As a playwright/director/ performer/ audio installation artist & folklorist my practice involves exploring new ways to innovatively and engagingly bring community driven stories and messages to life, attracting new audiences.
Recent commissions:
interactive nature trail performance at The Yorkshire Arboretum for National Landscapes Partnership
Professor Toadstool & The Missing Red Squirrel-
Schools commissioned projects and immersive workshops
Theatre & Film currently touring:
Performed by Helena Fox & Natasha Jones (Smudger’s Story) and George Stagnell (Hank’s Story)
Current commissions include:
Launching soon….
Darkroom / Can I go out now?
Two new art installations at The Police & Prison Museum, Ripon.
Co-created with local families and the Ohana Group, Ripon.
Just released:
River Folk Audio Drama Walk:
Re-discovering the Rye.
https://www.northyorkmoors.org.uk/nature-recovery/ryevitalise/river-folk-audio-trail
Ryevitalise Project, North York Moors National Park, funded by NLHF & Historic England.
Commission includes developing two artistic outputs exploring peoples interaction with the River throughout time and how we can protect this heritage river, its microhabitats and its landscape going forward.
I have developed this through co-creation with local communities, interweaving schools creative writing in response to erosion in the river, archived materials relating to historic incidents on the River Rye (North Yorkshire County Records) oral history testimonies , together with the words of individuals and communities,such as Young Farmers, connected with this historic river today.
What The Sea Saw
funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Commission includes:
1)Working with the Scarborough Maritime Heritage Centre, Staithes Museum and local fishing communities to record new oral history testimonies with the fishing communities of Scarborough and Staithes to create:
– A site specific and immersive audio trail around locations in Scarborough’s fishing community (Old Town), and to provide narrative content for a short docu/film for Staithes Museum to launch at the Staithes Arts & Heritage Festival 2024.
–Develop creative writing/poetry and drama workshops for schools in and around Staithes and Scarborough that explores and brings to life the superstitions and folklore of the fishing community and the role of women and children and deliver to five primary schools by mid June 2024.
– A live performance using oral histories collected from fishing communities together with archived materials write a spoken word and a-capella song event that brings the testimonies of the fishing community to life ,to be directed by Kate Valentine for Digital Drama in December 2024, commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the Lifeboat Disaster.
https://www.digitaldrama.org/what-the-sea-saw-audio-trail/
Current Exhibitions:
Fractured Soles: In the Footsteps of Workhouse Families
uly 2024 – April 2025, Ripon Workhouse Museum.
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Inspired by and in response to documentation held in the Ripon Workhouse Museum Archives and co-created by local communities this exhibition explores the experiences of families in the workhouse system through bringing to life the stories of Ripon Workhouse Museum Inmates, Staff and Guardians.
This immersive and interactive exhibition allows you to eavesdrop on conversations in different locations around the museum culminating in four co -created physical and audio installations in the former dining hall/exhibition space.
Creative Practice Development:
Exploring audio immersive verbatim storytelling.
I am currently a recipient of Arts Council England Creative Practice Development Award.
This award has allowed me time to develop my creative practice further through immersive digital technology, exploring through conversation and through practice, working with specialists, how immersive sound technology can push the boundaries between passive and active listening for an audience. During this time I have written and experimented with a new audio immersive experience called “At Boggle Hole” interweaving contemporary verbatim with heritage folklore to explore themes of trauma, motherhood and infantile illness, medicine, faith and superstition.
This piece is currently under development. Check back later for more updates.
What The Sea Saw – a first step into the world of Verbatim Theatre.
In 2015 I worked with the fishing community in Scarborough’s Old Town on an exciting project What The Sea Saw recording their verbatim testimonies to develop a new play exploring the history and heritage, heyday and decline of the industry. This led me into the world of Verbatim Theatre due to the strength and passion of the interviews collected and was the first time I experimented with writing verbatim theatre.
“Evocatively powerful, poignant & engaging- a true story set in Scarborough that will resonate with lifeboat communities all around the country.”
