The season includes a chance to catch up with two of Chris's recent experimental solo pieces, Hippo World Guest Book and YEAH BOOM!: A Christopher Knowles Reader; a brand new 'performance lecture', The Forest and the Field; a workshop as part of Artsadmin's Weekenders series; and an array of other readings and performances, including the launch of The History of Airports, Chris's new book of performance texts from the last fifteen years.
By concentrating on the more marginal areas of Chris's practice as a theatre-maker and poet, and by hosting the work of a number of other artists working in experimental modes in poetry, music and performance, LEAN UPSTREAM aims to spotlight just a small part of what's happening 'upstream' in contemporary performance, focusing on work that's exploratory and sometimes challenging but always lively and accessible to a wide, engaged audience: work whose influence gradually flows into the mainstream, shaping tomorrow's theatrical language and performance culture.
LEAN UPSTREAM has been made possible only through the generous support of its two principal hosts: Artsadmin (based at Toynbee Studios), where Chris is currently an associate artist; and Camden People's Theatre, the pioneering fringe space where Chris was artistic director between 2001-04, and which is celebrating its fifteenth birthday this autumn with a special festival season with which LEAN UPSTREAM intersects.
