Sadly we’ve had to say goodbye to the very wonderful Naomi Blanche, our Administrator. And we have now bid farewell to our cherished home of the past 12 years – the enormously fabulous 6 Brewery Road. Losing our rehearsal rooms not only means we will have to find new places to prepare our work, but it also means we don’t get to meet and mix with so many other theatre companies who hired our space to rehearse their own work. There will be no more angelic sounds from the voices of NITROVOX wafting through the corridors and competing with the sirens from the ambulance station up the road. And no more screaming abuse from distraught/outraged/adulterous/intoxicated prison visitors to our Pentonville neighbours. And opposite the prison, the wonderfully named “Breakout” café will be sorely missed, though my sky-high cholesterol figures will surely now begin a downward turn.

And there was all our ‘stuff’ -  the accumulated files, furniture, paperwork, accounts, scripts, costumes, sets, coffee cups, computers, printers, photocopiers, pianos, recording gear, black curtaining, full-size projection screens, scaffolding, paving stones, African head-masks, silk cloths, turntables, posters – up to 32 years of….STUFF…..from the earliest days of Black Theatre Co-operative, founded in 1979, through the change into Nitro in 1999 until now. All of it had to be put somewhere.

A lot of it has been archived at Goldsmiths College, though an archiving organisation called Future Histories; they have been looking after our archives for 10 years now. So in a few months you’ll be able to go online and see all sorts of fascinating items like the dodgy budgeting for our Wedding Dance tour, or the unexpurgated working scripts for Slamdunk, or the drafts of the music from our composers in A Nitro at the Opera. I’ll let you know when it’s up there and where to go.

The rest of the stuff found good homes on permanent loans or just give-away. And we filled a few skips. Nostalgia reigned for a day or two then I was glad to see the back of all the junk. In my house there are now probably too many African head masks and certainly more permanent marker pens than I’ll ever need, but you never know.

It’s interesting the way some people have reacted to our change of location. Not having a building anymore is tantamount to not existing. We held a little farewell party to say goodbye. Many thought it was a closing down wake – the end of Nitro. Nothing could have been further from the truth but, as with so many areas of the arts, it’s the bricks and mortar that gives you the status, not the work.

From now on, if you want to contact us, try the usual phone number – 020 7609 1331; email – felix@nitro.co.uk or info@nitro.co.uk or debo@nitro.co.uk or indeed accounts@nitro.co.uk. Our website is still our website and our purpose is still our purpose – to develop and produce high quality black music theatre.

And away from the packing and the farewells I’ve been stupidly busy. I’m setting up a number of new music-theatre projects for Nitro that you will be hearing about in the coming months. I’ve written the music for a rather excellent production of Moon On A Rainbow Shawl at the National Theatre, directed with skill and taste by Michael Buffong and with a great cast; I’ve just arranged, rehearsed and conducted the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah with Ebony Steel band and I’ve written the music for an intriguing circus show called The Arrival, produced by Tamasha and performed as part of The Alchemy Festival at the South Bank. Plus of course I’ve been following my beloved Fulham – an emotionally draining and time-consuming passion.

There will be plenty more from Nitro in the future so please keep watching this space.

All the best

Felix

A couple of days later Pepe comes to my house with the music. I notice that this ‘little tune’ is the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah. “We start on Tuesday at around 8.30 but people get there for 9” I was about to gulp at the early start when I realised he means pm. “Show’s on Saturday and by the way, the woman who would normally conduct them…” and at this point Pepe is walking back to his car quite quickly, “…will be playing….” he is at his car, “….so she can’t conduct..” he’s in his car and starting it, “…so you’ll have to do the conducting…” he’s driven off. I’m left holding sheets of paper and remembering that, many years ago, I used to be a bus conductor. And that was about it for conducting…..

So there I was, last Saturday, at Craven Cottage, watching the beloved Fulham against Norwich when I get a text from a friend who’s just been listening to Radio 4 (nothing better to do on a Saturday afternoon?) and he’s been listening to the Jubilee Singers, a play by Adrian Mitchell and featuring none other than our very own fabulous NITROVOX! I can happily say that the music is wonderful as it was nothing to do with me, Allyson Devenish arranged it all and conducted them in the recording – there’s that word again, “conducted”. When she was in the studio room waving her arms about I should have watched what she was doing.

Fulham won 2-1 and thanks to Swansea losing the next day, we are now 10^th in the Premier League – Hallelujah!

