OPEN GROUND
SCRATCH NIGHT
HOSTED BY BATH'S CREATIVE PLAYGROUND
OPEN GROUND is a curated Scratch Night for performance artists.
An evening of process, progress and emerging material shared in front of a live audience. This is about momentum, placing work on its feet and discovering what it becomes on stage.
We invited work that is still forming and ready to be tested. We now invite you audiences to come witness ideas as they solidify on stage.
THE ARTISTS SHOWCASING THEIR WORK
& a lot more on what they will be presenting down below!
ABOUT THE HOSTS
Open Ground Scratch Night will be hosted by Bath’s Creative Playground and programmed as part of SparkFest, a performance festival based in Bath.
Bath’s Creative Playground is an interdisciplinary creative hub supporting collaborative and performance-led practices in Bath. It nurtures the artistic community through workshops for anyone curious about exploring physicality, storytelling, and collaboration.
To find out more about Bath's Creative Playground please visit our home page.
You can also check us on Instagram for regular updates. Give us a follow here.
MORE ABOUT THE ARTISTS
& AND THEIR PERFORMANCES
BANGERS MASHED
COMEDY
Have you ever really paid attention to the lyrics of your favourite songs? Your go-to tunes for car karaoke and solo shower serenades are under attack! Georgie Matthews is here to ruin them for you…
Combining observational comedy with live music and projection, Georgie has been developing ‘Bangers mashed’ for 2 years and is very excited to bring it to Bath for the first time!
GEORGIE MATTHEWS
Georgie is an actor, producer and improviser based in South Wales and she’s delighted to be performing and hosting ‘Open Ground’.
As well as regularly performing in theatre across the UK, Georgie performs with Improv Cardiff based at Porters Theatre. ‘Bangers Mashed’ represents Georgie’s first foray into cabaret and comedy work.
PLANES
THEATRE
‘Why are you here? Besides seeing dead people?’
After a chance meeting on an indiscriminate rooftop one day, Ashley and Joel discuss the events that brought them to encounter.
Starring Elisabeth Calvert and Toby Skelton
ELISABETH CALVERT
Elisabeth is a Bath-based actor and director, originally from South Yorkshire. She gained her BA in Stage and Screen from Sheffield Hallam University in 2018 and her MA in Performing Shakespeare from Bath Spa University in 2021. She has since performed across the UK and Europe, and has appeared in many plays on the Bath theatre scene in recent years. Planes is Elisabeth’s writing debut.
MY UNCLE WROTE A STORY
PHYSICAL THEATRE
My uncle lives alone, creating worlds in his head. He has written a story.
It is about me - or a version of me.
CARLY ETHERINGTON
Carly is a graduate in Dance from Bath Spa University. I have made numerous pieces of theatre and have received commissions for over fifteen years. I love the strangeness in people and the way they express this through movement. I live and work in Bristol.
BOB CAT?
THEATRE
Art is subjective, so is dating. Sometimes a girl needs help with with both.
MOLLY GRAHAM
Molly is a young creative from Swindon who recently trained with the National Youth Theatre. Passionate about inspiring and empowering young people, she enjoys both performing and teaching, using theatre as a space for connection and growth.
Her love of performance began at a young age and has since developed into a dynamic creative practice. Molly explores a range of styles, from Meisner technique to feminist theatre, and is driven by a desire to create work that challenges, uplifts, and sparks change.
Now stepping forward as a writer, this marks the first time Molly is sharing her own original work - an exciting milestone as she continues to find her voice and place within the creative world.
WHERE I'M FROM
SPOKEN WORD & PHYSICAL THEATRE
“Where I'm From” is a collaboration born from the words of spoken word artist and poet Manganaro, accompanied by the visual interpretations and movement language of dance artist Lucy Abreu. The duet of spoken word and contemporary movement focused on the topics of queerness, home, and belonging. Driven by the poetic work from Manganaro’s book “This Is Where I'm From”, the pair embark to take the audience with them on a journey to find home.
LUCY ABREU & MANGANARO
Manganaro is a multi award winning writer, performer, and event organiser. They’ve headlined events across the UK and their writing explores themes of identity, bilingual experience, everyday nuances, drawing on the personal side of political.
Lucy is a dance artist and creative, with keen interests in collaborative and interdisciplinary work. Their dance style is driven by a need to express fundamentally human stories.
PASSING THROUGH A HUE
DANCE
With the body for a brush and light for ink, we render visible the nameless spectrum of emotion in the chromatic darkroom.
ZIYI LIU
Ziyi is a student on the Master's Dance Course at Bath Spa University.
ACTORS CHOIR
SINGING
The Actors Choir are here to get your musical senses tingling with their vocal harmonies and soulful tunes.
SUZI MACGREGOR & BSU ACTORS CHOIR
The BSU Actors Choir is a singing collective that offers acting students the chance to explore their connection to music. Through vocal harmony, alternative song choices and live instrumental backing, we hope to create soulful and collaborative musical experiences.
The group is led by Suzi MacGregor, a Bristol-based vocalist, multi-instrumentalist & songwriter and Teaching Fellow for BSU.
DATING HISTORY
DANCE
A solo performance blending contemporary dance and character comedy, this work explores the evolution of courtship. From the earnest Elizabethan poet to online dating, how far will a man go to secure his desired wench? As each suitor begins to unravel, romantic reverie curdles, revealing a shared inheritance of control, fragility, and misogyny. Through striking physical sequences and sharp wit, the piece peels back the performance of masculinity that has long disguised domination as devotion, and offers a softer alternative for romantic love.
LIA MIDDLETON
Lia is a Bristol-based performer and producer dedicated to blending contemporary dance with traditional theatre to uncover the poetic heart of storytelling. With a background in clowning and ensemble devisery, she performed with Babolin Theatre at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe in 'Lights! Donkey! Action!', earning a five-star review from The British Theatre Guide.
Lia is a member of the National Youth Theatre and a One Dance UK Young Creative, currently developing a solo work ahead of its London debut this July. As a producer, she is leading the sitcom-inspired Greek myth satire 'God Complex' for the upcoming Edinburgh Fringe. Alongside completing a degree in English, she also dances with the Bristol-based dance collective Threads, developing a work inspired by local mythology.
