Dysbiosis spotlights – Daedalus Theatre Company

Artist Spotlight: Shakira Stellar

By DaedalusAdmin on Tuesday, October 8, 2024

For our seventh DYSBIOSIS artist spotlight we turn to the exciting, socially engaged work of multidisciplinary musician, composer, theatremaker and poet Shakira Stellar. In the first DYSBIOSIS R&D, Shakira crafted an ambient soundscape using lichen as a musical score, imitating its structures and textures using a synthesiser. During the second R&D, Shakira delved deeper into the symbiosis between the drummer and the earth, treating music as a dialogue of vibrations and frequencies. Through this exploration, Shakira sought to subvert the ancient notion of the “Great Chain of Being,” reimagining rocks and minerals not as the lowest, but as vital, resonant voices in the cosmic symphony.

Tell us about yourself and your creative practice

I’m a multidisciplinary artist, primarily working as a drummer and composer, but I’m also a poet and theatremaker. I fuse these mediums and approaches all the time and love doing so. I follow what sparks my interest and love to try new things so my practice is always developing and growing, which leads me to meet and work with new people, which is so wonderful. I love to learn new things, I’m so happy when I am, so who knows where my artistry will go!

How does your heritage influence the way you view/value nature?

Artist Spotlight

Artist Spotlight: Paul Burgess

By DaedalusAdmin on Thursday, March 28, 2024

This month’s spotlight is on DYSBIOSIS designer-director and director of Daedalus Theatre Company Paul Burgess, who conceived the project back in 2020 before recruiting a team of creative practitioners last year to delve deeper into social constructions of Nature using a queer and interdisciplinary lens.

Tell us about yourself and your creative practice.

I’m a set and costume designer by training and self-taught in video and interactive digital, which I use in both performance and visual art contexts. I teach on the side, mainly English as a second language, at my partner’s tutorial school, Angkriz, though I’ve also taught on theatre and theatre design courses at various universities. Both feed my creative practice by challenging me in different ways. I also have various voluntary roles, mainly in the area of sustainability. These also feed into my creative work, and include being the coordinator of the Society of British Theatre Designers’s working group on sustainability and a co-director of Ecostage. I’m also on the Environmental Responsibility Subcommittee at Queens Theatre, Hornchurch, where we’re working on DYSBIOSIS. For fun, I play the violin, most often with The Black Smock Band, which connects with the music and storytelling we do as part of our EAST project. It all adds up to one interconnected creative practice.

What does ‘dysbiosis’ mean to you?

I suggested this as a working title for the project, and it seems to have stuck, so I suppose I need to explain myself!

It came initially from I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong. Having defined dysbiosis as ‘breakdowns in communication between different species – host and symbiont – that live together, ‘ Yong goes on to say:

Our planet has entered the Anthropocene – a new geological epoch when humanity’s influence is causing global climate change, the loss of wild species, and a drastic decline in the richness of life. Microbes are not exempt. On coral reefs or in human guts, we are disrupting the relationships between microbes and their hosts, often pulling apart species that have been together for millions of years.

I had already been thinking about the way we use Nature to talk about society, often in ways that are divorced from the reality of the natural world, such as the notion of the body politic, or economic competitiveness being described as Darwinian, or the absurd claim that LGBTQ+ people are unnatural. But what if the metaphorical body politic is suffering from metaphorical dysbiosis?

Artist Spotlight Major Projects

Artist Spotlight: Fran Olivares

By DaedalusAdmin on Thursday, February 22, 2024

Our latest Dysbiosis team spotlight is on Chilean performer, director, translator, tutor and theatremaker Fran Olivares. When Fran isn’t busy bringing thought-provoking theatre to life, she is also a proud mother to a 2-year-old who keeps her on her toes and gives her a whole new appreciation for the power of imagination and play!

Tell us about yourself and your creative practice.

I’m Fran, a theatre person from Chile, now based in SE London. My work spans directing, performing, translating, writing, and facilitating, all focused on themes around identity, marginality, and the female experience. Dysbiosis addresses the urgent and dreadful impacts of global warming and neo-capitalist exploitation. Personally, these issues are not abstract for me; they’re part of the reality currently affecting South America, and as a mother, the future of our planet weighs heavily on my mind.

I’m driven by the belief that making even a small difference in our corners of the world can lead to a brighter future. So, for me, my work is more than just putting on a show for entertainment; it’s also about using my body/voice as a tool for communication, a way to build community, and a platform to shine a light on the issues that matter.

What does ‘dysbiosis’ mean to you?

To me, ‘dysbiosis’ is about imbalance, and not just in nature, but in how we interact within our communities. It’s as if everything from the ecosystems to our social structures have fallen out of harmony because of the way we treat each other and our planet.

Artist Spotlight Associate Artists Major Projects

Artist Spotlight: Zia Álmos Joshua

By DaedalusAdmin on Friday, January 12, 2024

Our fourth artist spotlight is on Zia Álmos Joshua [X] (neutral pronouns) who has a unique position on the Dysbiosis project as the only member of the team who has joined remotely for both R&D weeks. Currently doing their PhD in Texas, Zia has been our academic consultant and human encyclopedia on the project.

