Hi I’m Tom

I started out as a juggler and street performer who, back in the 80’s along with a bunch of likeminded reprobates founded nofitstate as a reaction to the Thatcherite world around us, and as an excuse not to get proper jobs. Twenty-eight years on, only 2 of the original crew remain and the company has entrenched it’s position as the UK’s largest and leading contemporary circus company. We regularly tour the UK and internationally as well as running a large program of evening classes and many community and education projects.

It has become a proper job on quite a large scale.

 

Starting our own company and growing it from nothing and often with nothing gave us a complete freedom to do what we want and develop our own style. And out of necessity, if something needed making, fixing, inventing, lighting etc we had to do it ourselves.

Doing everything the hard way taught me a lot, I’ve had no formal training in production or producing just 28 years of experience of making it happen.

At the end of the 90’s I tried to run away from the circus to Art collage where I studied the ‘new and emergent’ interactive arts degree. During this time I developed my interest in video installation, intelligent environments, digital control systems and interactive theatre.

After graduating I worked with: Llywfan Gogledd Cymru  on  Frongoch and Tara Teresa,  developing the Video integration into the live performance and creating the content and control systems.

With the Common Sense company on various projects and exhibited interactive instillations at the Museums Of and the Oxo tower in London.

I was able to bring this ‘new direction’ back to nofitstate with the shows Autogedon, Prophesy, now.here and ImMortal zero. These shows set the scene for many of the developments of the nofitstate style and cartelized a period of intense growth and activity for the company.

 

Being Creative Producer of the ImMortal, tabú and Bianco projects and taking the company through the last 12 years of development has been full of many exciting and hugely rewarding challenges.

But hopefully nofitstate is now at a stage where I can step away from the day-to-day producing and re-engage with my own interest and artistic practice to possibly kick start the next 12 years of development.

I recently was granted a Creative Wales Award to undertake a period of research and enquiry and explore the boundaries between Circus equipment, sculpture, scenography and installation. And reengage with Digital media, Digital video and interactivity in the live art environment.

The Digital producers lab is a fantastic opportunity at this time to begin my research. I am very excited about discovering more about current trends and technologies in the sector. In the 90’s and 00’s the costs and complexities of touring large-scale shows with significant digital content was the prevail of the big boys and rock and roll. These days the landscape is very different, the technology is much more affordable and available. What used to take me days of soldering and programming is probably doable now in hours with an off the shelf interface.

I want to see what’s out there, what’s going on, what’s possible and where is the creative application within my practice and projects.

Views: 248

Add a Comment

You need to be a member of National Theatre Wales Community to add comments!

Join National Theatre Wales Community

Comment by Alise Piebalga on November 12, 2013 at 4:44

Hello

Congratulations on the award! 

I graduated from the same Interactive Arts course in 2003 and I believe you once delivered a lecture to us. It was great to see NoFitState project then and how much it has grown since then. 

Comment by Katherine Jewkes on November 3, 2013 at 6:43

This is gorgeous, thanks Tom.

Comment by Carolina Vasquez on November 2, 2013 at 5:40

Congratulations on the Creative Wales Award and digital producer's lab. 

Looking forward to hearing about the next 12 years of your journey.

image block identification

© 2024   Created by National Theatre Wales.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service