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On this page you'll find a selection of short films. About half of them are digital artworks that themselves record the experience of a different, live artwork, often involving communities singing together in meaningful places. This first film is one of those. We filmed it a few weeks before the first lockdown, in March 2020. It was fascinating to see the changing context of the past year gradually and repeatedly changed the meanings of the film - while its content remained exactly the same. Enjoy!
The other half are, one way or another, attempts to explore whether the things I value about theatre can survive the fact that we're not in the same room. |
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Welcome to Your New Day
Commissioned by Northern Stage Written and performed by Daniel Bye. Music by Ziad Jabero. Northern Stage's new artistic director, Natalie Ibu, got in touch to say that they were producing a series of digital pieces designed to interrupt the cycle of doomscrolling we all know so well. Pieces for those particular contexts, places, or times of day when you find yourself idly reaching for the twitter app on your phone. This audio piece, Welcome to Your New Day, was created for first thing in the morning, when your day hasn't yet started and already you're off on the wrong foot. |
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Palm Reading
Commissioned by Absolutely Cultured and Northern Broadsides Palm Reading is a live online performance encounter for you and a stranger. Meeting one another for the first time through this script, you’ll experience closeness and distance in a whole new set of ways. To experience Palm Reading, you’ll need to find a partner. You could ask around via your own social media, or you could find someone through the comments on YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter . Then just download the document, and make sure you read the instructions a few hours in advance. Palm Reading is available to download here. |
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The second film in the These Hills Are Ours series - A Song for Clougha Pike - was released on Thursday 11th June at 8pm. You can watch it here, or click through and subscribe to my channel on YouTube.
The third and final film, documenting the show's premiere "wild tour" from the north to south coast of Devon, running from show to show, and celebrating all we've missed over the past year, will premiere on my YouTube channel in July. |
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WE'RE HERE
Written by Daniel Bye and Boff Whalley Created with Sarah Punshon, Rachel Thomas and Prof David Green Commissioned by Somerset House and King's College Cultural Institute Part of the Paths to Utopia season Film by Sheila Hayman available here A group of strangers gather in a city to sing together about the experience of living in a city with strangers. The choir was demographically representative of the population of urban Britain. Before performance day, they'd never met. |
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WONDERSTRUCK.
Commissioned by People United and Manchester Museum (2014).
Written by Daniel Bye and Boff Whalley
Directed by Daniel Bye and Sarah Punshon, with Josh Coates.
Film by Tim Knights available here.
A song cycle inspired by the collections of Manchester Museum, about how everything in the history of the universe has led to us gathered together singing these songs.
This was the first of many projects involving Boff Whalley and a large number of singers!
Commissioned by People United and Manchester Museum (2014).
Written by Daniel Bye and Boff Whalley
Directed by Daniel Bye and Sarah Punshon, with Josh Coates.
Film by Tim Knights available here.
A song cycle inspired by the collections of Manchester Museum, about how everything in the history of the universe has led to us gathered together singing these songs.
This was the first of many projects involving Boff Whalley and a large number of singers!
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An Exchange of Views was made on my phone in response to a request from Beaford.
They wanted something optimistic that would encourage their community to get outside. I was more than happy to attempt something stupid in order to provide that. This was also the first thing I made under lockdown, the first attempt at finding a quality of exchange and interaction in digital media. Please watch and share your views. |
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Also:
For Pitlochry Festival Theatre I've written a short piece called Recovery, part of their Shades of Tay season. You phone a number and listen to a voicemail message. Maybe you'll leave a reply, maybe you won't.
This is the most analogue piece of performance imaginable and I'm delighted to feature it on this page.
There'll be more of this sort of thing forthcoming during the course of 2021.
For Pitlochry Festival Theatre I've written a short piece called Recovery, part of their Shades of Tay season. You phone a number and listen to a voicemail message. Maybe you'll leave a reply, maybe you won't.
This is the most analogue piece of performance imaginable and I'm delighted to feature it on this page.
There'll be more of this sort of thing forthcoming during the course of 2021.
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Since you're here, I may as well draw attention to the fact that several of my extant theatre shows are available to view online free.
On your left there is Going Viral, my Fringe First-winning 2015 show about a global pandemic. Below are The Price of Everything and How to Occupy an Oil Rig. Click through for full credits. |
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