Tricky Hat Productions brings The Flames to Cove Park at the beginning of every year for invaluable time and space to explore and experiment with the theatre, dance, music and audio-visual art forms they use. They challenge themselves, and The Flames, to create new ideas and approaches through art form collaborations. What they produce at Cove Park is fed into live performances over the next year. For example, they will explore the live performers relationship to the projection on stage, how they interact with it and make it an equal part of the performance. They create music and share new stories and ideas.

“We work quickly and produce 7 or 8 live theatre events each year, so this trip is an oasis of creativity for us. It allows the Tricky Hat team to create together, try ideas and reflect on what we have done and how we can build on our work going forward.The Flames love it. It is such an enriching experience as it depends on connection with Tricky Hat and each other as their skills, confidence and artistry develop.”

Previous Flames who have attended said:

An amazing experience in every way. Meeting up with other Flames was heart-warming in such a stunning setting and unique accommodation. It was a great start to the year and the team went all out to keep us motivated.”

“A new and beautiful environment was stimulating as it was good to be able to switch off from day to day stuff and focus on the challenges set.”

“Flames events are always stimulating, creative and fun, so a change for an intensive session over a few days with the bonus of getting to know fellow Flames better has to be something to appreciate.”

BIOGRAPHIES:

Fiona Miller, Artistic Director, has worked extensively as a freelance director and theatre maker. Having previously worked at theatres such as Cumbernauld Theatre, and undertaking a role as Creative Partner with the National Theatre of Scotland’s Exchange Programme, she now develops all of her work through Tricky Hat Productions. Fiona has immersed herself in large scale productions, such as “Witches Blood” in Dundee, and “City” in Glasgow, and 1 to 1 performances for the National Theatre of Scotland’s “99…100”. Alongside roles within the creative sector, Fiona has worked for Angus Council, securing a wealth of experiences across the arts, councils and third sector. Using this knowledge, she also works as an artistic consultant and trainer. The key to Fiona’s success is always working collaboratively across art forms, devising productions with the full participation of all involved. She continues to engage with, deliver and understand the breadth, constituting her field.

Kim Beveridge, Digital Artist. Since graduating from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in 2005, with a BA honors degree in ‘Time Based Art’, she has been working as a freelance digital artist, part-time college lecturer, documentary film maker and Audio Visual Designer for live performance. Works to date include, ‘The Missing Audio Journey’ a site specific sound installation at Tramway for the National Theatre of Scotland; ‘Roadkill’, a multi-award-winning theatre production at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for Ankur Productions and Pachamama Productions; ‘Wall of Death’, a multimedia performance in collaboration with the National Theatre of Scotland and Stephin Skyrnka; ‘Mixter Maxter’, an installation created in Orkney with the community of Kirkwall; ‘Whatever Gets You Through The Night’, working with some of Scotland’s most distinctive novelists, poets, musicians and songwriters; ‘GRIT – The Martyn Bennett Story’ created with Pachamama for Tramway.

Mick Slaven, Composer, is a musician and composer whose experience includes numerous theatre composing credits, writing and performing music with a wide range of outsider client groups and writing, production and session credits for a variety of mainstream recording artists and independent labels. Mick’s theatre credits include Tricky Hat Productions directed by Fiona Miller, such as ‘The Blair Ghost Project’, ‘Posie’ and ‘The Dust Never Settles’, along with composer credits for Stephen Greenhorns play ‘Passing Places’ and Gregory Burkes first major success ‘Gagarin Way’, both directed by John Tiffancy for the Traverse Theatre. In the community, a large part of his work has been the creation and performance of music by groups ranging from elderly people to primary school children, mental health groups to prisoners in jails, and also in drug rehab units. He was always seen the creation and performance of music as an empowering and often healing process. As a musician Mick has worked with artists as diverse as Del Amitri, Eddi Reader, Vic Godard, Paul Quinn and many others, and for just about every major label to independents such as Postcard Records of Scotland.

Aya Kobayashi, Dance & Choreographer, is a Glasgow-based dance artist originally from Japan, working in the field of performance and movement exploration. She teaches, performs and created her own work with both professionals and communities. She practices improvisational performance and is a member of Collective Endeavours. Aya works extensively with inclusive and intergenerational groups, recently she joined Barrowland Ballet as an Associate Artist and leading their intergenerational company Wolf Pack. She directed a large scale community dance in Ofunato, one of the tsunami disaster areas in North Japan as part of Sanriku International Arts Festival in 2015/16. Aya’s work has been presented in Tate Gallery, The Place, Royal Festival Hall, Northern Ballet, Paralympics 2012 torch relay ceremony, Cairo, Madrid, Tokyo and Queretaro in Mexico.

Image: The Flames, ‘Don’t Stop Me Now, 2022 (photography, Jassy Earl)

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