Wimbledon College of Arts students and lecturers join global peers at 15th Prague Quadrennial

Considered by many as the ‘theatre design Olympics’, the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space (PQ) is the largest international showcase of contemporary performance and stage design. Founded in 1967, the festival celebrated its 15th edition this year, taking place from 8-18 June.

This year, 30 Wimbledon College of Arts students and lecturers participated in leading workshops, driving debates and staged performances. Representatives from BA Contemporary Theatre and Performance, BA Theatre Design, MA Performance: Politics and Social Justice, MA Performance: Theatre Making and BA Costume for Theatre and Screen courses all took part.

Speaking about her involvement in this year’s PQ, BA Theatre Design student Amelia Kyriacou discusses how the festival is “a masterclass in presenting work to the world”. There was the opportunity to be inspired by global peers, encounter emerging trends and, as participating Course Leader Lucy Algar put it, to “meet fellow travellers who are on the same journey.”

Staff and students tell us about their experiences on the ground and share their thoughts on what makes PQ such a unique and vital international platform for performance and stage design.

Wimbledon’s Dr Sophie Jump joined the jury

Dr Sophie Jump, Senior Lecturer in Theatre Design at Wimbledon College of Arts, joined 6 esteemed professionals to lead this year’s International Jury. Sophie was responsible for assessing 95 exhibits overall which competed for just 20 awards.

The jury examined all exhibits in the Countries and Regions and Student categories, determining the winners through extensive discussion and debate. Acknowledging emerging trends, the jurors added 6 new awards this year, echoing the social, political and economic complexity of the current world.

Speaking about the importance of PQ, she said, “PQ is a unique opportunity to be in a place where everyone wants to talk about performance design! It gives you a boost of inspiration and enthusiasm to keep you going until the next PQ.”

In response to Brecht’s farce The Bread Shop Wimbledon students presented an uncomfortable and humorous design

Sophie also oversaw student projects at PQ this year including Wimbledon BA Theatre Design students, Megan Davies, Niklaus Huber, Amelia Kyriacou, Camden Seymour and Zishan Zhang’s submission for [Un]Common Design Project. Joining peers from around the world to celebrate the magic of human connection, they were invited to submit a design for a play of their choice. They selected theatre practitioner Bertolt Brecht’s The Bread Shop, a farce doubling as a societal critique, set within a financial crisis and flawed capitalist system.

Embracing literal depictions including bread, their design represented the cyclical nature of capitalism and poverty. By honouring Brechtian values and theatrical devices, they enhanced the humour of his writing while exposing the audience to discomfort as they engaged with these issues. The Bread Shop was exhibited throughout the Quadrennial at the National Gallery in Veletrzni Palace.

Course Leader Lucy Algar revealed how ideas can emerge using drawing in her 3-day workshop

Also participating in this year’s PQ was Course Leader in BA Theatre Design Lucy Algar who ran a Drawing Performance Project workshop as part of PQ’s Exploratory Workshop series. She was joined by Wimbledon Associate Lecturer Kirill Burlov, dancer and choreographer Tina Breiova, and BA Contemporary Theatre and Performance students Morgan Charlton and George Williams Lane.

Involving 20 international participants who ranged from students to experienced designers and performers, Lucy saw the workshop as an opportunity to explore “how drawing can be our friend, collaborator, disruptor” and how we “can use drawing as a means for communication and as performance".

Lucy said, “When theatre design students, who may have never been up close to really talented dancers, encounter movement, it informs their practice profoundly; they become more aware of gravity, velocity, and movement requirements within a set and costume.”

Her hope is that “participants have gone away with increased confidence in allowing ideas to emerge through different processes, cultivating a greater awareness of space so you’re letting ideas develop naturally rather than forcing them”. Lucy will be running more Drawing Performance workshops in London and Seoul in the coming months.

