Gobbledegook THEATRE | Lorna Rees
ABOUT US
ABOUT US
Gobbledegook was set up in 2007 by Theatre Artists Lorna Rees and Adam Coshan, both graduates from the Central School of Speech and Drama. The company collaborate with a variety of talented artists, musicians and scientists depending on the project.
Gobbledegook is frequently commissioned to make work for the outdoors or for non-performance spaces, including for Inside Out Dorset, Ageas Salisbury International Festival, B-Side Multimedia Festival and Camp Bestival. In 2015 Gobbledegook were awarded one of the prestigious Without Walls Commissions for Ear Trumpet and in 2016 were made Associate Artists of the Point, Eastleigh. The company were Artists in Residence for the Jurassic Coast Trust (UNESCO World Heritage Site) and were Associate Artists for the Bournemouth Arts By the Sea Festival, for four years working on curating and commissioning their street theatre programme.
Gobbledegook are Associate Artists for Inside Out Dorset and Lighthouse Poole. At the end of 2017, Lorna was selected to be one of the Sura Medura Artists on the International Residency in Sri Lanka for six weeks.
Participation and Learning is embedded in all of the company's work, and they have a rich history of socially engaged practice. Gobbledegook do not have a hierarchy of site or audience, believing that some of the most prestigious places we are invited to work are schools, nurseries and universities. Gobbledegook are Arts Education specialists, and have a long track record of delivering original arts workshops and residencies.
Their playful participation work usually connects to nature, landscape and the Earth Sciences.
Lorna REES - Artistic DIRECTOR
Lorna Rees is Artistic Director of LORNA REES COMPANY and Gobbledegook Theatre. She is an artist, activist, writer, musician, director, performer, producer and designer/maker.
Lorna Rees is a co-founder of Gobbledegook Theatre who make innovative, cross-artform work for unusual places. With theatre at its core, Gobbledegook’s live performance, music and installation work is inspired by Earth Sciences and almost always takes place outdoors. Lorna considers herself to be artist-activist and often works on artistic interventions under the title of ‘Disruption and Joy’. Sometimes this political, and often strongly feminist work is very widely shared (for example our #pantsofprotest), with thousands of social media shares and a wide National Audience with television and radio coverage.
Gobbledegook was set up in 2007 with partner Adam Coshan, and the company collaborates with a variety of talented artists, musicians and scientists and landscapes, touring Nationally and Internationally.
The larger work tours Internationally and they also create multiple bespoke small commissions and art interventions for festivals, art centres, museums and World Heritage Sites. They started making work for Green Field Music Festivals, and in 2015 Without Walls, Salisbury International Festival and Winchester Hat Fair awarded the money to tour Ear Trumpet after it premiered in 2014 with Inside Out Dorset (IOD). Ear Trumpet has since toured the UK, Europe and Seoul Street Arts Festival in 2017. It is still touring (despite a hiatus due to Covid). In 2018 Cloudscapes, which was commissioned by IOD in 2016 was selected to be part of the Caravan biennale and has touring extensively throughout the UK as an audio-landscape installation.
The company continued to work over Lockdowns, creating digital music content, watched over 100,000 times on social media and undertook an international collaboration with CSS Teatro stabile di innovazione in Italy in which Lorna directed a translated version of Cloudscapes, which was re-mounted for 2021. The company also created a significant digital component to Cloudscapes which toured UK festivals. In 2017, Lorna, was selected to be one of the Sura Medura Artists on the Residency in Sri Lanka; and the work which she was sent out to create, Geophonic which premiered at Inside Out Dorset in September of 2021 supported by Arts Council England and Jerwood Arts.
Gobbledegook Theatre/Lorna Rees are Associate Artists with Inside Out Dorset, Lighthouse Poole. Lorna is on the board of Outdoor Arts UK.
On graduation from the Central School of Speech and Drama in 2001, Lorna's first job was for the Royal Court Theatre and she was subsequently Education and Community Manager for two London venues. She has worked for many other organisations including The Roundhouse, Greenwich Theatre, Lighthouse and FUEL.
Lorna has a long association with Activate Performing Arts, the Theatre and Dance Development Agency for Dorset, Bournemouth and Poole.
She has worked on various scales of project - working with thousands to create community pieces or on small scale one-person intimate productions. Learning and participation is core to Gobbledegook's work, and in 2014 the company embarked on a unique three-year arts education commission for the South Dorset Ridgeway AONB in partnership with DepARTure Arts entitled L.O.O.S (The Laboratory of Outstanding Stuff) which toured to over 10,000 children.
Lorna usually appears in work in outdoor contexts or unusual spaces, for example, as a performer on the Dorset Cart for the large Olympic Opening Celebration In Weymouth and Portland, in Hoodwink's 'The Frozen Forest' at Salisbury Playhouse (a performance installation for the under 5s) and has appeared in Hoodwink's 'Brownsea Unlocked' (in a wood) and in 'A Library Odyssey' (a tour of libraries).
She's worked as a maker, performer and deviser with too many people to mention, but which include: Angel Exit Theatre, The Wellcome Collection, The National Theatre, Greenwich Theatre, Green Ginger and Lieux Publics.
Lorna is a Visiting Lecturer at Arts University Bournemouth, is on the board of Outdoor Arts UK and is Artist Ambassador for Change Festival.