'Gras'

is a new show for 2020

and is a commission from

The Diocese of Bangor , North Wales.

Photo by Stephen Lloyd

" In The Psalm of Her Hand"

touring from May 2018. The show is a piece of visual, physical theatre and will have a workshop to accompany performances.The show is suitable to tour small scale community venues, festivals, secondary schools, colleges and universities.'In The Psalm of Her Hand' explores the walk through life and is about hearts.This is a solo piece that follows on from 'Soul in a Suitcase' and 'Cupid's Strongest Bow'https://www.facebook.com/thewrightschool/

'In The Psalm of Her Hand'is the third in the trilogy and is funded by
https://www.facebook.com/gwylcoda/

"Pin, Curl & Dyesome" 2017-2016

Fancy a new Do?

Select our Strolling Salon and see what we can do for you

Pins, Perms, Curls and Colours

Our Scissor-handed stylists serve up the new you

Hairstylist:-

1.a cut above the rest 2.adds colour to the lives of other 3.brings out the beauty in others 4.miracle worker

Here at 'Pin, Curl & Dyesome'

Comedy Mask Theatre on your doorstep ...

'SOUP' 2015

Hijinx Academy North Wales performing as part of The Unity Festival in Cardiff July 4th 2015 created and directed by Jane Sutcliffe.

'REDS' 2013

Christmas 'Reds' at Birmingham Hippodrome & Southside on Sunday 22nd December and Monday 23rd!

Jane performed as part of this project in conjunction with Natural Theatre and Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre at Sandwell Arts Festival on 24th August & at 'The 4 Squares Weekender' www.4squaresweekender.com on 7th & 8th September in Birmingham City Centre.

"Whatever a Moon ..."

Follow the enchanting Pierrette as she seeks her long lost Love ... a lyrical tale of love and longing ... Jane performed this comedy piece as part of 'Love Stirchley More' Festival on 16th February and at Kidderminster ARts Festival on 22nd August 2013.

http://stirchleyprospects.wordpress.com/the-artists-and-their-work/

Christmas "REDS" @ Birmingham Hippodrome

Following on from this year's Six Summer Saturdays 'The Reds' make a return by popular demand as they spread their love, magical gifts and seasonal cheer in Southside and Birmingham Hippodrome spaces on December 15th, 16th and 23rd.

"Heartfelt"

"Heartfelt" was performed as part of World Aids day at mac in Birmingham on December 1st in conjunction with The "Make Your Mark" Project.

"REDS" Natural Theatre

www.facebook.com/birminghamhippodrome

www.facebook.com/naturaltheatreco

Birmingham Hippodrome as part of 'Six Summer Saturdays 2012' and in collaboration with "Natural Theatre" offered an unique professional development performance opportunity. Ten regional practitioners worked with Natural Theatre to develop their own 'RED' character which was added to the performance of "REDS" with the company on August 11th in Birmingham City Centre.

Strictly Dancing - The Charleston

Jane performed The Charleston as part of this event at Balsall Heath Church Centre in Birmingham on October 20th 2011.

"Arlecchinette"

Hailing originally from Italy, Arlecchinette, sister of Harlequin from the tradition of Commedia dell'Arte now lives in Paris. She has always loved England and has been invited to make an appearance at The Black Country Creative Partnerships Graduation Day at Dunstall Racecourse in Wolverhampton July 2011. Carnival combined with glamour "A La Francaise" with humour and much mimicry for your entertainment.

"Down To Earth"

Tom & Tam Toboldligo March 2011

Photo: Kate Buttolph

a performance project for Black Country Creative Partnerships. Jane worked with Alex Nikitas to create and perform this work. The aim of which was to inspire and develop writing and performance skills in Market Drayton Junior School, Shropshire.

"Ceci n'est pas ..."

is a performance Jane did at The Midlands Arts centre as part of the launch of the "SHOUT" Festival on 4th November 2010. This work was inspired by her visit to The Magritte Museum in Brussels earlier this year.

"Ceci n'est pas ...

North Wales Autumn 2009 - Spring 2010

"Moving and Being"

North Wales Autumn 2009 - Spring 2010

Jane worked with groups of adults with learning disabilities in Ruthin and Prestatyn to devise and direct 'Cinders and Ashes' (from the Moving and Being Project) exploring the Cinderella myth. See Cinders step into her golden shoes and go to the Ball.

