I’ve lived with chronic pain for 14 years, and that means I need to lie down (a lot). For a while my world got really small. And so in 2016 I began to play with lying down in public so I could be out in the world more: I lay down on trains, in galleries, on benches. I was beginning to feel bold about this ‘practice’ of public rest, and the shame I’d felt at having different needs and needing to navigate the world differently was beginning to fall away......and then I set off a security alert by lying down on the 6th Floor of the Southbank Centre (during a disability arts festival!).

Earlier this year, we spent an afternoon in Derby at the excellent Departure Lounge festival, talking with artists and producers about co-creation in international contexts. As part of that event, we invited Theatre Replacement’s Maiko Yamamoto to talk about their work. Theatre Replacement’s Town Choir was recently part of our recent strategic touring project. This is Maiko’s contribution.

Two shows made right here in Bristol and supported by MAYK are heading across the pond in the New Year as part of Vancouver’s PuSh Festival.

Caroline Williams and Reem Karssli’s Now Is the Time To Say Nothing to tour the UK in 2019

It’s often hard to find a way to let other people in to an artist’s creative process in a way that feels natural, unstructured and open. Blogs and rehearsal diaries often become a bit of an albatross, something an artist feels like they have to do in order to promote the finished show. 

I’m sitting in the rehearsal room for Can You Hear Me Now, our East Africa Arts project where young people in Bristol, Kampala and Kigali are collaborating to make a performance in each city that is linked through digital technology (developed by the brilliant Tim Kindberg).

As we round off the year, here's a visual reminder of some of the best bits of our 2016. Merry Christmas!

Last month we joined Still House in Tbilisi, Georgia to present Of Riders and Running Horses and a UK cultural delegation in Seoul, South Korea. Here are some notes from the field.