Wheelie Stagey Interviews: Birds of Paradise Theatre Company

Kerrie

Apr 28

Established in 1993, Birds of Paradise Theatre are a touring company based in Scotland whose work encompasses disabled and non disabled artists. In their 30th anniversary year, they've embarked into new territory for them with a film, Orbits that is going to be screened at Edinburgh's Fruit Market from Saturday 29 April until May 5.

I was so excited to have the opportunity to interview the team: Mairi Taylor (Orbits' Creative Producer and Collaborator and Birds of Paradise Executive Director), Rachel Drazek (Director of Orbits) and Artistic Director of Birds of Paradise Robert Gale. We spoke about creating a project like Orbits in the midst of the pandemic, what audiences can expect from the piece, the value of representation and what the future looks like for Birds of Paradise!

Congratulations to Birds of Paradise as the company enter their 30th year! New
work seems like a great way to celebrate. Tell me a bit Orbits and what people can
expect.

Mairi - "Orbits is a unique work for the company that grew out of an unparalleled set of circumstances due to the pandemic. You can expect to see something that is very different to BOP's recent theatre work but also that deeply resonates with our commitment to put disabled people on stage.

In 2020, like everyone, we are finding new ways to work and as a theatre company finding new ways of putting performance in front of an audience. Our commission from Imaginate for the 2021 International Children's Festival, The Super Special Disability Roadshow, became a film and during this time we also made a site-specific work (Zoom!) for Battersea Arts Centre, Come to Bed with Me. The latter was a gateway moment for exploring intimacy and relationality on screen and in working remotely.

Orbits is a durational film which plays on a loop in a gallery setting which means that audiences can come and go and interact with the work at their own pace. There is no text or spoken word in this work as it stands and in this first sharing of it we are experimenting with creative access during a live event on the 1st May at which artists will respond to the work and layer access in the form of audio description and BSL performance over it."

The project has had a long journey, having started life in the pandemic. What was it like having to adapt your working practises and being creative generally in those conditions?

Rachel - "The very beginning of Orbits rehearsals and meetings was a big shake up of 'business as usual'. We suddenly all found ourselves in very new contexts and we had to figure out quickly how to adapt. As myself and Diana are based in Portugal it meant that we were able to meet in person for a few days of development, following Covid safety precautions. It felt so good to be able to work in a studio and these days were really vital for me feeling like my work was continuing in a way I understood. Concurrently we also were working with a dancer called Pete Edwards who was based in the UK. I have known and worked with Pete for a long time so we decided that we could try some rehearsals online together.

These meetings became a joyful part of my week! It was so great to still find ways that we could work together, be together developing ideas for the film even though we were so far apart. The trust we had with each other meant that we were really able to explore things fully in those sessions…though of course inevitably life did keep creeping in! (barking dogs, no wifi, sick babies…)"

Leading on from that, what lessons has the pandemic taught you that you want to take on moving forward?

Mairi - "We were already a fairly nimble and adaptive company - in fact at the start of the pandemic people were asking us how we managed working remotely as in some aspects we always had due to access requirements in the team. The impact for us has been more around diversity of practice and new directions. For instance, gaining experience in creating for screen and working internationally - during the pandemic we still managed to train hundreds of people, including over a 100 people in Central and South America! It is not our preference to spend hours in Zoom rooms but it has become another tool that can be useful and in some cases essential - many of our friends and colleagues are not operating in physical spaces, whether for geographical or health impact reasons. There are barriers that persist that Zoom can mitigate. Even before the pandemic our BOP Young Artists Digital strand was about reaching and developing young people who could not travel to a building base."

Orbits is being screened on a loop in a warehouse space at Edinburgh Fruit Market; people can spend as much time and return as they wish. That's a really interesting relationship to create with your audience – what do you want them to take from the experience?

Rachel - "We want the audience to feel some kind of closeness to Diana - some kind of invitation to spend time with her…whether this is for a moment or two, or for the full duration of the film. We really wanted people to consider their experience of time and presence with another person, another body in space, reflecting on how our perspectives might shift and change over time. If people come in and out hopefully they won't feel like they have 'missed' a bit and instead feel they are encountering Diana in a new environment - a different moment of her experience."

Is there a moment in the film you're particularly excited for audiences to see, or proved a challenge you were excited by?

Mairi - " We are excited for audiences to see it all and to find their own favourite moment within it - and that answer is not meant to be a cop out! We have already found that different moments or sections resonate with people in different ways. For me the coming together of the footage in Hugo's beautifully editing with Scott's soundtrack hits me hardest when it takes me back to Diana's performance in the room and the power and intimacy of this - this is what I hope audience will experience."

Rachel - "There are so many moments I am excited to share and yes also lots that proved a challenge! I'm really keen to see how people might feel encountering Diana in the types of spaces and environments we have created. We're not following a strict linear narrative and at times it has been a challenge to keep hold of this openness. I'm very curious how audience members respond to this and how people will make sense of it for themselves - this is part of the idea we wanted to explore. For me, the opening few moments are key to introducing the style of the film and the aesthetic."

Birds of Paradise is Scotland's leading touring theatre company and encompasses disabled and non-disabled actors. Being disabled myself, this so brilliant as representation is so important and means a lot – what would you say the industry can and should be doing to strive towards better inclusivity and more diverse work?

Robert - "The short answer is 'everything'. We've come a long way since I starting working as an actor 22 years ago. The representation of disabled people in TV soaps is much better than it was back then but film and theatre still has a way to go. We need tostop seeing the stories of disabled people as 'other people's narratives' – we makeup 1 in 5 of the population so we need to be seen on all stages, in all films, in every story. Disabled writers and creators are key to how we move things forward – now that we're in control of telling our own stories, we're seeing much more authenticrepresentations and more engaging pieces of art."

What do you think the future looks like for Birds of Paradise in terms of your creative vision; will there be more departures from your usual work, like Orbits?

Robert - "Over the past 30 years the ways in which BOP has helped to make Scottish stages more accessible for disabled artists has changed time and again. We now work internationally more than ever before, recently touring to Hong Kong and delivering strategic activity in Mexico. In some ways I think departing from our usual work IS our norm – we always look to change our approach to fit with a changing world and we're constantly looking for new partnerships to expand our reach. So who knows what our future looks like, but we hope it'll excite audiences and artists and will keep pushing forward with seeing more work by disabled artists."