National Theatre Wales

Nowhere: Now Here - The Second Respond Test

Nowhere: Now Here will be happening this Friday 2nd October 2009 in The Vulcan , Adam Street, Cardiff from 7pm

The three participants in this Respond Test are:

Matthew Bulgo
Jane Sutcliffe
Terry Victor

The process of making Respond projects is an experiment: how can a group of artists and creatives make a piece of work really quickly in response to an important theme, event or question.
Our audience are a vital part of this process and the feedback that you can give from your experiences will help inform National Theatre Wales' way of working, to make Respond the best programme it can be. So please come and help develop our work..

http://nationaltheatrewales.org/

"Lunalove"

Jane was commissioned by Victoria Specialist Arts College in Birmingham to make a performance journeying from Clown Luna's physical theatre world into that of filmic image. This piece was performed on 28th July 2009.

Winter 2008 - Spring 2009

"Out of the Woods"

A unique visual, physical performance of the classic tale "Hansel & Gretel" by The Brothers Grimm with New Horizon's Theatre Company Kidderminster. Jane was invited back to devise and direct. The piece was performed at 7.30pm on 20th March 2009 at The Rose Theatre in Kidderminster.

" ... a truly magical evening.. "

"Out of the Woods" rehearsal

Photo : Shaun Parrin

February 14th - June 26th 2008

"Cupid's Strongest Bow"

follows on from "Soul in a Suitcase".

It is a story of hearts and about not trying too hard. It is a play about the resilience of the human spirit. This kernel of humanity that seems to help us get along…which is beautiful, charming, stupid, naïve, child-like, grumpy and ultimately in this case - optimistic…

A play about the journey through life and love from the heart embracing pleasure and pain, the profound and the profane, the ethereal and the mundane - (and the daft!)

A piece of visual comedy that is audacious, poetic and painfully funny combining Clown play, aerial work, and music.

Jane has developed the show and its physical comedy with Director John Wright author of "Why is That so Funny?" Director of aerial work is Mike Wright of "Above and Beyond". Sound design is by Pete Williams.

"I swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow;
By his best arrow with golden head:
By the simplicity of Venus' doves
By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves...

Midsummer Night's Dream

"For in the dew of little things
the heart finds its morning and is refreshed."

The Prophet Kahlil Gibran

"The Clown is very honest. There's timeless wisdom in the Clown, infinite play. She has the audience squirming one moment and laughing the next.... in the tradition of the Fool in Shakespeare." BIRMINGHAM POST

"...Creates a poem with her movement...." THE STAGE

"Is mesmerising throughout, assured, funny and subtle" BIRMINGHAM POST

"Golden Rose"

"Within the deepest chamber of the heart where he meets the Goddess".."a promise of joy"

Jane performed an aerial piece based on the innermost cave theme from The Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell. Part of "Project X Presents" at The Rainbow Warehouse Digbeth on November 3rd 8pm-2am www.projectXpresents.com

"The Pot of Gold Autumn 2007"

A workshop project with New Horizons Theatre Company Kidderminster - a group of young adults with disabilities. Jane worked with the company and presented "The Pot of Gold" based on themes of finding a brain, some courage and a heart...from "The Wizard of Oz".

"Fire in the Belly"

... a performance using masks and physical theatre to explore the realms of our journey through life. The creative process with The Cuckoo's Nest Theatre Company - Kidderminster, began with the idea of exploring the seasons of our life in their cyclical form...the ebb and flow..the obstacles and challenges along the way. The masks were made at The Glasshouse Theatre in Stourbridge with Glenn Caulfield and the piece was performed on April 26th and October 24th 2007 at The Glasshouse Theatre, Stourbridge as part of The International Mask Festival.

www.internationalmaskfestival.com

Created by the group and Jane...

"Uplifting, spiritual, other-worldly performance. Moving and heartfelt....It made my spine tingle".

"Bunny Town"

The Disney Channel

Summer 2007

Jane has been involved in filming episodes for the programme using Clown and physical comedy.

"The Journey of the Clown & Soul's Home"

In conjunction with "Snowshow" by Russian Clown Slava Polunin at Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre November 2006, "The Journey of the Clown" was an Education Outreach programme led by Jane which explored the art of the Theatre Clown with students from Four Dwellings Secondary School in Quinton, Birmingham. The performance by the students was presented at Birmingham Hippodrome on November 15th 2006. Jane was commissioned by the Hippodrome to make a solo performance entitled " Soul's Home" which was also performed at Birmingham Hippodrome.

"Soul's Grace"

Dante's epic poem "The Divine Comedy" is a spiritual autobiography in journey form. The poet travels from the dark circles of the Inferno up to the mountain of Purgatory, where Virgil, his guide leaves him to encounter Beatrice, his eternal beloved in the Earthly Paradise.

