Gudrun leads Platform Young Company activity here at Platform and we are delighted that she is also one of our Associate Artists! In 2016, Gudrun graduated with a first class honours degree in Contemporary Performance Practice from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She has performed at BUZZCUT, Toynbee Studios and Battersea Arts Centre. We spoke to Gudrun to find out more about her work and her relationship with Platform.
What is your favourite performance or event you have attended at Platform?
Ongoing classes with Platform Young Company, Lab Station and Creation Station!
What is it you enjoy about working with Platform?
The facilities are very good and all the staff are very helpful! I enjoy working with the collective in Platform Young Company and am exciting where we get to with our newest production Shaking the Habitual. I’m very excited and proud of the Young Company for having been selected for Chrysalis and to start rehearsals for the festival in the next few weeks. The performance was entirely devised by the performers and what is presented is maybe not what’s excepted from a ‘young company’, which is a very exciting place to be in.
Can you tell us a little bit more about your practice?
I am an Icelandic performance maker and director based in Glasgow. Currently, my practice is focused on how pulling previously established ideas apart can be a way of exploring themes around theatre, self and identity. I usually start a process by questioning what is bothering, exciting or confusing me and from that point figure out a frame that allows me to explore that in the most liberating way. My work is responsive to the space I am in and working with what is in front of me, acknowledging that the audience are part of the work and therefor encouraging their participation. At the moment I am working on a few solo performance projects, which explore my foreign identity and ideas of belonging in different ways.
I am currently directing Platform Young Company along with teaching, directing and facilitating young people and students in Glasgow.
Who or what are you inspired by?
I am inspired (and challenged) by my surroundings, other performance makers and by turning up and doing the work!
Links
You can watch Platform Young Company perform Shaking the Habitual at the Chrysalis Festival 2018 held at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh this November. For more information and tickets head to: https://www.ytas.org.uk/chrysalis/
