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Image: Big Hands
Photographer: Christopher Nurse

	YEAR OF THE BEAR


	Live music\|Spoken word\|Theatre

SIZE OF COMPANY
3–8 on the road

SCALE OF VENUE
Small to large

PERMANENT STAFF
Artistic Director
Gerald M Tyler
Musical Director
Paul Wygens – Jon Wygens
Technical Manager
John Collingswood
Company Secretary
Joe Evans

ARTISTIC POLICY
Year of the Bear aims to combine theatrical, cinematic, and comic book story telling models with original live music to produce immersing and fantastical theatre performances. The company generates completely original text, poetry, and movement content for all performances and treats every component, including technology and venue environment, with equal creative importance. Year of the Bear produces work for theatre, studio, and site-specific venues, and engages mature and experienced artists, creating work that is challenging without being inaccessible.

REVIEW EXTRACTS
What makes this extraordinary theatre is the dexterity with which Tyler illustrates his mesmerizing story through film, music and movement.
The Guardian (Big Hands)

CURRENT PRODUCTIONS
Big Hands
Multimedia and site responsive supernatural detective story with live music and film. Private detective 'Lewis' is on the run with a dead angel in his car boot.
8 Dreams
Music and spoken word/poetry. Based on eight loosely linked dreams.

FUTURE PRODUCTIONS
Something’s Wrong With Abel
Studio or theatre show with live music. Visually strong with poetic text. Explores the themes of anger, loneliness and the relationship between men and their sheds.

WRAP-AROUND
Related to Big Hands – workshops and/or lectures in how to integrate performance and location when working in site-specific or other non-theatre spaces.
Related to 8 Dreams – workshops dedicated to creating text to be used with live music and creating music for live text.

TOURING AVAILABILITY
8 Dreams – January 2009 onwards
Big Hands – January 2009 onwards
Something’s Wrong With Abel – June 2009 onwards