Proto-type are a company of multi-disciplinary artists led by Rachel Baynton, Gillian Lees, and Andrew Westerside.
We create original performance work that is diverse in scale, subject and medium. Recently, this has included touring theatre (A Machine they’re Secretly Building), a two-week long theatrical experience using pervasive technologies (Fortnight), a multimedia concert-performance featuring a live laptop orchestra and animation (The Good, the God and the Guillotine) and a radio drama with the BBC (The Forgotten Suffragette). We’ve been making work and supporting young artists in the US, the Netherlands, Russia, China, Armenia, France, Zimbabwe and the UK since 1997. Critics have called our work ‘an intriguing brush with altered reality’ (New York Times), ‘Smartly intelligent… coolly reasoned theatre’ (The Guardian) and ‘enthralling’ (Zambezi News).
Rachel Baynton
ABOUT:
Rachel is a performer, writer, director and producer. She studied at Dartington College of Arts, going on to create the site-specific Bulliver Project (for South Devon Railway), The Calmer Future and international writing collaboration, Finish This.
She has worked with the BBC on radio drama The Forgotten Suffragette and on Fallen, an operatic chamber piece, performed live to commemorate and coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. She has written and directed community work for the Paines Plough Roundabout, and for youth theatre companies in venues and festivals around the country, and has toured large-scale outdoor performances to English Heritage sites. She managed the collections at Lancaster University’s Institute of Contemporary Arts (LICA), and is currently Lecturer and Producer for the School of Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Lincoln.
Gillian Lees
ABOUT:
Gillian is a Glasgow based contemporary performance practitioner, working in contemporary theatre, live art and durational performance contexts.
She studied contemporary theatre Practice at The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, is an associate artist of Third Angel (collaborating on works including 9 Billion Miles from Home and A Perfect Circle), a member of The Strange Names Collective and a frequent collaborator with artists and performance makers across the UK. Gillian has a collaborative live art practice with Adam York Gregory. They have exhibited their works (A Working Hypothesis, Constants & Variables, Time/Distance, Present Tense, Full Stop) at internationally renowned venues, galleries and festivals, including Tempting Failure (London), Buzzcut (Glasgow), The Storey (Lancaster), dfbrl8r (Chicago IL), Mobius (Boston MA), Rosekill (NY) and Tramway (Glasgow).
Andrew Westerside
ABOUT:
Dr. Andrew Westerside (Wes) is a performer, writer, director and academic. He studied at Dartington College of Arts and completed his PhD at Lancaster University (2011).
He has performed and toured nationally and internationally and has directed performance works including: The Calmer Future [2005], An Interview with Dorian Gray [2006] and The Good, the God and the Guillotine [2013]. He co-wrote and directed BBC Radio Lincolnshire’s Leaving Home project (2014), which focused on the story of Lincolnshire’s Beechey family and their losses during World War One. The project is the subject of a forthcoming BBC film. Wes is Senior Lecturer in Drama at the University of Lincoln.
Associates
ABOUT:
Proto-type are proud to work with some amazing artists and companies, click here to find out more about our associates.
Proto-type are proud to be part of the Staging Change Network – a group of performers and makers in the theatre and entertainment industry who believe the future of theatre is green.
The cultural industry has a responsibility to reduce its environmental impact, both in terms of its carbon emissions and waste production, and our network works together to discuss how we can overcome the challenges we face in becoming more environmentally sustainable.
Proto-type was founded in New York City by Peter S. Petralia (1997–2006), relocating to Lancaster’s Storey Institute (2006–2010) and Manchester’s Northern Quarter (2010–2014). They are now based in Lincoln’s Cathedral Quarter and are making and supporting work across the region.
ABOUT: 
Proto-type are proud to be part of the Staging Change Network – a group of performers and makers in the theatre and entertainment industry who believe the future of theatre is green.