PRODUCING & HOSTING

I have delivered, produced, facilitated and hosted a variety of theatre and performance events. They have ranged from academic talks, symposia, and conferences, to live art club nights. Their focus in all cases, has been on creative practice and providing platforms for it to be articulated, discussed and showcased. As a performance-maker myself, I carefully consider the dramaturgy each event and take pride in creating a welcoming, supportive and nourishing environment for everybody taking part. Moreover, in line with my creative work, I'm particularly interested in notions of exchange, openness and porosity. Wherever possible I use formats which allow the audience to make a personal investment and have a direct input. Here are some things people have said about my work:
"Having collaborated with Pablo in his various capacities as a creative artist, teacher and event producer / facilitator, I have always witnessed and enjoyed a unique blend of professionalism and warmth in working with him. Pablo brings inspiration, reliability and unwavering optimism to his interactions with others that are a constant source of reassurance and positive spirit."
Duška Radosavljević

"As a new company showing our work for the first time, Pot Luck offered us an environment that was both friendly and supportive. The team at Pot Luck showed a real investment in our work, an the comments we received were invaluable due to a well structured and open feedback system. Thank you all for your help Pot Luck!" 
Cool Hunting

"...from the moment I arrived Pablo put me at ease, creating opportunities for me to network with individuals that he thought would be good contacts. What came across very clearly was the organiser's genuine enthusiasm for the event."
Lifting the Curtain: Theatre Research @ Kent audience member

"Pablo led the organisational team with his customary imagination, creative flair and organisational acumen, making sure there were rigorous debates and activities but also great fun."
Prof. Paul Allain

Deep Trash Escoria

22nd September 2018, Bethnal Green Working Men's Club (London)
I was invited by CUNTemporary to be part of the selection and curation process for its live art club night Deep Trash Escoria. I also hosted the night, warming up the audience and introducing each of the participating acts. This edition of Deep Trash was dedicated to Spanish-speaking and Latinx contexts.
Read Alex Fernandez's review of the event for curating the contemporary.org here.
Images courtesy of Orlando Myxx and Thomas Hensher. Full album of credited works here.

Theatre, Interactivity, Democracy

1 4th April 2015, Unicorn Theatre (London)

Ahead of the general election, this event was conceived by and co-delivered with Duška Radosavljevic, and coincided with the London run of Ontroerend Goed's interactive piece Fight Night. Aimed at a cross-section of young and adult audiences, the discussion that followed the show endeavoured to extend our ideas about democracy, capitalising on the rich history of theatre as a democratic medium and promoting the notion of personal agency through interactivity.

Participating speakers were: Alexander Devriendt (Artistic Director, Ontroerend Goed), Maddy Costa (theatre critic), Vladimir Shcherban (Associate Director, Free Theatre of Belarus), Sasha Padziarei (translator), Simon Startin (theatre-maker and London Bubble Associate), Annette Mees, (Coney Co-Director), and Iain MacKenzie (Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Kent). The event was supported by ETRN and School of Arts, University of Kent. More information here.


Pot Luck
2011 - 2014, various venues around Kent
2012 Canterbury Culture Award as 'Cultural Pioneer'
As part of Accidental Collective, I co-created Pot Luck's first season with Daisy Orton. We co-produced its second season (2013-14) with Cathy Westbrook and Phoebe Marsh as associate producers.

Pot Luck was more than just another scratch night! It was an artist-led and award-winning platform dedicated to supporting performance-makers, showcasing and developing their work, and building bridges between artists and new audiences. We programmed a variety of work by over 70 artists, from theatre to dance, from cabaret to live art. In a nutshell, it was like tapas but in performance! In its second season we also had a commissioning strand, which saw different headline artists create new work in response to each location; they were: Daniel Somerville, Marcia Farquhar, Little Bulb Theatre, Genetic Moo, Nigel Barrett & Louise Mari, and fanSHEN. There was always also opportunity to mingle, have a drink, and chat in a friendly and informal atmosphere; part scratch night, part showcase, part networking, part party!

Every Pot Luck event was different and has its own unique flavour. Rather than being based in one place, it moved from venue to venue. In its two seasons, Pot Luck travelled to the Jolly Sailor (Canterbury), Tom Thumb Theatre (Cliftonville), Creek Creative (Faversham), The Ballroom (Canterbury), Gulbenkian Theatre (Canterbury), Limbo (Margate), Marine Studios (Margate), The Criterion / Blue Town Heritage Centre (Sheerness), The Beaney House of Art and Knowledge (Canterbury), The Avenue Theatre (Sittingbourne).

