The Dumfries & Galloway Arts Festival are delighted to be partnering with Magnetic North to deliver the fourteenth edition of the Rough Mix creative lab.
Rough Mix brings together five lead artists, each with a new idea to develop, two collaborating artists and an ensemble of five performers. Each lead artist spends time observing, assisting or collaborating on the other artists’ projects as well as working on their own project.
Rough Mix will take place from 5–16th February 2024, in person, at Cample Line, Thornhill.
We are thrilled to announce the artists working on this years Rough Mix.
LEAD ARTISTS
Maria Falconer
Maria is a freelance photographer, videographer, and teacher who originally trained in contemporary dance at Trinity Laban. Her commercial photographic practice specialises in Performing Arts and she has worked with many dance companies including Scottish Dance Theatre, Rosie Kay and Thomas Small to produce promotional imagery.
In 2023 her work was selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and her collaborative project ‘How Do You Dance in a War Zone’ opened at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Maria runs photography workshops in the UK and Europe and until recently lectured in photography at De Montfort University, Leicester.
Stuart MacPherson
A musician, composer and sonic artist, Stuart Macpherson is based in Dumfries and Galloway. His work has a strong focus on place and environment and how we are connected to it, in particular the remote and rural and its relevance on a bigger stage. He has a desire to create new music that raises compelling questions about wider environmental ideas, whilst challenging audience perceptions.
Sara Shaarawi
Sara is a playwright from Cairo and lives in Glasgow. Her work has been performed across Scotland and the UK, as well as Egypt, Uganda, and South Africa. She has written work for the stage as well as audio drama, and has recently worked with companies such as Wonder Fools and Citizens Theatre to create work with and for young people. She enjoys working in a variety of contexts and finds the diversity in writing for performance thrilling.
Catherine Street
Catherine is a visual artist working with performance, writing, video, sound, collage and sculpture. Her work is an exploration of the relationships between concepts and bodies. How is our flesh impacted by the tumult of ideas and thoughts operating within and around us? Catherine has recently had a solo exhibition at Sierra Metro Gallery in Edinburgh and has devised a new performance for the Edinburgh Futures Institute.
Rob Willoughby
Rob is based in Glasgow and makes theatre, sound and video. He likes to build fantastic worlds and invite audiences to explore them. His directing credits include GYOG (National Theatre of Scotland) Drone (Harry Josephine Giles) and Amy Conway’s Super Awesome World (Tron/Summerhall).
Rob’s video design credits for the stage include Wake Up for Solar Bear, Exodus with the National Theatre of Scotland, and Me and My Sister Tell Each Other Everything with Tron Theatre Company. His sound design credits include How to Sing It (Tron) and All The Sex I’ve Ever Had (The Arches).
COLLABORATING ARTISTS
Breezy Lee Elthalion
Breezy Lee a prolific singer, songwriter and performer originally from London and now based in South West Scotland. She has collaborated with and written for many artists, and is a respected vocalist and lyricist within the UK underground music scene. She trained at The BRIT School of performing arts in London, moving to Scotland in 2013.
She premiered new work for Oceanallover as Musical Director and performer in their new show Scales Of The World at Cottiers Theatre, Glasgow. Breezy Lee released her solo EP ‘Hollow’ produced by Kwake Bass & Wu-Lu on independent record label Revorg Records.
Thomas McClure
Thomas McClure is a Scottish writer and producer based in Castle Douglas, Dumfries & Galloway. They have a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow. Thomas had written and produced a variety of work, including readings, plays, short animated films, and feature-length online films. He enjoys collaborating with other creatives and is eager to take part in the Rough Mix.
Thomas is delighted to be joining Rough Mix this year as a collaborating artist and is looking forward to exploring multi-disciplinary approaches to performance making.
PERFORMERS
Andre Anderson
Lucy Doig
Ali Anderson Dyer
Jodie Rae
Cate Ross
We look forward to seeing what our artists can create at this years Rough Mix.