For
further details and images related to some of these
projects, see
Projects
portfolio and
Gallery
September 2008 ongoing .
Dementia Diaries.
Directing project for Lewes Live Lit. Literary drama for
five voices by poet Maria Jastrzebska with live incidental
music for flute and cello by Peter Copley. Launched with a
run of sell-out performances as rehearsed readimg at Little
Polka Café, Eastbourne, as part of Eastbourne Festival,
April 2009. Follow-up performance with new cast members at
artisan Polish restaurant in Lewes, Sussex, September 2009.
Now in a second phase of development with funding from the
Wellcome Trust, developing the project in partnership with
Southampton’s Nuffield Theatre and neuroclinical scientists
at the Memory Assessment & Research Centre in
Southampton.
July 2010.
Weight.
Directing project for Lewes Live Lit. Previews in Reading
and Brighton of production showcasing three short stories
by writer Catherine Smith, performed by the author and
actress Kathryn McGarr with incidental music by Peter
Copley, lighting design by Clare O’Donoghue and sound
design by John Avery.
June 2010.
Tao of Hamlet.
Week-long Hamlet Residency at Jersey Arts Centre, St
Helier, continuing 1157performancegroup’s latest
exploration and deconstruction of Shakespeare’s revenge
tragedy working with local teenagers and arts centre staff
culminating in a performance involving all participants.
April 2010.
Tao of Hamlet.
1157performancegroup. Work in progress performance at The
Mill, Banbury.
September – October 2009.
Floor Plan.
Group exhibition. Phoenix Gallery, Brighton, Mark Hewitt
collaborated with artist Rowena Easton to create an
installation -
a strange house my voice the walls the
silence.
The show featured textual fragments in charcoal on
plasterboard, spatial interventions such as a very small
entrance door and a river of copper sequins. The aim was to
evoke the atmosphere and context of some of the dream
buildings documented on the
Dream Library
website.
May – June 2009.
Free Speech.
Developed range of, spoken word and multi-media educational
projects in secondary schools in East Sussex for Lewes Live
Lit’s young people’s festival, Free Speech.
May 2009.
Important Please Listen To This Tape.
Audio drama for two female voices created as one of six
site specific interventions for one-day-festival, Farnham
Creates. Also presented at Benjamin Franklin House, London,
as part of the Red Velvet Curtain Cult’s evening of
installations: Kill no more pigeons than you can eat.
April – September 2009.
Dementia Diaries.
Produced and directed by Mark Hewitt for
Lewes Live Lit.
A literary drama for five voices by poet Maria
Jastrzebska exploring the effects of dementia on a
dysfunctional Anglo-Polish family. Launched with a run
of sell-out performances at Little Polka Café,
Eastbourne, as part of Eastbourne Festival, April 2009
and performed in Artisan café in Lewes in September
2009. Touring planned for 2010.
April 2009.
Polska by the Sea.
Collaboration with photographer Lisa Barnard as part of
Eastbourne Festival 2009 resulting in an installation in
Eastbourne Station featuring banner portraits of some of
the Polish community living and working in Eastbourne and
an accompanying collection of 24 postcards with images of
domestic ephemera and interview texts, now available as a
boxed set. A Lewes Live Lit project, supported by East
Sussex Arts Partnership.
January 2009.
Untitled (exposure 1).
Contribution to new writing showcase,
malt(ings) extr-acts,
presented by Farnham Playwrights Collective at Farnham
Maltings in Surrey. One of five writers working with a
director and actors to present a short extract of a new
work-in-progress.
September – December 2008.
89% and Rising.
One of five performers in an experimental theatre
production by 1157performancegroup about HIV/AIDS and
sexual morality. Devised and directed by Matthew Scott and
Jo Dagless. Performances in schools/colleges, arts centres
and theatres, October – December 2008.
September 2008.
The Butcher’s Tale.
Brief appearance in short independent film by Turtleclub
Productions playing the top half of an evil one-legged
butcher, Written and directed by Drew Hewitt.
June – September 2008.
Caught in the act – Reading
reading.
A Blank Productions collaborative project for the
National Year of Reading combining photography and text
within a public art context. Photographer Anna Mitchell
took photos of people engaged in the act of reading in
Reading town centre while Mark Hewitt created texts
rooted in interviews with readers. Linked to Reading
Festival of Crime Writing, the project culminated in a
town centre public art installation and an exhibition at
Reading Central Library.
June 2008.
Gridshell Symphonies
/ The Incredible Architectural Musical
Picnic.
A Blank Productions commissioning project for
‘architecture08’. Families and individuals were invited
into the architecturally award-winning Jerwood Gridshell
Space at the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum near
Chichester to picnic and witness the first performance of
Gridshell Symphonies: a site specific contemporary
classical music piece for four trombones and string quartet
by composer Petr Copley. The afternoon included sideshows
for children and additional entertainments.
June 2008.
Dream Buildings.
Online Dream Library archiving personal accounts of dreams
involving buildings submitted by members of the public.
Launched as part of architecture08 festival in a joint
event with conceptual artist and writer Rowena Easton at
Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth. The material eventually formed
part of a separate online
Dream Library.
May/June 2008.
Ruin.
Steyning Festival 2008. Second exhibition and event related
to a collaboration with photographer Paul Thomas,
responding to the ruins of Shoreham Cement Works. Also part
of architecture08 festival.
January – March 2008.
Crea+ive Maids+one.
