FIRST DRAFTS are our work-in-progress scratch nights, curated by our artistic advisory board.
FIRST DRAFTS are a chance to see new, experimental work from international artists, and engage in the very first stages of the artistic process.
Our second evening of work-in-progress presentations took place at New Diorama Theatre in London on January 23rd 2025. Responding to a quote by Octavia Butler - 'the very act of trying to look ahead to discern possibilities and offer warnings is in itself an act of hope’ - the migrant artists joining us work across disciplines, languages, and cultures; drawing on indigenous practice, AI, participation, and social justice movements.
These are the artists who took part in January 2025:
Sol Santana is a Brazilian-Swiss non-binary transdisciplinary artist working across performance, installation, embroidery, and writing, engaging with themes of Queer Futurity, Migrant Identities, and World-Building practices. Sol’s work reflects on the current state of the world through personal experiences of migration and queerness. Informed by their Brazilian roots, they often incorporate materials from their childhood in northeast Brazil and weave multiple languages into their work.
‘‘MISTRANSLATIONS: Where You Were At Night’ is inspired by the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector where I create my own “mistranslation” of one of her texts. It brings together the core elements of my practice—queer and migrant identities—and explores how these identities can inhabit stories, languages, and realities in a way that transcends the traditional constraints of culture and language.
In ‘Where You Were At Night,’ the protagonist is an androgynous being who calls forth new possibilities, and this speaks directly to my interest in imagining futures where queer and migrant bodies do not merely survive but thrive in alternative realities.’
Alisha + Alysha are a collective of Malaysian-born artists whose work explores body politics, critical race theory and the impact of colonialism manifested through perceptions of the self. They work at the intersection of live art, augmented reality, AI, spatial sound, and experimental theatre as a vehicle for social change, showcasing a unique perspective of objectification theory that has limited occupancy within dominant culture.
‘Gadis Ayu Terakhir explores themes of neo-colonialism, the fetishization of Southeast Asian women and its manifestations on the self through a fusion of traditional Malay dance and absurdist theatre.
We are imagining a future where ingrained stereotypes can be deconstructed and rewritten, creating space for new narratives that celebrate Southeast Asian identity in its multiplicity and complexity. It is the radical act of reclamation through a careful dissection of our history - an homage to our identity and our right to ownership over our bodies. By utilising an AI language model trained on the portrayal of Southeast Asian women across media, we are shining a light on the reductive, often harmful representations that persist.’
Francesca Matthys is a South African interdisciplinary dance artist, writer, facilitator, and Kundalini Yoga teacher, based in London. Her work is rooted in ancestral wisdom, movement, text, inclusivity, and community. Francesca’s career includes collaborations with organizations such as The Forgotten Angle Theatre Collaborative Drama for Life, JOMBA!, Theatre Rites, Agudo Dance Company, Dance Umbrella (SA & UK), Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage, Independent Dance, London Performance Studios, Afrovibes, The Place, Grand Théâtre de la Ville de Luxembourg and Casa de Cultura SoMovimento. Francesca facilitates inclusive dance workshops for the Baked Bean Charity, is a Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg, and is mentored by Seeta Patel in the Sadler’s Wells Mentorship Programme.
‘‘Aandag! (Attention.)’ explores the experiences of younger generations of immigrants to the UK from African, Caribbean, and Latin diasporas, focusing on the fragmented connections to cultural heritage caused by geographic displacement, colonial legacies, and other societal forces. It examines how we, as diasporic communities, actively reimagine and reclaim our pasts in the face of these disruptions.
Set against the vibrant backdrops of urban centres like Johannesburg and London—particularly Brixton— the piece portrays the crossing and intermingling of diverse diasporic cultures. It reflects the emotional complexities of migration, blending themes of trauma, joy, tragedy, and celebration. Through this lens, we seek to honour both the challenges and the resilience of diasporic communities as they navigate their identities.’
Linn Johansson is a Swedish/Dutch actor, feminist theatre maker, singer/songwriter & facilitator based in London. Drawing on collaborative processes she makes multidisciplinary devised work that responds to current events, questions norms and explores the link between the personal and political. Linn studied Theatre & Social Justice, Educational Drama and Musical Theatre in Sweden, before moving to the UK to train on the BA Acting CDT course at Central School of Speech and Drama. Credits include Complicité, Les Enfants Terribles, Slot Machine Theatre and most recently award-winning devising company Potato Potato in Malmö, Sweden. Together with her husband Matthew Coulton, Linn runs the devising theatre company “Trouble and Strife”.
“By Each Other’s Happiness” is currently in the form of a Disney style musical. There is something about finding juxtapositions to that form by putting small everyday actions of care and collaboration next to “Disney-fied” grandiosity. I also think there is something in playing with our idea of happy fairytale endings. I want to explore what happens if the happy ending is not romanticised but feels very real, complex and achievable.’
