Developed With The Lowry is our flagship artist development programme
Developed with Artists and The Lowry
Since 2009, 46 productions have been commissioned as part of our Developed With The Lowry programme, including BAFTA award-winning comic Sophie Willan’s first stand-up hour ‘On Record’, Theatre Ad Infinitum’s ‘Ballad of the Burning Star’ (a blistering drag cabaret journey into the core of a conflicted Jewish state), Igor & Moreno’s immersive production ‘Andante’, and more recently Thick & Tight’s 10th anniversary show ‘Short & Sweet’ and ‘Snatched’ by Melissa Johns and Lily Levin.
Developed with programme
Developed With The Lowry artists spend 12-18 months with us creating and presenting a new production or exhibition and developing their practice.
Our support package includes financial contributions to both professional and creative development, practical support for production development, artistic feedback, and a professional development plan including coaching, mentoring from industry experts and a series of bespoke activities specifically tailored to the needs of the company or artist.
Who is it for?
This program offers a bespoke package of support for independent artists, collectives and companies who are committed to creating ambitious, high-quality work and developing their practice as artists and cultural leaders.
THE DEVELOPED WITH ARTISTS
2022-2024 Cohort
We are delighted to welcome a new cohort of 6 early to mid-career artists who are establishing their practice and creative identity, and are looking for time, space and support to now take a significant step forward in their work.
For the first time, we are delighted to offer one of our Developed With opportunities to a visual/media-based artist who will work closely with our Galleries team to develop a new project as part of our programme of contemporary exhibitions.
Meet Bobak Champion
Bobak Champion is a British-Iranian Dance Artist whom utilises hip-hop dance styles, storytelling and humour to directly tackle the often-negative stereo type of the middle east and Islam shown in the media.
Having graduated from Northern School of Contemporary Dance in 2004, Bobak has worked as a performer, facilitator and choreographer across many projects.
On a journey of self-acceptance and understanding his heritage, Bobak visited Iran; he was overwhelmed by how kind, welcoming and hospitable the people were, not just family but everyone he met. Following this enlightening and welcoming trip to his mother’s country, Bobak embarked on a mission to share a new perspective on Iranian culture and Islam across the UK.
Instagram: @BobakChampion
Twitter: @BobakChampion
Facebook: Bobak-Champion
Web: bobakchampion.co.uk
Read More about Bobak Champion’s work below.
As part of Developed With The Lowry, Bobak will use Hip-Hop, Song, Storytelling and Clowning to share a rich tapestry of Iranian culture in a show for all ages. Media culture holds fast to the idea that the Middle East is a frightening and dangerous place – Bobak’s work will flip this script.
“As a dad, theatre maker and someone who loves facilitating workshops and classes for young people, I’ve been asked a number of times ‘So how about a family show’. I am excited and grateful to have that chance, as well as to meet the artists and team at The Lowry. The process of working with musicians learning songs and music from Iran will be a wonderful experience. To then take that to audiences in a lush environment we plan to create (think Persian garden meets high-end sheesha bar. smoke free of course).” – Bobak Champion
Meet Tania Camara
Tania Camara is a solo performance artist based in Manchester currently working in different mediums: devised theatre, dance, live art, video, voice-work and music.
Tania’s artistic focus is to create work that generates conversations about race relations in Britain to tell untold stories and bring marginalised lived experiences to the forefront.
Tania brings together stories from Cape Verde, Britain, Portugal, Guinea Bissau, and is inspired by her MA in Artist Research at the University of Amsterdam into the traditional dance/music genre Batuku as social performance and its place in the Cape Verdean Revolution as a form of holistic healing.
Facebook: @TaniaCamara.Performance.Artist
Instagram: @Taniacamara20T
Twitter: @Taniacamara2T
Web: taniacamara.com
Read More about Tania Camara’s work below.
As part of Developed With The Lowry, Tania will be developing an autobiographical performance work, AS I AM NATURALLY. It consists of a selection of poems and stories that challenge notions of inner beauty, femininity and gender fluidity.
About AS I AM NATURALLY
Can I touch your hair? An innocent caress? Or the moment I realised I was black? A newcomer to a white country, a sudden object of curiosity + intrusion. A Lowry theatre commission unravelling the complex layers of human interaction, unpicking the threads weaving together race + identity. The audience is guided by projection-mapped visuals + an immersive soundscape of community voices on a journey through their own memories to examine internalised intergenerational trauma.
Creator, Producer and Performer Tania Camara
Director Peader Kirk
Musician John Haycock
Musician/Performer Chisara Agor
Music Mentor Ellen Beth Abdi
Part of SPILL Festival of Performance 2021, A Divergency seed commission
“I’m excited to work with The Lowry on this project, because I want to push my boundaries and play with different ways of making work that is touching and has a transformational effect on those that interact with it.” – Tania Camara
Meet Alice Christina-Corrigan
Alice Christina-Corrigan is a visually impaired & neurodivergent actor, theatre maker and creative captioner.
