The Performance Ensemble is an ensemble company of older performers from a range of different performance skills and diverse cultures. The Ensemble occupies the space between professional, amateur and community theatre practise.
We create high quality contemporary performances with people over 60, from their own life experiences, hopes, and fears, for audiences of all ages. We celebrate the fullness of life, exploring vulnerability, resilience, and ageing. We work locally and internationally from our diverse roots in Leeds: the city that celebrates over 140 spoken languages and has pledged to become the ‘best place to grow old in’.
Artistic Director, Alan Lyddiard is an award-winning theatre and film director, producer, and writer working across the UK, Europe and beyond. He is best known as an advocate of the community arts movement, international collaborations, and ensemble theatre practice.
Our Work Aspires To Make Older People Visible.
Alan Lyddiard, Artistic Director, The Performance Ensemble
“I am 72 years old and feel like I am an emerging artist again, writing applications and starting again after 40 successful years as a theatre director. I am finding new partners, developing new methodology and trying to re-establish myself, re-inventing myself a little.
I don’t think the desire to create work and discover new things from that work ever goes away which is why I started The Ensemble – I want to explore new ways to create theatre. This takes time and a re-evaluation of old thinking.
Having run one Ensemble Company for over 10 years I still want to work within that methodology . The aim is to work together over a long period of time, creating work and developing it over years. I made a version of “Animal Farm” that stayed in the Northern Stage repertoire for 12 years. That’s the way I like to work. Creating work that never stays still, always looking for more depth, more nuance, more clarity. The Performance Ensemble is a emerging company for older performers from many different backgrounds and cultures. I want to work with performers, in what I call, ‘the space between professional, amateur and community arts practice’, concentrating on the relationship between us all and our shared knowledge and experience. When you are older you have many things to share and each of us will learn from the other. This takes time.”
Alan Lyddiard – Artistic Director – The Performance Ensemble