Grania Pickard
Shakespeare's Women; Hanging by a Thread
Aerial Lines
Aerial Lines is the name of the collaboration between myself and actor-aerialist Helen Parke (Parkey).
Our collaboration began in 2019, when I asked Parkey to support me in creating a short devised aerial adaptation of Ophelia (pictured left) to be performed at the Bristol Shakespeare Festival. We discovered we enjoyed working together and had a common interest in finding ways to combine text and aerial movement that encouraged authenticity in performance.
In 2021 we were supported by Arts Council England to carry out research and development into the following:
Exploratory workshops bringing aerialists and actors together to explore the text of Macbeth on the floor, the air and the space in between.
These workshops are part of a project to develop a new methodology for working with voice, text & aerial; combining circus and acting to find a common language.
We are interested in encouraging and informing opportunities for people from multi-disciplinary backgrounds and most importantly a wider range of socio-economic and racial backgrounds, supporting
the under-represented.
Above: Grania stretching, Parkey on her laptop.
Left: Grania performing Ophelia in Bristol Shakespeare Festival, at Circomedia.
Photo Credit: Giles W. Bennett