Formed in 2006 by graduates of the University of Winchester with a strong desire to create accessible and engaging work, Wet Picnic are now performing with theatres and festivals all over the World. Our work draws on the experience of the company members and their training, which includes l’École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, (Paris) and Circus Maniacs.
We began with a grant from The University of Winchester and SEEDA, which was to help us start the company and created walkabout street theatre for Hampshire Water Festival. We were lucky enough to have been watched by Winchester Hat Fair who commissioned a new piece of work and helped us to start our journey into the outdoor theatre world. From that point, we were then booked for lots of festivals nationally and started to work across the UK.
At the same time we started running workshops and youth theatres, which were really popular and grew to cover Hampshire very quickly! We worked with schools on curriculum subject as well as some more individual projects, like running a week of drama for an entire school.
We were soon starting to need more money to create larger projects and applied for an arts grant from The Arts Council to create, the Dinner Table which is an outdoor piece, followed by Rodney Dillyweed’s Undesirable Demise. This was our first indoor touring show and allowed us to start working with theatres across the South of England.
We have always believed in creating work which gives equal importance to all dramaturgical elements, and we hope that audiences and venues continue to like the work that we create. We consider ourselves very lucky to have had the opportunity to create work for thousands of people, which culminated in the Dinner Table appearing in Trafalgar Square last summer (2009) with audiences of up to 3000 people per show.
As we start a second part of our story, we will be taking our work to Europe and some other far away places, whilst still creating work for all the wonderful people here in the UK! We are kindly supported by The Point, Eastleigh and Le Fourneau Creation Centre, Brittany, and a number of partners including Arts Council, The University of Winchester, Hampshire County Council and Winchester City Council
2010 looks to be an exciting year already as we have been requested to perform for two months at the World Exposition in Shanghai, China and we will begin our residencies at The Point Theatre and Le Fourneau, where we shall embark on a two year body of work, focusing on the hidden worlds and fragilities of people. This work will tour nationally and internationally, and draw on the last 3 years of research and creation we have undertaken as a collective ensemble.
Some lovely places/people we have performed for include:
The World Expo, Shanghai - Winchester Hat Fair - FEAST - Manchester Piccadilly - Anvil Arts Latitude Festival - Brighton Festival - Larmar Tree Festival - Mouth of TyneFestival - Mayor of London One Magic Summer - Henley Festival - Hampshire County Council - Poole City - Reading Borough Council - Winchester City Council - X.Trax - Glastonbury Festival – Arts Council England – Salisbury Festival – Due South – The Slug and Lettuce – Late and Live - Riddle and Finns – First Class Events
The Theatre Royal – The Point, Eastleigh - The University of Winchester - BP - Rohen Festival, France
We are part of :
With Out Walls - NASA - ITC - ZEPA
