Carran Waterfield

I am an independent experienced theatre and performance maker and teacher with a body of international touring professional work spanning thirty years. I am the artistic director of Triangle Theatre which I founded in 1988.   I have won several awards for my performance and applied theatre work and am currently Honorary Research Fellow at Manchester University. I was commissioned to create The House a new solo work (2015) as part of Poor Theatres: Theatre, Performance, Poverty - an AHRC funded research project led by Dr Jenny Hughes.

Between 2005 and 2012 I developed, performed and produced four large scale projects: Birnam Wood with the RSC in Stratford and various professional and student casts; The Last Women (Wellcome Trust funded) with Belgrade Theatre, Herbert Museum Coventry, Centre for the History of Medicine, University of Warwick; with Richard Talbot The Pollard Trail (AHRC supported project: Performing Heritage) and Whissell and Williams, a film theatre project by and with young people (Heritage Lottery, Renaissance West Midlands, Screen West Midlands).  I am one half of the spoof tribute duo Nina and Frederick having made both live and recorded works in the UK, Japan and Denmark (1998-2005), and one half of Whissell and Williams (2004- present). I work across disciplines with a strong focus on creativity, heritage, autobiographical/biographical performance, digital documentation, devised performance, adaptation, movement and applied theatre. 

My practice is informed by theatre studies with Eugenio Barba, Roberta Carreri, Julia Varley, Torgeir Wethal, Richard Fowler (Odin Teatret, Denmark), Jola Cyncutis (Grotowski Laboratory) Enrique Pardo, Linda Wise, Kozanna Luca, Venice Manley, Margaret Pikes (Roy Hart Theatre/Pantheatre, France) Peter Slade and Sylvia Demmery, Belgrade Theatre in Education, (applied theatre studies), Laban, Lecoq, Gaulier, Pagneaux (second generation movement and physical theatre), Rosemary Butcher, Jacky Lansley and extensive studies with Sandra Reeve (Suprapto Suryodamo) and Ian Cameron (Catherine Wheels, Plutôt La Vie, Theâtre Sans Fils, Jos Houben).

I helped establish and mentored Bare Essentials Youth Theatre (1988-1998), The Little Herberts (2001-2006), Threshold Theatre (1996 - 1997), Ghostcog Theatre (2014 – present) and Kindle Theatre, (Kiln Ensemble) (2005- 2017).

I have devised and directed several final year undergraduate performance works and taught postgraduate students within Higher Education Institutions. Between 2010 and 2014 for the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (North) I led performance projects with acting students within the movement department teaching Creative Movement, Movement Studies and Contextual Studies.  I teach Devising for Performance and Aspects of Physical Theatre for the University of Manchester.  I have led projects in Performance Practices for the University of Salford. i have been a consultant on engagement projects for the National Trust, Midlands and Heron Corn Mill, Cumbria.