Whether my own work as a theatre-maker, or directing new writing, I am interested in theatre which explore how the patriarchy is bad for all of us, but leaves us with hope.
I also work with stories from people and artists in north and rural Scotland, both with and without the context of rurality.
My practice is built on movement and devising work, even when working with text. I value collaboration over all, and am developing an approach to making theatre which puts consent, care, and creativity at the fore.
Projects
The second R&D will take place in 2026 at Eden Court, Lyth Arts Centre, and An Tobar and Mull Theatre with Sara Shaarawi as dramaturg and Ruben San Roman Gamez as designer accompanying the existing team.
Team
Photography & Filming by ChakHinLeung
Produced by Rosa Thomas
Performed and devised by Tsoi Huen Wong, Alexandra Tsaiapi, and Niamh O’Loughlin
Mentored by Ewan Downie from Company of Wolves
About
The feminist principle of the performance is: in a contemporary world where media is so integrated into our lives, we are fed narratives about our bodies that are harmfully objectifying – educating us to see our bodies as something separate from ourselves. The performance explores how this same attitude is applied to our environment, which we also view as separate from ourselves, and looks toward the idea of humans existing as part of a living ecosystem.
This idea of existing as part of a living ecosystem is the crux of the devising process, and is a huge part of my life as a woman-identifying artist based in the Scottish Highlands. Reconciling my own relationship with my body drives a lot of my work and research in feminist theatre, but this work has opened up so much dialogue for me with other women, trans, non-binary, and disabled people about our identities as bodies. While exploring this relationship in my MRes, I witnessed a phenomenon where performers practising physical theatre outdoors (on the Eden Court lawn in June, surrounded by birdsong and the sound of River Ness) felt more relaxed, grounded, and connected than when we had done the same exercises indoors. I think many of us experience this when we are in green spaces, and this relationship to landscape and nature in the Highlands and rural Scotland comes up again and again.
Preserving green spaces is vital for all of us, but is felt strongly in rural areas where our relationship to the environment is closely tied to our identities, community, and sense of place. This project brings all of these ideas together and is an important opportunity for me on a personal artistic level to develop my understanding with other creatives, and to share this with sympathetic audiences.
Play Pretend by Katie Fraser, produced by Framework Theatre was performed at the Traverse Theatre on the 24th & 25th November 2023.
Production Team
Playwright | Katie Fraser
Director | Laura Valerie Walker
Lighting Designer | Adi Currie
Set & Costume Designer | Isadora Gough
Producer | Emma Ruse
Assistant Producer | Rosa Thomas
Stage Manager | Tami Pain
As Amy | Clare Wooton
As Greg | Gerry Kielty
Reviews & Press
Every element of [the] production is a reminder of the fabricated nature of it all, and it does so with adept skill. Much is down to Laura Valerie Walker’s direction, which magnifies the meta-nature of Fraser’s story. They manipulate the very time which the production takes, shifting the audiences from ‘scene’ to ‘scene’ which makes for a terrific […] reminder of how much of a ‘performance’ this all is.
Dominic Corr – Corr Blimey
Read the full review here.
With its artfully-woven historical and contemporary strands, Play Pretend is a thought-provoking and insightful piece about the struggles we face as we try to move towards a more egalitarian society. When you’re used to privilege, as the saying goes, equality feels like oppression.
Susan Singfield – Bouquets & Brickbats
Read the full review here.
Also, check out this interview with Katie by Olivia Fischer of The Student.
Development Process
For me, this has been a 2-and-a-half year journey, starting with a rehearsed reading in 2021. I have had the pleasure of seeing Katie’s play in multiple evolutions and loved it more each time. Because I’ve been following this play throughout my whole professional life, the landmarks of this project have been a valuable point to check in with my creative development, reflecting in the learning I had experienced to date.
With the R&D in July 2022, I had started to embed consent and play into my directing practice. These are two things that have stayed in a big way. The R&D had no public events attached, so what we did in the room was all about exploring the text and Katie getting the chance to see the play in the hands of a director live in the room. Our task for this stage was finding the nuance in Greg’s character. He became much softer in the final draft to allow for this, and in July 2022, we spent a lot of time trying to dig into the motivations of Greg’s character and Amy’s response to him in the effort to discover a Greg who wasn’t immediately a villain. The drama games and process of play in the rehearsal room were also elements that made it to the final piece.
The R&D was performed by Catriona Feint, and Fraser Sivewright.
By the time we reached production this year (2023), having worked on other Feminist performance developments, I was feeling extremely clear about what the play was about. What we (the design team and I) were excited about going in, was the layers of narrative; we had. a lot of fun decided how to situate the audience in different layers to remind them that this was a performance and they should reflect on their own circumstances. Adi and Izzy did amazing work bringing the piece to life – it was breathtaking seeing the design come together during tech.
The big word of the production was ‘vulnerability’. We spent a lot of time talking about Greg as a vulnerable person, and the most interesting parts of the play during rehearsals were the moments that Greg offers vulnerability but Amy isn’t equipped to hold him in this – and it certainly shouldn’t be expected of her! Vulnerability was also a huge part of this process as a team of emerging theatre-makers, and with my work in consent and care.
