RAT LAB LIVE
About this Event
Four Unique Projects, One Unforgettable Evening
RAT LAB is Response Ability Theatre's professional development programme for artists/theatre-makers/storytellers/activists/whatever they want to call themselves, who live with or at risk of post-traumatic stress, and are developing artistic projects through which they aim to affect change in topics that matter to them. Every year, 4 survivors get individual coaching, group mentoring, an R&D budget, and opportunities to workshop ideas through the year with our wider post-traumatic community.
This has been our first year of running it, and we can't wait for you to experience the range of skills, approaches, subjects and perspectives our first 4 survivor artists bring.
They are:
Sahar Beg
Sahar is a psychotherapist and clinical supervisor who often uses creative arts and theatre in her therapy work. As a writer and theatre-maker, her approach brings together storytelling, trauma healing, and faith.
She will be sharing excerpts from her movement-based drama, The Embodied Witness - which explores the impact of spiritual abuse and how trauma is carried in the body, revealing the ways we adapt, protect, disconnect, and survive. The piece creates space to witness these patterns, release what no longer serves us, and reconnect with truth, safety, and self.
This is not about performance. It is about giving the body permission to tell the story it has been holding all along.
Alain English
Alain is a poet, actor and autism trainer. He will be presenting samples from his trilogy of theatre-poetry texts, West Neuk/Glenside/Archaeon.
Each poem has interlinked stories with themes of bullying, toxic masculinity, consanguinity and the corruption that goes to the core of modern life. It is about the trauma that both connects and affects all of us in one way or the other, and that nothing exists in isolation.
The poems are deeply personal and yet have resonance with society as a whole. They relate to things that people talk about, but also what they are afraid to talk about.
Lisa Harbron
Lisa is a multidisciplinary artist who expresses herself through acting, theatre-making, poetry, photography, film and general foolery. As a neurosparkly complex trauma survivor, she uses art for activism and self-empowerment; as tools for reclaiming the narrative.
She delights in finding humour in the darkest of places, to speak the unspeakable.
Lisa has been exploring ways to hold creative space when faced with challenging circumstances. She will be sharing work from the worlds of her alter egos, the Sickness Guru and the Sozzled Starfish.
Claire Reay
Claire is a multi- and inter-disciplinary artist whose practice is hard to pin down. She is an observer and a collector of the eclectic. Be that hobbies, facts, textures or experiences; her curiosity is the guide for all that she does.
As an activist, she wants to call people in rather than out, and she believes strongly in the power of community to bring about change.
Claire will be sharing some initial reflections from the participatory project Commonalities that she has been exploring this year. The project uses multiple artistic practices to find out what happens when we push back against the pervading narrative of who we can be in community with, and challenge ourselves to build tables not walls.
The plan for the evening
5:30-6pm: arrive, grab some finger food and a (non-alcoholic) drink, have a chat, settle in
6-6:10pm: welcome and introduction from Nell Hardy, RAT's Founder and Creative Lead
6:10-7:10pm: the first two artists each have 15/20 minutes to present, then 10/15 minutes to take questions
7:10-7:30pm: comfort break
7:30-8:30pm: the final two artists each have 15/20 minutes to present, then 10/15 minutes to take questions
8:30-9pm: final address from Nell, followed by a facilitated feedback task and goodbyes
RAT LAB is supported by National Lottery Awards for All, City Bridge Foundation - London's biggest independent charity funder, Old Diorama Arts Centre, and Siobhan Davies Studios.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 0.00