We worked with London club night Deep Down… in bringing the vision theatrical narrative to clubbing!

Celebrating their 2nd successful year, Deep Down… have curated and promoted club nights and music events across London in interesting warehouse spaces.

Infusing club and music events with theatrical narratives is still an adventurous development in the world of new musical theatre and Nitro was delighted to work with Deep Down in exploring fresh ways in which this can happen.

The first exciting outing of this unique collaboration was held on September 10th at The New Empowering Church, 1a Westage Street, London, E8 3RL. It featured one of todays most prominent and relevant poets Dean Atta who led a narrative by performing poems a cappella and over dance music.

Also performing was London’s leading Afrobeat and Ska band United Vibrations, the ‘mother’ of Afrobeat and world music in London, Rita Ray, Neo Funk producer Funkineven and leading Afro House and Bass DJ Deboa.

On Thursday 1st September 2011, at Nitro Theatre from 6pm, we presented a fantastic evening that  showcased the freshest’s sounds of Islington’s young urban talent as part of the Nitro Ignites Project. An inspiring evening indeed!

The event was held at Nitro HQ with a VIP audience plus fans were able to watch it live via our exclusive live stream here, on this very page!. Here’s a set of videos of that performance!

Young people from around Islington worked as a collective over 3 months to create their own music as part of the Nitro Ignites Project. Read up more about it here.

Nitro Ignites was a summer programme supported by Youth Music where young people aged 14 – 18 from around the ‘Market Road’ area worked with a team of professional music artists to create their own music, by learning how to play a range of instruments, singing, song-writing, rapping and music production in preparation for two showcase events at the end of the summer of 2011. The first was part of the Platform Festival in July and the second took place at the beginning of September at Nitro HQ!

The content of their show was themed around both modern and historical stories from the Market Road Estate. This was performed by those living on and around this specific area.

The workshops ran once weekly starting Monday 6th June – Monday 4.30pm – 6.00pm until, September 2011. It specialised in teaching young people aged 14 – 18 a range of skills as young musicians; specifically teaching them the basics of learning how to play an instrument as well as skills in music production, singing, rapping, song writing and performance.

Here’s our exclusive video footage of the project and the final performance held here at Nitro HQ in September 2011!

Nitro Ignites Mini Documentary

Nitro Ignites Performances

For more information on the Nitro IGNITES Project or similar projects you may be interested in please contact Simone Watson on 0207 609 1331 or email simone@nitro.co.uk or email the Nitro office via info@nitro.co.uk.

The next stage of Generations will take place from January 2011 to December 2012.  There are currently 5 parts to the work:

generations: nitro ignites

Nitro Ignites is a summer programme supported by Youth Music where young people aged 14 – 18 from around the ‘Market Road’ area will work with a team of professional music artists to create their own music, by learning how to play a range of instruments, singing, song-writing, rapping and music production in preparation for two showcase events at the end of the summer. The first as part of the Platform Festival in July and the second at the end of August, framed against the backdrop of London’s Notting Hill Carnival!

The content of their show will be themed around both modern and historical stories from the Market Road Estate. This will be performed by those living on and around this specific area.

The Participants:

‘The Market road’ area has a notorious background and history for being a difficult area within the London Borough of Islington. For the last decade young people around the Market road area have been labelled and stigmatised into pigeon holes of negativity. While working with these young people on a recent pilot project, it came to light that these young people simply needed an opportunity in which to demonstrate their talents. Which is where Nitro Ignites comes into play.

Project Scale:

The workshops will run once weekly starting Monday 6^th June – Monday 4.30pm – 6.00pm. until, September 2011. It will specialise in teaching young people aged 14 – 18 a range of skills as young musicians; specifically teaching them the basics of learning how to play an instrument as well as skills in music production, singing, rapping, song writing and performance.

For more information on the Nitro IGNITES Project please contact Simone Watson on 0207 609 1331 or email simone@nitro.co.uk

GENERATIONS: SECRET SINGERS

Secret Singers is a participatory music project, giving a voice to black people affected by mental illness. In partnership with healthcare providers, organizations and individuals, Nitro will investigate the disproportionately high incidence of mental illness amongst the black population. Together with writer/artist/curator Michael Macmillan, a creative exchange will take place, encouraging patients and ex-patients to articulate their experiences. Using this material, Artistic Director Felix Cross will compose original, insightful and powerful music for choral performance. This work will be recorded, shared and performed in a manner which allows the participants to take a lead role – be it singing with the NITROvox choir, recording a video diary, or assisting behind the scenes. Secret Singers will leave a lasting legacy in the form of a recording, a touring production, a support network or choir of which Nitro, its professional associate artists and partners, and most importantly, its participants, can be proud.

