramshacklicious as to support them in the development of their first large scale show, Punch.
Punch tells the story of an old Punch and Judy professor; a man whom has devoted his life to these extraordinary characters, studying them, nurturing them and making a living from them; a man who has come from a long line of Punch and Judy professors. Circumstances beyond his control have forced him to leave behind his cosy old puppet booth and his much loved hand-carved puppets, to lead a new life; a life of grind and grime, grease and meat: The life of a mobile burger van man.
He lives with his dysfunctional family in a make-shift, haphazard, over-spilling shack constructed on top of the burger van. Their complicated mesh of co-dependency, lies and deceit is all that holds them together. Apart from the grease.
This show follows the trials and tribulations of a family intent on survival in harsh times, a real life, modern-day soap opera.
Punch is currently in development.
Award winning PanGottic Circus-Theatre is a young British/Israeli company based in Bristol, UK, dedicated to creating fresh new work which combines elements and techniques from physical theatre and contemporary circus for indoor, outdoor and street performance.
PanGottic produces highly original work with a unique and engaging performance style including full length shows for theatres and festivals, as well as short acts for variety evenings and events.
Since 2009 PanGottic has toured in venues, festivals and as part of Rural Touring schemes across the UK, and have been invited to perform at theatre, comedy and street arts festivals in Holland, France, Israel, Italy, Germany and Belgium. Their succesfull debut project Full Twist was an award wining piece at Clown Festival Festival du Nez Rouge, France, 2009, and as a short act recieved the "Fresh Faces" award, National Theatre, London.
Alchemy Productions is currently providing the company with mentoring and support as they develop their new one-man show Thingumabob.
Inspired by the famous Rube Goldberg Machines Thingamabob is a spectacle which brings a highly original devised, ball slinging, self exploding contraption to the public where they, the audience, become part of the machine themselves and play an important role to ensure the complete satisfaction of watching one of these wonderful chain reaction machines work.
This show uses a mixture of circus, invention and comedy to bring a mesmerising piece of gadgetry to life. All presented with PanGottics charm and wit captivating the audience right up until the moment the machine animates itself, its inventor and its audience.
Thingamabob is available for booking in 2012.
Project Moriarty is an emerging live and performing arts company based in Bristol. Founded by Will Ashwell in 2010, Project Moriarty is a creative company that specialises in the different. The aim of the project is to challenge audiences to interact with ideas and physical experiences.
The company has no permanent members. The 'agents' that collaborate with the company take each project into their own world of expression and creativity. Project Moriarty naturally mutates as it progresses and is free to explore all areas of live artistic expression. From performance to live art no form, format or space is out of bounds.
The goal of Project Moriarty is to ignite and interact with the imagination.
Alchemy Productions is working with the company to develop their first project, String Theory.
String Theory is a scientific concept that seeks to unify, predict and complete our understanding of the universe. It explores the notion that everything in the universe is connected in some way; that all our energies converge. Project Moriarty's creative interpretation of String Theory uses this scientific concept as a spring board for exploration; a way of joining people and places together to remind ourselves that we are connected.
String Theory is an interactive, site-specific installation. Using over 20km of natural sisal string, Project Moriarty agents wrap up and connect static features in the public realm creating shapes, barriers, outposts, entry/exit points, boundaries and trails that ask the general public to change the way they look at and interact with space.
Additionally, members of the public are invited to assist in the creation of the installation, providing them with balls of string and asking them to explore and change their surroundings. From street lamps to railings, to large scale features, the string connects and plays with the environment.
String Theory is currently in creation.
Dizzy ODare Presents ... is a new and innovative contemporary circus theatre company founded by Alana Jones and Michael Imerson.
Alana Jones is one of very few female tightwire walkers in Britain. Gaining a degree in Dance Theatre at Laban, she then went onto gain a second degree in Circus Theatre at The Circus Space, specialising in tightwire.
Michael Imerson trained as an actor and film-maker at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. He has appeared in award winning television and theatre, as well as being a professional musician.
Dizzy ODare Presents ... has three main aims; to push artistic boundaries, to reinterpret the use of tightwire within circus and theatre and to push audience development. The ultimate aim is to encourage audiences to view circus in a new way and to engage in circus on a much more intelligent and emotional level.
Alchemy Productions have provided support and mentoring to Dizzy O'Dare since the company was founded. We were particularly involved in the commissioning and development of The Tiny Travelling Tightwire Show which was the first show to be created under the Small Wonders banner.
