Page 326 - Guildhall Coverage Book 2020-21

30 April 2021

A year of uncertainty & change has encouraged new, radical ways of working:
DISRUPT Festival
Labels: Barbican, GSMD, preview

One of the things that we have learned from the past 18 months is that, when it comes
to our standard performance model, things can change and ought to. Many organisations
have invested in the technology to enable live-streaming, and you sense that a 'normal'
future (whatever and whenever that may be) will be more of a mixed model for the
performing arts.

Arising directly out of the last year's restrictions and trials, the DISRUPT Festival is taking place
virtually on 8-9 July 2021, co-ordinated by the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the Barbican
(in partnership with the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance, the Culture Mile, the Lived Experience
Network, Maya Productions, and Slung Low). The festival is presenting a programme of discussions,
panels and workshops with the intention of exploring how the performing arts can support
communities during the pandemic, and how a year of uncertainty and change has encouraged new
and radical ways of working. The programme has been created entirely from open submissions and
selected by a panel of 14 community members and artists.

The commissions for DISRUPT that will form the programme of work across the festival include:

• Rebecca Biscuit and Heather Bandenburg's Mummy Vs is a performance that will examine
the effect of COVID-19 on the childcare crisis and the pressures on new parents, bringing the
domestic to life in the spectacular nature of a wrestling show

• The Margate Bookie and Co-Relate, the creators of The Feedback Machine, an innovative
online platform which provides feedback and support to writers at all levels during the pandemic, will
be discussing the project