Generations: At The End of the Rainbow 9th March @ Freeword Centre, London

We commissioned three pairs of poets and composers to work with different community groups, then write and compose a new piece to be performed live and then filmed and broadcast live online via our website. We worked with a wonderful local (to Islington, where we are) community arts company called All Change Arts – look them up online and see what they’re getting up to.

We chose some of the best artists around: Alex Wilson, Robert Mitchell, Arun Ghosh, Yemisi Blake, HKB FiNN and Zena Edwards; I think you’ll agree they’re all out of the top drawer and we were really excited to have them working for us.

Whilst it was Yemisi Blake’s first time with Nitro, for the rest it will be a welcome return; Alex Wilson wrote and recorded the amazing score for The Wedding Dance; he was one of the nine composers we commissioned for A Nitro At The Opera and subsequently for Rake – both with the Royal Opera House; and he has been our Musical Director on Mass Carib.

Robert Mitchell was also a composer on Rake and played keyboards in Mass Carib at Trafalgar Square; Zena Edwards wrote the rap lyrics for Slamdunk; Arun Ghosh was also a Rake composer and HKB FiNN co-wrote the libretto for Rake. Check out each and every one of these fine artists you’ll see they have high national and international profiles and have worked with some of the most incredible artists in the world.

Our community groups covered a wide range of experiences and type: from day centres for the elderly to refugee groups and young people’s projects.

We successfully live streamed the event from this very website and increased our audience by 100%. Watch this space for the exclusive video footage we recorded from the event. Coming Soon!

generations: mass carib – 26th January 2011

This renowned piece of music was performed at the extraordinary venue that is Kings Place, near Kings Cross, on 26 January. However, this was Mass Carib with a difference. First, it was sung by NITROvox – just 8 singers and 2 percussionists – presenting the bulk of the 50-minute piece. Secondly, as part of Nitro’s community outreach programme, a local group of amateur singers learnt and performed a section of Mass Carib alongside NITROvox. Plus beatboxer Marvill accompanied NITROvox in the performance to amazing effect!

In February 2010 Nitro produced Mass Carib for Haiti and raised over £2,000 for the people of Haiti following the devastating earthquake that destroyed large parts of the country. One year on, Mass Carib at Kings Place followed on from that as we celebrated and remembered the people, culture and history of Haiti. Over our two Haiti events we have raised over £2,500!

We streamed the performance live online from our website – a first for Nitro! Approximately 200 people tuned in and watched the event live from the comfort of their homes. Check out exclusive footage of the event below!!

CLICK: Audiences Online

NITRO’s target audiences are BME people in the UK, of all ages and cultures. As a national touring company, NITRO is only able to reach specific parts of the UK on a limited basis (a production may tour to Manchester, for example, for just one week per year). This means that regular, quality engagement with such communities is a challenge.

Government statistics show that, despite considerable investment over the last decade, only a small percentage of the UK’s BME population are regular (or even occasional) theatre-goers and that the vast majority do not consider the theatre when planning cultural events.

We believe the expansion of our creative online presence is a vital way forward. To capitalise on this positive connection we will develop an online database, commissioning, filming, streaming and downloading links to NITRO’s work. This will help to develop our online audiences on a local and national level.

The finished product of Mass Carib, At The End Of The Rainbow and Secret Singers will be uploaded onto NITRO’s website and broadcast online. We will look to create an interactive element, including but not limited to Live Streaming, which links NITRO’s virtual and actual audience database. This will be both an exciting piece of new work by NITRO and an audience development project bringing our work to those who enjoy cultural activity and may be encouraged to attend live theatre in future.

We will find ways of working within this new situation, Nitro has so much to offer and I fully intend that we remain a significant player in the theatre ecology of this country.

I would personally like to thank all those who have been sending messages of support. Indeed the first was from ACE itself and from that we will draw some encouragement that the relationship between us might not be over, it is just entering a new phase….

Felix

Our work includes mid-scale touring, online projects and “Generations”, a programme of creative engagements involving professional artists and communities.

For a further details on this position please download the job description below.

Deadline: Tuesday 12th April, 6pm

Artistic Associate amended 11.04