2021: All The Rage – Emily Laurens’ creative research and film on garment manufacture and colonialism, commissioned by National Museum Wales
2020: Dream A Little Dream – Emily Laurens collected lockdown dreams and turned them into live streamed pieces of performance animation, with a soundtrack by Henry Sears
2019 – 2020: Datod – Emily Laurens’ located residency funded by National Theatre Wales
2018: Alterlife/Aftermath – Video piece using puppetry and video to animate and explore text by feminist historian of techno-science Michelle Murphy. Original soundtrack by Max Worgan.
2016: Thylacine Tribute Cabaret. Created for Dark Mountain on the 80th anniversary of the extinction of the thylacine.
2015: Freaks of Nature, directed by Marisa Carnesky. Circus-inspired clown street theatre show about extinction and rarity value. Development included a durational performance on Brighton seafront, short film by Lilian Simonsson, performing in the woods at Carrying the Fire 2014, and a devising residency in March 2014 at Jackson’s Lane as part of Transmit. Music by Tom Cook.
2015 – 16: Madam Balwn. Clown piece featuring balloon puppets and a live musical accompaniment, first aired at BAC’s Freshly Scratched in October 2015
2014: Martha’s Flock. This participatory online project elicited a broad range of events and tributes to the passenger pigeon, and contributed to the growth in engagement with Remembrance Day for Lost Species.
2014: With support from IdeasTap, ONCA, the Nightingale Theatre and the Pebble Trust, we brought Invisible Giant to the Warren, Brighton Fringe’s acclaimed venue. Original new work from Feral, commissioned and co-produced by ONCA as part of its INorganic season on waste. Read reviews here, here, here and here.
2014: Live Orca Show! Commissioned by WhaleFest, this short humorous piece featuring an orca in a bathtub and her trainer was made to support the Free Morgan campaign. Featuring Jennifer Haufek and directed by David Tutton and Brenda Bishop.
2013: Arth, Aberystwyth Arts Centre. Emily Laurens led on this ACW-funded R&D project produced by Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
2013: White Bear River. Two days’ R&D on the extraordinary story of 18th century explorer/ colonialist George Cartwright hosted by ONCA and culminating in a scratch performance in the gallery space as part of the Our Time in Ice exhibition. See clips and a review here.
2013: Last of the Curlews at TEDx, Whitechapel
2012: Funeral for the Rodrigues Solitaire. A participatory project on the Southbank for the National Theatre’s Take the Space/ HomeLiveArt’s Alternative Village Fete.
2012: Homage to Rachel Carson. Non-verbal promenade piece for Uncivilisation Festival, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the publication of Silent Spring.
August 2012: Funeral for the Caspian Tiger. A promenade show commissioned by Dark Mountain’s Uncivilisation Festival.
2012 and 2013: Triptych premiered at Brighton Fringe 2012 and won Best New Play (New Writing South award). Returned to the Fringe 2013. Triptych told three interwoven stories of loss: the extinction of the Eskimo Curlew, the first published female Roma poet, and the road protests of the 1990s. With shadow puppetry, original live music by Tom Cook and aerial theatre.
2012: Funeral for the Javan Tiger. Commissioned by the Southbank Centre, DeathFest 2012. A collaboration with the RFH Gamelan, performed in the Clore Ballroom. This event blended shadow puppetry, clown and ritual with a giant tiger skeleton puppet, original compositions and ancient folk tales to tell a tragic extinction story.
November 2011 onwards (annual): Remembrance Day for Lost Species (ongoing participatory project). Previous days have seen a wide range of species and places remembered through art and participant-driven memorial events – ranging from a procession for the Caribbean Monk Seal to a hunt for the Stephens Island Wren, funerals for the Great Auk, and mask-making for the Western Black Rhino. 2013 saw a lost species ritual and storytelling event at the community allotment in Whitehawk, Brighton, and many other gatherings and rituals in other places.
2011: Wolfish Tales at Preston Manor. A spooky site-specific comedic piece made with actors and community volunteers in one of Brighton’s finest historic buildings. The pet cemetery revealed its darkest secrets amid tales of werewolves and transformation.
2011: Funeral for the Bali Tiger. A participatory project at The Green Man festival. Festival-goers co-created a large tiger sculpture which was paraded and finally burned on a huge pyre. Inspired by the funerals of Balinese royalty.
2011: A Funeral for Lost Species. Winner of the TippingPoint commission 2011, funded by the Arts Council of England. Project included: theatre with a site specific graveyard installation for Brighton Fringe 2011; making and performing workshops with adults and young people; staging funerals for extinct animals in unusual places and spaces.
2010: The Cabinet of Curiosities at Brighton Museum. Commissioned by Brighton & Hove City Council. A participatory art project using paper-cuts and shadow puppetry to create a spooky all-night wunderkammer. Attended by 2000+ participants.
2010: Fox Tale. Puppetry piece for families, commissioned by Brook Meadow Conservation Group, Hampshire.
2009: The Witch of the North. A promenade collaboration with Creative Partnerships featuring tree-top aerial and live gamelan in the woods of Ninfield, Sussex.
2008: Songs for Waiting by Rachel Porter. A studio piece created for one. A study of waiting through the art of physical storytelling. Performed in derelict houses in Belgium and the UK.
2007- 2008: The Sabbats. A number of experimental site-specific outdoor productions performed over the course of a year, on the sabbats. These included King of the Seeds and The Lost Child at Whitehawk Community Food Project, Brighton; Dignity on Brighton beach; The Butterfly Prince at Andy’s Cafe, Camden.