welcome
Rachel Blackman is a multi-disciplinary performance artist, theatre maker, teacher, body worker and artistic director of Stillpoint Theatre. In her original performance work, Rachel is most fascinated by theatre's ability to conjure whole universes of thought and feeling using little more than our shared agreement to be in the same space.
photo: David Bramwell 2010.
Having spent most of her early life training in classical techniques: 14 years of classical ballet, 6 years of classical music, cello and voice, then 3 years of full time acting training, Rachel's practice more recently has become concerned with letting go of learnt structures, exploring 'mistakes' and playing between forms. Rachel worked as an actress in Australia for several years before moving to Brighton, England where she is now based and lives with her quixotic boyfriend and uncommonly relaxed cat.
Her most recent solo work 'Steal Compass, Drive North, Disappear' won the Fringe Review award for 'Outstanding Theatre' and the Latest award for 'Best Female Performer of the Brighton Festival and Fringe' 2010. It was developed with the Nightingale Theatre for Rachel's company Stillpoint and will reappear at the Nightingale Theatre on the 8th and 9th of October 2010 before a tour in 2011. 'Steal Compass...' followed the success of 'The Art of Catastrophe' in 2008 created by Rachel and devised with director Emma Roberts, also developed with the Nightingale. These two works form the first two parts of a trilogy exploring the theme of the struggle to love.
Current projects include, a rehearsed reading of Sue MacLean's 'A Place of Safety', (Brighton Dome/ Festival, In Process / In Performance) a third original solo work, 'That in You I Might Have Ceased', currently in development with the Nightingale Theatre and the Brighton Dome and Festival, and the on-going improvised live theatre experiment, 'Katy and Rach'. Rachel is also working as movement director on Franklyn Macabe's new 'Ten Men' for Two Bins which opens in September 2010.
Other recent projects include the dance film project for director / choreographer Billy Cowie, 'Ghosts in the Machine', a satirical musical comedy with the Ornate Johnsons 'The Ministry of Biscuits' and 'Mississippi', also for the Ornate Johnsons. Earlier solo work 'Aperture' won best script at the Sydney Fringe Festival and an ABC Radio National commission. Rachel is a founding member of the Foundry Group and is perhaps best known for her role as Charra in 'Matrix Revolutions'.