Snape Residency: Jennifer Farmer, Ella Jarman-Pinto, Charlotte Marlow, Laura Attridge, Yshani Perinpanayagam
(with the hope that) the fire will not consume us
Together, can we
Shed suits of armour, bury breastplates, surrender shields
Resilience no longer accepted graciously, a prize to be won for enduring, coping
Persisting and stomaching and masking and braving and and and
That crown ceases to tangle in our hair
Because we choose as our adornment and anointment
Cloaks of radical softness, divine constellations of interconnectedness and Community
Holding, charging, changing
Fury and fripperies and tenderness and tension and
Rage and wonder and grief and galaxies
Sharing the same bowl of ice-cold cherries
(with the hope that) the fire will not consume us
An offering, an invitation, an invocation, a roar, (with the hope that) the fire will not consume us is collective creative exploration on holding space for both healing and rage.
Snape Residencies provide time and space for creators at all stages of their careers; a supportive environment to create, be curious, and try out new ideas. Open Sessions offer a unique chance to go behind the scenes and experience work-in-progress created during the Residency.
We are so grateful to our supporters, without whom none of our work would be possible. Visit Support Us to find out how you can help.
We are so grateful to our supporters, without whom none of our work would be possible. Visit Support Us to find out how you can help.
Supporters contributing towards Residencies include:
PRS Foundation’s The Open Fund.
About Jennifer Farmer
A queer African-American woman resident in the UK since 1998, Jennifer Farmer is writer for performance, participatory theatre-maker and facilitator who centres systematically excluded narratives and collaborates extensively with communities made vulnerable. She has written for Belgrade Theatre, Paines Plough, London Bubble, BBC Radios 3 and 4, Birmingham Rep, the Kiln Theatre, Clean Break and her work has been performed at Arcola Theatre, Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Battersea Arts Centre, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Ithaca Gallery and the V&A Museum. Jennifer’s current projects include enoa, Britten Pears Arts, and Les Theatres de la Ville de Luxembourg-supported Link In My Bio, a new, interactive opera on the impact of the global rise of the Alt-Right, How Far Apart and a new play commissioned by Utopia Theatre, which examines the impact medical racism has on Black women's experience of childbirth.
About Laura Attridge
Writer and director Laura Attridge is fast establishing herself as a dynamic voice in opera and classical music. Her work, both in product and in process, seeks to examine our relationship with mainstream cultural and societal structures and narratives.
Laura has been involved in projects with many of the UK’s leading opera and classical music organisations, including the Royal Opera House, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Scottish Opera, Opera North, English Touring Opera, Buxton International Festival, Mahogany Opera, Lammermuir Festival, Waterperry Opera Festival and Northern Opera Group. Her song cycles and libretti have been performed internationally, and her poetry has beenpublished in prestigious magazines and zines such as The Rialto and Mslexia.
Passionate about collaboration, Laura has worked with composers such Yshani Perinpanayagam, Kate Whitley,Lillie Harris, Lliam Paterson, Griffin Candey and Cheryl Frances-Hoad. She also has a long-standing creative partnership with composer Lewis Murphy, as Murphy & Attridge.
About Ella Jarman-Pinto Bio
Ella is a critically acclaimed storytelling composer, described in 2020 as ‘one of the UK’s most exciting music-makers’ by Classic FM and recognised by Women Of The Year Lunch 2021. In 2021 Ella received BBC Radio 3's flagship commission for International Women's Day. Producer Olwen Fisher, who commissioned Ella, said of the music: 'It is a piece of such power and beauty that it took my breath away.’
Ella focuses her music on storytelling, working with Directors, Writers, Librettists & Poets who reject the phrase ‘this is how things are done here’, and whose stories move towards positive change.
Recent works include:
:Insert Expletive Here: (2022) explores lived experiences of racism. Commissioned by East London Music Group, Matthew Hardy, Artistic Director said that ‘it was clearhow much [the piece] made many people think about these ideas that they hadn’t engaged with in the past’.
Girls Are Coming Out Of The Woods (Poet Tishani Doshi, for Soprano and Piano),was commissioned by Donne, Women In Music and premiered at Royal Albert Hall in October 2022. Founder Gabriella Di Laccio: ‘Everytime I read [through the piece] Ihave goosebumps’.
Ella’s album, Lemon Verbena, with poet Jo Brandon, (funded by PRS Foundation and Kickstarter), will be released Winter 2023.
About Yshani Perinpanayagam
As a multi-genre chamber musician, orchestral pianist and music director, Yshani has performed at venues from Wigmore Hall to the London Palladium, at events from Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival to the Barbican Mime Festival, and with artists from the Philharmonia to Nina Conti. She is pianist of the Del Mar Piano Trio and Carismático Tango Band, and a regular guest broadcaster on BBC Radio 3.
Yshani was music director for triple-Oliver winner Emilia at the Vaudeville Theatre, Goat by Ben Duke for Rambert Dance Company, for the Royal Shakespeare Company, National Theatre Public Acts, circus troupe Circa at the Barbican, and with Olivier award winning show Showstopper! The Improvised Musical. She was Consultant MD for Olivier Award winning Wolf Witch Giant Fairy at the Royal Opera House Linbury theatre. Most recently, she was MD for Sondheim’s Passion, starring Ruthie Henshall, and conductor/arranger for Longborough Opera’s 2022 Caccini / Waley-Cohen programme, and pianist / music director for Ruination with Lost Dog Dance at Royal Opera House LinburyTheatre.
Yshani’s commitment to contemporary music has seen her premiere works including by Charlotte Bray, Joe Cutler, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Gavin Higgins, Hannah Kendall and Benjamin Oliver. Her commissions for piano, Commodore 64 and bespoke 8-bit synthesisers have been performed at the National Theatre Riverstage, The Place Theatre and the All Your Bass National Videogames Arcade festival. As a composer herself, commissions include works for the London Sinfonietta, Onyx Brass, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Sound and Music, and music for a play about Fanny Mendelssohn.
Yshani was winner of the 10th Yamaha Birmingham Accompanist of the Year Award, and was a scholar at the Royal College of Music.
About Charlotte Marlow
Charlotte Marlow is a composer, artist, & theatre-maker originally from the North East, now residing in Todmorden, Yorkshire. Charlotte’s work spans folk music, contemporary classical music, and performance art. Current projects include a new grime opera in development, Link in my Bio, with the European Network of Opera Academies, supported by Britten Pears Arts and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, and an orchestral work as part of Sound and Music’s Adopt a Music Creator scheme. They were a BOOM fellow with Oxford Contemporary Music for 20/21.
Charlotte’s foremost creative interests lie in collaborative performance practice, art as activism, and ways of challenging and engaging with gender narratives on-stage.
