IB Theatre: Professional Theatre Companies

Age Exchange is based in Blackheath Village, London, and is dedicated to intergenerational and 'Reminiscence Arts' - the creative exploration of memories. Their intergenerational story telling projects bring together young and old across generations to explore shared feelings of isolation, to celebrate their shared heritages and to become stronger together.

The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, is in the West Midlands, England, and is dedicated to creating "theatre in the belief that it can enrich our communities and fundamentally change peoples’ lives for the better." The Belgrade Theatre Springboard Initiative supports early stage artists and new and emerging theatre companies.

Complicite is an international touring theatre company, based in London. The Company is famous for making its work through extensive periods of research and development which brings together performers, designers, writers, artists and specialists from diverse fields to create the works – a process now known simply as ‘devising’.

The Dell’Arte Company employs and revitalizes traditional physical theatre forms to explore contemporary concerns. Always exploring the work of the actor-creator, Dell’Arte has devised highly experimental touring pieces, as well as imaginative original family theatre and large-scale ‘theatre of place’ spectacles. Many of the Company’s original works are ensemble-devised, but the Company also works with playwrights.

The artistic director, Lloyd Newson, is on leave from DV8, and so there is no new work being produced at this time. Go to ''MEDIA PORTAL' to see instructional materials and video of their most recent productions.

Ex Machina is a multidisciplinary company bringing together actors, writers, set designers, technicians, opera singers, puppeteers, computer graphic designers, video artists, contortionists and musicians. Their creative team believes that the performing arts - dance, opera, music - should be mixed with recorded arts - filmmaking, video art and multimedia.

Fevered Sleep makes performances, installations, films, books and digital art, for adults and for children, based on experimentation and research. Based in London, their projects appear in very diverse places, across the UK and beyond, from theatres, galleries and cinemas, to parks, beaches and schools, and in the spaces of everyday life: in people’s homes, on phones, online.

Forced Entertainment is a group of six artists who make work in theatre and performance from their base in Sheffield, UK, and tour to audiences all around the world. They're " interested in making performances that excite, challenge, question and entertain other people... in confusion as well as laughter."

Forkbeard originally started in 1974 as an experimental performance art group, and is now a thriving multi media arts company, producing and presenting their highly individual brand of comic surrealism across the UK and abroad, especially touring theatre shows.

A theatre company based in London. "Frantic Assembly .. is about the ethos of collaboration, of empowerment, of that constant desire to improve. It is about telling stories in a voice we don't always hear and about finding talent in places we don't always look. Over the years the Frantic Method of devising theatre has helped people understand and make work throughout the world."

Fuel is a producing organization, based in London, that works with artists to make fresh experiences for theatre, "whether that’s in an actual theatre, on the streets, or in purpose-built structures."

Gecko is a physical theatre company based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. Their artistic director, Amit Lahav, has created an organic devising process that oscillates between intense periods of experimentation, making brave leaps, learning and failing and including choreography, writing, storyboarding and reflection." Gecko aspires to open the doors on their process via every possible avenue, especially through social media.

Greenwich & Lewisham Young People’s Theatre (GLYPT) makes relevant, inclusive and challenging theatre for, with and by young people aged 2-25. The theatre is in London.

Goat Island is a Chicago-based collaborative performance group. Members contribute to the conception, research, writing, choreography, documentation, and educational demands of the work.

Gob Squad is a group of British and German artists, based in Berlin, They make performances and videos which search for beauty in the everyday, and look for words of wisdom from a passing stranger, working collaboratively on the concept, direction and performance of our work.

Located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Guthrie Theater engages exceptional theater artists in the exploration of both classic and contemporary plays connecting the community they serve to one another and to the world.

Grid Iron is an Edinburgh based new writing theatre company which specialises in creating site-specific and location theatre, although they have also produced work for the stage.

Improbable, based in London, sees improvisation at the heart of their artistic practice. Whether in performance, rehearsal or development they use the practice and philosophy of improvisation in the process of creation (even when they're working on classic plays or operas).

Invisible Flock is an interactive arts organization based in Leeds, UK. They are known for creating ground-breaking hybrid work across forms, creating artworks that invite people to re-imagine the world they live in and how they participate in it, using technology to incite meaningful encounters.

nvisible Thread Theatre of Animation is known for its haunting tales, surreal visual theatre, strange animated figures and dark humor. Their projects include both visual art and performance pieces.

I O U is a producing organization based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. They make live shows and contemporary art installations that combine many art forms together, using new and innovative technology.

Lone Twin Theatre works with other artists to tell stories about "the jigsaw of people's lives." Their group comes from all over the world, so we're an eclectic combination. They are "drawn to catastrophes, some violent and dramatic, others slighter and more everyday."

Massive Company is a professional contemporary physical theatre ensemble company in New Zealand. They specialize in creating new theatre for emerging and professional actors, and develop performers from aged 14 right through to a professional life.