BA students staged a headphone-based promenade on Štvanice island

In Memory Police meanwhile, Wimbledon students from BA Contemporary Theatre and Performance, BA Costume Design for Theatre and Screen and BA Theatre Design created an immersive site-specific headphone-based promenade performance on Štvanice island. Based on an excerpt from Yōko Ogawa's allegorical book, The Memory Police, which is set on a fictional island, the performance addresses issues of totalitarianism and resistance, loss and community where objects disappear and all memory of them is erased by a sinister police force.

For this performance audience members were given headphones, placed into small groups and guided along the banks of the Vltava River. Through pre-recorded and live interaction, the piece layered the fictitious world of Memory Police onto the contemporary landscape of Prague.

First performed on Eel Pie Island in Twickenham in January 2023, the performance was adapted especially for PQ. Speaking about her experience, student Amelia Kyriacou said, “Presenting Memory Police at PQ was very different than the first iteration of the show… I think the alterations made it a better show so it's great that we had that opportunity to push it further”.

Also involved in Memory Police were students from York University, who met with audiences, guided them to meeting spots and liaised with the stage manager to facilitate timings. The involvement of these students is part of a wider effort to develop and deepen ties between Wimbledon College of Arts and York University. The intent to continue to work together was formalised on 5 July 2023 when York University and University of the Arts London, through York’s School of Arts, Media, Performance and Design (AMPD) and Wimbledon College of Arts signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

Reflecting on the benefits to students of participating in PQ, Amelia added, “It's very unusual to get to see global perspectives on theatre all in one place, especially as a student who hasn't stepped into the industry fully yet. It was super interesting seeing the similarities and differences in how performance-based artists are thinking, particularly among fellow students.”

MA students undertook an ambitious collaboration with TAAT and non-human entities including worms, stones and seeds

Overseen by Sophia New, Course Leader for MA Performance: Politics and Social Justice, The Lively Assemble was another contribution to this year’s PQ. A collaboration between Wimbledon MA Performance students Catalina Diaconescu, Timna Krenn, Victoria Mazeris, Jingi Ye, Xinran “PauPau” Meng and Theresa Nelson, TAAT (Theatre as Architecture Architecture as Theatre) collaborators Gert-Jan Stam and Breg Horemans and non-human entities, it took place at the Performance Space Exhibition. The piece aimed to bridge the space of the exhibition and the space of the symposium with humans and plants uniting in a collective effort to perform and celebrate togetherness.

Professor Jane Collins debated the changing role of the actor in performance design and scenography

Also participating in this year’s PQ, Professor of Theatre and Performance, Jane Collins, spoke at the lively panel discussion Models of Collaborations: Performers and Scenographers. The packed-out auditorium heard Jane and 5 other panellists debate the changing role of the actor in performance design and scenography in the context of emerging technologies. Reflecting on the discussion, Jane said: “There is a perceived hierarchy in performance with the actor always being at the centre of everything… [we debated] what happens if you displace the actor from the centre, what happens if actors are part of a landscape or if an object is the centre of attention?”

Jane is the Founder and Co-Editor of the Theatre and Performance Design journal and will be publishing a special PQ edition in summer 2024 featuring articles by this year’s participants. Sharing her thoughts on how the event connected to Wimbledon’s strong research focus, she added “It feeds directly into research and to the principles of the courses we offer at Wimbledon… we want students to be able to embrace all aspects of performance, including working with objects and materials”.

Overall, this year’s PQ was a spectacular showcase of contemporary performance and stage design, and Wimbledon College of Arts played a large part. Summing up the feedback from our students and lecturers about their experiences in Prague, Senior Lecturer Dr Sophie Jump said “PQ is stimulating and inspiring. It’s a chance to see what is happening in the sector around the world and it really opens your mind.”

• Find out more about the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space
• Find out more about BA Theatre Design
• Find out more about BA Contemporary Theatre and Performance
• Find out more about BA Costume for Theatre and Screen
• Find out more about MA Performance: Theatre Making
• Find out more about MA Performance: Politics and Social Justice