Unearthed
Photo: Menika van der Poorten
Presented by Floating Space Theatre Company & Sally E. Dean
Artistic Directors: Ruhanie Perera & Sally E. Dean
Producers: Iromi Perera & Silke Arnold
Costume Designers: Carolina Rieckhof & Sandra Arróniz Lacunza, with the support of Marisa Gnanaraj
Performers: Jake Oorloff, Prasanna Mahagamage, Sulakshini Perera, Tracy Jayasinghe & Venuri Perera
Stage Management & Crew: Javin Thomas, Lehan Thomas & Shazad Synon
A site-specific theatre and dance journey through a private home.
‘the most extraordinary performance I saw in 2012’ – Sunday Times, Sri Lanka. Read article here.
upcoming performances
Plans for Unearthed to be re-created and performed in 2015 are underway. We will keep you posted.
First staged: 1 & 2 December 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Re-run: 16 & 17 February 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Length: 50 minutes
Unearthed – in many ways – is about journeys: journeys into and through inner and outer worlds of lies, secrets and silence, journeys through stories told through text and movement, journeys from the public into the private and journeys through spaces and sites. With Unearthed, we are inviting our audience on a journey through scenes of minimalist and absurdist nature, performed using text, movement, sound and costume. One of the creative stimuli for Unearthed is the poetry of the American writer Adrienne Rich, who died in Spring 2012, in particular her Twenty One Love Poems.
Background & Context
Unearthed builds on previous collaborations between Ruhanie Perera, Creative Director of Floating Space Theatre Company, and Sally Dean as individual artists, theatre makers and directors of companies with a shared vision. The artists first met in London in 2009. In summer 2011, Sally was invited by Floating Space Theatre to attend a 10-day artist residency in Colombo and to teach workshops in Skinner Releasing Technique and Performance Training to professional artists as well as members from the community. In March 2012, Ruhanie was invited to London to perform as part of the event ‘Tradition, Culture and the Contemporary’, co-curated by the Stranger Than Fiction Collective and Siobhan Davies Dance Studios.
Unearthed symbolizes the next and crucial chapter in Sally’s and Ruhanie’s collaboration and is closely interwoven with their long-term vision of shaping cultural productions that promote the visibility, awareness and recognition of performance artists from/in the UK, Sri Lanka and beyond.
Workshop & Lecture Series
As part of Unearthed a series of workshops and lectures was on offer for performing artists and arts makers from Colombo. Over the duration of ten evening workshop sessions between the 12-23 November at the Nelung Arts Centre, Sally facilitated a Skinner Releasing Technique Intensive, open to dancers, actors, and artists of all backgrounds, as well as therapists and those interested in the overall well-being of body and mind. Skinner Releasing Technique is a rare and new movement technique on the Sri Lankan performing arts training circuit. Other workshops and lectures that took place in Colombo as part of the Unearthed project included ‘Contemporary Practice and Somatic Movement’ led by Sally and offered to traditional and contemporary dance artists studying choreography as part of their national diploma at the Sri Lanka Foundation, Digital Film Academy and the lecture ‘The Arts Manager’s Starter-Kit’ led by Sally’s Manager and freelance producer Silke Arnold.
The aim of this series of workshops and lectures was to create training opportunities for Sri Lankan arts practitioners, amateur performers, students and individuals interested in engaging in creative arts practices.
‘Unearthed’ premiered on the 1 December 2012 in Kotte, Colombo, Sri Lanka with four additional performances presented across the 1 & 2 December.
For further information about Unearthed visit www.unearthedsrilanka.wordpress.com
A very special thank you to all the individual backers who made all the difference to Unearthed:
Aaron Gershenberg / Alice Weigel / Amy Young / Anushka Pereira / Ash Charles / Bette & Tom Hall / Brian & Virginia Crowe / Calamity Jane / Catherine Ngo / Claus Hoffmann / Colin Karlsson / Dana Kokubun / Dan Kelleher / Joan Laage & David Thornbrugh / Dennis McCurley / Dr. Peter & Traudel Arnold / Gamini Wimalasuriya / Gigi Giannella / Gita & Fred Perera / Glen Blackmon / Julie Nathanielsz / Katya Bloom & Hugh Kelly / I-Ching Lao / Jack Gilbride / Janet Baumgartner / Jeanne Millet Petty / Jennifer & Rob Guerra / John Davidson / John & Sue Dean / John Otterson / Jonathan, Mark & Cheddar / Karen & Jack Stutz / Kerstin Arnold / L B Baldwin / Larry Rodriguez / Mahesh Markus / Maya Nanayakkara / Maurita & Sherwood Quady / Mlesna Tea / Michael Dean / Nagavalli / Pamela Willis / Ravi Muthukrishna / Richard and Nancy Karlsson / Rob McMillan / Bob & Kathy Heaney / Saliya Wickramasuriya / Sally Quady & Dane Riley / Sandra and Harold Matthews / Sarah Quady / Senura / Shehal Joseph / Startup Capital Ventures / Stella Glockner / Stephen & Shelley Jackson / Steve & Debbie Quady / Therese Perera / Vajra Chandrasekera / Video Creations / Walpurka
Unearthed was made possible using public funding by Arts Council England and British Council and through the support of Floating Space Theatre, Sally E. Dean Performing Arts, Inc. as well as individual backers. Special thanks to Hiranthi Amarasekara, Nelung Arts Centre and Goethe-Institut and Shehal Joseph for photography. Last but not least a very special thanks to all our families and friends for their support.
