Featured
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.
Touring
Proto-type Theater’s has toured throughout the US and UK. This page is updated with current tour dates as soon as dates are confirmed.
2 February (2012) | Third Person: Bonnie & Clyde Redux | Lincoln | Lincoln Performing Arts Centre | 7.30pm
16 April-29 April | Fortnight | Manchester | Contact | Register Online
Education/Workshops/Resources
Proto-type leads workshops, master-classes and training sessions for a wide variety of groups. To date, this has included professional performers in Busan, South Korea, and undergraduate students in Bristol, Leeds, Scarborough, Crewe and Lancaster UK as well as Asheville (NC), New York and San Francisco, USA.
The following workshops are available:
- Video Foley – age 15+ all skill/experience levels, max 25 participants, 3-4 hours (longer version available)
- This workshop builds on the work of Proto-type’s Virtuoso (working title) and allows students to explore the use of live video in performance. Proto-type company members will introduce participants to the technology used in Virtuoso (working title), demonstrate the construction of perfect televisual images from fragmented live source material and lead the group in creating short performances using the technology.
- Writing Workshop: Re-mapping the City – age 16+ all skill/experience levels, max 20 participants, 3-4 hours (longer version available)
- This workshop explores some of the inspiration for Whisper, and give writers practical ideas and techniques for creating performative writing, based on the city. This workshop will touch on world-building, site-as-inspiration, psycho-geography, mathematics, and architecture and will include time for gaining inspiration, writing and providing peer feedback. Appropriate for writers of all types. Workshop uses the neighbourhood around the hosting venue as a source for inspiration.
- Headphone Performance Workshop – age 15+ all skill/experience levels, max 25 participants, 4 hours (longer version available)
- This workshop includes a primer on the creation of live sound effects using the film technique ‘foley’ and will see workshop participants creating their own short performances using this technique. Participants will also learn how to use the headphone technology employed in Whisper and will work in small groups to develop original material.
- Using Technology in Performance – age 18+ professional artists, max 15 participants, 6 hours (shorter version available)
- This workshop looks at issues of using media in performance and explores techniques for using live feeds, recorded video, screens, projections, televisions, the internet, GPS and other technology in the context of live performance. Participants will be exposed to case studies from Proto-type’s work and from the work of other practitioners and will create short performances of their own to conclude the workshop.
- How to Give Feedback – age 15+ all skill/experience levels, max 20 participants, 1.5 hours
- This workshop is a primer for how to get and give constructive feedback when showing work in progress or completed performance work. It is most appropriate for practicing artists but can be adapted to work with university groups or colleges. Participants will learn about “critical response,” a technique developed by the American choreographer Liz Lerman, and will employ it to give constructive, useful feedback to each other.
The company is also available to teach devising and other less specialised workshops upon request and we are happy to create custom workshops where appropriate. Contact us at admin [@] proto-type [dot] org to request a workshop.
Summer School 2009
In July 2009 Proto-type Theater ran a six-day summer school at our home, The Storey, in Lancaster (UK). The Proto-type Summer School 2009 offered a chance for eight adventurous young makers to develop their practice by working with Proto-type. The summer school was a mixture of workshop/training sessions, new work development and social time, all themed around the question, “Where do lost things go.” Proto-type company members each delivered a series of provocations to the participants around various forms of loss, which inspired the development of short performance works. Participants worked in groups and individually to develop their short performance pieces and received critical feedback and guidance on developing their practice. The weeklong workshop culminated in a showing of their works, which ranged from durational performances to solos, to duets and dances.
Quotes from participants:
“I really enjoyed the freedom to explore many and varied possibilities of performance. The help and support from everyone throughout the week and the chance to explore our own work.”
“The knowledge and diverse range of opportunities were something I couldn’t get anywhere else.”
“Enjoyed it beyond words.”
Other Resources
EDUCATION PACK
VIRTUOSO
WHISPER
ABOUT SILENCE
COMPANY
BUNNY’S LAST NIGHT IN LIMBO
DVDS!
Proto-type is pleased to have beautiful DVDs of Whisper and Virtuoso (working title) available for purchase. Copies for individual use are available for only £15; for institutions/libraries DVDs can be purchased for £25 each. Download an order form here (individual or institution) or email us for more information.
Press
Proto-type’s work is critically acclaimed in the US and the UK. Read below for selections from reviews of our work.
