Written & performed by Francesca Millican-slater
Francesca Millican-Slater
Francesca Millican-Slater is a writer and performer that tells stories directly to you. A lot of the stories are true, things that have happened, steeped in history, though sometimes she makes things up. She makes writes and performs work that is accessible, engaging and entertaining, telling small stories that hint at bigger subjects and big stories in small ways.
Francesca has two main strands to her work; self-initiated projects driven by ideas and interests that obsess her and commissioned historical research projects creating performances for a range of settings, though often these two ways of working overlap.
Francesca recently wrote and performed 'A Patient Life', a project commissioned by Warwickshire County Council using the extensive archives of Hatton County Asylum, with plans to continue this project in some way.
Alongside long-term collaborator and independent producer Pippa Frith, Francesca is in planning for large-scale performance investigation project 'An Island Nation', researching British swimming, swimmers and the social histories of municipals pools in the year we set sail to leave a union behind.
Francesca also creates and runs workshops in writing and devising material from primary school age to adults in a variety of settings. She has recently guest lectured at Worcester University in writing for performance. Francesca also works as a performer, workshop leader and facilitator for companies including Woman & Theatre, Kiln, Dens & Signals and Talking Birds.
See more at her website.
Pippa Frith
Pippa is an award winning Independent Producer based in Birmingham. She works with artists to create art that aims to surprise and delight audiences nationally and internationally. She is passionate about working in the regions to create new work of high quality, showcase new voices and grow new audiences. In 2014 she won The Mark Marvin / Peter Brook Award for her work with Birmingham REP. She is Festival Producer at the internationally renowned Fierce Festival, a co-director of PILOT Nights and a visiting lecturer at The University of Birmingham and Birmingham Conservatoire.
She is the long-term producer for celebrated solo artist Francesca Millican-Slater and has an ongoing relationship with Stephanie Ridings (The Fear of Fear, The Road to Huntsville, Unknown Male). She is Producer Of Horizontal, a project Exploring invisible disabilities, our bodies and how we relate to the world led by Suriya Aisha. In the past she has produced projects for a wide range of artists including Benji Reid, Mohammed Ali and Babakas. She regularly collaborates with venues and organisations including Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Mac Birmingham, Warwick Arts Centre, Black Country Touring and more.
Before developing her producing portfolio Pippa worked as Project Manager for Women & Theatre, as a Programmer at the Drum Arts Centre; and was Project Manager of The Decibel Performing Arts Showcase 2007 and for Fierce Earth. She is a board member of Geese Theatre.
See more at her website.
The Team
Iain Armstrong // Sound Design
Iain Armstrong is a composer and sound designer based in Birmingham, UK. He is particularly interested in exploring the creative potential of recordings of the sound environment and encouraging people to engage in the act of listening. His work is presented internationally and spans, electronic music, sound design for theatre, dance and film, site-specific soundwalks, multi-channel sound installation, phonography and live performance.
Recent credits include: music composition for Humanhood’s dance works ZERO (2016, 2018) and Orbis, (2017); theatre sound design for Delightful by Olivia Winteringham, (sorry) by Susie Sillett, The Whip Hand by Douglas Maxwell (2017), Stories To Tell in The Middle Of The Night by Franscesca Millican-Slater and Looking For John by Tony Timberlake (2016), Birmingham REP; Heather by Thomas Eccleshare (2017), The Bush and Tobacco Factory
Theatres; Heartbeats & Algorithms by Jenny Lee (2016), Soho Theatre.
See more of Iain's work here.
Rachel Bunce // Filmmaker
Rachel, Director of RB Films, produces and edits films for theatre folk. She’s worked extensively with China Plate to produce high quality trailer for artists such as Chris Thorpe, Action Hero, Caroline Horton and Inspector Sands. Her films have strongly supported theatre companies’ marketing and promotion campaigns and helped venues reach new audiences.
Rachel’s passions take her into education and the charity sector too; she runs filmmaking workshops for young people and has worked as a photographer in Uganda, Kenya and Burundi for charity Send a Cow. Her first self-directed work was made in Albania, filming music therapy in situations like orphanages, street children centres and prisons.
Visit Rachel's website here.
Dan Handscombe // BSL Interpreter
Dan Handscombe a qualified British Sign Language Interpreter and a member of the National Register of Communication Professionals working with Deaf and Deafblind people (NRCPD). Since 2004, he has been interpreting in education and the community, theatre and the arts. He specialises in theatre, the arts, health and fitness and religious settings.
He has worked with a variety of organisations which include:
National Exhibition Centre, Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) , MAC Birmingham, Birmingham City University, Barnardos, Heritage Lottery fund, Birmingham Conservation Trust, Sense, Heart of England Baptist Association (HEBA), West Midlands Jujitsu Club, Birmingham City University as well as numerous informal settings.
Visit Dan's website for more information.
Donna Mullings // Performer
Donna has been Acting for the last 13 Years, she has worked with both Deaf and integrated mainstream theatre companies, her credits include Pulse and Macbrew - Derby Theatre, Love’s Labour’s Lost which was performed at The Globe - Deafinitely Theatre, Baa Moo Yellow Dog - Half Moon Theatre, The Crane and Cinderella’s Sisters - Red Earth Theatre, Children of a Greater God, It is a small world, Vagina Monologues and Something Else - Deafinitely Theatre and Appointment with Death - London Deaf Drama Group for which she won the best actors award. She also worked as a volunteer with 3D – Derby Deaf Drama for Christmas Pantomime such as Beauty and the Beast, A Christmas Carol, Hansel and Gretel also real life Murder Mystery – An Unfortunate Pregnancy. She went onto various acting workshops at the Deafinitely HUB and she did a one off Deaf Improv Comedy.
Donna has performed dance with Def Motion and has performed at the Reims Clin d’Oeil Festival (France), Incloodu Festival (London) and WoW Festival (Black Country).
Tweet Donna: @MissWhoopiDoopi
Mark Steadman // Consultancy
Mark is a digital content producer from Birmingham, and the creator of the podcast hosting and production company Podiant. Mark works with independent creators to produce high-quality, engaging audio content, and champions the openness of the podcast format.
You can read more about Mark’s work on his website.
Rebecca A. Withey // Director
Rebecca is a performing artist, writer & consultant who happens to be profoundly deaf. She has worked in television & theatre since 2005 and travels across the UK delivering and supporting accessible arts.
Visit Rebecca's website here.
Adam York Gregory // Publisher
Adam York Gregory runs InkCONCRETE, a new model for publishing artist books.
Adam is a visual and conceptual artist. He works in film, animation, photography, print and performance art. He's particularly interested in the overlap between science and art, slowness and duration.