Where we've been...
She has a long history of working with a wide variety of artistic, strategic and community partners, and having produced such an array of successful site-specific and outdoor shows, that pinning down a handful is tricky, but here’s a few stand-outs over the years.
-
Alice's Mad Boat Party performed on a boat, sailing up the River Thames and collecting characters along the way (including the Tweedles at Teddington, the Mad Hatter at Richmond and the Red Queen at Hampton Court Palace).
-
A promenade production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with roving musicians taking audiences on a journey through Beddington Park where they discovered magical fairies in trees and the lovers (literally) fighting in the River Wandle.
-
The Spy Project was an interactive, secret-theatre experience combining smartphone technology, live action and the local landscape. Audiences received messages throughout the show with clues and puzzles to solve, directing them to the next location and taking them on a journey throughout the urban landscape that included local parks, art galleries, city streets and even the top of the iconic Croydon Clocktower, July 2017.
-
A Rubbish Lunch Break was a pop-up performance surprising shoppers in Morrisons with a weekend of puppetry and clowning as Bill and Fred tried to take a break but discovered an ever-increasing pile of rubbish appearing around them.
-
The SAVVY Young Company took over the 360° Cinema Room at the Sutton Life Centre, for a performance of Hospital Food by Eugene O'Hare (for the National Theatre's Connections Festival) where audiences sat on the floor in the centre of the room to experience the multi-media show. Bespoke films (created by a local youth club) were woven into the live action which included interactions with animals, hospital staff and dream sequences.
-
Lost in Space was an immersive experience developed in conjunction with 180 primary school children, 40 adults with a learning disability and artists from Output Arts, to transform a disused community area in Croydon into an interactive spaceship for a month-long performance residency, May 2018.
-
A partnership with Honeywood Museum in Carshalton started in 2014 with a puppet-led production of Romeo & Juliet (and audiences instructed to arrive dressed for the Capulet’s masked ball). This success was followed in 2015 with a sensory installation production of Alice In Wonderland in the museum's Victorian walled garden, working with local artists and schools.
Sheree has also marched with Hedgehogs down Oxford’s town centre as part of The Story Museum's Alice Day (they were protesting against the Red Queen for using them as croquet balls), taken an abridged version of Twelfth Night to the RSC’s outdoor summer stage programme, encouraged audiences to be superheroes at the Celebrate Woking Festival, performed at the 2023 Liberty Festival and recently developed a Camelot-themed weekend residency involving walk-about characters and a hobby-horse joust for Reigate Castle.
Coddiwomple is building on the success of SAVVY Theatre Company to create live experiences in unique places, that resonate with audiences long after the show is over.
Past shows developed by Sheree Vickers have included projects in parks, supermarkets, rivers, clocktowers, schools, art galleries, libraries, community centres, hospitals, care homes, pubs, the creation of a haunted ghost-story in a model show-home, playgrounds, castles and even (on occasion) - conventional theatre spaces too!
SAVVY Theatre Company
Originally established by Sheree Vickers in 2001 as an after-school drama club for young people, SAVVY soon developed into a large participatory theatre company, working with broad cross-section of the community including adults with learning disabilities, people with past experience of substance abuse, homelessness and/or living with mental health issues, young people with SEMH and experience of the criminal justice system, refugees and people with English as a Second-Language ... and everyone in-between!
As resident company at Fairfield Halls in Croydon, SAVVY continued to produce exceptional, ambitious and inclusive theatre experiences, in a wide variety of locations across the South-East until their closure in 2024.
Sheree Vickers
With over 30 years of experience, Sheree is a highly skilled facilitator, director, writer and theatre-maker. She has particular skills when it comes to working with marginalised communities and is an expert on inclusive practice and bringing different people together in shared creation.
She has written several books, produced an impressive amount of bespoke theatre productions in unique settings and is also a former street performer and clown, (she was one of only a four women in the world to have performed and toured a solo circle show throughout the 1990's) retiring in 2003 with a guest appearance on the Graham Norton show.
Where we're going...
When people ask, "What are you going to do next?" our response is usually - we don’t know ... and that’s part of the fun!
However, what we DO know is that at the heart of Coddiwomple Theatre is a key question: Why theatre?
What is it about a story, an idea, or concept that can only be expressed, developed, and experienced through the medium of theatre?
Exploring this question will guide the work we create.
We want to:
-
encourage creative play, risk taking and the trying of new ideas,
-
be unexpected, surprising, joyous and fun,
-
embrace the journey!
And we want the work we create to demonstrate what makes theatre unique and vital in the 21st Century!