Meet the 5 queer artists who Fatt Projects have commissioned to develop new work for PALAVER!, our pioneering development project supporting queer artists to make work for children and young audiences.
Each artist has an incredible track record of working across live-art, cabaret, drag, and solo performance and has been specially chosen for the potential they have to create innovative and new directions in theatre for young audiences.
Each artist will be making work for children and family audiences for the first time. The PALAVER ARTISTS are:
EMMA FRANKLAND (she/her)
Emma Frankland is a live performance and theatre artist. Her work often focusses on honesty, action and a playfully destructive DIY aesthetic. Recently her work has been focussed on the None of Us is Yet a Robot project, a series of performance pieces recently published by Oberon Books as “None of Us is Yet a Robot – Five Performances on Gender Identity and the Politics of Transition”.
“I am excited to make a performance for young people and their families, as a trans woman and a parent I rarely have opportunities for these two important parts of my identity to overlap.”
HARRY CLAYTON-WRIGHT (he/him)
Harry Clayton-Wright is a performance artist, writer and radical creator from Blackpool whose work spans theatre, installation, zine and film. Harry’s debut solo theatre show Sex Education premiered in 2017 winning the LGBTQ award at Brighton Fringe Festival and was nominated for a Total Theatre Award (Emerging Artist/Company) at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019.
“I’m so excited to start work on this project, as a queer performance artist from Blackpool who started their career delivering family entertainment at Butlins in Skegness and also for attractions up and down Blackpool Promenade, I love this artform and can’t wait to make work that entertains and delights.”
KATY BAIRD (she/her)
Katy Baird is an artist, curator and producer of Live Art based in Folkestone, Kent. She has performed at Live Art festivals and venues as well as squat parties, clubs and raves. Her recent solo studio-based performance Workshy, a show about work and the things we do for money, has toured internationally to over 30 cities.
VIJAY PATEL (he/him)
Vijay Patel is a live/performance artist based in South London, whose work crosses forms into cabaret and installations.
“I’m really excited about being able to work on Palaver. I think this opens up an interesting avenue in my practice which focuses on making work by intersectional, marginalised people for young audiences. Having the opportunity to collaborate further with my younger brother on this project is also very exciting.”
YSHEE BLACK (she/her in drag)
Yshee Black (pronounced why-she) is one of the UK’s most prominent drag queens, hosts and performance artists. A shining star of the West Midlands, she is the host and creator of the Birmingham based lip-sync competition ‘The Church of Yshee’, recommended by the Guardian as one of the UK’s best drag nights.
‘I believe that children are the future, so I’m excited to re-connect to the art that inspired me as a child, teach the children well and let them LEAD THE WAY!’
PALAVER is conceived and delivered by midlands based queer company Fatt Projects’s (lead by Artistic Director Adam Carver), PALAVER is supported by Cambridge Junction through their Vision Mixer’s programme, Marlborough Productions, and Arts Council, England.
Adam Carver 