Interviewing, editing and drafting content for a book
profiling a range of arts and creative industry
practitioners living and/or working in the Maidstone area
alongside photos by Manuel Palomeque. Linked to a billboard
project as part of
Art At The Centre
Maidstone.
January 2008.
Beauty in Stone.
Text created in rehearsal for disability-led dance theatre
company, Prefacemorn, referencing Greek mythology and
exploring concepts of ideal beauty in relation to
disability. First performed, Camden People’s Theatre,
January 2008.
June 2007.
Ruin.
A collaboration with photographer Paul Thomas responding to
the ruins of Shoreham Cement Works in West Sussex. Project
culminated in an exhibition – Ruin – at
thirtyfive-a
gallery, Brighton, and a talk with projected images at the
Ropetackle Centre, Shoreham, as part of the Adur Festival
and Architecture Week, South East.
December 2006 - March 2008.
AQQ.
(Artists’ Quarter Quarterly). Quarterly arts publication
linked to regeneration project
Art At The Centre Maidstone
in Kent. Editing, writing, commissioning and overseeing
design.
October 2006 – October 2007.
Directing Live Literature.
Linked to a Cultural Leadership Bursary awarded by NALD
(National Association of Literature Development) – a
professional development project exploring the role of the
director within the sphere of performed literature. An
accompanying development grant from Arts Council England
South East allowed a period of shadowing work and mentoring
in the process of developing a performance featuring Irish
poet and novelist,
Martina Evans.
September/October 2006.
Farming Stories.
Commission from East Lindsey District Council in
Lincolnshire to develop a new piece of community theatre
with teenage performers based on conversations with local
farmers. Led to highly successful scratch performance at
the Riverhead Theatre in Louth as part of Wolds Words
Festival 2006.
May – July 2006.
Embrace.
Commission from Usanu Theatre Company. Theatre text based
on Italian writer Frana Rame’s provocative libertarian
monologues. First performed at The Pauper’s Pit, Buxton
Festival Fringe, July 2006. Devised / directed by Tamara
Allen-Cousins, performed by Karen Ødemark.
April – July 2006.
Body Language.
Writing / performance project. Arts Council funded R&D
directed by Matthew Scott of 1157performancegroup to
develop a live literature show based around Mark Hewitt's
life study writings, (word-sketches of the human figure).
First performance in this format at Norden Farm Centre for
the Arts in Maidenhead.
May 2006.
Stirrings Still.
Performance by heart of Samuel Beckett’s last prose work,
Stirrings Still. Phoenix Gallery, Brighton, as part of City
Running.
May 2006.
City Running.
Mark Hewitt was one of over 40 artists contributing to the
award-winning new work extravaganza,
City Running.
Devised and curated by Greg Daville for Brighton Fringe
Festival, the project involved practitioners working in
a range of disciplines who, on different Saturdays over
a five week period, set out from the Phoenix Gallery,
Brighton at 11pm to absorb, record, collect, collate and
reflect upon the city at night-time, returning at 2.30am
to exhibit or perform work created that night, the
results contributing to a cumulative exhibition.
April 2006.
Farmed Out.
Commissioned by Farnham Maltings and developed by
1157performancegroup for Upstix/Pride of Place Theatre
Festival 2006, Woodbridge, Suffolk. Play for one actor and
film sequences exploring decline of UK farming and the
poetry of industrial rural landscapes.
March / April 2006.
Funny Couple.
Five minute radio story as part of a new writing series
commissioned by BBC Southern Counties. Broadcast in April
2006.
September 2005.
The Temptation of St Antony
– rehearsed reading of short play for one or two
performers. Nightingale Theatre, Brighton.
August 2005:
Stage Fright.
Contributed to research project at Aberystwyth University
into managing performance anxiety.
2002.
Songs of Tenderness & Violence – a cycle for soprano
and nine solo instruments.
Short texts evoking contemporary scenes of dysfunction,
perversity and violence written to accompany new music by
composer Peter Copley.
2001/2002.
Theatre R&D.
Development work on a visual theatre piece involving two
large red leather wingbacked armchairs. With visual artist
Lindsey McGown, photographer Magali Nougarede, actors John
Cullen and Jo Howarth, assorted life models, lighting
technician Martin Chandler and a furniture reupholsterer.
The piece of work is still in development.
May / August 2001.
Catastrophe.
Komedia Productions. Performances as actor in three of a
sequence of four Samuel Beckett dramaticules (Rockaby /
Ohio Impromptu / A Piece of Monologue / Catastrophe). 10
day run at Komedia, Brighton and three weeks at Edinburgh
Fringe. With actors George Dillon and Denise Evans.
Directed by David Lavender.
July 2000 – May 2001.
Hypnotrash.
Year of the Artist residency exploring the use of hypnosis
/ hypnotherapy as a creative tool and culminating in
temporary publication as an internet journal.
April 1998.
The Entertainers
– an omnibus of contemporary writing and
art.
Editor and contributor. Anthology of work by writers,
poets, artists, musicians and others that had contributed
to the early years of the Lewes Live Literature Festival.
Design work by Greg Daville.
February 1998.
Purgations.
Previews at All Saints Centre, Lewes, of a collaborative
performance work combining a sequence of poems by MCH with
live music for string sextet by composer Peter Copley and
projected images by visual artist Tom Walker.
June 1996.
Hastings in the Imagination.
School writing project developed with artist / writer Greg
Daville, running workshops with Year 9 students in Hastings
to create epigrammatic descriptions of imagined scenarios
in their hometown. The writings were displayed on
advertising spaces in local buses.