CLASS OF
In 2019 and 2020 (extended to 2021 due to the pandemic), Class Of was an annual programme that supported a cohort of Greater Manchester-based artists and producers to build their understanding of the business of the performing arts sector.
Over the course of a year, we worked with our cohort on a collaboratively designed training programme aimed at providing a deeper understanding of the performing arts – industry, production and general survival. An opportunity for The Lowry and our Class Of artists to build long-term, meaningful working relationships as we structure and then work through a unique, bespoke course of professional development together.
Developed With Alumni
TalkShow
TalkShow is Co-Artistic Director’s Stu Barter, Clare Dunn and Executive Producer Faith Dodkins.
We create live performance, participatory projects and work for online platforms where the audience has a role to play.
Our work flips modern fears and anxieties into collective experiences, often taking a familiar setting (a classroom, a focus group, a TV studio) and transforming it to something new
We work with a wide array of collaborators and invite everyone, audiences and performers alike to dive in, but don’t worry, we’ll take good care of you!
The Associate Artist relationship builds on from the Developed With programme with the development and creation of two new pieces of work over the last two years – digital work, Take This Test and live performance piece Telethon.
Furthermore, the company was supported through a period of Organisational Development – an invaluable resource which has helped us navigate our future as an independent company through a period of change, in the middle of a global pandemic.
Developed With has also helped connect us with artists based in the North West, who have gone onto collaborate with TalkShow in Take This Test and onstage as part of Telethon. As a company based in the South East, The Lowry has provided us with a cherished link to another region, opening up and presenting our work to audiences and creatives based in the North West.
Twitter: @TalkShowTheatre
Instagram: @talkshowtheatre
Facebook: @TalkShowTheatre
Web: talkshow.org.uk
Thick & Tight
Daniel Hay-Gordon and Eleanor Perry established Thick & Tight in 2012.
Their award-winning work mixes dance, mime, theatre, parody and drag, influenced by a wide range of historical, political, literary and artistic subjects. The work has been shown extensively in the UK and beyond, often within a queer context where it is most at home. Thick & Tight are interested in promoting queer culture and anti-elitism, exploring dance theatre as a political art form with the power to challenge and dispel social stigma. Trained at Rambert School, Daniel and Eleanor work extensively as freelance performers and choreographers.
Developed With is supporting Daniel and Eleanor as they rethink how Thick & Tight should run, ensuring the company’s ethos and artistic output is matched by its organisational set-up, for greater accountability and impact. This includes considering new ways of collaborating; expanding and diversifying decision-making; interrogating the company’s working practice. Developed With is helping Thick & Tight find new contexts for their work in the region.
As part of this support, the Lowry presented Thick & Tight’s new show Short & Sweet, a collection of 9 recent works, in the Quays Theatre in January 2022. Later this year, Thick & Tight hope to work with the gallery team to research the life and work of L.S. Lowry for a new work about dour stoicism, northern humour, loneliness and people who are carers for their family members.
“We are delighted to be working with The Lowry and very grateful to be supported through Developed With as we undertake lots of changes as a small company. It’s wonderful to keep returning to the north west to research, create and present work and to begin to feel part of a community connected with the Lowry. Thank you!” – Daniel & Eleanor
Instagram: @thicktightdance
Facebook: @thicktightdance
Twitter: @thicktightdance
Web: thickandtight.com
Tian Glasgow, New Slang Productions
Tian Glasgow (he/him) is a queer cis Black man who grew up in London and has been based in Salford since 2020. He founded the theatre company New Slang Productions in 2011.
The thread running through Tian’s work is social concerns such as race and class and how it affects communities.
Most recently, Tian has been awarded the STUN x Lowry Associate Artist award to create his new piece Tomorrow is Not Promised in 2021 and secured Arts Council support for its R&D process. This was staged with support of the Lowry and Arts Council in 2022 in the Aldridge studio.
Outside this, Tian is a Senior Creative Producer of theatre, arts and music events. Previously working on Fertility Fest, Walthamstow Garden Party, The Sick of the Fringe: Care and Destruction Festival, Love Supreme and London Jazz Festival.
Developed With is supporting Tomorrow Is Not Promised, a new theatre show by writer and director Tian Glasgow as a part of The Lowry’s Developed With artist development programme.
A woman awakens to find herself homeless and alone after an earthquake. Her house destroyed, leaving only her door which she can’t seem to leave behind. While deciding if to rebuild or to start again, she encounters Suzanne who has suffered her own loss.
The two embark on a journey to help others in the hope of finding healing for themselves.
A co-production between New Slang Productions, The Lowry and Sustained Theatre Up North, Tomorrow is not Promised incorporates movement and live music to tell a beautiful engaging story.
‘Glasgow wanted to represent this universally understood theme through two black women, giving them a story that was their own.
He said: “It was really lovely to be able to put these two black performers on stage, and for them to have that hero’s journey.”’ – Article in Salford now
Instagram: @newslangprod / @glasgae_sky
Twitter: @newslangprod /@tianglasgow
Web: newslangproductions.com
Melissa Johns & Lily Levin
Melissa Johns is a TV and theatre actor and disabled artists advocate and Lily Levin is a theatre and film director.
In 2019, Melissa Johns was shortlisted for the Positive Role Model award at the National Diversity Awards.
In 2018, she was listed as one of Shaw Trusts 100 Most Influential Disabled People in the UK.
And in 2017, while working on Coronation Street, explicit photos of her were hacked from her phone and sold to the tabloids for everyone to see.
Funny, frank and brutally honest, SNATCHED is an autobiographical show looking at how the stories people tell us about our bodies shape who we are.
Developed With is supporting SNATCHED, Melissa’s first solo show, co-devised with long term collaborator and director Lily Levin and supported by Live Theatre in Newcastle.
Melissa and Lily are exploring new creative and directorial approaches to making work with both disabled and non-disabled collaborators and developing relationships around the country to support the show’s further life after its future premiere at The Lowry.
Twitter: @melissa_clare_j / @levinlily