Make Work 2021

We are delighted to announce seven local artists and companies have received a total of £61,000 of funding  to create, develop and showcase brand new performances supported by Bradford Producing Hub’s Make  Work grants programme.

Music Producer Josh Depass will be working on a new production Tale of 2 Estates, a compelling story of  Bradford’s youth with drill artists, local singers and rappers. Artist JoAnne Haines will be creating a  participatory performance Dancing with Colours, a show where audiences become artists and Yuvel Soria will create and present AJAYU Transitorio a live performance and installation inspired by the traditional  celebration of the Day of the Dead in Bolivia. All three artists and companies have been awarded a grant of  £15,000 to create, develop and present these brand new performances in Bradford.

Beth Knight from archipelago theatre collective received a £5,000 grant to collaborate with Laurence Young  to research and develop Santa Must Die! A raucous new gig theatre show about zero hour contracts, written  by Rosie MacPherson with music by Sean Ryan.

In her new project Fishing Net Soul artist and writer Letty McHugh was awarded a £5,000 grant to research  how Viking traditions around storytelling and narrative textiles can be used to radically reframe the stories we  tell about Multiple Sclerosis.

Playwright and poet Liz Mytton was awarded a £3,000 grant to collaborate with Marcus Lee in the research  of Love in a Northern Town, a live performance comprising three plays combining music and video. The  stories explore the enduring power of art and music to communicate the one thing that everyone needs and  that is able to transcend language and ethic boundaries – love.

Musician Augustin Bousfield received a £3,000 grant to research the blueprint for Bradford Psychogeographical Synthesiser in collaboration with composer David Cranmer. They will develop a  machine resembling a dramatic 3D relief map of Bradford and its surrounding region that not only contains a  diverse archive of sounds from every corner of the city, but also enables anyone to play them by gesturing  over an area or building and then manipulating with a variety of audio effects.

We are super excited to fund and support the creation and development of new performances in Bradford, and we can’t wait to unleash all of the creative work from this fantastic cohort of artists in the next few months.

Download the full press release here.

Meet the Artists

Your Idea, Your Way

Josh Depass known by his alias ‘Jae Depz’ has established himself as a prominent Songwriter, Music Producer and Manager within the Music Scene, having supported incredible local artists such as Blazer Boccle, and BBC’s Rap Game UK winner, Graft. Josh built a successful career in teaching song writing, music technology and media to young people and adult offenders within the prison service and has since worked with some of the most established figures in the industry such as Stefflon Don and Avelino.

JoAnne Haines is a learning disabled artist, performer and facilitator who has been performing professionally since 2011. She has toured nationally and internationally with Mind the Gap and recent work includes: a little space (2019-21) in collaboration with Gecko; the lead role in ZARA (2019) in collaboration with Walk the Plank and Mia (2016-18). JoAnne was commissioned by Unlimited in 2019 to create Colour Full: a co-creating workshop project for people with learning disabilities.

Yuvel Soria is a diasporic artist; heritage, (dual) nationality, locality, ethnicity and culture are the central elements to his artistic enquiry whilst traditional Bolivian dance, Latin and contemporary dance are the main elements in his movement vocabulary, he has a multidisciplinary approach to his creative process and within his collaborative projects and now he is moving into developing a more diverse practice, which straddles live art and performance.

Test It R&D

Beth Knight is a Yorkshire born and based director, facilitator and co-director of archipelago theatre collective. She works in a generous, collaborative and responsive style including with,  Harrogate Theatre, Leeds Playhouse, SBC Theatre and LIPA.  Her recent credits include: Co-Director, A Call to Care, archipelago with the Royal College of Nursing commissioned by HOME Manchester; Associate Director, Can You Hear Me Now? SBC Theatre; Director, Crash Landing! and Overheard, Harrogate Theatre.

Letty McHugh is an artist and writer based in West Yorkshire. Her work explores the universality of personal experience, which is the intellectual way of saying she’s interested in people, their stories and the things that connect us. Currently she’s researching ways of making work to bring connection and solace to people experiencing isolation, inspired by her own experiences of chronic illness.   Letty is  an Associate Artist with Disability Arts Online and Florescence Fellow with Dada Fest.

Just R&D It

Liz Mytton is playwright and poet from Bradford. She was a Bristol Old Vic Open Session writer and has worked with the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, the Belgrade Theatre and recently co-created a play with young people for National Theatre Connections. Liz is Lead Facilitator at Women’s Supper Club, a Theatre of the Oppressed project that promotes systems change in Greater Manchester.

Augustin Bousfield is from Bradford, UK and has played with Gurgles, Mucky Sailor, Henry Parker,  Nope and many others as well as performing as Lord Adonis, and remixing as Tomorrows Dad.  He’s performed improv sound and noise, solo and with others  at  Bradford’s Threadfest, Fundada Festival in Halifax, Vespertine Festival in York and the launch of the Doctor Who exhibition at the National Science and Media Museum.