What if we could be together somewhere?

Olivia Furber is a theatre director and co-artistic director of ivo theatre. Her residency focuses on multi-media theatre performance Aviatrix in which three of the lead artists were unable to enter the UK in order to perform.

Working remotely with artists in Paris and Jerusalem, Olivia is exploring methods of remote collaboration to re-examine the script, sound and video in Aviatrix.

Aviatrix tells the story of an actor stuck in a UK airport detention centre who is himself trying to perform a show which is based on the story of Amy Johnson, a record breaking pilot who circumnavigated the globe alone in a small aircraft in the 1930s. The work uses Amy Johnson’s international, borderless adventures as the backdrop for stories of migration, exile and escape.

Olivia is collaborating with Paris-based Iranian artists Sara Bigdeli Shamloo and Nima Aghiani, who form experimental electronic music duo 9T Antiope; and actor and writer Ramzi Maqdisi in Jerusalem.

Olivia said: “I was thrilled to be selected to participate in the residency with Skimstone Arts and to exist within a community of open, engaged and supportive artists for a week. My time at Skimstone has allowed me to fully inhabit the world of my project, without distraction, and afforded me dedicated time to share ideas with my collaborators overseas. I’ve made huge progress with a second draft of the script for Aviatrix. For me, writing can sometimes feel isolating, but with the support of Skimstone and my co-creators in Paris & Jerusalem (over Skype!) I’ve found a way to approach writing as a more collaborative and joyous endeavour.”

Claire Webster Saaremets, Artistic Director of Skimstone Arts, said: “Olivia and I have been able to question and explore why we create work that references ethics of production, ownership of voicings and how we work with multimedia elements of sound and visuals equally with text and performance. Skyping our sharing of practice with Sara and Nima was a particularly interesting discussion… the laptop screen gave us connection.. no visa required!!”

The residency was supported by Arts Council England’s Elevate fund.