Meeting Ground Theatre Company

Last updated April 23, 2019

Meeting Ground Theatre Company is an experimental theatre company,^[1] based in Nottingham, United Kingdom. The company originates much of its work in Nottingham^[2] and tours many of its plays in the East Midlands, but it has also engaged in a number of international collaborations,^[3] and a number of its productions have appeared at the Magdalena International Women's Theatre Festival.

Nottingham is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, England, 128 miles (206 km) north of London, 45 miles (72 km) northeast of Birmingham and 56 miles (90 km) southeast of Manchester, in the East Midlands.

The United Kingdom (UK), officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi), the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world. It is also the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.

The Magdalena Project is an international network of women in contemporary theatre and performance. It aims to increase awareness of women's contributions to theatre and to create the artistic and economic structures and support networks to enable women to work.

History

The company was founded in 1985 by Lowe, Myers, Bush Hartshorn, Jo Buffery and Stephen Mapp, after Lowe and Myers moved to Nottingham from London.

In the 1990s two productions were directed by Polish director Zofia Kalinska, one of which, Plaisirs d'Amour, she directed in parallel with a Polish-language production of the same piece for Akne Theatre.^[6] In 2002 the company ran a workshop in Romania, bringing together theatre artists from Algeria, Palestine, Romania and Serbia.

Productions have varied in performance style and form, from puppetry to video, from playwright-led play to street theatre and performance art; and ranged in subject and theme from the First World War to gender roles and female sexuality, from people smuggling to the Luddites.

Participating actors have included George Costigan, Neil Dudgeon, Tamzin Griffin, and Maurice Roëves (UK); Zbigniew Yann Rola (Poland), Ulrike Johannson and Astrid Kuhl (Germany).

George J. Costigan is an English actor who is best known for portraying Bob in the 1987 film Rita, Sue and Bob Too as well as his recent role in Happy Valley.

Neil Dudgeon is an English actor who, since 2011, has played DCI John Barnaby in the ITV drama series Midsomer Murders. He replaced John Nettles in the lead role.

Maurice Roëves is an English film and television actor, born in Sunderland but brought up in Scotland.

The company has co-produced, or worked in association with the Liverpool Playhouse, Akne Theatre, Central Television, Nottingham Playhouse, AZ Theatre and the Young Vic. They have received funding from the Arts Council, East Midlands Arts, Nottingham City Council, Central Television, North West Arts, The Gulbenkian Foundation, the British Council, LOT Airlines, the Institute of Mental Health Nottingham, the National Institute for Health Research SDO and CLAHRC-NDL.

