"The actor makes a gift of himself" -Jerzy Grotowski
PERFORMANCE PROJECTS
2014 "This Being a Woman"
Solo Performance by Agata Krajewska
The show explored identity in the context of being a woman. It wrestled with outdated female role models, sensing new and unknown emergence of the feminine principle into the world, finding its expression through my life.
“A stunning performance. Real, very touching and funny. Enjoyed every moment of it”
“You’ve articulated what I haven’t been able but always wanted to say, so moving and inspirational”
“I completely acknowledge you for a delicately powerful, precisely timed and insightful, deeply sensual performance. “
“That was such a thrilling performance, you are a pro on every level and such a great comedienne...... it is definitely a great gift to be able to touch on such discomforting truths in such a light way- genius.”
Fundraising Video for the Project:
Extracts from the show:
Solo Autobiographical Performances
Directed by Agata
2016 DROP THE STORY FESTIVAL
Rooh Star “Undoing the Bad Spell”
Selena Mare “Days on the Dongas”
Jeannie Hodder “The Tram Lines”
Suzi Williamson “In their Hands”
Mothiur Rahman “Where two worlds collide”
2017 DROP THE STORY FESTIVAL
Phil Barber “Tomorrow I come home”
Marta Emmitt “Everything tries to be round”
2018 DROP THE STORY FESTIVAL
Phil Barber “She”
Selena Mara “The Five Year Walk”
Sho Moskovitz “Homecoming”
Rooh Star “She Who Sings Her Own Song”
Sarah Heal “Coming Home”
Catharine Boothroyd “I Love the Flowers”
2019 STORIES FOR CHANGE FESTIVAL
Katheryn Trenshaw "Dying to Live By the Numbers"
Kate Hubert “Umbilical (Grandma Briant's War)”
Claire Jones "Rigger"
Sarah Heal “Everyday Adventures of the Superhero”
2019 DROP THE STORY FESTIVAL
Claire Jones "The Girl in the Mirror"
Holly Tiffen "I Have Been Created"
2020 ROUGH DIAMONDS FESTIVAL
Gulara Vincent "Family Portrait from Azerbaijan"
Kate Hubert "Love and Loss on the Costa del Dole"
Hazel Love "Sensitive"
Kirsty Hurd Thomas "Falling"
2021 ROUGH DIAMONDS FESTIVAL
Gulara Vincent "In Search of Freedom-Women's Journey to Power"
Kate Hubert "The Song of My Father"
"I had a deep calling to tell the story of my journey with having a disability from birth. Performing at Drop the Story in 2019 was the first time I had performed in public. I couldn’t tell you why I felt the need to do this, but once I had, it became clear to me that I had reached a place of acceptance and joy in who I was, and the performance acted as a declaration of this to myself, I had drawn a line in the sand. It felt and still feels utterly liberating." Holly
2018 "The Witches Kitchen"
Solo Performance by Agata Krajewska
Final Project for MA Performance Training, Plymouth University
“The Life/Death/Life nature is a cycle of animation, development, decline, and death that is always followed by reanimation. This cycle affects all physical life and all facets of psychological life.”
Clarissa Pinkola Estes
I have been working with the theme of the transformational cycle, searching for it in the biology of the female body, in the kitchen and in stories that are both ancient and my own. Through this performance, I hoped to offer you insight into the experience of a menstrual cycle, as both lived experience and a metaphor for a creative process.
This project has investigated the “outcast” feminine archetypes such as “the Witch”. My primary research question has been: What might be gained by exploring the outcast parts of the female psyche and moments of the creative cycle that feature disintegration?
I have played with several modes of performance such as ritual, storytelling, performance art, physical theatre and comedy, mixing them up like cooking ingredients in an attempt to create a performance experience that is nourishing.
In the creation of this piece I have been inspired by a British artist Marisa Carnesky, who blends styles of popular entertainment show, lecture demonstration and tang-in-cheek ritual to deliver her ‘research into the importance of celebrating the symbolic and cultural power of menstruation’.
Bobby Baker’s solo autobiographical work influenced me both in terms of form and content. Like her, I have examined my identity as a woman and explored my maternal ancestry through the use of food and cooking.
