Who are we?
Border Crossings creates new intercultural, multi-media theatre in response to the contemporary globalised world.
The company works across the borders between cultures and art forms, and between nations and peoples. Since 1995, Border Crossings has collaborated with artists and companies from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Croatia, France, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, India, Ireland, Mauritius, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Sweden, the USA and Zimbabwe, as well as the diverse communities of the UK. Border Crossings productions have toured the UK, Brazil, Egypt, France, Hungary, India, Mauritius, Mexico, the Seychelles and Zimbabwe.
"Borders may appear in many guises: psychological; racial; sexual; sociological; professional; as well as geographical. Paradoxically, the border may be at once what provides us with some security about our identity, demarcating ourselves from others, while also being the barrier that prevents us from developing new capacities or trying on new identities. Theatre processes, on the other hand, depend upon the willingness of the actor to cross borders not only to impersonate the dress, manner and speech of another but also to achieve, temporarily, the ultimate expression of border-crossing, empathy."
(Prof. Tim Prentki: "Introduction to Border Crossing" - in The Applied Theatre Reader. Routledge 2009)
Patron: Peter Sellars
Renowned theatre,
opera, and festival director Peter Sellars is one of the most innovative
and powerful forces in the performing arts in America and abroad.
A visionary artist, Sellars is known for groundbreaking interpretations of classic
works. Whether it is Mozart, Handel, Shakespeare, Sophocles, or the
16th-century Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu, Peter Sellars strikes a
universal chord with audiences, engaging contemporary social and political issues.
Sellars has staged operas at the Chicago Lyric Opera,
the Glyndebourne Festival, the Netherlands Opera, Opéra National de Paris,
the Salzburg Festival, San Francisco Opera, and Santa Fe Opera, among
others, establishing a reputation for bringing 20th-century and contemporary
operas to the stage, including works by Olivier Messiaen, Paul Hindemith,
and György Ligeti. Inspired by the compositions of Kaija
Saariaho, Osvaldo Golijov, and Tan Dun, he has guided the creation of
productions of their work that have expanded the repertoire of modern
opera. Sellars has been a driving force in the creation of many new
works with longtime collaborator John Adams, including Nixon in China, The Death of Klinghoffer, El Niño,
and Doctor Atomic.
Recent Sellars projects have included a staging of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex/Symphony of Psalms for the
Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Sydney Festival; a production of
Shakespeare’s Othello performed in
Vienna, Bochum, Germany, and New York; and a critically acclaimed
staging of Bach's Saint Matthew Passion
for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra seen in Salzburg and Berlin.
Sellars has led several major arts festivals, including the 1990 and 1993
Los Angeles Festivals; the 2002 Adelaide Arts Festival in Australia;
and the 2003 Venice Biennale International Festival of Theater in Italy.
In 2006 he was Artistic Director of New Crowned Hope, a month-long
festival in Vienna for which he invited international artists from diverse cultural
backgrounds to create new work in the fields of music, theater, dance,
film, the visual arts, and architecture for the city of Vienna's
Mozart Year celebrating the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth.
Sellars is a professor in the Department of World
Arts and Cultures at UCLA and Resident Curator of the Telluride Film
Festival. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the Erasmus
Prize, the Sundance Institute Risk-Takers Award, and the Gish Prize, and
is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Artistic Director: Michael Walling
Michael Walling founded Border Crossings in 1995. He studied History at Oxford University, and subsequently trained at Trinity College, Dublin. He has directed numerous productions across four continents, winning awards for Two Gentlemen of Verona in the US and Paul & Virginie in Mauritius. He has directed the bulk of Border Crossings' productions, and is responsible for the overall direction of the company. Productions elsewhere include: Die Zauberflote (Spain), The Good Soul of Szechuan, Attempts on Her Life, Victory, Hard Times, The Art of Success, Macbeth (Mauritius), The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, The Tempest (India), Cosi fan Tutte, Romeo and Juliet (USA), The Great God Brown, Play with Cocaine, Beardsley, Spokesong, Sir Thomas More.
Michael also teaches regularly at Rose Bruford College, and Central School of Speech and Drama. For Rose Bruford's Distance Learning courses, he has written Modules on The Social Stage, Shakespeare, The Designer, Elements of the Performance, Post-Colonial and Black Theatres and Ways of Talking about Theatre / Opera. His many publications include pieces in Suspect (Toronto, Alphabet City 2005) and Peripheral Centres / Central Peripheries (Saarbrucken, 2006).
Michael directed the ENO's acclaimed workshop productions of Wagner's Ring at the Coliseum and Barbican. He was Associate Director to Peter Sellars on Nixon in China, and to Phyllida Lloyd on The Handmaid's Tale (Canada). During summer 2008, he directed A Midsummer Night's Dream for Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival, USA.
Click here for Michael Walling's blog.
Board of Directors
Emma Courtney -
Previously Head of Marketing, Audience Development and Research at ABL Cultural Consulting Emma established Courtney Consulting in 2007 with a specific focus on marketing and development for the creative and cultural industries. Before moving to London Emma was Head of Marketing at Northern Ireland’s only professional producing theatre, The Lyric. Emma regularly lectures and trains on the subjects of Brand and Marketing Communications for clients such as the British Library Business and Innovation Centre, Arts Council England, National Council for Voluntary Organisations and Create KX. She was recently listed on the Observer’s Courvoisier Future 500 as ‘one to watch’.
Sarah Davis - Sarah became a director of Border Crossings in 2009. She is Director of Commercial Legal Services at Guardian Media Group, publishers of The Guardian and The Observer and the award-winning guardian.co.uk website. Sarah is also a member of the advisory panel to the government on Legal Deposits. She graduated in Philiosophy at UCL in 1990 and trained and qualified in media law. She has a strong commitment to the arts in all forms. Sarah lives in London with her husband Harry, who is a pianist.
Shelagh Prosser - Shelagh is an established equality and diversity practitioner with nearly 20 years experience, primarily within the public sector. Prior to becoming an independent consultant she held senior equality and diversity posts in the Civil Service, the BBC and the transport industry. She is a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Peter Scott - a founder member and Chartered Accountant: Peter was formerly Finance director of Birmingham Repertory Theatre, and now teaches drama.
Literary Advisor
Dr. Roshni Mooneeram - originally from Mauritius, Roshni is a specialist in post-colonial literature, and currently teaches Literature and Linguistics at the University of Nottingham's campus in Ningbo, China.