alison garner

Alison Garner is a theatre practitioner and visual artist. She graduated in Theatre Design from Nottingham Trent University with a first class degree in 2007. Much of Alison's work to date has centred on human experience of the places they inhabit and how this resonates through space and object.

Alison is co-Artistic Director of Left Luggage Theatre currently based in the North East after completing a residency at the Puppet Centre Trust, Battersea Arts Centre supported by the Centre for Excellence in Training for Theatre at Central School of Speech & Drama. Left Luggage Theatre specialise in site-responsive performance in which the audience are immersed in an environment incorporating soundscape, multi-sensory scenography, puppetry, live performance and projection.

As a visual artist working in performance her work takes a narrative form and is often formed through sharing and creating stories that can be discovered and experienced again by the audience. Alison's work seeks to increase access and participation in visual and narrative arts and develop work that centres on how we process, interact with and leave our mark on the world around us.

For more information and images of my work:

http://www.alisongarner.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/alisongarner

http://www.leftluggagetheatre.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/leftluggagetheatre

Work

Garner & Firmin's Souvenir Emporium
The Bathing Beauties Festival, Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire
Sept 08

Site-specific installation and live art piece in collaboration with Leicester artist Katie Firmin. The piece explored childhood memories of holidays and our relationship to growing up. Using found objects, image, text and connecting with local people and visitors to discover common bonds and create our own histories.

Visura Continuum: A Machine For Travelling in Time & Space
Imagine A City, Mantle Arts
June 08 Leicester Central Library
July 08 LCP Depot Gallery, Leicester
A site-responsive installation incorporating tactile sculpture, text, Braille, artefacts and soundscape. The piece allowed the sighted and visually impaired visitors to interact with and be enveloped by the piece. I also mentored a graduate fine artist as part of this project.

Restless Tides,
Left Luggage Theatre, The Space, London, E14
January-March 08
Director
Co-designer, deviser, performer & puppeteer
A site-responsive promenade piece combining performance, puppetry and multi-sensory scenography to immerse the audience in the lost lives and loves of the of London's Docklands.

The Masque of The Red Death, Punchdrunk, BAC, London
September 07
Assistant Designer
Design and dressing of the 'puppet room'. Design, sourcing and construction of props and puppets for this award winning site-specific production.

Day Return, Left Luggage Theatre
Performed at venues including: The Little Angel Theatre & Shunt Lounge, London; Brit Awards 08, after show party; Bathing Beauties Festival, Lincs; Tynemouth Metro Station (installation), Newcastle and Victoria Studios, Nottingham.
March, Sept, Dec 07 & Feb 08
Co-Director & designer
Performer & puppeteer
A self-devised, site-responsive promenade piece that incorporated live performance, puppetry, installation and soundscape in a theatrical experience.

Installation: Sound & Space, Society of British Theatre Designers' Collaborators Exhibition,
Nottingham Trent University
January 07
Installation that invited visitors to interact with sound sculptures in the gallery space.

The Unsung Opera, Youngblood, Leicester Haymarket Studio and Contact, Manchester
June/ July 06
Assistant Designer
Devised piece working with energetic and enthusiastic young people from the Leicester community.

Autumn, Metro-Boulot-Dodo
City Gallery, Leicester
August 06
Commissioned to design and make part of this gallery based, multi-media installation as part of the company's Four Seasons series of work.

The Icarus Project, SPaCES, Victoria Studios, Nottingham
February 06
Co-designer and maker, performer, puppeteer and co-deviser
Performance research and development stage of a two-year project aimed at exploring genetic modification through theatre with Nottingham teenagers.

Spring, Metro-Boulot-Dodo, Touring - premiered at National Theatre's Watch This Space festival
August 05
Assistant Designer
A magical garden seen through the eyes of a child. An interactive, multi-media installation for young and old that continues to tour festivals and venues throughout the country.

Education

2004-2007
BA (Hons) Theatre Design First Class
Nottingham Trent University

2003-2004
BTEC Art Foundation (part-time)
Wimbledon School of Art, London

1996-1999
BA (Hons) English & Media 2:1
Trinity & All Saints University College,
Leeds University

I am a member of Equity. I have a recent enhanced CRB check.