Announcement from the Artistic Director

It is with great sadness and pride that I announce the disbanding of Apocryphal Theatre.  We are sad, because it is sad to let go of something we built and sustained for seven years.  Pride, because we did sustain this project for seven years, including an ongoing lab in which many interesting tools and techniques for creating experimental, interdisciplinary theatre were created and explored.  We did receive funding for our two larger projects, The Jesus Guy and Besides, you lose your soul or the History of Western Civilisation, but during the lab everyone worked for free and we have been reliant in the lab on donated space, primarily at Camden People’s Theatre (2004-2009) and in this final year at  The People Show, Rose Bruford and Kings College.  As the Artistic Director, I made the decision for Apocryphal to disband, because I could not continue producing and doing most of the administrative tasks without a salary.  We put in a bid for Arts Council regular funding that was turned down, and whilst we were disappointed, the process itself was clarifying as to where we are and what we would need to continue.  In this economic and artistic climate, this seems untenable.  We create process-based, small-revenue generating (or in the case of the lab non-revenue generating) challenging, unpredictable, experimental work and this is not an easy time to generate money, space or time for this kind of project.

 

I want to thank all of the people who have been part of Apocryphal and who I have been so deeply honored to work with over the years.  Everyone in Apocryphal creates their own work as well as working in the group, so I know everyone will continue to thrive, though we are all sad to lose this lovely space in which to experiment, play and push all of our limits to the edge, including those of our brave audiences.   

 

Therefore, I want to thank you, too, reading this announcement, whom cared about our work and lab and probably spent some time as our audience.  If you want to experience more of the type of work we do, feel free to contact any of us, as we are happy to disseminate our work in different forums. I am confident that the larger Apocryphal project will continue in new and interesting manifestations outside this particular framework.  Sometimes, it is necessary to let go of what is not working in a sustainable way, to allow room for what can.

 

Julia Lee Barclay

Artistic Director