Tales from the
Eye of the Storm
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We create
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exceptional works of art and theatre exploring our declining relationship with Earth, and the liberation in reconnecting with it
A sanctuary of creativity
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Outrider Anthems emotionally engages communities through story and imagination, and seeks to offer
a sanctuary of truthful creativity
in the inevitable turbulence
of climate breakdown.
We are
Jennifer Leach
Director
Jennifer is a professional artist, playwright & filmmaker and has worked as lead artist at the RA, Courtauld Institute and other major London galleries. In 2011 she established her own company, Outrider Anthems, in order to realize the exploratory multimedia dramatic works that are the company’s hallmark.
Alice McGuigan Project Manager
Since graduating from Queen Mary University of London with a degree in English and Drama (2013), Alice has balanced local arts project management alongside writing and teaching Yoga internationally, as Yogi Wonderland
Ed Hendry
Designer
Ed started his journey with Outrider Anthems in 2016 through his Graphic Communication degree at Reading University. Initially making promotional materials for events, Ed has now created the Outrider Anthems logo, branding, website and identity.
Andrea Carr
Theatremaker
Andrea is an eco-scenographer, theatremaker and artist who has an impressive portfolio to her name, and who has represented the UK as an international designer. She is collaborating with Outrider Anthems to create two new pieces of theatre. Andrea and Jennifer met at a Climate Change conference in 2017.
Mark Goldthorpe Creative Administrator
Mark is an independent creative researcher, project manager and writer on cultural responses to environmental and climate issues. Mark set up ClimateCultures in 2017 as a free, online platform for artists, curators and researchers to explore creative conversations for the Anthropocene.
Upcoming Events
Celebration of the Advent Spiral 2019
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Outrider Anthems is teaming up with the inimitable singer, songwriter and dramatist Nicole Monique Johnson, to bring you a very special evening that nourishes the non-commercial spirit of the Christmas season. We will be bringing you song and story, as we walk together in a simple meditation with lights and candles.
Details to follow.
Projects
Duende
A new work of theatre, in collaboration with Andrea Carr, currently in its Research & Development phase. Duende is an exploration of what it means to be alive, tunnelling through our deepest layers of fear to the raw pulsing heart. Its main protagonists are a Fly, a Spider, two Chameleons, White-Winged Moth, and the terrible creature in the depths. Influenced by Lorca, Flamenco, and the concept of Deep Song.
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This is growing as an intriguing and significant exploration, teaching us much about the Collective Unconscious, and how to allow the Tao in as the lead creator. We look forward to sharing this with you when it is ready.
Song of Crow
Song of Crow has been a seminal piece in the history of Outrider Anthems, and its journey does not seem to be over yet. We are looking to explore its possibilities as a work of puppetry and object manipulation, allowing new depths of mythical magic and wonder to develop. It is currently in its Research & Development phase, in colloboration with Andrea Carr, scenographer, artist, performance maker, and Sean Myatt, puppeteer/object manipulator and Senior Lecturer in Theatre Design at Nottingham Trent University.
Image: Andrea Carr
Art Books & Prints
A series of Jennifer's art books that link her writing and visual art. This is a new venture and will form a significant part of the Outrider Anthems work going forward. Storytelling is a vital art form - the telling of new stories with intention. The art book is an intimate, tactile way in which readers can sit with words, poetry and painting, and allow the story to spread its power. There is also significant potency in the wordless image; the prints and paintings provide an embarcation point for individual journeys of imagination and insight.
News
ClimateCultures
Outrider Anthems has a new Creative Administrator, Mark Goldthorpe, founder of ClimateCultures. ClimateCultures is a wonderfully rich initiative stimulating discussion between artists and creatives on the major issues of climate crisis. It is a platform for sharing. We look forward to a fruitful cross-fertilisation between
Outrider Anthems and ClimateCultures.
Past events
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Festival of the Dark
2016 - 2017
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How would it be if we turned off the lights? And sat - just for a while - in the dark? What might we discover? Rediscover, perhaps? Shall we try?
This was the provocation behind the festival. We wanted to explore darkness, profoundly, embracing the still, quiet, fallow moments of life and the life cycle, and to probe what lies hidden in the dark that we reject and resist. Taking the ancient Celtic Wheel of the Year as our compass, we followed the rhythm of the year from winter solstice to winter solstice, with our 20+ events scheduled according to the significant dates in this calendar. The focus was on the fluxes of the seasons, the seesaw of day and night, and on the subtle recognition of winter and darkness as essential counterpoints to summer and the light. The Festival challenged, surprised and liberated, creating cultural flashlights to illuminate aspects of the ‘dark’ that are largely forgotten in our culture of electric light and fast living.
Song of Crow
2007, 2015, 2016
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An interdisciplinary work of theatre, delving into a challenging story of creation, and asking hard questions of where we, as a species, go from here.
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'Still reeling from seeing Song of Crow last night: a creation myth brought to flesh blood & bone: light & dark, with moments of fear, anxiety, sadness and invoking a kind of miserableness in me only previously provoked by watching a Beckett play - my humanness today is all alive with a sense of storyfulness and craving to keep connected to the non-human world, particularly our crow brethren. Theatre like this is crucial, nay urgent for our times, and the life of our individual & collective cultural imaginations.'
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'Visionary, prophetic, poetic'
Where Then Shall We Start?
2014
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A multi-layered theatre work depicting the unfolding of war as a dark folktale. Written by Jennifer Leach, music by Stephen Daltry, produced by Spark Productions and Outrider Anthems, the Queen’s House, Greenwich,
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'A very beautiful, moving and poignant work, which communicated on the deepest level the universal futility of war.'
The River
2014, 2016
A life story written by Jennifer Leach for a supreme RADA-trained storyteller and very dear friend, Anne Latto. It tells of an old woman reflecting on her life as she turns to face the great horizon. Like a river she follows the flow of memories, a journey from source to sea. Good times, hard times, times to remember, times to forget...
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'From start to finsh, from spring to ocean, this was an absorbing and rich telling.'
Take Two!
Commissioned play on the plight of the Palestinian people. Performed in Ascot and Reading in 2015.
“it was profoundly moving – the movements and visual backdrops and the soundtrack brought me right back to the painful memories of my time in the West Bank, and the desperate situation of the Palestinians today”.