OPPORTUNITIES

WE ARE LOOKING FOR AN EXPERIENCED BLIND OR VISUALLY IMPAIRED PERFORMER / FACILITATOR

Memory Table - Charlotte Spencer Projects

We are looking for an experienced B/VI performer/facilitator to join our team in 2025 for creation and presentations of memory table  - a conversational participatory performance piece set around a table that explores ideas about memory, touch and sensation.

Memory Table: Audience members join two performers/facilitators sitting around a table. The performers use a collection of everyday objects to evoke a series of tactile, sensory memories. Along the way they invite audiences to share snippets of their own associations and memories. Audience members are transported to far flung corners of the mind, childhood recollections and recent experiences via fluffy jumpers, hot water bottles, match sticks and much much more. 

So far the company has completed one research phase for the creation of this piece working with dance artists, Shivaangee Agrawal and Petra Söör. As an audio describer and co-founder of SoundScribe, Shivaangee is also supporting the project with audio description and accessibility. We will be developing the piece further in 2025 and are keen to widen the pool of performers. 

The process will draw on personal memories of tactile experience as a starting place and so whoever joins us would need to enjoy working in this way. This intimate piece comes alive through the performer’s skill to both articulate their memories and facilitate  other people to connect with their own memories. The performers in this piece are holding space for themselves, each other, and the guests at the table. 

Skills: 

  • Ability and curiosity to work with sensorial language, in order to imbibe  objects with memory and sensation.

  • Comfortable to work in an intimate way with people, in terms of physical  proximity to guests and objects and emotional proximity with personal experiences.

  • Strong improvisation skills for live decision-making around language, composition and interaction with audience members. 

  • Experience performing and facilitating, though not necessarily in dance. 

  • Strong sense of rhythm, pacing and timing.

We would be happy to hear from people we don’t know already. We are especially interested in working with blind or visually impaired performers and all of the possible intersections with lgbtqia+, neuroqueer, and global majority identities.

Context: Memory Table forms part of a collection of participatory artworks, we are all memory bodies that CSP are developing in collaboration with four other artists, Becky Edmunds, Sheila Ghelani, Vicky Malin and Alberto Ruiz Soler. we are all memory bodies is a new group exhibition exploring our relationships between touch, memory and sensation. The exhibition invites audiences to participate through conversation, listening, watching, resting and hands on invitations to work with craft and tactile materials.

Each element invites people to renew their experience of their body and the richly tactile world we live in - a space of belonging, daydreaming, imagining, remembering, creating, exchanging, reflecting, resting, refreshing.

This is a paid opportunity. We operate a flat pay structure across the whole company with a basic day rate of a minimum of £175/day. As far as possible we also cover travel expenses, accommodation and per diems (if relevant), personal access costs and a contribution towards childcare costs (if relevant).

You can read more about our values, guiding principles and commitment to environmental sustainability here.

Rehearsals will be in Brighton.
Presentations will be in Brighton, Crawley, Worthing and Newhaven in a variety of gallery, library and community settings.
This engagement is subject to confirmation of funding. 

Availability:
Rehearsal and performance dates are tbc and are currently flexible March - September 2025 according to performer availability and subject to confirmation of funding.

We won't be holding auditions. Instead selection will be made through dialogue and watching/listening to footage of previous performance work. We are likely to invite shortlisted candidates for 1 afternoon (paid) on Monday 24th February 2025, during our residency at Fabrica Gallery, Brighton. This will allow us to meet in person, for the potential new collaborator to experience the company at work, and for us to see how they respond to the tasks we are working with before making a final decision.

Potential further touring in 2025 and 2026.

How to Apply:
If you are interested, then please email us with:

  • a short written, audio recorded or video statement outlining your curiosity to join the company for this project and your relevant experience (Max 1 A4 page / 2 mins recorded statement).

  • your CV

  • a video or audio link to footage of you performing/speaking either in your own work or someone else's work.

  • your availability on 24th February 2025 (this is not essential for consideration).

  • your personal access requirements, which will only be used to appropriately resource the selection process. 

Please send expressions of interests to Charlotte: charlotte@charlottespencerprojects.org

Deadline for applications: Monday 27th January 2025
We will respond to all applicants by Friday 31st January 2025