Residencies
Paul and Gill Simmons were selected by Hypha Studios as residence artists in August 2022. Hypha offers free temporary project space or more permanent studio space to remove the financial obstacles from making work to artists. Brave Bold Drama were selected to share the former Shoezone in Broadwalk Shopping Centre in Knowle Bristol.
Throughout the duration of the residency Brave Bold Drama will be devising and rehearsing theatre shows in the space
(including "The Munch Mission", "The Midnight Mission", "The Discovery Lab" and brand new show "The Keepers") in addition to prop/set/costume making, sound design and film-making.
Brave Bold Drama will also offer family art workshops in the school holidays and on weekends as the Company of International Artists.
Additionally Paul & Gill will also faciliate community project "Broadwalk Rewind" which explores the history of the shopping centre through reclaimed photographs from the 80s/90s - recontextualising them into comic-book style narrative form with local families.
Residency funded by Arts Council England.
The Pervasive Media Studio hosts a brilliant community of over 100 artists, creative companies, technologists and academics exploring experience design and creative technology. It is a collaboration between Watershed, University of Bristol and
UWE Bristol.
Based within Watershed on Bristol's historic docksid, The Pervasive Media Studio have an open plan Studio with a culture of generosity, curiosity and interuptability. They believe that by clustering together people from a broad range of backgrounds, with differing skills, experiences and opinions, all of our ideas get better.
Projects can be cultural or commercial and span play, robotics, location-based media, food, connected objects, interactive documentary and new forms of performance.
Throughout this residency Brave Bold Drama seek to experiment with new technology for specific arts projects catered to adults living with dementia and also explore how to can integrate more innovative technologies into their family theatre shows.
During 2018, Knowle West Media Centre (KWMC) commissioned five artists; Myah Calista, Marc Blazel, Gill Simmons, Paul Lawless (Brave Bold Drama) and Ellie Shipman to explore what collaborative relationship between artists and communities look and feel like by, working, making and living in Knowle West.
Paul and Gill gathered ideas for lyrics, riffs (snippets of tunes) and rhythms from local residents through participatory workshops. This became a new three-part song which we recorded at Knowle West Media Centre in October 2018. The recording was transferred onto an interative 'Song Station' which enables people to not only listen to the song, but also remix and upload their own versions to SoundCloud.
The Song Station was exhibited at Knowle West Media Centre from November 2018 to April 2019, before going on a tour of other community venues including Filwood Community Centre and Filwood Library.
The L.E.A.P (Local Emerging Artists Platform) residency scheme began in 2009. The scheme creates opportunities for select alumni from the Weymouth College performing arts department to return as a professional theatre practitioner to develop new work on-site over the course of an academic year.
The residency allows for select alumni to develop new work utilising college resources/facilities and in return resident artists offer professional guidance to current students studying within the department. At the end of the residency duration L.E.A.P companies tour their performance work.
Paul was resident between September 2016 - June 2017. Within this time-frame the Paul developed his autobiographical solo performance piece 'Appily Ever After' which toured nationally in Summer 2017.
Paul became the L.E.A.P resident artist once more between September 2023 - June 2024.
Sanctuary is a residency program that runs across the Summer months at Lighthouse, Poole in (Dorset) which
invites creative practitioners to use their space to progress their practice. The program is open to artists from any performative artform, from theatre-making to song writing, and the space can be used to rehearse, undertake research and development, and/or hold workshops.
The program offers space for artists/company to develop new shows or ideas and allows artists the time to think, dream, play, try, fail, succeed, finesse, and create.
Paul and Gill secured a place as part of the Sanctuary program 2023 to develop a third Company of International Artists theatre show exploring art forgery. During this residency period they will be joined by Evan Lordan who directed both
The Munch Mission and The Midnight Mission.
Puppet Place is the home for puppetry in the South West of England. Based in Bristol’s historic Harbourside, the organisation aims to support puppetry practitioners in the region and help cultivate a thriving community network.
They offer space, advice and other additional support to encourage innovation, research, and push creative practises – to nurture new ideas and emerging talent – to further develop the artform of puppetry – and to engage with the public through our work.
Paul became an Associate Artist of Puppet Place alongside Gill Simmons in August 2023.