PILOT 7.30pm, 9th November 2011 @ The Public, West Brom co-piloted by New Macho.
PILOT the inimitable scratch night took its first outing to The Public in West Bromwich on the 9th of November. We unveiled a fresh eclectic mix from some the most exciting performance makers of the moment from across the UK. You were invited to contemplate death, experience the obsessive and maniacal facets of the human psyche, push to the very boundaries of humiliation and learn about mans obsession with winners and dog shows.
The Acts:
Women in Theatre (Birmingham) - Exit Strategy
Last Fancies (Birmingham) – Obsession For Men (Teenage Idols, Desires and How Not To Cope With Them)
Jamie Wood (London) – Beating McEnroe
Louise Orwin (London) – Humiliation Piece
Victoria Melody (Brighton) – Major Tom
The night was lovingly presented with a cheeky yet firm hand by guest curators NewMacho and sandwiched in with a few surprises and some live music to create the perfect performance party atmosphere. NewMacho are a performance company born in Coventry and performing in and around the West Midlands since 2009 http://newmacho.tumblr.com/
PILOT @ AE HARRIS, BIRMINGHAM, AUGUST 11TH 2011 CO-PILOTED BY STAN'S CAFE...
In standard Pilot style 11th August brought a host of theatre companies from the West Midlands region and beyond to share with you their latest artistic doings in an early form. There was a mix of experienced and novice companies, addressing a broad spectrum of ideas, using a wide range of approaches and in the vast expanses of @ A E Harris, there was the chance for a couple of pieces to stretch themselves out.
The acts;
Hamfisted! - Kaizen
Alex Brockie - The Inferno Kid
Heart of the Anchor - *Citation needed.
Lou DeemY Productions - The Order of Disorder
Little Earthquake - The Year is Twenty-One
Rebekka Platt - ‘numiqtuqunipkaaq, unipkaaqtuq. Uqaqtuq Inuktitut unipkaaqtuq’
PILOT 22 @ TAYLOR JOHNS, COVENTRY 21ST APRIL 2011
CO-PILOTED BY COVENTRY'S TALKING BIRDS.
The midlands' legendary scratch night drifted over to the canals of Coventry where, at the mighty Taylor John's House, it showcased the theatrical experiments of six exciting new theatre makers. From slapstick to slapdash, from puppets to panto, from absurdism to just absurd, the occasion was a chance to catch the future before the future even knows it is the future.
LINE UP
Autojeu - How to Climb Mount Everest
The Killer Show
Louise Singleton - Little Prodigy
BLAADE Ensemble - What is the Entropy of a Blueberry Muffin?
A Thousand Hungry Seconds - 87 Little Questions and their Answers
Sharp Ugly - The Ugly Show
PILOT LIGHT
15th July @ The Victoria, 7.30pm
An evening of barely organised theatrical chaos!
A bit like PILOT's unruly little sister, PILOT Light creates a space for artists to let untamed ideas off the leash for one night only.
PILOT Light is a brand new Birmingham ‘scratch theatre’ event offering a very informal performance space for untested and unpolished ideas. It’s an opportunity for theatre artists from the West Midlands to test out 5-15 minutes of work that is right at the beginning of its developmental process in front of a curious, confused and courageous audience. It’s also a chance to find out who else is doing what in the area, make new creative connections, meet, mingle and mind-meld.
Taking place on 15th July from 7.30pm at The Victoria (pub venue next door to the Alexandra Theatre), tickets are only £2 on the door, so come and treat yourself to a smorgasbord of exciting, original and inventive theatre, get to know the people who will become the future of the industry in our region, and be part of the action!
Pilot Light is produced by Katherine Goodenough and Katharine Kavanagh, and supported by PILOT, Kindle Theatre and China Plate
PILOT 19
1/4/2010
Pilot 19 was Co-PILOTED by Kindle Theatre and took place at Stans Cafe's bustling space, The AE Harris Building. In keeping with the April Fools theme Kindle invited performers/ practitioners/ fools to submit ideas for performance which frightened them. Whether in form, content or style it should push them beyond their comfort zone into unknown territory. Featuring gallows, opera, The Underworld, a sleazy bar and trumpets, the night was opened with a fanfare from The City Sings Trumpeters, and included performances from Graeme Rose, Kirsty Lothian, Needle and Thread, The Company Project, Mark Butcher and Greg McLaren. The Mellow Peaches played in the bar, Stan's Cafe's Final Steps was open throughout the evening and for the first time the audience were able to blog their feedback live at the event. Kindle also hosted a meal for the artists and invited guests, the evening before, thus fulfilling Stan's Cafe's Theatre Pledge Number 3 – Host a meal/party for 8 people, 4 of whom you barely know.
PILOT 18
8/12/09
Pilot 18 was co-hosted by Foursight who were delighted to sit in the PILOT cock-pit, so to speak, steering a course a little west of Birmingham into their sunny hometown Wolverhampton for a PILOT debut at The Arena Theatre. It was a bustling night of pre-Christmas delight with 5 brand new pieces of theatre on stage as well as live music, interactive installations, mulled wine and mince pies in the bar area. Performing were Void Physical Theatre, Studio 38, HamFisted!, The Marina Sossi Group, Francesca Millican-Slater, The Silky Pair and Needle and Thread.
