Alison trained at Mountview Theatre School in Stage Management and Technical Theatre Design and started working as a freelance stage manager in 1992. Alison became a Director of Turtle Key Arts in 1998 where she has been a production manager and producer for a number of national and international tours with both dance and theatre companies to small, mid-scale and large-scale venues. Alison has been producing Ockham’s Razorsince 2006.
Ockham's Razor performing 'Arc'. Photo by Nik Mackey
Turtle Key Arts is a performance arts production company which produces, manages and devises performance arts projects with a particular emphasis on original and groundbreaking work. They combine production and technical skills and training to work with artists, venues, disability arts organisations and the education sector both nationally and internationally.
In the past year Turtle Key Arts have managed national and international tours and acted as producers for Ockham’s Razor, Jonathan Lunn Dance Company, Amici Dance Theatre Company and Angika Dance Company. We have recently started producing RedCape Theatre Co and are hoping to embark on a full scale tour of their work ‘The Idiot Colony’ this Autumn.
In the last couple of years they have also co-run the Turtle Opera for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders at the Royal Opera House and continued to manage the Key Club, a monthly club for young people 16+ with ASD. They have collaborated on a new initiative, Turtle Song, with the English Touring Opera and the Royal College of Music to work with people with Alzheimer’s and Dementia and initiated many other education projects nationwide.
Ali gave her insight into producing a exciting new company who work in Circus and the challenges they face, here are a couple of bullet points from her presentation at the London event:
Programmers in theatre venues often haven’t got a Circus slot so don’t know how to programme as the work does not fit into a box
It is often the case traditional venues cannot provide adequate technical support for Circus work
Circus takes longer to develop, in terms of equipment, rehearsal and space.
Circus and 2012 have an easy marriage
To download the FULL presentation in pdf format please click here.
Were you at the London event? Have you seen Ockham’s Raxor?
Please use this page or any related pages to make comments generally or about the event, speakers and themes that emerged…make it a place for discussion!
Thursday 23rd April saw the London ‘elemental’ event take place as part of Arts Council London Office, Vision session. Vision sessions are internal training events that focus on different themes. They took the opportunity of elemental to look at street and circus arts.
The London office hosted Arts Council staff, some Local Authority staff, along with key companies for the region. Prior to the event we were delighted to announce Lyn Gardner as the Keynote Speaker. She was supported by four artistic companies and producers:
Each speaker provided some inspiring examples of their work and some arresting video and images, giving us a sense of the excitement and skill involved. They gave an overview of past work, present work and plans for the future. They also touched on the challenges in the sector, in terms of development, space, place, support and, of course, funding.
Lyn Gardner followed with an inspirational and informed speech about the sector and the impact it has on audience and society. She provided a real rally cry for the sector, artists and stakeholders alike and gave her view on the cuts announced in Alistair Darlings budget!
Following her inspiring and thought provoking speech the floor opened up for Q&A, this was long awaited if the nods of agreement during her speech were anything to go by.
We will be posting more details of each speaker soon so watch this space.
Were you at the event? What did you enjoy most? What was said that you are still thinking about now? Let us know.
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