Productions

Strive, written and directed by Lowe; UK tour (1985)
Desire, written and directed by Lowe; UK tour (1986)
Pushing On, large scale street choreography devised by Myers and Tamzin Griffin; Nottingham (1986)
Fat Cats and Hot Dogs, community promenade play, produced by Bush Hartshorn and Jo Buffery; Newark (1986?)
Demon Lovers, written and directed by Lowe; UK tour (1987).^[7] This play depicted a society which devalued creativity, leading to individuals with a poisoned fascistic imagination. It also drew upon ideas about multiple personality from Robert Ornstein's book Multimind. A secretary and her new boss start an affair, which turns into a destructive folie à deux and ends with the murder of a child. Film and video were an integral part of the production, showing the characters' multiple personalities as well as the coded "home movie" made by the murderers.
City of Women TV documentary; Central Television (1987)
Dance for the Girls, devised and performed by Myers and Tamzin Griffin; Magdalena Festival, and regional tour (1988/9)
Paradise, a musical by Lowe and David Wilson (composer), directed by Pip Broughton; co-production with Nottingham Playhouse (1990)^[8]
Sale of the Demonic Women, adapted and directed by Zofia Kalinska, from writings by Stanislaw Witkiewicz; Nottingham and London (1990), Berlin and Kraków (1991). Kalinska, previously a colleague of Grotowski and an actor with Tadeusz Kantor, first met Myers at a Magdalena Festival. Kalinska's production explored archetypes and stereotypes of strong women using parody, gothic design by Polish designer Zofia de Ines, ecstatic trance states and direct speech. As reviewer Betty Caplan said, the actors played "with their characters, stepping in and out of role, rather than simply reinforcing stereotypes."^[9] The production brought together actors from England, Germany and Poland, and toured in the UK, Germany, Poland and Italy.
Plaisirs d'Amour, adapted and directed by Kalinska, from a play by Ronald Duncan; co-production with Polish company Akne Theatre (1992)^[6]
Florence, by Myers; Magdalena Festival(1993)
Falling Angels, by Myers (1994)
Transplant, by Jeremy Seabrook and Michael O'Neill; co-production with AZ Theatre, directed by Jonathan Chadwick; London (2001)
Shoes, directed by Tom Wright; Nottingham (2003)
Small Waves was written by Myers, directed by Tom Wright; Nottingham and Vancouver (2006). Three strangers meet in an isolated house in winter: a woman, an 11-year-old girl and an old lady. Myers and her daughter Martha Myers-Lowe played the woman and the girl, and animated a puppet representing the old lady. Nottingham post critic Jeremy Lewis said the play "suggests faith, hope and courage offer an escape from the torments of modern life".^[10]
The Container, by Clare Bayley, directed by Tom Wright; in association with Young Vic, London (2009)
Inside Out of Mind by Tanya Myers, workshop presentation; Nottingham Playhouse (2011)

Robert Evan Ornstein was an American psychologist, researcher and author.

Folie à deux, or shared psychosis, is a psychiatric syndrome in which symptoms of a delusional belief and sometimes hallucinations are transmitted from one individual to another. The same syndrome shared by more than two people may be called folie à trois, folie à quatre, folie en famille, or even folie à plusieurs.

A home movie is a short amateur film or video typically made just to preserve a visual record of family activities, a vacation, or a special event, and intended for viewing at home by family and friends. Originally, home movies were made on photographic film in formats that usually limited the movie-maker to about three minutes per roll of costly camera film. The vast majority of amateur film formats lacked audio, shooting silent film.

Projects

The Luddite Project, workshops and various performances, Nottingham (1987–90)
War Stories, workshops in London (Tricycle and Royal Court), Sibiu, Romania (1999-2002). This ongoing project was later led by AZ Theatre. International companies were invited to work with Meeting Ground. Organised in 2002 by Meeting Ground artistic director Jonathan Chadwick and Iraqi documentary film director Maysoon Patachi, the first workshop took place in Sibiu, Romania, with theatre artists from England, Serbia, Algeria and Gaza. Among the pieces developed from this project are Life on the Borderline by Hoshiar, presented by AZ Theatre in 2007; and Stephen Lowe's play Smile, produced at Lakeside Theatre in 2008. Jonathan Chadwick's company AZ Theatre continues this project.
Inside Out of Mind was written by Myers, in partnership with the Institute of Mental Health, Nottingham (2010–12)^[11]^[12] The 2012 piece brings together ethnographic researchers with theatre practitioners to examine the care of people with dementia.^[13] Myers, director Lowe and ethnographers Simon Bailey and Kezia Scales worked together on a workshop presentation of the play in July 2011. Meeting Ground later worked to create a full-scale production and tour of the play, in partnership with a Managed Innovation Network of the Institute of Mental Health, Nottingham.

Publications

Lowe, Stephen, introduction to Smile, theatre programme, Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham, 2008.
Lowe, Stephen, The Builder of Bridges, essay published on www.stephenlowe.co.uk, 2002.
Meeting Ground, Pushing On, company leaflet; Nottingham, 1986.
Meeting Ground, Demon Lovers, company leaflet; Nottingham, 1987.
Meeting Ground, The Politics of the Imagination, company leaflet; 1993.

