For
further details and images related to some of these
projects, see
Projects
portfolio and
Gallery
2012.
The Revenge Fantasy Club.
First performances of new two-hander play by Mark Hewitt as
part of
theplaygroup’s
Eat Theatre series at Farnham Maltings, Surrey.
‘theplaygroup’ is a writer-led production company
co-founded with playwrights Matthew Wilkie and Sean Tyler.
2012.
Altered Egos.
2011/12. Currently directing new live literature touring
production by poet/performer Bernadette Cremin. Altered
Egos is a one-woman show that opens windows into the secret
worlds of six women on the edge. First performances planned
for March 2012.
June 2011 - February 2012.
Can-do Signage.
Writer-in-residence on
Leysdown Rose-Tinted
public art project in Leysdown-on-Sea, Isle of Sheppey.
Developed text for two sculpted resting points by Alun
Heslop on the Isle of Harty Trail, a cycle route through
Leysdown Coast and Country Park. Interacting with local
people to discover the village's finer points also
developed text for directional signs and a village sign
(designed by artist Laura Boswell). Installation planned
for early 2012. Project commissioned by FranisKnight for
Swale Borough Council and Kent County Council.
2008 - 2011.
Dementia Diaries.
(LLL Productions).
Produced and directed Anglo-Polish literary theatre piece
for five actors written by Maria Jastrzebska with
incidental music by Peter Copley (sometimes played live in
performances) . Previewed with a sell-out run of rehearsed
readings at Little Polka Café as part of Eastbourne
Festival 2009. Extensive research & development in 2011
funded by Wellcome Trust Arts Award leading to performances
at Schools of Medicine and other venues across the UK,
including London, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cardiff and
Southampton.
March 2011.
The Space Programme,
Mark Hewitt was one of nine artists on a curated
international artists’ residency exploring collaboration
and interdisciplinary work hosted by Irish site specific
theatre company, The Performance Corporation, at Castletown
House, County Kildare.
December 2010.
The Pied Piper of Londinium / Crosspath
Theatre.
Co-founded intercultural theatre company Crosspath Theatre
with poets John Agard & Grace Nichols. Co-produced and
co-directed John Agard’s The Pied Piper of Londinium, a
pantomimic verse satire set in Roman Britain, exploring
issues of multiculturalism.
July 2010.
Weight: three stories about secrets.
Produced and directed live literature show by poet and
writer Catherine Smith featuring three short stories
adapted for the stage. 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. Previewed in Reading and Brighton, July 2010.
June 2010.
Hamlet Residency.
Weeklong residency as theatre practitioner with
1157performancegroup exploring and deconstructing aspects
of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and developing an experimental
performance with local teenagers and arts centre staff.
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.
Creative Producer for young people’s festival in East
Sussex themed around ‘’free speech’ and comprising a range
of artists’ residencies in schools culminating in
multimedia performances as part of a wider festival
programme. Developed for Lewes Live Lit in association with
East Sussex Arts Partnership and Festival of Words
consortium.
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 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 – April 2009.
Consequences.
Creative Producer on a Made in England project for BBC
South and Arts Council England South East, involving four
writers working in different locations in the south of
England. Outcomes included a website, a print-on-demand
publication, local radio and a televised projection of text
onto the roof of Salisbury Cathedral.
www.madeinthesouth.co.uk
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 touring
production taking the form of an absurd panel-show
exploring attitudes to HIV/AIDS and sexual morality amongst
young people. Performances in schools/colleges, arts
centres and theatres. 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 collaborative project with photographer Anna Mitchell
for the National Year of Reading culminating in a town
centre installation of images of people reading in
public spaces and text responding to interviewees’
description of their reading habits. Accompanying
exhibition at Reading Central Library as part of Reading
Festival of Crime Writing. Developed through Blank
Productions.
June 2008.
Gridshell Symphonies
/ The Incredible Architectural Musical
Picnic.
An exploration of music and architecture. Gridshell
Symphonies, for four trombones and string quartet, was
composed by Peter Copley in response to the architecturally
award-winning Jerwood Gridshell Space at the Weald &
Downland Open Air Museum, near Chichester. An audience came
with picnics to hear the first performance, The afternoon
included sideshows for children and additional
entertainments. A Blank Productions commissioning project
for ‘architecture08’.
June 2008.
Dream Library.
Online archive of personal accounts of dreams submitted
by a range of contributors. Launched as part of
architecture08 festival in a joint event with conceptual
artist and writer Rowena Easton at Aspex Gallery,
Portsmouth, one section of the site focuses especially
on dreams involving buildings. www.dreamlibrary.org.uk.
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.
Life Studies.
Solo show based on own ‘life study’ writings, first
performed at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts (with the
title, 'Body Language') directed by Matthew Scott of
1157performancegroup.
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 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.