Northern Stage is a producing theatre company in Newcastle, England - one of the top-eleven producing theaters in the UK. They have built a reputation for fresh and relevant productions of modern classics that attract audiences of all ages.

People Show is a London theatre company that creates devised performances. All People Show productions are devised. Sometimes a show is created from scratch, starting only with the skills, personalities and ideas of a particular group at the beginning of a devising period. At other times an artist may have a specific idea they wish to develop prior to the main devising period.

Pintsize Theatre Company, based in Nottingham, England, researches, devisee and tours forum based theatre in education and community theatre which accurately reflects the experiences and concerns of people of all ages and backgrounds in the East Midlands area. The company has placed particular emphasis on exploring the effects of prejudice and discrimination based on ethnicity, age, gender and sexual orientation.

Pirate Productions is based in Glasgow, Scotland, and produces material for television series (Coming Soon, Art School, Life on Air, New Town). Click on the 'Pirate Clips' YouTube link to see the episodes.

PotatoRoom productions is a company that creates challenging theatrical works that explores the mixture of puppets, acting, clowning, video, movement and dance - in fact whatever is necessary to create a highly intricate and intriguing theatre. The Company is based in the UK.

Reckless Sleepers is a theatre company based in Belgium. The Company creates original theatre pieces installation projects and interventions for theatres, galleries, museums, site and seasonally specific projects that both entertain and challenge its audiences, viewers and participants.

Red Ladder is a radical theatre company based in London, and is acknowledged as one of Britain’s leading national touring companies producing new theatre, contributing to social change and global justice. "Red Ladder exists to create theatre about and around human struggle. "

Stan's Cafe is a group of artists from a variety of disciplines, though primarily theatre practitioners, based in Birmingham, England. The company consists of a core of long term collaborators and a range of associated artists. "Oh yes and it's pronounced Caff." Company members work collaboratively, "making original new theatre that may not always look like theatre."

Station House Opera is performance company based in London. it has produced over 30 productions of widely varying scale and focus, but all rooted in an interest to make work that brings together theatre and the visual arts in a single unified vision. The company has created projects in a variety of locations all over the world.

Tangled Feet is a British performance group that creates origina transformative performances, sometimes inside theatres but often in other public spaces. Their experimental performance always begin from a process of physical improvisation and play. They We work collaboratively and believe that their performances are not finished until completed by the imagination of their audience.

Théâtre du Soleil is a theatre company based in Paris, France. It operates as a collective, with each member receiving the same salary and being called to take care of everything, making for porous borders between the roles of the director and the actors, and allowing for synergies in the creation collective. The deregulation occurs spontaneously between disciplines - set design, staging, technical,
game, suits.

"O |ō| - an exclamation expressing surprise, admiration, pain, joy, longing etc..." Theatre O, based in London, creates and tours inspirational, devised inter-disciplinary theatre. All of Theatre O’s work is based on the contribution and participation of the ensemble. In order for this to be most effective the performers must have an acute awareness of the tools at their disposal; their body, their voice and, most importantly, their imagination.

Theatre Passe Muraille is an alternative theatre company in Toronto, Canada, and is currently developing and producing new Canadian plays.

The Paper Birds is a devising theatre with a political agenda. They strive to "create and share devised work that is important; work that is culturally, socially and politically observational and conversationally urgent. [Their] productions will always emerge from a female perspective and often this female voice will prioritize stories of women."

The Wooster Group is an ensemble of artists based in New York who make work for theater, dance and media. The Group has used both personal and Group autobiography, and existing texts as an organizing principle for their work.

Third Angel is a theatre company based in Sheffield, England. The company makes work that encompasses performance, theatre, live art, installation, film, video art, documentary, photography and design. They use styles, techniques and interests discovered in their more experimental work for other spaces, to create new theatre that plays with conventional forms while remaining accessible to a mainstream audience.

Trestle is a mask and physical theatre company based in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. All of their work is influenced by full and half mask. They collaborate with artists from India, Spain, Eastern Europe and Africa, as well as their partners in the UK. They make innovative and inspirational physical theatre and participation projects for children, young people and adults.

The artist-researchers of Wrights & Sites, an organization based in the UK, focus their work on peoples' relationships to places, cities, landscape and walking. The outcomes of their work varies from project to project, but includes site-specific performance, 'whose work is focused on peoples' relationships to places, cities, landscape and walking.', mythogeographic mapping, and public art.

Rude Mechs is an ensemble-based theatre collective in Austin, Texas, They create original theatrical productions that "represent a genre-defying cocktail of big ideas, cheap laughs, and dizzying spectacle. What these works hold in common are the use of play to make performance, the use of theaters as meeting places for audiences and artists, and the use of humor as a tool for intellectual investigation."