CREATIVE LICHT 2024

Creative Licht is re-launching for its second phase in 2024, following a hiatus during the global COVID-19 pandemic. The landscape of interpreted performance in Scotland has changed significantly. With this in mind the project is set to return with a series of initial workshops that will begin conversations about current practice and developments in the sector across three specific areas:

Who are the workshops for?

Each workshop takes a particular focus and will appeal to different professionals, including performance interpreters, BSL consultants and creatives using BSL in their work. Some workshops are specific to performance interpreters (deaf and hearing), and some are open to other creatives working in the performing arts with an interest in  interpreted performance. 

At its core, Creative Licht exists to develop the practice of interpreted performance and the skills of practitioners. To this end, we hope to establish a core cohort of performance interpreters who can join us for all three workshops.

Please follow the links below for more information and booking instructions. If you have any questions or queries, don’t hesitate to contact Project Lead Zoe Halliday at creativelicht@boptheatre.co.uk.

About the workshops

Workshop 1 — Performance interpreting as a creative practice

Saturday 5th October 2024

Morning Session: 10:00–12:30 (with break)

Facilitated by: Catherine King & Yvonne Strain 
Who it is for: Performance interpreters only
Language of room: BSL

BSL/English interpreters working in performance are not always seen as creative contributors in their own right. This workshop is an opportunity for discussion of the experiences and challenges that performance interpreters must navigate when working in creative spaces. We will also look at the models and practices currently in use in Scotland and begin to establish and develop a shared approach to performance interpreting as a creative practice. 

This session is for anyone currently working in a performance interpreting role, or interested in performance interpreting as a future area of work. 

Afternoon session: 13:30–15:30 (with break) 

Facilitated by: Catherine King & Yvonne Strain
Who it is for: Performance interpreters and performance makers such as producers, directors, assistant directors, playwrights, devisers 
Language of room: BSL + spoken English 

In this session, we will share some of the conversation from the morning workshop with a wider group of creatives for further input. We hope to re-engage the sector in Creative Licht and outline the goals for this phase of the project. 

Workshop 2 — Performance interpreting and collaboration with BSL consultants

Saturday 26th October 2024

Morning Session: 10:00–12:30 (with break)

Facilitated by: Jamie Rea
Who is it for: Performance interpreters + BSL consultants 
Language of room: BSL

This workshop will explore the role of a BSL consultant and how they can collaborate with performance interpreters. This is an opportunity to identify and share current knowledge and practice, and to discuss best working practice and industry guidelines with regards to fees/budgets/time scales and translation timelines. 

Afternoon session: 13:30–16:00 (with break) 

Facilitated by: Jamie Rea
Who is it for: BSL consultants and performance interpreters, invited directors/producers/ADs who have expressed interest in or commitment to working with a BSL consultant.  
Language of the room: BSL and spoken English 

Following on from the morning session, this workshop will provide space to discuss how BSL consultants and performance interpreters can work together as members of a project’s wider creative team. We will also explore the challenges that may arise for different project participants in such collaborations. 

Workshop 3 — Performance interpreters working with BSL-using cast members: rehearsal room to stage

Saturday 30th November 2024

session: 14:00–17:00 (with break)

Facilitated by: Catherine King 
Case Study Group: Petre Dobre, Yvonne Strain, Jairus Obayomi
Who is it for: Open room to sector 
Language of room: BSL + spoken English 

The final workshop will examine case studies of previous interpreted productions that took different approaches. Members of these productions will share their experience of the work and how BSL-using actors and performance interpreters worked together. We will discuss the various roles of deaf/BSL-using performers, performance interpreters and rehearsal interpreters, and different models of collaboration with creative and production teams. 

This session is open to anyone in the sector with an interest in using BSL in performance, or working with BSL interpreters and deaf/BSL-using actors.

Creative: Relating to or involving the use of the imagination or original ideas to create something. (Oxford English Dictionary)

Licht: Light, that which illuminates. (Dictionary of Scots Language)

Creative Licht is a project originally delivered between 2017 and 2019 that brought together BSL/English Interpreters working in Scotland with those working in the creative industries with the ambition of up-skilling all those who took part to develop and improve approaches to interpreted performances.

You can find out more about the initial phase here.

The project is a partnership between Solar Bear, National Theatre of Scotland, Birds of Paradise and SignArts, funded by Creative Scotland.

Creative Licht is funded by Creative Scotland