The Company

Proto-type Theater is based in Manchester, UK and we make original theater and media work that tours internationally. This page includes a brief history of the company, contact details and links to company member profiles.

Mission

Proto-type Theater is a company of multi-disciplinary artists interested in live performance. Creating original works that are diverse in scale, subject and medium, Proto-type is currently exploring the distributed narrative, city as source/site, the relationship between technology and intimacy, the sung-through format of music theatre and the nature of love and death. Proto-type’s work is demanding and intricately crafted to create experiences for a diverse audience of intelligent, modern humans.

Proto-type is an ensemble based company whose core members are Artistic Director Peter S Petralia, Gillian Lees, Rachel Baynton and Andrew Westerside.

Proto-type’s work has been performed throughout England and in the US, Korea, Zimbabwe, Armenia, Scotland, Russia, China and Mongolia. Each new project that the company undertakes is an evolution from or a response to the previous work, which means the company’s artistic profile is constantly developing. Proto-type has made (amongst others) installation work in a Roman garden in Chester (UK), multi-media theatre that unravels the stereotype of American suburbia, a two-week long performative experience for pervasive technologies, a delicate two-hander that looks at the mythology surrounding two of history’s most notorious criminals and an unrehearsed performance for three local performers that has been performed hundreds of times. All of Proto-type’s work has a focus on precision in its execution and in making accesible sometimes quite complicated material.

History

Proto-type Theater has been producing work since 1997, in New York City, San Francisco, North Carolina, the Netherlands, Scotland, Russia, China, Korea and most recently in England. Critics have called our work “beautifully crafted stuff that has a broader relevance and audience than a traditional theatre company based in one city could manage” (Tina Jackson of the Metro, Manchester) and have said that we are “one of the more adventurous, innovative and worthy cutting-edge groups that I know of” (Martin Denton on nytheatre.com). The critical praise for our work has been matched by a series of commissions from Nuffield Theatre Lancaster, Soho Theatre (London), Performance Space 122 (NYC) and Dixon Place (NYC); residencies at the School of Art and New Media (Scarborough), Battersea Arts Centre (BAC), Lanternhouse International, the Field and Richard Foreman’s Ontological Theatre; and by the support of a large and loyal audience.

As of 2006, Proto-type has been located in Lancaster as a result of our Artistic Director’s move to the north of England. In 2007, we created Whisper at the CCA Glasgow and Nuffield Theatre Lancaster as our first-ever production created entirely in the UK with British performers. Whisper went on to have a successful national tour supported by Arts Council England, which paved the way for Proto-type to develop a more substantial presence in England. David Micklem, BAC’s co-Artistic Director called Whisper “a remarkable piece of work” and said that it is “exactly the kind of work BAC is proud to support.” After creating Whisper, Proto-type developed another critically and popularly acclaimed work called Virtuoso (working title) with support from Arts Council England, Nuffield Theatre Lancaster, the Bluecoat and Lanternhouse International. Virtuoso (working title) has toured throughout the UK where it was called “an exhilarating theatrical experience” by Total Theatre. Proto-type’s newest piece Third Person (redux) has recently opened at Nuffield Theatre Lancaster and will tour in the summer/autumn 2010.
Proto-type is a member of New Work Network, IETM (the informal european theatre meeting), PANDA, are included on LanWest.org as a company whose work has been endorsed by presenters from the North West, and are featured in the British Council’s Performance in Profile 2009 and 2010.

In the time since our formation, we have created: FRACK TO BUNT (1996, 1997) performed at 111 Minna (SF) and NYU, POOR ANGELS (1999), BUNNY’S LAST NIGHT IN LIMBO (2000 and 2001), THE TWILIGHT SERIES (2001) which were performed at HERE Arts Center, CHEAP THRILLS (2002, 2003) which was performed at HERE Arts Center, as a reading at New York Theatre Workshop and as a workshop at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina, THREE RING (2003, 2004) which was performed at HERE Arts Center, Walkerspace and at the Sibiu International Theater Festival in Romania, ABOUT SILENCE (2003, 2004) which was performed at One Arm Red and Dixon Place, MUSEUM OF DREAMS (2004, 2005) which was performed at Chashama, THIRD PERSON (2005) which was performed at the Brick Theater in Brooklyn, APOSTASY (2005) which was commissioned by Dixon Place, INVISIBLE MESSAGES (2006) which was commissioned by PS122 and WHISPER (2007) which was developed through a residency at the CCA Glasgow and at the Nuffield Theatre Lancaster (UK), VIRTUOSO (WORKING TITLE) which was developed at the National Creation Centre (Ulverston), Nuffield Theatre Lancaster and the Bluecoat Liverpool, and THIRD PERSON (REDUX) which was developed at Battersea Arts Centre London and the Storey Creative Industries Centre Lancaster. WHISPER. VIRTUOSO and THIRD PERSON (REDUX) have both toured throughout England. WHISPER has toured to the US.

