Paddock Productions is an arts organisation based in Lewes, East Sussex, committed to producing new work through collaborations between individual artists and ensembles excelling in different art forms. We stress the relationship between professional artists and the community they live in, providing an exchange of talents and skills, and increased accessibility to a variety of art-forms. We continue to be supported by the Arts Council England, South East, as well as many other trusts and foundations.
OUR WORK
The Regina Monologues
"It were no marvel to teach a woman to talk. It were far harder to teach her to hold her tongue." First commissioned by the Covent Garden Festival in 2001, this music theatre piece about Elizabeth I in the last years of her life, was co-created by the Paddock's Artistic Director Susannah Waters and the viol consort Concordia, led by Mark Levy. In a series of nine monologues, partnered with haunting music of the period, the ageing Elizabeth ruminates upon the mixed blessings of power and the impossibilities of love for a female monarch. Eccentric, coquettish, restless with intellectual vitality, this indefatigable version of the queen has been played by the actresses Penelope Keith, Susannah York, Felicity Palmer, and most recently, Janet Suzman. Designed by Shakespeare's Globe Associate Designer Jenny Tiramani and also featuring the counter-tenors Robin Blaze and William Purefoy.
Physical Music
In June 2004, supported by the Gulbenkian Foundation and Arts Council England, South East, the Paddock undertook a two-week research and development period at the Marylebone Dance Studios in London. Physical Music brought together a total of 16 artists including the baroque ensemble Sonnerie, led by Monica Huggett, the choreographer Yolande Snaith, the Paddock's Artistic Director Susannah Waters, the designer Miranda Melville, the singers Siona Stockel and Hilton Marlton and the dancers Emma Coles and Jacob Dorff-Petersen. We began developing ideas on staging Handel cantatas for solo voice, exploring the ways in which artists of different disciplines could be exposed to and influenced by each other's approaches to performance during the rehearsal period and also particularly looking at involving musicians more directly in the physical staging of music by directly involving them in the 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 reseach and development is a project we are planning to tour in the future.
The Young Visiters
In 1890, Daisy Ashford was nine years old and working on her fourth novel. Paddock Productions presented the first-ever live-literature production of her masterpiece, The Young Visiters, in which the book is presented word-for-word, with every delicious bit of the young prodigy’s amusing narrative voice intact. Directed by actor Jonathan Cullen and designed by Num Stibbe, this hilarious, fast-moving show involved four actors, one folding screen, a pianist, and many, many hats! This heart-felt tale of Mr Salteena’s quest to become a gentleman and win Ethel Monticue's love must be one of the funniest and most charming stories ever told.
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. The dances were all placed in sites in which the general public would simply come across them - including a main shopping pedestrian precinct, a skate park, and the thoroughfare which passes through Lewes castle - though people could then follow a dance map they were given, in order to see all the dances. The themes of the dances each touched upon issues relevant to people in this region, including four student/young people's dances which looked at various aspects of their local heritage, including the history of the castle, the experiences of flood victims in Lewes, and the importance of conservation.
