Welcome to earth
5 June - 30 August
6 intercontinental works-in-process: diaspora, borders, solidarity.
Join us as we explore interaction, collaboration, and interconnectivity in an era of reinforced borders and social distancing.
earth is the first instalment of works-in-process series, earth ocean ancestors.
Meet the artists of earth
Clarissa Widya
Clarissa Widya graduated from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice. She co-founded and runs Papergang Theatre, a charity for British East Asian and East Asian diaspora stories.
This year Papergang Theatre presented Invisible Harmony无形的和谐at the Southbank Centre as part of Chinese Arts Now Festival. They also produced Freedom Hi自由閪 for the VAULT Festival, which won the Show of the Week award.
Clarissa works part time as the London Theatre Consortium Manager, co-ordinating 14 London Theatres in their collaboration.
Joana Nastari
Joana Nastari is a Brazilian-British writer, performer & community organiser.
Her debut cross form “stigma smashing” play Fuck You Pay Me, about working in London strip clubs has seen multiple sell out runs in Edinburgh and London, reached the national media, won several awards and was published by Oberon. She is also developing a TV comedy set in this world, and a book anthology of activist writing. Joana is an Oval House Associate Artist and a resident at Raven Row, and last year was commissioned by CASA to make a gig-theatre show about spirituality and shopping at Oval House. Joana co-runs big queer Latinx disco “Brazilian Wax” a club night which centres and programs people from the Latinx, Queer and Sex Worker communities. She is also an organiser with grassroots trade union UVW.
Robert Awosusi
Robert (he/him) is a director / theatremaker based in London, making things about people not listened to, and thinking about where we're going. Music. ideas. concepts.
Theatre includes: Personal Statements [rehearsed reading], Background Noise [rehearsed reading] (National Theatre); Bullring Techno Makeout Jamz, Virtue (The Bunker); The Derek Smith Show (Karamel Club); phroot sahlad (The North Wall / Lyric Hammersmith/ Camden People's Theatre); Lockout, Roost (The North Wall); The Lost (Young Vic)
Associate director: Radio Elusia Podcast (Boundless Theatre), WE KNOW WHAT WE MAY BE [Artistic Associate](Barbican)
Assistant director: "Daddy" - A Melodrama (Almeida Theatre), Fairview (Young Vic), Let Kilburn Shake (Kiln Theatre), The Slave (Tristan Bates Theatre); The Trial (Young Vic)
Robert is on the Advisory Board for Boundless Theatre, and was recently on the Board Shadowing Programme run by Artistic Directors of the Future.
Nicole Pingon
Nicole Pingon is a multidisciplinary artist, performer and facilitator, working across theatre, live art, and digital mediums.
Performance credits include: The Gaslight Project: Stage One (Ninefold/PACT), Chorus (Bontom/Old Fitz Theatre), Extended Play with Oliver Shermacher (Little Eggs/City Recital Hall), Table (White Box/Seymour Centre) and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Little Eggs/KXT bAKEHOUSE).
Writing and directing credits include: Spider In My Soup (Bondi Feast, Shopfront Arts Co-op), and Organs! (Shopfront Arts Co-op). Nicole has been an ArtsLab artist-in-residence at Shopfront Arts Co-op and a member of the KXT Step Up Program. Currently she is part of CuriousWorks’ Makers Space Program.
Vera Chok
At present, Vera Chok is interested in disrupting binary systems. She is a poet and writes opinion pieces, as well as a maker of (mostly live) performance. Vera makes lo-fi, wide-spanning (geographical and temporal), macro- and micro- pieces full of gentleness, joy and naughtiness; all calls to action. Vera is a homemaker of spaces.
Writing credits include: Yellow, in The Good Immigrant, an anthology of what it feels like to be an immigrant of colour in the UK, think pieces for The Guardian newspaper, and a story commissioned by WeTransfer. Groups founded include: The Brautigan Book Club, saltpeter productions, and the nihilists, all breaking the rules at the time.
Katherine Lim
Katherine Lim is an artist with an interdisciplinary practice working on Dharawal country, Sydney, Australia. Her grounding is in the visual, and her mind is frequently on technology, place, ritual and relationships.
Jules Orcullo
Jules Orcullo is a Filipinx-Australian playwright, dramaturg, director, performer, and producer with The Joy Offensive. Jules is currently works as administrator and producer for Contemporary Asian Australian Performance, Co-Curious, and Belvoir. Jules is a Creative Live/Work Tenant with Brand X and the City of Sydney.
Recently, Jules wrote and directed developments of Lockout (Kings Cross Theatre), Twenty One Sixty Five (The Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre) and short play Aussie Kids are Weet-Bix Kids (Kings Cross Theatre). She was also dramaturg and director on Ten Years To Home with Nautanki Theatre at Riverside Theatres. In 2019, she worked in development and production roles in Fangirls (Belvoir), Blood on a Cat's Neck (Kings Cross Theatre), Curry Kings (Riverside Theatres), and Fuck You Pay Me (Bunker Theatre). Other works for theatre include: earth. ocean. ancestors. (producer/curator, across London), May Utang (writer/performer, Theatre Absolute), Look, See (short; writer/director, Theatre Royal Stratford East) and phroot sahlad (writer/performer, across UK).
To support the artists of earth, head to The Joy Offensive's Patreon. All new and increased contributions in June, July, and August will go directly to the artists. Please note that Patreon currently only supports monthly contributions, so if you'd like to give a one-off donation, you'll be prompted to cancel your patronage once the first payment is processed.
earth artwork by Katherine Lim. project artworks by the artists. photo of Jules Orcullo courtesy of Katherine Griffiths / City of Sydney.