Elsie Piddock
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something to dance about
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red all over
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young visitors
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young visitors
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physical music
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Regina Monologues
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Regina Monologues

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The Finnish Prisoner
In July 2007, The Paddock presented the world premiere of The Finnish Prisoner, a new opera
by Orlando Gough and Stephen Plaice, written specifically for the community of the Lewes District,
and concerning an episode in local history in
which Finnish prisoners of war were kept in Lewes during the Crimean War and formed strong bonds with the people of the town. Seven performances took place
in a disused warehouse in an industrial estate in Lewes and involved a cast of 80 singers (5 British principals,
8 Finnish principals, 28 adult community chorus, and 39 children), as well as four instrumentalists. Apart from the Finnish singers, all of the professional artists, the creative team, and amateurs were drawn from the Lewes District. Each performance was sold to absolute capacity, and attracted a widespread, highly enthusiastic audience base, including visits from visiting Finnish dignitaries.

The opera was produced in partnership with Finnish National Opera and Finnish Chamber Opera, with additional aid from the Finnish Embassy in London
and the Sibelius Academy. The Paddock also received funding towards this project from the RVW Trust, the D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, The PRS Foundation,
East Sussex County Council and Lewes Town Council.

2006
Elsie Piddock Skips in Her Sleep
Elsie Piddock Skips in Her Sleep is a story for children written by Eleanor Farjeon, the first winner in 1956 of the Hans Anderson International Medal, who lived and worked in East Sussex. It tells the tale of a champion rope-skipper called Elsie Piddock, who manages to save a section of the Sussex Downs from the clutches of an evil Lord bent on development. The Paddock’s production of this charming story was commissioned by East Sussex Arts Partnership and Farnham Maltings to be toured to outdoor rural spaces, such as village greens, village festivals and school playing fields. It toured in the summer of 2006 to over 2,600 people in 21 different venues. Some skipping audience participation was involved!
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2006
Something to Dance About
On April 29th, 2006, a day of dancing took place in the town of Lewes, East Sussex, consisting of eight new site-specific dances created by local professional choreographers, designers, and composers, in collaboration with the 180 amateur dancers who performed the pieces. The day ran from ten in the morning to 5:30 in the afternoon, with 32 discrete performances and attracted a crowd of nearly 3000 people. All dances took place where the general public simply came across them – in a main shopping pedestrian precinct, a skate park, in the thoroughfare passing through Lewes castle - though they could also be traced by a dance map given to the public, if people wished to see every dance. Artistic themes touched upon issues relevant to people in this region, including four student/young people's dances looking at various aspects of their local heritage, such as the history of the castle, the experiences of flood victims in Lewes, and the importance of conservation. This project was generously supported by the Heritage Lottery Foundation and the Arts Council England, South East, as well as other trusts and foundations.
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2005
Red All Over
Red All Over is a site-specific play set in six rooms of a hotel. Written and directed by The Paddock’s Artistic Director Susannah Waters and designed by Num Stibbe, it was commissioned by the Lewes Live Literature Festival and premiered over five nights at Pelham House in Lewes, featuring the actors Andrea Hall, Steve North, Sian Webber, and Leo Wringer. In 2008, Red All Over was awarded an Arts Council grant for further development into a two-act, full-length play.


2005
The Young Visitors
In 2005, we toured our production of nine year-old Daisy Ashford’s novel, The Young Visiters (sic). Daisy was living in Lewes when she wrote her precocious masterpiece, and this production was first performed in people’s house as part of our Write Next Door project. The book is performed word-for-word, with every bit of the prodigy’s astounding narrative voice intact. Directed by actor Jonathan Cullen and designed by Num Stibbe, the fast-moving show involves four actors, one folding screen, a pianist, and many hats! We toured the show to theatres, literature festivals, and Camphill communities – residential centres for people with learning difficulties. We continue to be invited for further performances, both private and public, around the country.
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2004
Physical Music
Physical Music was a project supported by the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Arts Council, South East, in which we developed ideas for staging Handel cantatas for solo voice, exploring the ways in which artists from different disciplines could be exposed to and influenced by each other's approaches during the rehearsal period, with a particular emphasis on involving musicians more directly in the physical staging. This was done by including them in the elements of rehearsal process from which they are usually excluded, and by placing them centre-stage in a production rather than to one side. The multi-disciplinary staging of three G. F. Handel cantatas by the team involved in this research and development is a project we are hoping to develop further in the future.
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2004
Write Next Door
In 2004, The Paddock launched its first community project, Write Next Door. The project was twofold, involving seventeen children from the local community who took part in a series of writing workshops and one-to one mentoring sessions with a published author, as well as a theatrical production of nine year-old Daisy Ashford’s 1890 novel, The Young Visiters. Throughout the period, each child worked on completing a novella, which was then type-set and bound in a cover designed and constructed by the author. A public book launch took place in November 2004, in which the children read passages from their books and local children’s author, Miriam Moss, presented a letter of feedback to each child. In our evaluation, many of the parents reported a huge leap in confidence for these children, beyond what they themselves had imagined possible. The production of The Young Visiters – directed, designed and performed by professional artists in the community – was performed in 12 private houses – open to the public – at full capacity, as well as at a sold-out performance in the Lewes Live Literature Festival. It was immediately revived for further performances in December 2004, and toured nationally in the Autumn of 2005.
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2003
The Regina Monologues
UK Tour

First commissioned by the Covent Garden Festival in 2001, this music theatre piece about Elizabeth I was co-created by the Paddock's Artistic Director Susannah Waters and the viol consort Concordia (www.violconsort.com), under the musical direction of Mark Levy, and toured to music and literary festivals around the UK, including the Brighton Festival, Lichfield Festival, King’s Lynn Festival, Cheltenham Literature Festival, Queen’s Festival in Belfast, and the Hall for Cornwall in Truro. In a series of nine monologues, partnered with haunting music of the period, a 63 year-old Elizabeth ruminates upon the mixed blessings of power and the impossibilities of love for a woman in her position. During the 2003 tour, The Queen was played by Susannah York and Janet Suzman, sharing the dates. Designed by Shakespeare's Globe Associate Designer Jenny Tiramani, it also featured the counter-tenors Robin Blaze and William Purefoy. This piece was performed again in 2008, at the Middle Temple Hall in London, as part of the 2008 Temple Festival, starring Penelope Keith and the counter-tenor William Purefoy. It will be performed at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre on March 15, 2009, once again with Penelope Keith playing Elizabeth I. (www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk/whatson.asp)
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