Anita Brokmeier and Devaki Rajendran are two female identifying migrant practitioners originally from Germany/Poland and India respectively. Anita’s practice is influenced by Berlin’s innovative fringe scene, whereas Devaki is from a traditional Bharatanatyam training with experience in theatre and film. Though they come from different schools of training, through the year of shared training they have developed common interests in making new work.
‘When does distance, and when does closeness become unbearable? We’re investigating how a new environment offers an opportunity for growth and a new home, always in relationship to mental health challenges, specifically depression, anxiety, panic disorder and addiction.
We explore the paths of both people with fragments of movement merging Indian Classical Dance with the Post-Grotowski philosophy, and intertwined, poetic, semi-autobiographical and deconstructed text. Some questions about imagined futures become visible in the way our bodies move through space, others appear through text. Our aim is to investigate the question of how the other body and their being-in-the-space impacts the other and how sharing space beyond and within (UK) borders gives a sense of hope and new reality.’
Max Percy is a multi-disciplinary artist creating ambitious experiences across dance, theatre, sculpture, technology and accessibility. Notable work includes ‘Baklâ’ (Asian Arts Award Winner 2023), ‘This is Not a Show about Hong Kong’ (Untapped Award Winner & Scotsman's Fringe First 2022). He has developed creative technology project ‘Convergence’ with Mediale, Glasshouse International Centre for Music, and ‘Technology to make Dance more Accessible for Blind and Partially Sighted’ with East London Dance and the London College of Fashion, which was published by the International Conference of Movement and Computing, Chicago 2022. He is Artistic Associate at Roots, Yorkshire’s queer touring theatre.
‘This piece inspired by the rise in far-right politics in the UK; and who we think we are as a country vs. who we really are. It will also challenge how we meet strangers - and whether their inside matches their appearance. I hope by developing this theatre piece, I can take it to parts of the UK - particularly for young people in rural areas, that are at risk of radicalisation and isolation.
I’m interested in using mobile phones in the theatre to implement techniques utilised in Boal’s theatre of the oppressed. Throughout the piece, the audience will get a deep understanding about with whom they share the space with, enhancing the collective experience unique to theatre.’
Our first evening of work-in-progress presentations took place at New Diorama Theatre in London on September 15th 2024. The quote for the evening was ‘This Is How An Artist Resists’- prompting artists and audience alike to consider how artists experience, perceive and express resistance.
These are the artists who took part in September 2024:
Saili Katebe is a writer, performer and workshop facilitator. Born in Zambia and now based in the South West of England, his work celebrates language and the power of story. Divija Melally is a trained contemporary and Indian classical dancer, dedicated to the arts, and spreading the intricate nuances of dance through performance, teaching, choreography and therapy.
Néa Ishana Ranganathan is a genderqueer land-based sculptor, DIY live artist and anti-colonial organiser of Tamil-British descent from Boston, MA. Their artistic and academic practice centres on iterative, durational and site-specific work focusing on the documentation of Tamil homeland. She curates spaces and interventions around grief work with a focus on Palestinian Liberation as Campaign Officer for the South London anti-imperialist collective, Built On Blood.
Tsoi Huen Wong is a physical performer, maker, practitioner and improviser who works across the spectrum of performing arts, spanning from theatre, dance and participatory context. She draws practices from contact improvisation, Gaga Movement language, and the Frantic Method. Christiano Mere is a researcher, writer, artist, movement artist, and art technician from Niterói, Rio de Janeiro (BR). His work explores the world through gaps—between activities, actions, materials, and time. He holds an MA in Sculpture from the University of Lisbon (PT) and a BA in Graphic Design from UNESA, Rio de Janeiro (BR).
Rieckhof-Silva is an interdisciplinary collective exploring movement and costume relationships, Peruvian rituals, and tradition. Carolina Rieckhof combines sculpture and costume with movement to explore the human emotional experience, while Moyra Silva integrates performance, visual arts, and movement focusing on body-place relationships, and intercultural dynamics.
Jana Aizupe is a working-class theatre artist primarily working through devising, movement, and film. She was born and raised in Latvia, where her first encounter with performance was through many years of training and studying movements familiar to street dance.
Jana has a deep interest in the current systems of labour. Her devised work 1001 based on the theme of burnout has been awarded Warwick University Research prize 2021, performed at Omnibus Theatre and Camden People’s Theatre. The short film adaptation has been selected for Take A Bite Festival with China Plate. Her other performance works like dreaming of you, get me out of here and enchilada have been presented at Emergency and Haphazard Festivals in Manchester. In addition to performance making, Jana is also working as applied theatre practitioner.
Emilia Nurmukhamet (she/they) is a queer migrant theatre maker, performer and creative facilitator. Emilia's work focuses on a multidisciplinary approach to performance: combining live sound, digital media and performance art alongside focusing on autobiographical and documentary style writing. Dear Annie (they/she) is a queer transdisciplinary artist, Dance Movement Psychotherapist and co-founder of Mud Summons Records, using dance, music and spoken word to weave binary-melting stories with autobiographical beginnings.
