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AMBASSADOR THEATRE GROUP : THE SPOTLIGHT PROJECT
Supported by Arts Council England with an award from the Culture Recovery Fund, Spotlight is one of four artist-led projects at regional ATG venues in the UK, focusing on the life and survival of regional theatres following the immense impact of COVID on the arts. Each theatre is a regional, “local” UK theatre in the Ambassador Theatre Group, which also operates theatres across the globe, from Broadway to the West End.
Selected by a panel made up of representatives from Arts & Heritage, ATG and Artizan CIC, I took on the role of creating a significant, site-specific work that would draw on the history of the theatre, the experiences of its staff, and both the public and backstage life of Devon’s largest regional theatre, The Princess Theatre in Torquay, as it slowly reawakened from over 500 days of enforced closure.
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Drawing on a rich history of objects, spaces, people, memories and experiences, I wove all these threads together to create a body of large-scale photographic palimpsests that were installed in both the public-facing and backstage spaces of the theatre, alongside a large archive of visual records and material that now form part of the official archive of the theatre.
During the project, I spent a lot of time at the theatre - a venue I have known since childhood - talking with staff, exploring the warren of backstage spaces; listening to the stories, memories and experiences of the people who keep regional theatres alive; experiencing the front of house spaces - designed to be filled with people - empty of their purpose.
I also attended public events with my camera, witnessing firsthand the impact of social distancing. With mask measures still in force, it was a salutary reminder that it is people who are at the heart of the hospitality and entertainment industries; at the heart of how and where communities come together to share experiences.
It was a privilege to share and record the open-hearted delight of staff in all sectors at this celebration and rejuvenation of the life of theatre across the country after 500 days of enforced closure. |
A SENSE OF PLACE
Taper’s works with landscape and visual psychogeography explore the internal and external landscapes humans inhabit: how places and memories of time spent in them shape us. They make a profound connection between people and place, and have been exhibited extensively in the places they were made: her native South Devon; including Above and Below, an exhibition which drew on the themes explored by Marcus Verget’s Time and Tide Bell Project, in association with Professor Corinna Wagner (University of Exeter); the UK Climate Resilience Programme; the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). 
In-depth local knowledge, and deep artistic immersion in both the urban and natural landscapes of the area, made Taper the obvious choice for the project. Her landscape work has now been instrumental in several significant public place-making and cultural and urban renewal programmes in South Devon.
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