Company Members:
Rachel Baynton, Gillian Lees, Peter S Petralia (Artistic Director), and Andrew Westerside.

Associate Members:
Rebecca M. K. Makus and David McBride.

Collaborators:
Alice Booth, Stacey Carlson, Mandy Caughey, Lu Chekowsky, Max Duykers, Mark Esaias, Nicola Hobday, Mikeah Jennings, Glenn Kessler, Margie Lempert, Charley Layton, Alessandro Magania, Thomas Pilutik, Meredith Smart and Carlton Ward.

UK Advisory Board Members:
Tamsin Drury, Gavin Fowler, Vallejo Gantner, Jill Godfrey, Kristin Marting, Nina Steiger, and Lisa Wesley.

US Board Members:
Fred Martens, Karen Kimbrough, Peter S Petralia, Thomas Pilutik.

Peter S Petralia

Rachel Baynton

Rachel Baynton has previously worked as Artistic Director with several successful youth theatre companies in venues and festivals around the country, toured large-scale, outdoor performances of Shakespeare to English Heritage sites and designed practical literacy packages for secondary schools.

Graduating in Devised Theatre at Dartington College of Arts, Rachel has gone on to work as a writer, performer, producer and director of collaborative, often site-specific, theatre including: the performance pieces THE BULLIVER PROJECT [2002]: created with the support of South Hams Railway in Totnes, Devon and THE CALMER FUTURE? [2005]. Rachel created and curated FINISH THIS [2004/5] an online international writing collaboration and undertook dramaturgical duties for AN INTERVIEW WITH DORIAN GRAY [2006].

Rachel currently provides marketing and participation support for Lancaster Institute of Contemporary Arts (LICA), alongside work on the collections and exhibitions in the Peter Scott Gallery.

Andrew Westerside

Dr. Andrew Westerside (Wes) is a performer, director, theorist and core member of Proto-type Theater. In 2011 he completed a PhD studying the field of contemporary performance aesthetics at Lancaster University [UK].

Most recently, Wes has performed and toured nationally and internationally with Proto-type Theater in: THIRD PERSON (Redux) [2010-], VIRTUOSO (working title) [2009], WHISPER [2007-], and worked as a creative collaborator on FORTNIGHT [2011]. He has directed two performance works premiering in the UK: THE CALMER FUTURE? [2005] and AN INTERVIEW WITH DORIAN GRAY [2006].

Depending on the direction of the wind, his biggest influences are: Robert Wilson, Societas Raffello Sanzio, Reckless Sleepers, Rimini Protokoll, and Andrew-Graham Dixon.

He is one of the few contemporary performance makers in the UK who is openly and unashamedly passionate about football. In the past 10 years he has unsuccessfully tried to: learn the violin, speak Russian, rollerblade, hack a computer network in California and cook a poached egg. He is succeeding in learning German.

Wes is a Lecturer in Drama at the University of Lincoln.

Gillian Lees

Gillian Lees gained a First Class Honours Degree in Contemporary Theatre Practice, specialising in Performance, at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Gillian has worked as a freelance performer and devisor with some of Britain’s most well respected experimental theatre practitioners/companies, including The Pacitti Company London, Third Angel Theatre Company, Proto-type Theater, Lisa Wesley, Grace Surman, Reeling and Writhing, Benchtours and Poorboy Theatre Company. Her own practice focuses on the physical element of contemporary performance, often dealing with the process of physical exhaustion. The content informs the task based/durational form which the work takes. She has shown work as part of the National Review of Live Art 01’ and 03’, a Dark lights Commission 02’ (Tramway Glasgow) and was awarded a Commission by Stalker Theatro, Turin.

David McBride

David has a Masters in Professional Contemporary Art Practice from the Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Arts, and has worked in multiple continents. While in Canada, he was an Instructor and Production Manager at the University of Regina, a House Technician for Regina’s Globe Theatre, a director of two one-woman shows, a lighting designer of numerous theatre productions, and the creator and performer for two one-man shows: Proposal Project and Pushing Buttons. In the UK, David worked with companies including Drunken Chorus (And Hell Followed With Them), Duende (The Shattering Man), Cupola Bobber, Judith Adams, Angel Club North, Pen-ultimate, and Live at LICA, while also touring his third one-man show, Creating Space. Life has now taken David to Hong Kong, where he is excited to be exploring new audiences and new collaborations.

Amongst David’s fondest artistic memories are making a larger-than-life snail out of organza and plastic tubing, seeing the sunrise after a night of delivering letters, and the roadblocks and Soviet-era technology during Proto-type’s British Council-sponsored tour to Armenia.

For more information you can visit David’s website.