#1 The Performer
Proof that walking can be a career too…
Laura Mugridge makes theatre pieces that are cleverly disguised as walks…
I LOVE MAKING THEATRE IN STRANGE SPACES.
I did a show at the Edinburgh Festival called Running on Air which took place entirely in my campervan – with audiences of just five people at a time. But I also love big spaces, and the stories that can unfold in them.
SO I CREATED A SHOW-IN-A-WALK.
It was called Up, Down and Beyond. I did it at the Lakes Alive festival in Kendal last year. I asked the Brewery Arts Centre to find me five people: just normal people, but the kind of people who keep a community going in a backstage kind of way. And I went for a walk with each of them. We chatted; it wasn’t an interview, they just told me about their lives and the people close to them. And they told me a lot about the places we were walking.
AND THAT BECAME THE SCRIPT.
I weaved together these five wonderful, lovely, ordinary people to make a narrative for a walk. Then at the festival, I walked my audience up Kendal Fell and performed it. The response was fantastic. Several people said they’d lived in the area for years but never been to where we were, or thought about life the way these other ‘normal’ people had. It literally gave them a fresh perspective.
A SILENT DISCO CAN BE A BIG MOMENT.
My five new friends had each chosen a song that would sum up their feelings as they looked at the view from the top, and my walkers each chose one of them to listen to on earphones. So we had a bunch of walkers standing on a hilltop enjoying this big, loud musical moment – anything from Glen Campbell to Nick Cave – but in total silence as far as the hills were concerned. It was a very cool moment.
THIS YEAR, I’M DOING IT ON THE THAMES PATH.
I’m doing a new version of the show for the Reading on Thames Festival. Five wonderful new people, five new stories, and a whole new walk, this time along the Thames Path, which is why I’ve called it Up, Down and Along. I hope it will surprise people, just like the Kendal one did. A lot of people might think of Reading as just a commuter town, but it has this rich natural beauty on its doorstep, and the Thames Path can take you right into it.
WALKING IS AN INCREDIBLE GIFT.
When I feel low, I go high. I’ll head to the top of a hill and do a stand-up show for no-one but the sky. It always turns me round and makes me think, ‘yeah – I can do this.’ I’m so grateful for that.