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VOLT Circus Scratch Night
Thursday 23 October, 7:30pm
Welcome to our next popular circus scratch night in collaboration with Circus City!
VOLT is a regional circus scratch night, creating an opportunity for circus artists to share work-in-progress pieces in a professional environment. Artists present short pieces of new work to a public audience and invite the audience to provide constructive criticism to take away.
For scratch, your work does not need to be polished. You might see the first draft of a brand new piece, or a reworked extract from an existing show. Artists may be making their solo stage debut or moving from studies to professional performance, or they could be an established circus artist trying something completely new. Book your tickets
Find out more about the acts for this event below…
Nuss Nuss by Fleur Hall (She/Her)
‘Nuss Nuss’ is an intimate yet explosive dance-acro theatre duet delving into the masks we wear to navigate gender, desire, and societal expectations. Through dynamic movement and raw physicality, we explore the tension between our inner selves and the roles imposed upon us by society, and whether we
are resisting, succumbing or trying ultimately reclaiming our identities.
Join us on this visceral journey as we ask – How much of me is truly mine? Where do I feel safe – in your gaze, or outside of it?
Fleur Hall is an emerging Moroccan-British dance and circus artist whose choreography blends athleticism with emotion. Her work focuses on story telling and exploring our humanity through movement.
Her previous works have focused on themes such as identity, big and small acts of rebellion, and our connection to nature through physicality and interdisciplinary collaboration.
How the Net Became a Web by Tali Rowland (She/Her)
‘How the Net Became a Web’ is about connections. Inspired by the origins of the inter-net and the entangled world-wide-web as we now know it, it explores the complexities of modern communication and relationships.
Using a lot of rope, this piece sets out to tell the story of a relationship, a web of lies, lines of communication and a mess that might just be too entangled to get out of.
Tali Rowland is an aspiring aerial storyteller, aiming to use unusual and custom-made sets and apparatus to weave tales that defy gravity, and create images unlike any other.
Based in Chichester, UK, Tali draws on her skills in movement, theatre and lighting to create portable miniature worlds that can be shared in a range of environments and not be tethered to a theatre. In fact, tethering is not really part of the game. Tali likes her stories to fly!
The Paitron Saint of Roast Dinners by Gráinne Young-Monaghan (She/Her)
‘The Paitron Saint of Roast Dinners’ is a clown ceremonial ritual in celebration of the roast dinner, it is surreal and transcendent. It is clown, clown-theatre, there is underwhelming hair hanging, there is gravy granules, there is audience participation. There is joy.
The piece is an extract from a show currently in R+D phase that was supported by the invisible circus’s launch pad, the full show is called I don’t Want to Cause a Fuss and it is a celebration of the everyday and British working-classness using biographical elements from my Nan’s life with clown-theatre and dance.
Gráinne Young-Monaghan is a multidisciplinary performance artist specialising in clown. With a background in art, she then went on to study circus at Circomedia, NCCA, and FLIC and has since toured shows around the country, including a 5 night run at the Edinburgh Fringe.
Her work uses a mix of visual art, clowning, physical theatre and dance to create moments of joyful connection. Play is at the heart of all her work. Gráinne now co-runs the Lost Cabaret Bristol, a bi-quarterly clown cabaret at the Wardrobe Theatre.
Diabolicaland by Henry Twist (He/Him)
‘Diabolicaland’ is a piece of aerial storytelling, using local myths and folk tales from the South West – alongside a rope – to explore the powerful forces that may have shaped the country that we live in. From our physical geography and landscapes, to our attitudes, beliefs, and stories: this piece asks the question, what Diabolical powers exert their will over this land?
Written by Henry Twist, with consultation in aerial and text from Aerial Lines, Diabolicaland is in the very early stages of development. It tells just one story, but there is hope and ambition to delve much deeper: into the stories this country has told and the influences those stories have had.
Henry Twist is a Bristol local who has been practicing aerial as a hobby for the last 10 years. He has developed pieces and performed twice at a local festival – once solo and once alongside another bisexual performer – in a show called ‘Horny Histories’.
Outside of circus, Henry’s main work is at Forest School, facilitating sessions that connect young people with the joys of being in nature. Through doing this he has developed a deep love for learning and telling stories and is fascinated with the history and relevance of our folk lore and the folk tales of Britain and Ireland.
Saudade by Jordan Morton Trowers (He/Him)
Saudade “is a word in Portuguese and Galician denoting an emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent someone or something”
‘For the past five years, I’ve been playing with this word through my little creative experiments, as a way of understanding it—and myself—a bit better. Most days, I quite like who I am (and the occasional days I don’t, well, that’s part of the fun). I usually know what I want… except for the moments I don’t. And most of the time, I know what I should do. The tricky part, of course, is figuring out the how.’
Image credit: @Rhiannonkte
BOOKING INFORMATION
Dates & Times: Thursday 23 October, 7:30pm
Tickets: Full price £14, concessions £8
Age guide: 8+
Location: St Paul’s Church, BS2 8SJ
The seating configuration for most of our performances is flexible, but generally, our main seating area is raked and seats are unallocated. The front rows are level and accessible, and aisle seats are available. Please get in touch to reserve seats in these rows are required.
Please note that seating in our Gallery is accessed via a flight of stairs and is not accessible for audience members who may find stairs difficult or impractical.
Wheelchair and step-free access can be found at our side entrance of St Paul’s Church. We use What 3 Words to give you an exact location on a map. Follow the link below to find this entrance.
Side Entrance Exact Location: https://what3words.com/mostly.ledge.chop
Main Entrance: Stepped Access
For performances, our main double doors serve as the principle entrance. This entrance consists of three steps up to the Box Office foyer, and three further steps up to the main building. We use What 3 Words to give you an exact location on a map. Follow the link below to find this entrance.
Main Entrance Exact Location: https://what3words.com/total.offer.native
Free Tickets for Carers
If you are a dedicated carer accompanying a paying visitor who is disabled, you are eligible for a free ticket (limited to one carer per paying visitor). To book your ticket, please give us a call on 0117 9477288 or email boxoffice@circomedia.com.
Circomedia does not issue refunds unless the event is cancelled or postponed to a date on which you are unable to attend.