After a stint with the Mutoid Waste Company in the 1980s and a foray into academia at Bristol Uni I finally took my love of dressing up and going to parties seriously and went to circus school (Fool Time now Circomedia) in 1992. Inspired by the warehouse party scene and big dance music events I joined Megadog as the performance coordinator, an adventure that was to last a decade.
I got the first Curious Company chequebook in 1994. We started with the dance music event world; parties and festivals, but soon moved into corporate entertainment and marketing campaigns. We also emerged into the street and were inspired by the democratic nature of street theatre; if they don’t like you they walk away! This led to a wonderful year at the Dome which was a privilege and a great place to develop work.
The content of our work has been a combination of strong and exciting visual imagery and storytelling-stories of our own invention and iconic pieces like Alice in Wonderland. We first fell down the Rabbit Hole in 1997 with a club tour produced with Harvey Goldsmith. We have found that Wonderland appeals to all sorts of people in all sorts of places with no two gigs being the same. After 20 years we are still just as excited to show people around Wonderland. One of our high points was taking Alice to The Queen’s Golden Jubilee party at Buckingham Palace. “Who’s Queen?” shouted the Queen of Hearts, “You are Ma’am” responded the White Rabbit.
In 2008 we got our first Arts Council funding with Mr Wippy and the Conettes. This marked a turning point for Curious-the government gave us money! We realised then that theatre is a powerful and effective tool that can achieve all sorts of aims. We have gone on to help our local council resolve a variety of social issues such as regenerating high streets, changing the way people feel about places like the library and the leisure centre and reconnecting kids with the elders in their town.
The adventure that is a life in theatre is curious indeed.