IN 2006 A NUMBER OF FACTORS STIMULATED US TO REEVALUATE OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH THE BUILDING.The combination of the following three situations stimulated a renewed approach to the building. This new approach became a catalyst though which we realised the building was one of our most valuable assets. |
![]() PUNCHDRUNKIn 2005, Battersea Arts Centre Producer Laura McDermott invited Punchdrunk to
create a miniature piece of theatre for a tiny attic space for OctoberFest. The result
was a one-on-one performance based on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story
The Yellow Wallpaper. Proving hugely popular, they returned with The Quest of a
Wave for the BURST Festival in May 2006. |
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![]() David JubbDavid Jubb is the Artistic Director of Battersea Arts Centre. Here he remembers the early one-on-one pieces Punchdrunk brought to Battersea Arts Centre. |
![]() STEVE TOMPKINSAfter David Jubb presented the idea of a building wide production with Punchdrunk to the board, Nick Starr, who at that time was Chair of the Battersea Arts Centre Board, introduced the team to Steve Tompkins of Haworth Tompkins, with whom he had worked on several projects including the National Theatre Studio. It quickly became clear that there were parallel tracks between Haworth Tompkins’ architectural process, Battersea Arts Centre’s Scratch process and the timing and scope of the Punchdrunk project. This was the beginning of an improvisational and collaborative approach to a building project, with artists at the heart. Jubb recalls a meeting held in the courtyard of Battersea Arts Centre in the summer of 2006, not long after their initial introduction. He described to Tompkins the idea of a show living inside an arts center and a capital project that ‘invests in the discoveries’ of the show. At one point he realised he was making it sound more developed as an idea, and more certain, than it actually was. He stopped to confess that he was actually making this up as he went along and Tompkins responded ‘ah, a man after my own heart.’ Jubb felt collaboration was possible with someone if they were prepared to admit they did not know how or where it might end – a collaboration that involved risk. |
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“He was someone I didn't have to pretend with; it’s a ridiculously rare thing for brilliant people like Steve to show vulnerability, to show that they’re out on a limb, that they’re sometimes not sure what the next move is."David Jubb on his first impressions of Steve Tompkins |
![]() Steve TompkinsSteve Tompkins is a Director of Haworth Tompkins Architects who has been the key collaborative partner involved from the very beginning of the project. |
![]() Nick StarrNick Starr is the Executive Director of the National Theatre, and was Chair of Battersea Arts Centre's Board between 2000 and 2009. |
![]() WANDSWORTH BOROUGH COUNCILOn January 10 2007, as the Punchdrunk production and the relationship with
Haworth Tompkins began to take shape, Battersea Arts Centre was given 3
months’ notice by Wandsworth Council of their plan to cut the organisation’s
annual Service Level Agreement (SLA) and charge rent with a combined impact of
approximately £375,000 per year. |
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![]() Nick StarrNick Starr is the Executive Director of the National Theatre, and was Chair of Battersea Arts Centre's Board between 2000 and 2009. |
![]() Sir Edward ListerSir Edward Lister is the London Mayor's Chief of Staff and Deputy mayor, Policy and Planning. In 2006 he was the Leader of Wandsworth Borough Council which had jurisdiction over the Old Town Hall Building. |
![]() David JubbDavid Jubb is the Artistic Director of Battersea Arts Centre. |
“I suddenly felt this amazing connection to the building – this extraordinary experience – I felt so part of it. Partly because it didn’t work – partly because you had to help them – you were party to it.’”David Jubb on his his experiences in Brazil. Click here to read the full story.
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![]() A ROADMAP IN BRAZILIn 2007, David Jubb and David Micklem who were Joint Artistic Directors at the time were invited to São
Paulo to take part in Proximo Ato. They went to see a show in Teatro Oficina
(Theatre Workshop), a space developed in a collaboration between architect Lina
Bo Bardi and theatre director Zé Celso. They returned to England talking about
‘the most exciting theatre space in the world’. The experience of Teatro Oficina,
which he shared with Steve Tompkins and Felix Barrett (Artistic Director of
Punchdrunk) on an early walk round of the building, was about empathy and
vulnerability. |
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![]() TEATRO OFICINALina Bo Bardi was also an important inspiration for Steve Tompkins' work. In 2008 the British Council funded a return trip to Sao Paolo for Steve, David Jubb and David Micklem. The story behind Teatro Oficina was unexpected, complex and
exciting. As with other spaces that have become known for their particular
potency, the story has built up layers of myth which make it complicated to
separate the truth from the aura. Bo Bardi arrived at Teatro Oficina to work in an
interesting set of circumstances: an established company with a vision for a
particular kind of theatre (public, political, actively engaged with its audience), a
company of actors inhabiting and creating in a space long before the involvement
of an architect, and that space being unexpected: a conversion rather than a
purpose built theatre. The story, or myth, of the Oficina company is intimately
woven into Brazil’s recent history and the building reflects the talents of its
occupants: it is a storyteller. |