ODAC supports artists working in contemporary performance, theatre, live art and dance - or other disciplines working with liveness and interactivity.
We call it a ‘commission’ when we’ve contributed both space and money (and often other resources) to the creation of a project. As a creation centre, we usually commission in partnership with a presenting organisation.
COMMISSIONS
The Extinction Trilogy by Hester Stefan Chillingworth, photo credit: Zbigniew Kotkiewicz
DEVELOPED ON DRUMMOND STREET
‘Developed on Drummond Street’ is a commissioning partnership between neighbours Old Diorama Arts Centre (ODAC) and Camden People’s Theatre (CPT), exploring new ways of making work in Camden, with and for Camden residents. The cash value of the commissions is £10,000, with the intent to make a full, small-scale project within that budget.
2022’s Developed on Drummond Street: Camden NoW! Commission, was an open call to Camden-resident artists asking what would you make if you could make a show now and present it this year? What needs to be said, and who needs to be saying it?
Grills by Mirrorball at Camden People’s Theatre, photo credit: Harry Elletson
in 2022, commissioned Mirrorball to create GRILLS, inspired by the archives of the Camden Lesbian Centre and Black Lesbian Group, which had a sell-out run at CPT in December. Two further projects received a smaller development commission: Emily Momoh to R&D a project about the 18th-century street performer Billy Waters, and Munotida Chinyanga.
2023 ‘Developed on Drummond Street: 'To the Streets’ Commission was an open call for proposals for small-scale, site-responsive contemporary performance made for outdoor spaces in Camden.
In collaboration with Camden People’s Theatre, we chose ‘Town Criers’ by Emergency Chorus.
Grills by Mirrorball in rehearsal, photo credit: Matt Mahmood-Ogston
Town Criers was a short, playful outdoor performance, created by Emergency Chorus in collaboration with a group of five Camden residents. They formed a ‘choir of town criers’, complete with traditional costumes, bells and scrolls of paper, and shouted, on the streets, at the tops of their lungs. But this group of town criers didn’t just perform the role as usual, instead performing a sly and funny subversion of tradition.
The Town Criers performed at various local summer festivals including Regent’s Roots 2023.
Watch this space for our call out for ‘Developed on Drummond Street’ 2024…
Town Criers by Emergency Chorus in rehearsal, photo credit: Zbigniew Kotkiewicz
OTHER PROJECTS
Alongside more formalised schemes, we support the commissioning of interdisciplinary work on a more ad-hoc basis, when funds allow. We are particularly interested in projects that have a place-based relevance of some kind, in their creation or a performance outcome.
Responding to our location and communities is often about working with residents, but also means responding to our location in the Knowledge Quarter innovation and business districts, and being part of an area of the city in flux. We’re exploring the role of artists in urban development and what role artists can play in the innovation of disparate forms, including in large scale commissioning project, Stories of Regent’s Park Estate.
If you have a project, Creative Director Daniel Pitt would love to hear about it.