This physical theatre performance combines aerial performance, physical imagery, music and spoken word.

Performed by second year B.A. Honours Drama students from The University of Cumbria and directed by Jane Sutcliffe.

Stanwix Arts Centre 1st-3rd November 2006 8pm

www.cumbria.ac.uk

THROUGH GLASS DARKLY 

Jane devised and performed in THROUGH GLASS DARKLY at The Glasshouse Theatre in Stourbridge with Director Michael Chase, writer Richard Ramsbotham and students from The Glasshouse College.

 TITANIA: A SPELL IN THE WOODS

"I am a spirit of no common rate:

The summer still doth tend upon my state

And I do love thee; therefore go with me..."

"A Spell in the Woods" - Summer 2006

ICICLES TO DAFFODILS

March 2006

Icicles to Daffodils, a devised physical theatre piece combining chorus and aerial tissu work and live music by Ann Jones. Jane and Ann worked with students from Queensbridge Performing Arts College, Colmore Junior school and Longwill School for the Deaf.

Jane performed alongside the students on her aerial rig and played Isabella Crotchet, the spidery Ice Queen, who lived up on her dark cloud. Students from Colmore and Longwill schools performed all the other roles, the exploring children, the Ice Queen's entourage and the chorus of eerie, ever changing grotesque statues in the Ice Queen's castle.

This performance was on in the main theatre as part of The Moving Parts Festival at the Midlands Arts Centre on 29th March. Matinee and evening performances. www.macarts.co.uk

"We were very pleased to go to the performance last night. It was great and had all your hallmarks: lots of opportunity for the whole cast to participate and interact in a meaningful physical way without being privileged stars and a very positive message in the narrative. The lighting, drapes, floor covering and costumes were lovely- enhanced the whole thing.

We were sitting very close to the musicians and it was fascinating to observe what effects they were producing. We liked the triangles on stage by the way!

Lots of patient work, I am sure, to get it to that standard. A little girl (twoish) was sitting on her father`s lap next to us and absolutely absorbed. She was very upset when you came down from your cloud! It reminded us of when we took our elder daughter to puppets at MAC when she was that age: total attention, absorbing everything like blotting paper."

Elizabeth Oakley

  PEER GYNT
  Summer 2005

Peer Gynt: Glasshouse Productions
Glasshouse Theatre, Stourbridge

Glasshouse Productions' biggest play to date, a professional, community and student production of Ibsen's Peer Gynt. This rich mythic tale of love, loss and redemption spans the life of Peer Gynt as he travels the globe.

With its rich visual theatre of mask, live music and choreography, using a selection of over fifty masks and puppets, it is a powerful and humorous production that makes for deep yet popular theatre and builds on the company's success of 'Antigone' in 2003.

This story captivates a wide range of audiences with it's visual humour and poignant depth as we meet the Green Woman, Button Moulder, Death, The King of the Trolls, Dr Begriffenveldt and Solveig. 'Everyman' Peer tricks, seduces, loves, and defies on a journey to find himself.

It is a rare treat when a company develops a style that can match Ibsen's riddling, profound, quixotic, humorous masterpiece, Peer Gynt. The company with their stunning visual imagery, masks, music, dance, the joyous artistry of its Romanian director, and the performance skills of the actors achieve this feat, offering a theatrical feast for young and old alike.

As Bernard Shaw said: 'Peer is everyones hero. He has the same effect on the imagination that Hamlet, Faust and Mozart's Don Juan have had.'

'Remarkable ambition pays off handsomely'

" The village wedding where Peer first meets his sweetheart Solveig but ends up absconding with the bride is brilliantly conjured with masks and puppets, while Peer's later attempted seduction in the desert is an equally accomplished shadow play."

The Birmingham Post, Tuesday June 28th 2005
Terry Grimley

See REVIEWS page

SOUL IN A SUITCASE
  Spring 2002 - Summer 2004

"Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;

The soul that rises with us, our life's star,

Hath had elsewhere its setting,

And cometh from afar;"

"Ode. Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood". William Wordsworth

Soul in a Suitcase... is a poignant comedy made from those inconsequential moments of life. On one level this is a play about growing up, getting old and dying and on another it is a play that walks the tightrope between pleasure and pain, the profound and the profane, the ethereal and the mundane.

A startling piece of visual comedy that is audacious, poetic and painfully funny. A fascinating melange of Clown, tissu, music and bharatanatyam dance.