Related Research Articles

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References

^[14]

↑ Baz Kershaw (11 September 2002). The Politics of Performance: Radical Theatre as Cultural Intervention. Routledge. pp. 276–. ISBN 978-1-134-93272-6.
↑ Undercut: The Magazine from the London Filmmaker's Co-op Issues 16-19. The Co-op. 1986. p. 46.
↑ Elaine Aston (5 July 2005). Feminist Theatre Practice: A Handbook. Routledge. pp. 204–. ISBN 978-1-134-77151-6.
↑ Kathryn Ann Berney; N. G. Templeton (1 January 1994). Contemporary British Dramatists. St. James Press. pp. 440–441. ISBN 978-1-55862-213-5.
↑ "Dementia care research becomes basis for touring play". Times Higher Education. 1 March 2015 | By Matthew Reisz
1 2 Myer, M Grosvenor, Plaisirs d'Amour, review of production, The Guardian; December 17, 1992; p28.
↑ Goldman, Steven. Demon Lovers, review of production at Croydon Warehouse, The Guardian; Jun 15, 1987, p10.
↑ Thornber, Robin, Critics' Choice, preview of Paradise, The Guardian; May 31, 1990, p29.
↑ Caplan, Betty, Devilry with she-demons, review of Sale of the Demonic Women, The Guardian; Nov 8, 1990, p30.
↑ Lewis, Jeremy, Small Waves, review of production, Nottingham Evening Post; April 17, 2006
↑ "Review: Inside Out of Mind, Lakeside Arts Centre, by Alan Geary". Nottingham Post. Retrieved on 29 September 2014.
↑ "INSIDE OUT OF MIND To 29 June. :: ReviewsGate.com :: The Theatre Reviews site that covers the UK.". Retrieved on 29 September 2014.
↑ "Inside Out Of Mind: Dementia, its victims and how their loved ones cope". Derby Telegraph, January 19, 2015
↑ "Time in and out of mind". Retrieved on 29 September 2014.

Stefanova, Kalina (ed.) and Waugh, Ann. Eastern European theater after the iron curtain. London, Routledge, 2000; p 172.

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[Kershaw2002-1] Baz Kershaw (11 September 2002). The Politics of Performance: Radical Theatre as Cultural Intervention. Routledge. pp. 276–. ISBN 978-1-134-93272-6.

[2] Undercut: The Magazine from the London Filmmaker's Co-op Issues 16-19. The Co-op. 1986. p. 46.

[Aston2005-3] Elaine Aston (5 July 2005). Feminist Theatre Practice: A Handbook. Routledge. pp. 204–. ISBN 978-1-134-77151-6.

[BerneyTempleton1994-4] Kathryn Ann Berney; N. G. Templeton (1 January 1994). Contemporary British Dramatists. St. James Press. pp. 440–441. ISBN 978-1-55862-213-5.

[5] "Dementia care research becomes basis for touring play". Times Higher Education. 1 March 2015 | By Matthew Reisz

[myer-6] 1 2 Myer, M Grosvenor, Plaisirs d'Amour, review of production, The Guardian; December 17, 1992; p28.

[7] Goldman, Steven. Demon Lovers, review of production at Croydon Warehouse, The Guardian; Jun 15, 1987, p10.

[8] Thornber, Robin, Critics' Choice, preview of Paradise, The Guardian; May 31, 1990, p29.

[9] Caplan, Betty, Devilry with she-demons, review of Sale of the Demonic Women, The Guardian; Nov 8, 1990, p30.

[10] Lewis, Jeremy, Small Waves, review of production, Nottingham Evening Post; April 17, 2006

[11] "Review: Inside Out of Mind, Lakeside Arts Centre, by Alan Geary". Nottingham Post. Retrieved on 29 September 2014.

[12] "INSIDE OUT OF MIND To 29 June. :: ReviewsGate.com :: The Theatre Reviews site that covers the UK.". Retrieved on 29 September 2014.

[13] "Inside Out Of Mind: Dementia, its victims and how their loved ones cope". Derby Telegraph, January 19, 2015

[14] "Time in and out of mind". Retrieved on 29 September 2014.