Alice’s work aims to break the technological trajectory of creative access in theatre, elevating storytelling through multisensory exploration. Alice champions northern disabled artists, providing creative opportunities to the community, championing their stories and being a spokesperson for disability inclusion in the industry.
Her first play, Past Life debuted at Camden People’s Theatre and most recently, the production was part of Bloomsbury Festival in association with Extant Theatre.
Instagram: @aliceccorrigan
Twitter: @aliceccorrigan
Web: alicechristina.wixsite.com
Read More about Alice Christina-Corrigan’s work below.
Her work has been supported by Octagon Theatre, Extant Theatre, Graeae, ACE England, CRIPTIC, Art with Heart, and Carmen Collective.
As part of Developed With The Lowry, Alice will be developing her second full length play, Fade. Traditionally a two-hander, FADE follows two timeframes 2010 and the past, both of which follow Cassie and Rubin, twin siblings coming to terms with their mother’s sudden death. Catapulting through past, present and a not-so-distant future. The strenuous allyship of siblings is forced to question the silent sacrifices they have made for each other along the way ultimately probing the question, are we destined to become our parents?
About FADE
FADE is an urgent, harrowing play detailing the repercussions of childhood in our adult life, whilst aiming to advance the technological landscape of creative access in theatre using integrating audio descriptive language, s0ound design, loop pedals, shadow puppetry and creative captioning aiming to showcase midscale level accessible work.
Writer And Project Manger / Lead Artist Alice Christina-Corrigan
Producer Megan Grifthis
Audio Description Director Ada Eravama
Director Hannah Tyrell-Pinder
Dramaturg Rio Matchett
Set Designer Lucy Sneddon
Actor Dan Parr
Actor Laura Nicole-Mayes
Actor Jude Leath
Actor Britanie Pallette
“The Lowry is an incredibly supportive, nurturing and creative theatre that I am thrilled to be working with to develop an important piece of storytelling, whilst spreading the message on a higher scale, the importance and creative possibilities of integrated access.” – Alice Christina-Corrigan
Meet Edy Hurst
Edy Hurst is a comedian that combines loop pedals, music, and an oddball view of the world for comedy clubs and festivals across the country.
Whether it is completing 125 years of the War of the Worlds, solving mental health crises with a homemade puppet, or making the world’s greatest theme park live on stage, his work is endlessly playful, daft and unique.
Nominated for ‘Best Alternative Act’ at the North West comedy Awards, Best Comedy Show at Buxton Fringe, BBC New Comedy Awards and Finalist in the Musical Comedy Awards, he’s appeared on BBC Radio 4 and Next Up Comedy.
Instagram: @EdyHurst
Twitter: @EdyHurst
Facebook: Facebook.com/edyhurst
Web: edyhurst.co.uk
Podcast: I Pod a Spell on You
Read More about Edy Hurst ’s work below.
As part of Developed With The Lowry, Edy will be developing a new show titled Edy Hurst’s Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Himself
After recently discovering he is descended from one of the women put on trial in the infamous Lancashire Witch hunts, Edy Hurst plans to use the magic that is deep within his bones to speak with the spirits beyond our world in search of a single inspiring vision.
About EDY HURST’S WONDERFULL DISCOVERIE OF WITCHES IN THE COUNTIE OF HIMSELF
Edy Hurst’s Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Himself is a show about witchcraft, neurodivergence and the vengaboys. Recent revelations in the relations of Edy Hurst have relayed news that his ancestry is connected to women accused of Witchcraft in the Lancashire Trials of 1612. With the magic bloodline deep in his bones, the show sees Edy cast spells to the other side in hopes of discovering the truth, and an inspiring vision, but why do the Vengaboys keep turning up? What’s going on there?
Written and Performed by Edy Hurst
Director Joz Norris
Writing support from The Lovely Boys, Daniel Nicholas
“One of my first ever jobs in the arts was as a studio supervisor at The Lowry, and it’s a huge privilege to be back with the opportunity to create my own work and push the boundaries and limits of myself as a performer and creator.” – Edy Hurst
Meet Nikta Mohammadi
Nikta Mohammadi is an Iranian artist and producer based in West Yorkshire, working across moving image, performance, sound and text. Her practice is rooted in her dreams. It examines the relationship between personal and political, outside and inside, private and public, documentary and fiction.
Currently, she is building a body of work that investigates British rural landscape, incorporating literature, myths and rituals from Iran and Britain with an interdisciplinary formal approach.
Through this body of work, she wants to reflect on her fragmented living experience as an outsider. Previously she has worked with The Tetley, Institute of Contemporary Arts and Tate among others.
Instagram: @nik_la_flaneuse
Web: niktamohammadi.com
Read More about Nikta Mohammadi’s work below.
As part of Developed With The Lowry, Nikta will be developing Memory Stone.