"For in the dew of little things
the heart finds its morning and is refreshed."

The Prophet Kahlil Gibran

Soul in a Suitcase was created by Jane Sutcliffe and directed by John Wright, assistant director Louise Bedford. Aerial work by Mike Wright, original music composed by Peter Churchill www.peterchurchill.co.uk and bharatanatyam dance choreography by Mona Joshee.

Katy Smallwood Age 7: 27th December 2001

"It's a show about a Clown who grows up and finds her Wings" ....

Birmingham Metro News July 2002

"Creates a poem with her movement. Sutcliffe's physical work on the stage is excellent"
The Stage, Edinburgh Festival 2002


" Sutcliffe's performance is mesmerising throughout assured, funny and subtle"
The Birmingham Post, July 2003

See REVIEWS page

Seven Deadly Sins

August 2002 - The Royal Mile Edinburgh

In 2002 Stage 2 Youth Theatre returned to The Edinburgh Festival - this time taking to the streets for a piece loosely based on Marlowe's Deadly Sins. This piece was a fusion of Commedia dell' Arte characters, comedy, music, promenade and procession and was devised by Jane and the company.

  The Slender Balance ll

(can be used as a starter or main course)

Devised by the company and directed by Terina Talbot

• Take one ripe juicy human and divide into two main halves
Drain Lilith and stir up Lily
Grate some nerves
Bring to the boil and then simmer
Put a lid on emotions and leave for fifteen years
Heat up mixture under a camera lens
Coat with melted media so that it looks glossy and appetising
Serves one full-sized audience

(Note: Although you can buy processed, chilled personalities, home-made stock is so much better and easier to make)

For more morsels contact Jane

" A really effective fusion of movement, music and visual image with strongly individual humour and it leaves you thinking..."
Dorothy Wilson Director mac, Birmingham

"Fantastic - a really exciting performance...."
Sue Beardsmore BBC TV

"A highly original piece of work"
Mike Kilblane BBC TV

See REVIEWS page

Midnight she went to the fridge...
she sensed the chocolate....
she met the monster..

Maria Whatton & Jane as Barbie Dolls
Slender Balance ll / 1999
Photo: Natalie

Commedia dell"Arte - La Compagnie des Trois Oranges

La Veterinaire Extraordinaire Summer 1998 France

A solo performance tripping the tightrope between
the fat mirror and the thin mirror and the fridge in between.

Dying to be thin...
Kill the hated flesh...
Thinness is perfection.

A woman comes face to face with
the monster inside her own body.

THE SLENDER BALANCE
INGESTRE HALL Rehearsals
Spring 1993
Photo: Clare Heney

'I always wanted you to admire my fasting...said the hunger artist...
but you shouldn't admire it because I have to fast, I can't help it..
because I couldn't find the food I liked.
If I found it, believe me, I should have made no fuss
and stuffed myself like you or anyone else.'

Franz Kafka 'A Hunger Artist'

In Hommage to Max Sennet - Rene Magritte

"Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre the mind shaped itself to the body,
and roaming around its gilt cage only seeks to adorn its prison.'

Mary Wolstonecroft 'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman'

This performance explores our attitude to food, our bodies, self-image and media pressure,
using a unique tragi-comic blend of wit, movement, voice and image reflecting
our inner beauty, strength and experiences as women...

This piece has been created and is performed by Jane Sutcliffe.

Directed by Maria Buckley.

Thanks to Tanith Noble of 'The Magdalena Project'.

See REVIEWS page

 Kissing the Cactus

Is it the man in the moon or the angel behind the armchair...?

Kissing the Cactus explores facets of love and relationships....

Using Roger McGough's poem 'Summer with Monika' as a source of observation and inspiration, the company create a vivid and evocative portrait exploring issues of gender assertiveness and self-awareness using a unique, tragi-comic blend of wit, movement, voice and image reflecting our human experience....

Devised by the company and directed by Leo Sykes.

See REVIEWS page

KISSING THE CACTUS REHEARSAL
Jon Morris and Jane/Spring 1991 Photos: Tom Dee

A Very Nice Day Out

"Luna, every woman's friend,

To me thy goodness condescend,

Let this night in visions see

Emblems of my destiny"

Chisenhale Dance Space London - Summer 1990

Photo - Matt

Luna and Fortuna meet by chance and set off on a great adventure . Join these two clowns as they battle with the elements, fate and their own destiny.

Created and performed by Lesley Moss and Jane Sutcliffe. Suitable for a family audience.

London - Summer 1990
Photo:- Matt

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