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Theatre Collection launches new award inspired by experimental performance group’s archive

Mammon, who featured in Forkbeard Fantasy’s show, Invisible BonfiresForkbeard Fantasy Archive, The University of Bristol Theatre Collection

Forkbeard Fantasy’s show, The Brain (1999)Forkbeard Fantasy Archive, The University of Bristol Theatre Collection

Press release issued: 10 February 2025

Applications are now open for a new £15,000 award for performers and artists to develop a collaborative work inspired by engagement with the Forkbeard Fantasy Archive which is housed at the University of Bristol’s Theatre Collection.

Forkbeard Fantasy was an experimental performance group who saw themselves as part of a new and blossoming movement in art and creativity with humour at its heart. From their beginning in the 1970s, they were experimenting with emerging technologies and theatrical engineering while focusing on the themes of science, nature and the environment which made them a unique entity at the time.

After fifty years of multi-media performances, films, animations, performance poetry, street theatre, and interactive exhibitions, Forkbeard Fantasy officially closed in 2023, donating their archive to the Theatre Collection.

The Forkbeard Fantasy Award is intended to help support and sustain artists’ careers. It is aimed at helping collaborations of artists/performers to research, develop and experiment towards the creation of new work. It is dedicated to the memory of Forkbeard's Company Manager Janice May (1953 - 2024). Applications are invited from any and all collaborations of two or more UK based applicants with at least five years’ experience.

The archive contains material from before Forkbeard was established through to the winding up of the company. The company kept a well organised series of files for each show, as well as documentation relating to foreign tours, films, grants, exhibitions, residences, workshops (including their summer schools), funding applications, commissions, Arts Council correspondence, governance records, diaries and calendars, photographs and printed marketing material. Some of their fantastical props included a seven-foot white rabbit and a teenage brontosaurus skeleton.

The archive also contains an extensive collection of audiovisual items.  Both standalone filmmaking and the weaving of film into theatrical performances were integral to Forkbeard’s work from the 1970s, with animation an important element. The archive includes a broad range of these films as well as visual documentation of finished performances, with most productions represented. 

In addition, a few iconic, representative and informative objects have been selected from the former Museum of Forkbeard for permanent preservation, alongside the archive material, including Mammon, who appeared in Forkbeard Fantasy’s show ‘Invisible Bonfires’, commissioned by DEFRA to raise public awareness of climate change. 

Julian Warren, Head of the Theatre Collection, said: “The availability of Forkbeard’s archive for artists to explore and to burrow into is intended to inspire new directions and creativity. Having undergone decades of experience of applying for funding, some good and some not so good, Forkbeard are keen that the process for applicants is as uncomplicated and fair as possible. We look forward to receiving applications and the creative work that comes as a result.”

Further information

The University of Bristol Theatre Collection is one of the world's largest archives of British theatre history and Live Art and is an accredited museum and international research facility open to all. Founded in 1951 to serve the first UK university drama department, the collections cover the period from 1572 to the 21st century and visitors include everyone from international scholars to family historians. The Theatre Collection has achieved both Accredited Museum and Accredited Archive Service status, and its collections have been Designated Outstanding by the Arts Council, England.  The Theatre Collection is open to the public Tuesday to Friday [9.30am-5pm].

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