BAM (Bachelors And Masters) is a cross collaboration project and international exchange programme created in 2017 with the Department of Performing Arts, supporting the BA and MA Students in Theatre Arts by Simone Giustinelli.
Within the last two years, a group of students (15 people in 2017/2018, 30 people in 2018/2019) have collaborated with the facilitation of tutors and lecturers to the conception, R&D and production of a full scale theatre production, which is then performed in June after the conclusion of classes and assessments for the spring term.
The project aims to develop new collaborative practices in contemporary performing arts. It ideally wants to challenge the known methodologies to find new ones, within a positive environment where collaboration, a fluid hierarchy and free creativity are central.
Through this project, we have also developed an international network of partners including venues and art organisations in Italy, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Albania. This has given opportunity for the productions to premier at the National Theatre of Rome as a part of the most significant and prominent multidisciplinary art festival in Italy, Dominio Pubblico. The festival has been running for 6 years and focuses on artist under 25.
We premiered 'Gilgamesh' in June 2018 and 'an Odyssey' in the same venue in June 2019.
The opportunity to perform in such a festival, recognised for emerging and developing artist is one that is significantly beneficial because of the bridge it creates between the educational and the professional world. It has given our students the possibility to perform in one of the most important venues in Europe, within an international setting, in front of and surrounded by people of their own age from all over Europe. There is no denying the skills developed from technical to creative skills and also fundamentals such as communication skills and interpersonal skills. As well as the chance to experience art in another country. The festival has a range of performances, exhibitions, installations, markets, concerts. It covers every type of disciple and it also features roundtables, Q&A’s, masterclasses and talks which students can engage with discussing practices and artistic processes as well as academia and research from world renowned practitioners and organisations.
After the premier in Rome and the conclusion of the festival, the project is then performed every year in London, at the Ravensfield Theatre, Middlesex University, during the first few weeks of the first term.
If this is of interest and you are an organisation/ HE establishment, we are always looking for partners and collaborators. Contact us at stateartcollect@gmail.com