As devising is at the heart of my practice, I hold a collaborative space and try to be really responsive to the creative influence of the room – Clare and Gerry were extremely generous with their creative contributions, and Adi and Izzy brought brilliant ideas to the room. This has been an affirming experience, solidifying the way that I work and the benefits of it. In particular, spending the first week in play and discovery meant that we landed in some great depth early on which was easy to apply to a blocking process (rather than trying to find insight after the piece has been blocked).
I am so thankful to the whole team for the brilliant work we managed to make together.
This R&D was inspired by Warriors and Witches and Damn Rebel Bitches by Mairi Kidd, an anthology of Scottish women from history. The play text is in development and explores the importance of young women being able to see themselves in our histories.
Team
Producer | Emma Ruse
Playwright | Ellen Bradbury
Designer | Molly Mae Whawell
Performers | Kirsty May Hamilton, Hannah Low, Sarah Farrell, Hannah Collins
About
From the 13th-17th July 2023, we were working from Skye Bridge Studios in Kyle of Lochalsh. I find that access to green spaces is really important for me and the work that I make so I try to create work in rural spaces whenever I can. Kyle of Lochalsh was a magical place to make work.
The purpose of this R&D was to generate some material with the influence of other’s creative voices in a devising process. The week would explore some key creative research questions and would generate ideas for Ellen to bring into her writing. The big question for the R&D was: why do we tell these stories? And, after some really hard conversations, we landed on the answer:
We tell these stories so that we can find and understand our own.
The R&D turfed up some problems with the text, particularly in its handling of queerness, and a feeling that the ‘ways to live your life by’ could use some updating.
We spent an equal amount of time searching as we did creating, and navigating challenging chats about the representation of race and queerness in the stories on offer. It was a welcome but heavy reflection that women’s stories are seldom told in our history books – couple that with any intersectionality and the visibility shrinks to almost nothing. We want to do better.
With unending thanks to the team of performers and theatre-makers who made this stage possible and filled the room with such generosity, vulnerability, challenge, love, and creativity. I owe you all so much.
Paper Ghosts was a work-in-progress performance and the summit of my Festive Artist Residency with Eden Court (October 2021-January 2023). The residency was funded by the National Lottery via Creative Scotland and was one of the Youth Arts Bursaries.
About
The residency, Folklore & Yuletide, was proposed as an exploration of new ways to reconnect to the Festive season at a time when Christmas has become a celebration of Capitalism and the Patriarchy. With Sophie Wink (performer), I embarked upon a devising process, using physical theatres and puppetry, to discover what the festive season is really about.
The performance was inspired by research about the histories and mythologies surrounding the festive season in the Highlands, but what stuck was that Solstice is the rebirth of the sun, and that the darkest days of the year mean that ghosts walk among us.
This residency and performance was a valuable opportunity for me to begin developing and interrogating my own practice as an emerging director. With key influences in Butoh and the Laban-Bartenieff Movement System, I am developing a style of physical theatre with roots in Feminism and embodiment. This practice is largely influenced by my Masters research, and is part of my wider practice as a director, which is grounded by the principals of care, facilitation, and emergence.
In April 2023, we developed the piece further, exploring whether it could exist outwith the festive period. We worked alongside Jacob Reid from Beggar in the Heights who is creating the music to accompany the piece.
Womanhood and the Body – MRes Creative Practice 2021
This project is a dialogic approach to practice-as-research where the practice and research are constantly influencing each other. This explores the experience of womanhood through the body using physical theatres and a devising process. There are four key elements to the research: Practice as Research, Feminism, Phenomenology and devising with physical theatres. I will be evaluating the combination of these theoretical and practical approaches, interrogating their relevancy to the theme of womanhood and the body, and what might be gained by exploring them in conjunction.
The Owl and the Imp 2021
The Owl and the Imp was performed as an online work-in-progress as part of Vivid Roots Collective’s first public event.
The play is a family-friendly storytelling piece about an owl who goes on a journey to rid its forest home of a mischievous imp. The performance uses rhyme, song and puppetry to transport the audience to the magical river island. For the work-in-progress we focused on storytelling and puppetry; future development would consider outdoor performance elements and movement/staging.
Alina Ben-Larbi (manipulating the owl in pictures), John Tulloch (the pine), and Heather MacDonald (the thistle) performed the three narrators in the work-in-progress event.
Surge Emerging Director 2021
I worked with Surge to deliver street theatre workshops to young people in Inverness and Alness.
The Little Prince 2020
For this module of my BA(Hons) Drama and Performance, I devised an adaptation of The Little Prince using puppetry, storytelling, and song. I used traverse staging and minimal props, lighting, and set to create an imtimate audience experience that could tour easily to small venues.
The development considered how wonderment and imagination could be cultivated in a mature audience, based upon research that creativity and imagination have health and wellbeing benefits in children. This kind of research hadn’t been carried out on adults but I didn’t see why the benefits should end with age. The R&D process helped shape the tone of the piece and made clear that puppetry is an excellent tool in evoking wonderment and the suspension of disbelief in an audience.
Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, we were unable to perform these pieces to a live audience. Instead, we were requested to provide a portfolio. The portfolio documents my rationale for the creative elements of the performance, which I ask you to consider first over the performance elements as I am not a performer.
Laura Valerie Walker 