Selected Quotes:
An immensely satisfying slice of cultural history – part fantasy-idyll, part disturbing analogy of a self contained world on the brink of destruction … a dynamic cut-up of parody pulp, cultural history and meta-theatrical angst whose linguistic and stylistic disorientation is mirrored and amplified by the shifting planes and angles of live-feed close ups on the flat screen monitors ranged between the live performance space and audience …This is a production which plays with our sense of performance, and our sense of emotional as well as spatial depth … an exhilarating theatrical experience.
Total Theatre on Virtuoso (working title)
This is beautifully crafted stuff that has a broader relevance and audience than a traditional theatre company based in one city could manage.
Tina Jackson, The Metro (Manchester) on Virtuoso (working title)
The storm is particularly satisfying, with the soothing, exciting noise of a rich, lush, all-encompassing rain that the audience can almost feel. Mr. Petralia’s script is often quite poetic. (‘Sometimes time has holes in it.’) And the production, which he also directed, flirts with the feel of a supernatural, psychological thriller.
Anita Gates, The New York Times
Whisper cleverly mines the dramatic tension between ‘reality’ and the seductive power of technology … it’s hard to ignore the amplified voices seductively whispering in your ear, especially when they reassure you, ‘You like it when emotions loop that way.
Paul Menard, Backstage
Whisper is quite simply an extraordinary piece of theatre.
Carole Gordon, What’s On Stage
Proto-type Theater’s Whisper uses the headphone technology in Contains Violence to spin a story that unfolds inside your head like a nightmare…the mixture of foley soundscapes and the strange melding and disconnect between image and sound sucks you in.
Lyn Gardner, The Guardian
Whisper creates an aurally imaginative and multi-faceted portrait of fast and fragmented modern city life and produces an ambitious and unusual experience.
Matina Von Holm, Total Theatre
Director Peter S. Petralia is a master at creating atmosphere. His hallucinatory sound design, which keeps speeding up and slowing down, nicely fits the hazy set. Petralia has a cinematographer’s eye, and some of his stage pictures are in the spirit of classic black and white Gothic horror. But he, of course, is working on a more modern, Freudian type of fright. The monsters of today’s Beckett influenced drama don’t lurk in Transylvania; they fester in the subconscious… Keep an eye out for this adventurous group…
Jason Zinoman, Time Out NY
Of the three productions that I saw, the most daring, experimental, and theatrically engaging is Third Person by Proto-type Theater.
Dan Bacalzo, Theatermania
Peter S. Petralia’s The Christmas Suicides, depicts a man lying on his back in front a mirror. This man, Sam, recalls for us all the Christmases when he tried to kill himself. With jolting simplicity, Petralia cuts right to the heart of profound sadness and its myriad sources.
Martin Denton, nytheatre.com
Three Ring is an exquisitely moody work…the cast’s Olympian energy also has the confidence to execute Petralia’s odd, endearing vision.
Leonard Jacobs, Backstage Magazine for Live from Downtown on DCTV
Cheap Thrills is brave, loud, unique and provocative. There is much about this nightmarish brothel-family epic that would make Tim Burton, John Waters and David Lynch proud. Audiences should not expect an emotionally safe or comfortable experience from Proto-type’s newest production. But they should find much to ponder and enjoy.
Daniel Gallant, The Greenwich Village Gazette
Peter S. Petralia is rapidly becoming downtown theatre’s premiere auteur: nobody can conjure a milieu with so much specificity and precision as he can… Cheap Thrills is experimental theatre of the most exciting and fundamental kind. Peter S. Petralia, the director-playwright-designer responsible for this weird, intoxicating show, is a true visionary: he has a unique take on how theatre should work, and this show, second in a trilogy that started with last year’s Bunny’s Last Night in Limbo, is a living laboratory where all of us—artists and audience alike—can explore the dynamics of a form that is breathtakingly original. Hence, experimental theatre: the actual kind…one of the more adventurous, innovative, and worthy cutting-edge groups that I know of.
Martin Denton, nytheatre.com
Bunny’s dreamlike world chaotically exists somewhere between John Water’s white-trash Baltimore and Lewis Carroll’s psychedelic Wonderland…Produced by the always-inventive Proto-type, this follow-up to 2000s Bunny’s Last Night in Limbo is an intelligent and entertaining merger of avant-garde and conventional performance styles.
Robert Kent, NEXT Magazine