Glasgow-Based Artist Nic Green Wins the Forced Entertainment Award

Forced Entertainment announces their new award that will recognise one artist (or company) a year over the next four years.

The award comprises £10,000 closely linked to a substantial package of mentoring and subsidiary support tailored each time to the needs and situation of the selected artist or group.

The recipient of the 2018 inaugural award is Glasgow-based artist Nic Green.

Financed by Forced Entertainment winning the International Ibsen Award in 2016, this scheme forms part of the company's efforts to feed back some of their own success into the field, and to offer support to artists who are reinventing theatre and performance in new ways and for new audiences. In particular, the award is aimed at artists for whom there aren't at present significant structures of support, recognition or development available.

The award is named after Huw Chadbourn, an inspirational friend and one of the founder members of Forced Entertainment, who died in July 2017.

Nic Green said: "I am completely thrilled and honoured to receive the first Forced Entertainment Award (in memory of Huw Chadbourn). I have been inspired and challenged by the work of Forced Entertainment over the years and it's an absolute thrill to be invited into their world through this opportunity, and to consider the future of my own work as I learn more about theirs. I am absolutely delighted."

The two step selection process involved the Forced Entertainment creative team collaborating with a range of professionals from the theatre and performance sector, with invited nominations from: Abby Butcher (Marlborough Theatre), Dr.Joy Kristin Kalu (Dramaturg at Sophiensaele, Berlin), Robert Pacitti (Pacitti Company/SPILL Festival) and Jackie Wylie (National Theatre Scotland). The selection panel considering the nominations involved Lois Keidan (Live Art Development Agency) and Tanuja Amarasuriya (Theatre Bristol).

Lois Keidan, Live Art Development Agency Director said: "As a fan of Forced Entertainment and friend of Huw Chadbourn, I was honoured to be on the selection panel for the inaugural Forced Entertainment Award and am delighted that the first recipient is the brilliant Nic Green. No-strings-attached-awards that offer artists working in challenging artistic territories the freedoms to experiment and roam are few and far between. That Forced Entertainment are instigating and resourcing this new Award from their own International Ibsen Award is testament to the generosity of spirit that drives so much of their work."

Artistic Director, Tim Etchells comments of behalf of everyone at Forced Entertainment: "We are delighted that Nic has been selected as the first recipient of the award - we think her work is urgent, rigorous and has carved out a space all of its own. It will be a pleasure and privilege for Forced Entertainment to support Nic in the continuation of this, in this way. We have no doubt that the dialogue with Nic will also bring a lot to us as a company and we're excited to develop a relationship with her through this opportunity."

Nic Green is an award winning performance maker based in Glasgow, Scotland. For twelve years she has worked across performative disciplines, with projects commissioned both nationally and internationally. Her work is varied in style and method, however her work is more generally concerned with the possibilities of reciprocity, in the contexts of liveness. Forms are often 'found' through collaborative and relational practices with people, place and material, creating main stage dance/theatre performance, intimate story-telling performances for woodland environments, large scale live sonic compositions for outdoor spaces, sited audio works for one audience member at a time and physical/vocal works for studio theatres to name a few. Her work has received several awards, commissions and recognition including A Herald Angel, 'Best Production' at Dublin Fringe and the Adrian Howells Award for intimate performance. Most recently she made c*ckand Bull (winner of Total Theatre award for Best physical/visual theatre), and TURN (with support from the Callouste Gulbenkian Foundation's Sharing the Stage Commission). Nic is currently Artist in Residence at National Theatre of Scotland, and also teaches Directing at the University of Glasgow.

Forced Entertainment is a Sheffield-based theatre company founded in 1984. Touring and presenting their ground-breaking provocative performances across the UK, mainland Europe, North America, Japan, Australia and further afield, the group have sustained a unique collaborative practice for more than thirty years. Led by the artist and writer Tim Etchells, the Forced Entertainment company includes designer and performer Richard Lowdon alongside performers Robin Arthur, Claire Marshall, Cathy Naden and Terry O'Connor. Over the years this core ensemble has been augmented by contributions from many guest artists and performers. Forced Entertainment's work explores and often explodes the conventions of genre, narrative and theatre itself drawing influence not just from drama but from dance, performance art, music culture and popular forms such as cabaret and stand-up. The group operate at different scales, shifting from intimate two-performer works focused on text, to spectacular productions with large numbers of people onstage.

The receipt of the Ibsen Award (2014) has allowed the company to expand and develop their engagement with younger artists, artists to be and diverse audiences, partly resourcing their Creative Producer (Participation & Engagement) role and supporting the delivery of projects in a variety of engagement and training contexts in the UK and further afield.

Photo Credit: Oliver Rudkin

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