Without Walls

A pair of new street arts shows from Great Yarmouth artists and performers have been commissioned as part of a prestigious national consortium.

Artist and filmmaker, Matthew Harrison and circus and street arts company, Dizzy O’Dare will create new shows for the Without Walls Consortium at SeaChange Arts’ Drill House in Great Yarmouth.  The shows will then be toured nationally around some of the consortium’s festivals.

SeaChange are part of Without Walls, a national network of leading street arts festivals and organisations who collaborate to create and present new work.  This week 14 new show from companies around the country were commissioned.

Matthew Harrison from Bradwell, will create a life-sized interactive game zone, entitled The Actual Reality Arcade.  Once in the arcade, audiences can use their mind, body and imagination to win at a variety of interactive activities inspired by classic video games like Frogger and Space Invaders.

“I spent every Saturday visiting the arcades on the seafront,” explains Matthew, “They were very much a part of my youth.  A new game was an event.  People came out and participated together in a way they no longer do with Playstations.  The Actual Reality Arcade will mix hands-on fabrication techniques and modern technologies and will reflect some of that participation element.”

Dizzy O’Dare are a circus and street arts company who have relocated to Great Yarmouth and are resident company at SeaChange’s Drill House.  Their new show Baba Yaga’s House is based on a Slavic fairy-tale and blends street theatre, walkabout and puppetry.

Both shows will be created during residencies at SeaChange’s Drill House over the next few months before going on to be performed in front of thousands at festivals around the country.  They’ll return to Great Yarmouth for the 10th Out There International Festival of Circus & Street Arts on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 September.

“We’re excited to be bringing new work to audiences through Without Walls and this is a really good example of how we’ll be looking to work over the coming years,” said Seachange’s Chief Executive, Joe Mackintosh.  “The ambition of Seachange, and the role of The Drill House, is to afford many more local artists and performers opportunities to develop new work and take it to a wider stage.”

Without Walls is an Arts Council England supported partnership managed by Manchester based XTRAX and features nine of the leading UK outdoor arts festivals including the Greenwich & Docklands Festival and the Norfolk & Norwich Festival.

For further information on these projects, SeaChange Arts and the Drill House, visit www.seachangearts.org.uk