Pot Luck was funded by Arts Council England and Kent County Council. More information about it here.
“Pot Luck is very exciting, accessible, approachable and always more than the sum of its parts.” (audience member)

“Really cool idea! Never experienced this venue like this. The work by all the artists was great, and made even better by the fact some of it was ‘rare’ and you could meet the artists – like a mini-community tonight! Great work.” (audience member)

"Pot Luck offers a platform for performing work that has no equivalent and did not exist before. There is now a place where performance artists from a wide spectrum of performance art disciplines can go and try things out, and where we can keep updated with what everybody else is doing. It's not surprising that it has so quickly become a key player in the region's artistic scene.”  (Estelle Rosenfeld, artist)

Images courtesy of Pete Fry.
Videos courtesy of Hope Fitzgerald, and Jason Brooks.

Lifting the Curtain:
On Audience and Authorship

25th - 26th October 2013, ICA (London)

As audiences we increasingly find that our input has become indispensible to the process of performance-making. No longer sitting quietly in the dark, we have been pulled in and invited to take part. This two-day event brought together artists, academics and audiences in a shared exploration of the new trend. It was initiated by  Duška Radosavljevic (University of Kent), and co-facilitated/organised with Daisy Orton, in association with  Chris Johnston (Argument Room/Rideout). The event was co-sponsored by the University of Kent's KIASH, CKP, and ETRN.

The event had three distinct and interconnected sessions. Firstly, a programme of presentations by artists and academics was curated from an open call. Secondly, The Argument room held a closed discussion with playwright David Edgar, performance-maker Anette Mees (Coney), and critic Jake Orr (A Younger Theatre); it was stramed online, and is available online here. During a third session, participants responded to the previous day and discussion, as well as actively exploring their work/research with the audience. This final session used interactive formats that adopted a similar structure to speed-dating.

More information about the event can be found here.

Lifting the Curtain:
Theatre Research @ Kent

29th April - 1st May 2013, Marlowe Studio (Canterbury)

Thanks to AHRC funding I conceived, curated and produced this three-day, pick and mix programme of workshops, talks and discussions. It showcased the latest research and practice by staff members from the University of Kent’s Drama Department; its first ever Public Engagement event.

The topics covered included, amongst others: musicality, physical theatre training, archival research on WWI theatre, stand-up comedy, immersive/interactive performance...  The sessions were led by: Dr. Frank Camilleri, Dr. Rosie Klich and Krysta Dennis, Dr. Duška Radosavljevic, Laura Jane Dean, Dr. Oliver Double, dance company StevensonThompson, Prof. Nicola Shaughnessy and Dr. Melissa Trimingham (Imagining Autism), Prof. Robert Shaughnessy, Dr. David Roesner, Dr. Helen Brooks, and Prof. Paul Allain.
"An excellent programme accessible and surprising, with a high quality of delivery across the programme." (audience member)

"I thought that the facilitators and organisers of the event did a first class job. They were all very approachable and from the moment I arrived Pablo put me at ease, creating opportunities for me to network with individuals that he thought would be good contacts. What came across very clearly was the organiser's genuine enthusiasm for the event." (audience member)
Images courtesy of Matt Wilson.

The full symposium programme can be found here.
"This event was unique not just for its open call, but also for the complexity of bringing so many artists and academics together from around the world under the umbrella of Grotowski and his influence and ongoing practices today. Pablo led the organisational team with his customary imagination, creative flair and organisational acumen, making sure there were rigorous debates and activities but also great fun."
Prof. Paul Allain

Grotowski:
After-Alongside-Around-Ahead

14th – 15th June 2009, University Kent (Canterbury)

I conceived of this two day international symposium whilst working on The British Grotowski Project. It took place immediately after the project's closing conference “Grotowski: theatre and beyond” (11-14 June), and was both co-curated and co-facilitated with Adela Karsznia (Poland), Duncan Jamieson (UK), and Ben Spatz (USA).

It was the only event in the Year of Grotowski 2009 programme that had issued an open call for contributions, aiming specifically at emerging researches and practitioners. The response was overwhelming and participants came from Germany, Italy, Malta, Poland, Serbia, Israel, Bulgaria, Canada, USA, India, New Zealand, as well as the UK. The symposium was comprised of 56 different contributions which included performances, work demonstrations, film and documentation screenings, seminars and academic papers. Three distinguished practitioners, theatre researches and former collaborators of Jerzy Grotowski acted as guest respondents: Jairo Cuesta, Ian Morgan, and James Slowiak.

Its main aims were to provide a platform for a new generations of thinkers/makers to share and encounter each other's work within a supportive, peer group environment; as well as exploring new ways of responding to, investigating and analysing the practice of Jerzy Grotowski, his collaborators, and those inspired by their work.

The event was made possible thanks to support from the University of Kent, the AHRC, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, and the Grotowski Institute.