Mary Swan, Artistic Director
for Proteus and Director of Below Zero writes....
"Below Zero started life way back during rehearsals for the orginal tour of 'The Elephant Man' early in 2007. We began to see that the freakshow had never left us - Big Brother, the 'Bodyshock' series of TV documentaries and the accusatory nature of magazines like 'Heat' toward anyone who is less than perfect have all contributed to a society where young people are increasingly under pressure to have perfect skin, hair, teeth and most sinister of all, be thinner. Our obsession with extremes - the fattest, the thinnest, the most deformed - has twisted the accepted view of what is 'normal', and let us to ask the question; 'If you were a young person with a very obvious physical disability, what role models in the media are there for you?'

This was the starting point for the development of the piece, and once Kefi Chadwick was on board as writer, we began to talk about how the world of the circus and freakshow could provide a visual language for the play. To this end we set up a week of development with a group of actors and artists to ensure the play was as physical as possible during the drafting process."

Along with Kefi Chadwick, Writer and Mary Swan, Artistic Director for Proteus and Director of 'Below Zero', the other seven artists who helped in the development of the piece are:

Arran Glass
Actor playing the lead part of Michael in the show, a teenager affected by Proteus Syndrome

Esi Hardy
Basingstoke-based Actor who has worked extensively with people affected by physical disability

Saul Jaffe
Actor playing 'The Elephant Man'; the one man show produced by the company in 2006-07 and back for 2008, touring in rep with 'Below Zero'

Lorraine Moynehan
Aerial Artist, Choreographer and Tutor who has helped develop work for the company before, including the innovative flying sequence in 'Peter Pan' and trapeze work in 'The Elephant Man'

Sam Pine
Designer and Costume Maker for many of the company's productions and set, costume and prop designer for 'Below Zero'

Rob Thrush
Multi Media Artist and Film Maker who created the multi-media element for 'Beauty and the Beast', last year's winter tour

Dan Watson
Dancer with StopGap Dance Company who works with professional artists affected by different forms of disability

Mary Swan continues...
"One of the first things we all argeed on was that we wanted the younger characters to feel genuine, and we knew that the only way to achieve thiswas to involve young people in the creation of the script. We created a project programme that involved young people in schools, colleges and outside formal education in workshops that explored the themes in the play. Sometimes this was done in a straighforward manner with participants creating their own work, and directly commenting and discussing drafts of the script as we went along, sometimes it was a bit more subtle - as with a film project in Basingstoke. But whether the participants were learning skills on the trapeze or being chased by a dalek, from Andover or South London, they have all contributed to this play."

In Andover …
In January a team of nine artists come together to work with BTEC Performing Arts Students at Andover College to help develop ‘Below Zero'.  Kefi Chadwick, who was commissioned by Proteus after the company was awarded a grant from Arts Council South East, was asked to write a play exploring the current obsessions with beauty, cele br ity and body image.

In Basingstoke …
Here in Basingstoke, students from Everest Community College have played their part in influencing ‘Below Zero' and informing the development of the mid scale tour, by taking part in workshops with the director and actors while they were in rehearsal.

The film legacy… using the themes from ‘Below Zero', Proteus have collaborated with Chard House Media to create a short television trailer for a ‘Dr Who' episode, working with eight students from secondary schools from Basingstoke and North Hampshire who were recommended to the project by the Basingstoke Locality Team.  One participant said “I have really enjoyed doing this - it's great telling everyone at school I'm making an episode of ‘Dr Who'!”

In Greenwich …
Young people from Greenwich and Lewisham took part in a series of workshops working on different parts of the script and talking about the issues raised and how they related to them.  The workshops took place in schools and in Greenwich Theatre with different artists who worked on the development of the project.

Below Zero was developed with the help from the following organisations:

Click here for more information on 'Below Zero' including the spring 2008 tour schedule.