March 2021
Chris Goode & Company is pleased today to be publishing a new booklet, ‘How We Work’.
From now on, this booklet will be actively shared with everyone who works with the company as part of a creative process. It will also be available to anyone who works with us in any other capacity, as well as anyone else who has an interest in understanding how the company makes its work, and how our values are reflected in our processes and in the working relationships we seek to foster.
In October 2018, artistic director Chris Goode committed the company to creating from scratch a new codification of Operating Principles that would enshrine in CG&Co;’s work our commitments to inclusion, access, safeguarding and social justice, as an integral and fundamental part of the company’s creative activity.
Work on this process began formally in January 2019 and has had the input of numerous colleagues and specialists at all levels of the industry. The full statement of Operating Principles was adopted by the new Board of CG&Co; in June 2020.
Subsequently, we have been working towards the development of the ‘How We Work’ booklet, which summarizes the parts of our Operating Principles that are most directly relevant to those working with us in rehearsal rooms and performance contexts. Everybody has access to the full statement of Operating Principles should they wish to see it, but the booklet is a more accessible and user-friendly way of sharing these crucial ideas in the first instance.
CG&Co;’s Operating Principles, as reflected in ‘How We Work’, are under constant review. This booklet is just a beginning - a work in progress. While we have confidence in it as it stands, we have lots more to do. We want to continue to research best practice, both within and outside the independent theatre sector, and also to be aware of current dialogues and questions around leading-edge and experimental practices. We would expect updated versions of both our full OPs and this condensed version to be issued regularly.
We warmly welcome questions and feedback as we continue to develop both our full statement of Operating Principles and this booklet version.
‘How We Are’ can be downloaded via the following link:
https://tinyurl.com/CGCoHowWeWork
A plain text version is available on request
An audio version will be available shortly. Please contact us for further information.
August 2020
We are thrilled and honoured to be welcoming Nick Sweeting as Associate Producer of CG&Co.
As one of the co-founders of Improbable, Nick produced the company’s projects for twenty-four years. His comprehensive portfolio of credits includes working with organisations such as LIFT, dreamthinkspeak, Told by an Idiot, Mark Bruce Company, The British Council, Phoenix Dance, Nada Theatre (France), Weirzalin (Poland) and Mouthpeace Theatre (South Africa), as well as facilitating Open Space events across the world.
Nick is currently Producer for the Javaad Alipoor Company, working on creative programming and organizational development funded by ACE. He also serves on the Board of Theatre Bristol.
In this new role with CG&Co, Nick will be working with us closely as we continue to develop ambitious new work across the widest possible range of modes and contexts.
June 2020
It feels like an important moment to pause and reflect on where we find ourselves. Like so many friends and colleagues, we at Chris Goode & Company have spent the last few weeks adapting, reimagining, suspending, and in some cases letting go of, many strands of work.
Of late we are also called back with renewed intensity to some of the questions that have always lived at the heart of the company, about who is seen and heard in the mix of the work, and what voices we choose to amplify. About what the space of our work is for. About how, as a company in receipt of public funding, we can be useful; how we can be ever more radical in action, not just in words.
We are abidingly grateful for all the conversations that this time has opened up -- not only in recent weeks but across the past year as we committed to re-examining our own principles and processes.
Some of those questions came to the fore in the final episode of the sadly truncated sixth season of our podcast Thompson's Live, in which a number of friends and colleagues were generous enough to share a range of prompts and provocations. And in fact those questions are seeded all through the season, in rich and challenging dialogues with artists such as Sabrina Mahfouz, Dennis Cooper and Seke Chimutengwende.
And there are many traces of similar questions across the body of work gathered in #WhatWords, our Soundcloud anthology jumping off from last year's project What is the Word? at Camden People's Theatre. Celebrating texts from across the territories of experimental practice in poetry, performance, visual arts and musical composition, the compendium so far includes work by Kathy Acker, Laurie Anderson, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Tim Etchells, Derek Jarman, Bhanu Kapil, Fred Moten, Pauline Oliveros and many others. Today we are releasing our fiftieth instalment - an extract from alphabet by the astounding Danish poet Inger Christensen - and there's lots more still to come. (Do get in touch if you have any requests!)
Staying with work in the realm of sound, we will also shortly be releasing an audio version of our 2018 storytelling show Mirabel, originally co-produced and staged with Ovalhouse (now Brixton House). It's a sad, strange fairytale about a young girl who wakes up to find that the world has ended. Featuring the Offie-nominated sound design of Matt Padden, Mirabel will be released in five daily episodes starting Monday 22nd June.
Chris Goode & Company was founded almost a decade ago. Our commitment to making space for radical encounters and revelatory conversations remains as steadfast as ever. We continue to work to strengthen our operations and I am thrilled to have recently welcomed to the company Penny Saward, as Managing Producer, and David Micklem, as Chair of the Board of Trustees. We are so grateful to our Board and also to our incredible cohort of associate artists -- Angela Clerkin, Ben Kulvichit, and Pauline Mayers.
In the coming weeks, further updates regarding our artistic programme and Operating Principles will be shared, along with an invitation for you to join us for the launch of our new website. Keep an eye on this page and the links highlighted below for more information.
Thank you for the continuing pleasure of your company as we head towards whatever comes next. Do please talk to us along the way: we're listening.
Chris Goode
I share wholeheartedly, Chris’ commitment to creating work that is as inspired by our individuality, as by what brings us together. Resolutely open and curious, Chris Goode & Company produce experiences resistant to traditional classification. I am excited to have such an opportunity to champion independent theatre-making.
Penny Saward, Managing Producer
I’ve long been an admirer of the work of Chris Goode & Company, its intellectual and emotional rigour, and its accessibility. Chris is a bold experimenter, with form and content, and a consistently important voice in British theatre. I’m delighted to be joining the Board to support his continued practice.
David Micklem, Chair
Thompsons’s Live Season Six and the complete archive is available here
#What Words anthology continues with daily episodes released here
Mirabel will play 22 – 26 June and all episodes will be available here
Get in touch via [email protected]
Follow us on Twitter @chrisgoodeanco