Jonathon McGrath

Member of IOU Theatre, Jonathan spoke to us about various projects the company engage in. They also gave us an insight into the workshop style experimentation the compant offer new and emmerging artists.

Photo Credits to Michael Pinchbeck

Notes from Lecture

IOU Theatre

National Portfolio Organisation

Make work of their own in the Green Room – Making Shows/Work

Do the show whilst working on the bar. Not having the facilities informed the creative process heavily. Pressure of university and education system.

Worked for Arts Council.

University Lecturing Team – Trying to codify something which is constantly moving. Having nothing is the most freeing thing to be.

IOU came out of the late 70’s welfare state - Punk, outdoor arts, radical. 1976.

IOU make sculptures and kinetic sculptures. Performance or technology will be used to facilitate the object. Instead of a text or script they will start with an object e.g., bus, bouncy castle. That will define how it exists.

Rear View

Move an audience around a town. Dialogue between the audience and the location. Constant moving vehicle.

Practically the process of using a double decker bus, the roar of the engine proved too much. Bluetooth noise cancelling headphones. Microphone feed can have pre-recorded soundtrack.
Part Improvised, part scripted structure.
Bus was the art then the bus became a venue in which the art took place.
Stories of the town was turned into a soundtrack and then as they drive through the town the audience were able to be involved.

Sea to Sea

Trains that run rurally from Blackpool to Scarborough. People telling stories from landscape.
Making the object informed the idea and the idea has moved on.

Space, Time, Tools, Advice.

For Me...

IOU Theatre are an experimental theatre that work with an idea which they create and work around this. I found it useful to understand how other companies function and what their own USP is. We were also offered the opportunity to contact them in their Space, Time, Tools, Advice, workshop in which we are able to contact them with an idea and they can help develop it. They are a useful networking tool.