WHAT IF BIRDS // 2022
// we all let go of wings when the weather is right *
WHAT IF BIRDS is an original work that explores the many ways that cycles of human experience interact with nature. It emerged out of an intensive 6-week research-based process that brought together the vision and artistry of a zany international cohort of RADA’s MA Lab students, in collaboration with Euripides Laskaridis. During the process, the performers were introduced to Euripides’ artistic practices, and the elements of ridicule and transformation, through a series of guided improvisations. Stage sets, costumes, and props came from the school’s inventory with the notion of recovery, recycling, readjustment, return and reconstruction at the heart of this endeavour, corresponding thus the main research question of the work; the relationship between mankind and nature.
* Talya Rubin, Iceland is Melting and So Are You
// where & when
UNITED KINGDOM // LONDON // RADA — GBS Theatre, Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre // 5, 7 & 9 September 2022
// project info
WHAT IF BIRDS // 2022
// a piece devised and performed by 8 performers
// six-week workshop exploration & 60-minute performance
devised by // MA Theatre Lab students
in collaboration with // Euripides Laskaridis
performed by // Dylan Aiello, Arianna Calgaro, Harun Ćehović, Kevin Kelly, Genevieve Labuschagne, Matthias Moret, Iris Schmid & Scarlett Love Stitt.
text by // cast & extracts from Talya Rubin's poetry collection "Iceland Is Melting and So Are You"
lighting designer // Matt Leventhallby
costumes // Vari Pritchard
voice coach // Suzanne West
production manager // Phil Clarke
technical managers // Ted Latus & Rob Pearce
stage manager on the book // Sophie Slobodjani
stage manager // Richard Pattison
assistant stage manager // Millie Drury
production electrics // Abraham Walking-Lea & Benet Doeringer
lighting programmer // Matt Leventhall
sound programmer and operator // Sophie Slobodjani
special thanks to // Ian Morgan for trusting this experiment, Talya Rubin for her generosity in giving us her poems to play with, Konstantinos Chatzikypraios for the inspiring conversations, Simon Gleave for the UK introductions and Peter & Renate Nahum for their gracious hospitality