Can you give us a quick intro to yourself, your research and your creative practice?

I am a researcher, educator, writer, performer, and activ-ish, born and raised in Brixton, London, UK, currently studying for a PhD at Rice University, in Houston, Tx, USA. My research is focused on posthumanism, and the social, political, and philosophical dimensions of taxonomy, ecology, biology, emergent technology, and consciousness, with these also shaping my creative work (autotheory; poetry; prose; performance art). I am dedicated to teaching and education, and spent the 6 years prior to my PhD at the Linnean Society of London and Wellcome Collection, working in science communication and public engagement.

What does ‘dysbiosis’ mean to you?

Dysbiosis to my mind is a complicated term; it technically means a dysregulation in the/a microbial community (the microbiota or microbiome) of the human body, one that we ordinarily live in a mutualistic-symbiotic relationship with, but for whatever reason is out of wack, and so the health of the body is compromised. How I like to think about it, is imagining the Earth and its ecosystems as kinds of bodies with well-regulated mutualistic-symbiotic relationships, and that we are presently entering a stage of existence where a lot of human-related activities and processes have pushed the boundaries of what those various bodily entanglements can tolerate, and the planet itself, or various parts of it, are entering into dysbiosis, ecosystems out of wack, spiraling out of balance.

Artist Spotlight Major Projects Partners and Collaborators Research and Development

Artist Spotlight: Yael Elisheva

By DaedalusAdmin on Wednesday, December 13, 2023

We met up with the Dysbiosis team again for a second week of R&D at Queens Theatre Hornchurch two weeks ago. Our third spotlight is on theatremaker, physical performer, drag artist, drama facilitator and many more things Yael Elisheva. They often work in Jewish spaces and use their artistic practice as a means of examining Jewish culture and religion.

What is your relationship with nature?

In my work, I play with found objects and explore how they can be used unconventionally and with multiple purposes. I grew up observing the sabbath, which gave me a strong connection to nature and rest and play. In today’s Western society – our relationship with rest is often viewed as lazy. I’d love to challenge that and offer rest as a means of rejuvenation for our planet.

How do queerness and nature intersect?

When I first heard of different animals and plants that are constantly changing genders like oysters and mushrooms, I felt so validated in my own gender expression.

How does your heritage influence the way you view/value nature?

As a jew, I have rituals and prayers that revolve around nature and gratitude for nature. I have been specifically interested in how the Jewish sabbath embodies an attitude of rest which allows nature to rest as well.

Were any aspects of the project new to you (e.g. devising collaboratively, doing an R&D, working with a designer-led company) and if so, what did you expect coming in?

Artist Spotlight Major Projects Partners and Collaborators

Artist Spotlight: Tasnim Siddiqa Amin

By DaedalusAdmin on Sunday, September 17, 2023

Tell us about yourself and your creative practice.

I’m Tasnim, a queer Bangladeshi-British woman from East London and I am a visual artist, theatremaker and writer. I am Assistant Producer/Director for Daedalus Theatre Company.

What does queer ecology mean to you?

I don’t do very well with long words haha but after spending a week unpacking and consistent Googling I would say queer ecology describes a critical, intersectional and decentralised approach in the way we look at how people, plants, animals and smaller organisms interact with their environment, both locally and globally.

What did you discover about yourself and the way you work during the Dysbiosis R&D week?

I discovered that I really thrive in pressured creative environments bouncing ideas of creatives from different disciplines. It dawned on me that to pursue a project you don’t need to have it all figured out, having an idea is good enough. I never knew I could work with venues this way, the way Paul was doing, to say hey I have an idea and I want to bring along a bunch of people that I’ve never met from different creative disciplines in a rehearsal room at your theatre and see what happens.

Artist Spotlight Associate Artists Major Projects

Artist Spotlight: Kathryn Webb

By DaedalusAdmin on Tuesday, July 25, 2023

While we prepare for the next stage of Dysbiosis, our journey through queer ecology and environmental justice at Queens Theatre Hornchurch, we’re introducing some of the amazing artists we’re privileged to work with on the project. First up is Kathryn Webb.

Tell us about yourself and your creative practice.

Hi! My name is Kathryn and I’m a queer, neurodivergent, working-class creative from Cranham. Ever since I can remember, I’ve always been into ‘making things’. In primary school, me and my bestie used to shoot our own version of Doctor Who, complete with ketchup blood, on a camcorder in his back garden. Nowadays my creative output spans theatre, film, poetry and anything in between. I’ve been mentored by Sky Arts, Creative England, Rianne Pictures, and made a short film for the BBC100 Project. My work stems from an interest in marginalised voices, folklore, and queerness. Previous theatre work has been staged at Theatre503, Arcola, Golden Goose, Pleasance, and Omnibus.

What does queer ecology mean to you?

To me, queer ecology is about questioning what we take for granted when we think of nature, science and reproduction. Unpacking the colonialism and white supremacy of the ‘truths’ we’ve been given and expanding our horizons to see beyond binaries. Nature is brimming with examples of queerness – it’s no joke that we’ve always been here and always will. Through this process, I’ve been empowered to challenge the notion that we exist to procreate.

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