About MEMORY STONE
Memory Stone is a film installation that explores ideas of speculative memory and history, using British countryside as a starting point. Transforming the gallery spaces at The Lowry through highly composed and performative video work and a visceral soundscape, audiences will be immersed in an alternate version of the Northern landscape. The work aims to challenge the perception of the British rural landscape as an idyllic space where time stands still. Memory Stone is part of a larger body of moving image work, which investigates the British rural landscape as a site of absence and loss, incorporating folklore, myths and rituals from Iran and Yorkshire, with an interdisciplinary formal approach. Using this body of work, I reflect on my fragmented living experience as an outsider.
At the centre of the installation there is a film, set around Bridestones moor, West Yorkshire (believed to be a pre-historic site, surrounded by several legends) and a radio navigation station located nearby. It’ll follow a ‘rambler’ wandering this landscape while the navigation aid acts as a trigger, evoking a memory that is removed from our rambler’s consciousness. An ancient dream or a misplaced history, perhaps belonging to their non-existent alien ancestors. This theme links to my interest in ghostly imprints of the past, migrants create on foreign lands. Memory Stone attempts to recreate these memories/histories.
Producer Nuria López de la Oliva
Sound & Music Babak Mirsalari
Supported by Arts Council England
“I am excited and thrilled to begin this journey of reclaiming; to reimagine pasts and recreate futures. The Lowry’s Developed With programme is the much needed structure of support to bring this dreamworld to audiences in Salford and more widely in the UK.” – Nikta Mohammadi
Meet Lauren Yvonne Townsend
Lauren Yvonne Townsend is a Yorkshire-based freelance creative producer working in theatre, live events, short film and community arts.
After producing for a number of artists and organisations over the last 8 years, Lauren is now ready to tell her own stories and focus on developing her own creative vision as a writer, producer and director of short film and theatre projects with collaborators across the North.
She has worked with organisations such as Leeds 2023, Stage One, BFI Film Hub North, Sheffield Theatres, Cast, Chol Theatre, ThickSkin Theatre, Stage Sight, The Children’s Art School, and is a regular guest speaker at The Arts University Bournemouth.
Twitter: @ItsLaurenYvonne
Web: itslaurenyvonne.com
As part of Developed With The Lowry, Lauren will be developing her first self-created piece Obsessed.
About OBSESSED
“7 isn’t just a lucky number. It’s a pure number.
Doing my compulsions in 7s makes me feel safe.
7 is celestial: the 7 wonders, the 7 heavens, I was even born on July 7th… but most importantly there are 7 members in BTS, which just proves 7 is universally perfect.
Obsessed is an exploration of mental health, fandom and millennial burnout in a post-COVID world.
Based on lived experiences, Obsessed aims to shed light on the intricacies and day-to-day impacts of OCD in young women against the backdrop of female fandom with a soundtrack including Beyonce, Megan Thee Stallion, BTS, and Britney Spears.
Obsessed is the debut play by Lauren Yvonne who’s earliest memory of living with OCD was at 6 years old. Lauren is a theatre and events producer and Developed With marks a step-change in practice to creating and writing new works and laying the foundations for a studio-model production company where original work is created, ideas are formed and new collaborations are born.
R&D Facilitator Rachel Abbey
Seed funder Stage One
“I am thrilled to be joining the cohort of Developed With The Lowry 2022-24; as a producer I am used to helping other artists develop their work, so to have the opportunity to focus on my own creative vision and develop the stories close to my own heart, based on my own experiences, is incredibly exciting. This is a real opportunity to make a shift in my usual projects and to work on myself as an artist and creator – I’m really grateful to The Lowry’s Artist Development team for giving me the time, space and opportunity to thrive.” – Lauren Yvonne Townsend
Testimonials
Jessica Thanki, Developed With Artist
“Funnybones is my first project as lead artist. The idea originally came out of frustration during the pandemic. I had been stage managing since 2008 and was struggling to make the step change into directing. The experience I had as a stage manager – being in the room with over 40 directors was not enough to get me an interview for an assistant director position.
So, when the pandemic hit and I was forced to stop – I decided to create my own opportunity by applying for Arts Council Funding to research and develop an idea for a family show inspired by the book Funnybones by Janet and Allan Ahlberg.
It was at The Lowry that my journey to create a show that had access at the seed of the idea but also explored a way to tour both theatre and community venues without losing its quality started. A show that could bring together people from different backgrounds. Something that sparked imagination. Being part of Developed With has been huge in my development as an artist and for the project and I’m so excited to see where the project goes next!”
Melissa Johns, previous Developed With Artist
“Being part of Developed With has enriched my life in more ways that I could have ever imagined. From supporting every aspect with the creation and development of my one woman show to gaining skills and knowledge in producing and relationship building with other organisations, the programme has been a breath of fresh air.
Perhaps, more importantly for me though, are elements that show The Lowry goes above and beyond in supporting their artists. The Lowry have been an absolute rock when a global pandemic shook our industry, maintaining a commitment to us and always making us feel like a priority.
And lastly, as a disabled artist, I am supported in more ways than I have ever been. The Lowry are changing the way that disabled artists access the arts and honestly, I have never felt more supported in my career.”
