‘A Sketchbook of Vital Ideas’ is an online opportunity to meet with leading theatre-makers, preview new shows in the making and find out what their work can offer you.

Now’s the time to sketch out a plan and not let ‘diversity’ be just a heading in your business plan. By engaging in conversations, commissions and the programming of diverse work for young audiences can open up new ideas and ways of working into the heart of our creative practice.

About the Work

Mellow Baku will share her latest work in development - Mmm Ahhh Whoosh, A piece for early years in which she explores ways to encourage vocalising in babies, children and their parents and carers. Cross-arts theatre and intuitive jazz composer musicians combine with movement and digital artists to devise ways to push the boundaries of performance for early years.

burn / gobscure will share their latest work in development - Trees Don't Grow on Money, a play for 8 -12 years olds. Three feisty lasses (unicorn, lips and star) share a precious, ancient den across three seasons. An escaped lynx is slowly making its way to this same den. The lasses discover a new obs-platform (surveillance) is to be built on their den destroying this ancient piece of wild. Learning from nature, from Doctor Who, and from creative campaigns around the world, the three lasses fight back and save this wild.

About the Artists

Mellow Baku Mellow Baku is a multidisciplinary artist, specialising in music with over 15 years’ experience as a live performer.

She draws on her cultural heritage and jazz improvisation, combining acoustic guitar and electro loops to produce soundscapes, songs and spoken word.

Recent work includes a show for 0-3 year olds at the Royal Festival Hall Southbank London for Imagine Festival Feb 2020. She led an all-female band, touring Manchester theatres for Big Imaginations Network / Z-Arts in 2019, 10 primary schools for The Spark Festival 2018, and performed solo for Family Day 2019 at Warwick Arts Centre.

Her musical play for children, Beyond the Dome toured Vault Festival London 2016, Curve, Leicester 2017, and Leicester schools.

Mellow has completed two albums, toured with an Afro/dub band and a Jazz orchestra, and performed in Switzerland, Denmark and New York. She delivers workshops in community, schools and for the NHS.

On Us, writing as Burn, making sound-art-perform as Gobscure, a multi-award winning composer and exhibit visuals internationally. Graeae write to play alumni; last touring play Joey (testing ground commission, in association with Greyscale, 'experiment of the year,' British Theatre Guide); latest solo shows Provoked 2 Madness by the Brutality of Wealth supported by Third Angels mentoring scheme. Touring family shows combined clown and story. We then wrote shows including Cutter for Half Moon theatre (Time Outs Play of the Year for Young People.).

birdbrained(film for families) is released by Spot-On / Lancashire Libraries this spring. https://gobscure.wixsite.com/info

A Sketchbook of Vital Ideas with Mellow and burn / gobscure