What The Sea Saw is a verbatim theatre script exploring the soon to be lost cultures and superstitions of the fishing community told against the backdrop of the 1954 Lifeboat Disaster- a disaster that impacted the whole community and which they are still coming to terms with decades later. It was performed as a rehearsed reading at Stephen Joseph Theatre in March 2016.
Toward a more experiential performance for audiences:
BOMB HAPPY (2016-2019)
In 2016 I worked with the Normandy Veteran Community in York exploring their experiences of trauma & survivor guilt through the retelling of D-Day & the Normandy Campaign through their eyes using verbatim testimony.
With Bomb Happy I experimented with how an audience engages with verbatim testimony by changing the tense spoken in the recordings from past to present tense, and by ageing the real life characters in the play at the same age the veterans had been in 1944. This gave a more immediate and immersive experience, allowing the audience to connect deeply with the testimonies.
“I felt I was there, on the front line, I was standing shoulder to shoulder with each veteran and I could see everything that was going on around them as if I was actually there.” Audience Member, 2017 tour to Yorkshire Small Venues Network.
In adapting the play into an audio performance I wanted to push this to be an even more immersive and active experience for the audience, and I therefore placed the audience in the position of being part of the military intelligence back home in England, receiving messages from the frontline via a new character “The Signaller” who tracked the veterans journey across Europe.
Verbatim in site specific promenade performance- heritage curation or artistic performance?
“In the Footsteps of Hank Haydock; A Walk in the Park.” 2020 -2021
“Brilliantly designed and scripted by Helena Fox, and excellently performed by George Stagnell and Esme Schofield. If you were not one of the “fortunate forty” to have the privilege of seeing their “Performed Walk” in Duncombe Park – you missed a treat!” The Helmsley Archive
More recently I have been exploring the exciting challenges of creating site specific work using verbatim testimony to bring a heritage setting to life, through the play “In the Footsteps of Hank Haydock; A Walk in the Park” at Duncombe Park, carefully curating a performed walk that uses verbatim testimony to lead an audience through hidden remains of a WW2 army camp.
This project allowed me to revisit the testimonies of Veteran Dennis Haydock, who had been encamped at Duncombe Park in 1944 undertaking tank training ahead of the D-Day Landings. This was a live performance and I am now exploring how to adapt this for a short audio/film, commissioned by Helmsley Arts Centre, that will both allow audiences to see the hidden remains as they listen to the audio play.
Verbatim Theatre in the Community – Audio & photo curation.
At Mustapha’s Grave (Current commission)
I am currently under commission to Helmsley Arts Centre to create a sister piece to “In the Footsteps of Hank Haydock” audio/film, working with residents of the local community, capturing first hand testimonies of what it was like to live in an army garrison town (Helmsley) during WW2. This will become a community produced audio play with online curated photo exhibition, directed by Helmsley resident, Diana Gaunt.
Going forward
Going forward I am looking at developing my process further to explore new ways to push the boundaries of verbatim theatre and how an audience can engage more experientially with it.
Previous Work includes
Light on Time Lantern Procession, Poole Old Town and Quay
Previously Helena has been commissioned as writer by Activate Performing Arts/Dorset County Council to work with schools to create the narrative for a lantern procession in Poole’s Old Town exploring museum archives to unearth stories from Poole Quay’s past.
Young People’s Theatre
Associate Artist New Writing, Theatre Royal Winchester
Education Associate, (Schools touring) Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
Co-founder/writer/co-director for inclusive Young People’s Company , OUT OF THE BLUE
Script writing
Commissioned short film script “Vera’s Hot Tandoori” by BBC Film/BBC Writers Room
Rehearsed readings of script “Hey Joe” Salisbury Playhouse/Theatre Royal Bath
Writer/Director for award winning Young People’s Theatre, OFF THE WALL
Rehearsed reading of script “A Thousand Shadows” director Nadia Fall, National Theatre/Birmingham Rep.
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