Supported Artists
2023
In 2023, Offbeat will be offering five seed-funding pots to Oxfordshire artists to develop their work.
RAGE is a participatory live art performance exploring rage as catharsis. The piece is a one-to-one performance where audiences are invited to beat a sofa with a baseball bat, accompanied live by a piano quartet. It is a space where participants can explore, process, and let go of strong or repressed emotions through movement and guided by music.
Developed using the thoughts, opinions and ideas of 120 young people during a week of intensive workshops facilitated by Emma-Jane Greig and company dancer Viki Cercek, When This Is Over is an innovative retelling of experiences known by young people the world over.
Recollections is a documentary film involving professional and amateur actors ranging in age from 30 to 85, all of whom currently live or have lived in Oxfordshire and have been part of a Troika Theatre production. Through a series of unscripted one-on-one interviews and lively group conversation the actors will recount some of their most memorable moments from their collective years in the Oxford Theatre community.
This House Believes is a new musical that is pushing the boundaries of the expected conventions of the genre. It is a story of a black, working class young man from Tottenham who finds himself amongst the aspirational political set of privileged students at Oxford University.
A broken Cyberdyne Systems Model T-101 is captured by the resistance, reprogrammed with Windows 95, and sent back to a world before Judgement Day to discover what it means to be human.
2022
In 2022, Offbeat gave seed funding grants of £1000 to five Oxfordshire artists, to work on a specific project.
Vita Peach and Tamsin Heatley create parody dance theatre.
Vita and Tamsin have created work together for nearly 25 years – It’s an equal collaboration: Vita brings the dance element, Tamsin is the shrewd observing eye and story maker.
Mandala Young Company’s adaptation of Ionesco’s Rhinoceros is a commentary on society today, a chilling observation on conformity amid chaos and the struggle to know what the truth is, amongst so much propaganda and misinformation.
Oxford People’s Theatre is a new community theatre company launching in September 2022, for adults & young people 12+ with a curiosity and passion for theatre; both performance & backstage.
Georgie Steele is a physical theatre performer and storyteller. We supported her show And I’ll Blow Your House Down.
T(ART) Pride: 1 - 24 July 2022.
A gorgeously queer festival featuring workshops, performances and social events in Oxford.
2019
In 2019, Offbeat offered a programme of support for six artists, all at early stages of their careers.
Each artist was given tailored support in dramaturgy, marketing, travel, accommodation and technical theatre – and each had three performances at the festival to develop audiences and work on their show.
There was spoken word and music from Channie B, a VR experience from Electrick Village, a poetic play from Rowan Padmore. Thomas Page Dances brought an intimate dance duet, Plaster Cast created a radically queer dance party, and Ashanti Wheeler-Artwell presented her first one-woman show.