SIZE OF COMPANY
One artist

SCALE OF VENUE
Small to large

PERMANENT STAFF
Artist/Workshop Facilitator
Francesca Beard

ARTISTIC POLICY
Francesca Beard is one of the new generation of UK-based performance poets who use their diverse voices and multidisciplinary skills to dynamise the artform. Each performance is about cultural exchange, about acknowledging shared experience and individual difference. Each performance has an improvisational quality because every performance includes the audience.  

REVIEW EXTRACTS
The queen of British performance poetry…Francesca Beard is one of our finest cartogrophers of the human heart.
London Metro
Fluent and thoughtful poetry wrapped up in surreal comedy…challenging and engaging as anything you’ll find.
Observer Book Reviews/Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Electric…there was not a moment where she failed to hold the audience’s attention…enchanting and funny…I was transported.
New Straits Times, Malaysia (Chinese Whispers)

CURRENT PRODUCTIONS
Chinese Whispers
A one woman show incorporating poetry, song and story-telling to explore identity, language and our place in the world.
60 mins with no interval, 1 artist 0 crew
Animal Olympics
A fun family show that brings the myth of the chinese horoscope to life, featuring songs, storytelling and puppetry.
60 minutes with no interval, 1 artist 0 crew
Francesca Beard
An evening of spoken word.
Show length t.b.c. 1 artist 0 crew

FUTURE PRODUCTIONS
London Tales
A Canterbury Tales for the 21st century, set in London 2012.

WRAP-AROUND
Francesca Beard is an experienced workshop facilitator for all ages. Working in partership with promotors and venues, she aims to run sessions before and/or after shows in order to engage with her audience. Workshops can be opened out to anybody and everybody or they can be tailored specifically into masterclasses for writers and performers and students of literature, theatre, cultural studies or translation. Using drama and theatre techniques in the workshops, these sessions prove engaging and accessible for young people and families. Performance poetry workshops work especially well with mixed ability groups, where there may be some participants who have only very limited English. Francesca has run workshops for the British Council in Azerbijian, Bulgaria, Colombia, Russia, Portugal, Germany, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Poland And Thailand. An example of work that the British Council has done with Francesca can be found in the Britlit section on the British Council/BBC ‘Teaching English’ website: www.teachingenglish.org.uk and in ‘power in the voice’ a performance poetry, story-telling and rap project for young people in southern Africa and the uk http://powerinthevoice.britishcouncil.org/resources/

RECENT INTERNATIONAL WORK
2008 Portugal: Francesca Beard Chinese Whispers
2007 The Philippines, Vietnam, Rome: Francesca Beard
2006 Poland, Thailand, Malaysia: Francesca Beard
2006 Malaysia, Madrid: Chinese Whispers

TOURING AVAILABILITY
All productions available for touring through 2009.