- Pioneers of celebratory theatre, Welfare State International are based in Ulverston, South Cumbria, UK. The company is includes engineers, musicians, sculptors, performers, poets, puppeteers, pyrotechnicians and more - who create site-specific events throughout the world.
- Founded in 1968 by John Fox and Sue Gill, its work is based on the popular theatre traditions of the working class; street theatre, the carnival, music hall and fairground to produce events from small scale theatrical celebrations to large scale multi-media spectaculars.
- Authors of Engineers of the Imagination - a handbook guide to creating celebratory theatre published in 1983 and revised in 1990, which is an HSC set text for drama.
- Their philosophy is to create images that represent a shared community experience and present them in a way that is accessible to a broad audience. "Working from an artistic base, in a mythological near-vacuum, Welfare State are setting about the reclaiming of myth and its theatrical enactment for the whole community." (Engineers…p3)
- The group focuses on the recreation of myth as the focus for public and private celebration. "In a world where the shared culture of human beings in increasingly threatened by a largely imposed electronic culture, myths and archetypes have to be discovered and re-made, not simply revived". (Engineers…p3).
- Highlight events include: Glasgow All Lit Up 1990 - paraded 10,000 lanterns in four processions; Parliament in Flames 1981 - built and burnt five 60 foot high replicas of the houses of Parliament; Town Hall Tattoo Barrow 1987- flew a 40 foot pair of Queen Victoria's bloomers above Barrow Town Hall after 20 pin-striped bureaucrats abseiled from the clock tower.
- John Fox and Sue Gill will be on the Bathurst Campus of Charles Sturt University from Monday 27 September to Sunday 3 October as guest artists for a workshop for drama teachers from across the State completing the Devising Celebration course through CSU's School of Communication.
Welfare State International
20 SEPTEMBER 1999
Pioneers of celebratory theatre, Welfare State International are based in Ulverston, South Cumbria, UK.
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