It Came From PILOT - Warwick Arts Centre
8/10/09
It Came from PILOT was a unique double bill, a family affair taking a poignant look at the universal relationships of mother/daughter and father/son. The Other Way Works premiered Avon Calling which explores the eternal triangle of mother – daughter – and Avon Cosmetics. Drawing vividly on personal source material Louise Platt revealed an intimate and comic portrait of a woman, a mother and an Avon Lady. Ex-Avon lady. After the interval Father and son duo, Kings of England performed Where We Live and What We Live For. In 2001 75 year old Peter Bowes had a trans-ischemic attack, a stroke. In this gentle, deeply moving work he and his son remembered and imagined the man he once was.
PILOT 17
02/07/09
PILOT 17 was a one off summer special co-piloted and hosted by Birmingham’s Stan’s Café in their new space The AE Harris Building. The evening’s nine acts were spread throughout the building with some devised site specifically during the week leading up to the event. Audiences were met and inspected at the gates by Needless Allies. The Other Way Works branched into sound instillation in a piece inspired by the building whilst Kindle Theatre invited the audience to join them in the kitchen for a feast, in an extract from their latest work Eat Your Heart Out. Emerging regional company New Macho attempted to sell their alternative living in the depths of The Pen. Ben Payne and Jon Nicholls created an interactive sound piece inspired by the Madness of Crowds, BoXd productions came from London with a multi-media performance, in a hidden box room Gerard Bell adapted one of Kafka’s short stories whilst Katherina Radeva installed hundreds of origami birds in an exploration of the journey of an Eastern European Girl. Finally Untied Artists closed the night with a tribute to 1930’s star singer Al Bowlly which got the audience off their seats and dancing into the night.
PILOT 16
12/03/09
Co-Piloted by Jake Oldershaw and Jo Carr of Untied Artists PILOT 16 saw seven companies from across the country bring their newborn theatrical lambs to the Custard Factory. Birmingham’s Lucy Tuck and Dymphna Callery tested an extract from their collaborative, interdisciplinary piece Matadora. The Other Way Works gave the premier outing of their one-woman show, Avon Calling, and up and coming Needless Allies explored the disappearance of Manic Street Preacher Richey Edwards. PILOT creator Simon Day brought The Plasticine Men’s latest work Keepers, providing high quality physical storytelling. Tinned Fingers asked the audience to decide who should survive in Our Father’s Ears, 2Divide provided a comic insight into bipolar disorder and in the foyer Jo Bannon collected and displayed our claims to fame.
PILOT 15
18/12/08
Co-Piloted by Coventry’s Talking Birds PILOT 15 saw a night of theatrical treats from an all Midlands line up including Stan’s Café’s Come Together, a festive tale adapted for the stage by Untied Artists, a blow by blow account of Peter Fletcher’s sneezes, raucous tomato throwing from duo Millions and Pliers and an operatic foray into the world of defecation by Instant Opera Company as well as an early outing of Kings of England’s Where We Live and What We Live For which is now gaining national acclaim.
PILOT 14
8/8/08
Pilot 14 saw the UK premier performance from award winning Australian Company Side Pony Productions who brought the classic Western to the stage in a serial melodrama of epic proportions. PILOT star Ed Rapley returned with a monologue in which he attempted to travel through time in order to save himself from such a disappointing adolescence. Local favourites Spanner and HamFisted! were back alongside brand new Birmingham based company, Stepping On Rakes who brought their female clowns to the stage for the very first time. To top it off Tikur Anbessa asked the audience to consider what’s so frightening about ‘The Blackheart Man’ in his explosive one man show and London-based Vier Theatre made their Midlands debut to tell the mythic tale of The Hermit Crab.
PILOT 13
12/12/07
Curated by PILOT Nights PILOT 13 saw Half Wit bring their highly physical mask work to Birmingham with their tragicomic interpretation of Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London. Lost Spectacles’ clowns attempted a bit of acting. Livestock united two strangers for the first time, to tell the tale of their failed love affair. The Other Way Works’ call girls took the audience’s instructions whilst Frenzic’s ladies invited the audience to bring them a gift of little or no importance. Finally HamFisted’s sensory retelling of The Farmer and the Mermaid lead us out of the door and into the bar via a giant potato…
PILOT 12
13/09/07
Curated by Co-PILOTs Jane Packman and The Other Way Works PILOT 12 included a foray into the world of the musical with the passionate and explosive Little Miss Mousy. Rough Memory reported from the front line as war breaks loose between red and grey squirrels, and The Licensees invited the audience to meet the man behind the moustache in their anarchic cabaret of micro-skits. Ambitus Theatre brought together an international company to explore displacement, nostalgia and a craving for the way coffee is brewed at home. Finally the audience witnessed the debut performance of new Birmingham based company Fearless Theatre.
