The Playwrights Database
SEARCH PARTY
(2005 - )Nationality: English
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Search Party playfully explore ideas of place, duration and intimacy. Established in 2005, Search Party is the collaboration of artists Pete Phillips and Jodie Hawkes. Search Party are committed to making immediate, hopeful performances that re-negotiate the relationship between artist and audience, creating temporary communities and inviting spectators to become co-collaborators in the live event.
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below is a list of Search Party's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Corridor Growing Old With You Keep Going the Rhino! Long Walk to the Performance My Son & Heir Outside Save Me Search Party vs. . .Corridor
Synopsis:
Inside a purpose built corridor lit by a single bulb, with no windows and only one door, Search Party attempt to find some genuine intimacy with their audience. Search Party invite audience members to view inside the stark, narrow corridor through a tiny spy-hole in a door that separates them from the performer. From this position of separation and through a series of silent exchanges the audience are coaxed into letting their guard down, to flirt, to spy, to bear their souls through the tiny hole in the door. As the performance develops the roles of the performer and audience member become blurred; the watcher becoming the watched. Corridor explores ideas of intimacy, voyeurism and non-place.
Notes:
Corridor is a one-on-one gallery performance created during a Rules and Regs residency at South Hill Park, Bracknell in 2008. Corridor was created in response to a set of rules given to Search Party at the start of the residency.
1st Produced:
South Hill Park, Bracknell
2008
Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
10 min piece
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageGrowing Old With You
Synopsis:
A life long performance project attempting to document lived experience in real time. Over the course of a lifetime Search Party hope to create a series of works in which they, the work and the audience all grow old together. A stark, intimate and playful performance confronting the inevitability of the aging process and the limitations of this temporal existence.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
The Showroom, Chichester, West Sussex
09 Sep 2012
Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
piece
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageKeep Going the Rhino!
Synopsis:
And here's a shark, and here's superwoman, and here's a spaceman, and here's something from Doctor Who, and here's a Bakewell tart, and here's a Rhino, God knows what it must be like to be in that Rhino." During 2007 Search Party attempted to become sports fans. To experience the euphoric victories, the bitter defeats, the heroes, the tragedies, the underdogs and most importantly the hope, the impossible hope that tingles secretly within you when outwardly all hope has been relinquished. Search Party placed their hope in Tim 'the Tiger' Henman's quest for Wimbledon glory, in Exeter City Football Club's heroic journey to Wembley Stadium, in Billy Vodden the 33-1 outsider in the Grand National and in everyone who ran the 2007 Flora London Marathon. Seated around the edges of a running track, spectators witness Search Party re-tell and re-imagine their own attempts to become sports fans. Using a stark blend of the physical endeavour of running and a sporting commentary text, Keep Going the Rhino! describes the hope and despair that accompanies British sport, inviting the audience to place their hope in Search Party and experience the highs and lows of wearing your heart on your sleeve. Keep Going the Rhino! has been performed in an old sports hall, a community centre and a theatre space and can be adapted to fit various contexts.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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2007
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
piece 50 min
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageLong Walk to the Performance
Synopsis:
This is a party, a Search Party and we made it just for you. Put on your best outfit, let your hair down and dance like no-one's watching.' In The Long Walk to the Performance Search Party attempt to re-tell and re-enact stories of hope and optimism, of tragedy and regret. Framed as a party, the performance borrows customs and games associated with communal celebrations to playfully re- tell stories of hope, tragedy and despair. Search Party are determined to remain optimistic but as the tragedies accumulate and the failures escalate, it becomes a test of optimistic endurance.
Notes:
The performance was selected for the National Review of Live Art (2008).The Long Walk to the Performance has been documented by the Live Art Development Agency and appears on their Joining the Dots DVD, copies available on request
1st Produced:
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2006
Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
piece
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageMy Son & Heir
Synopsis:
My Son & Heir is an anarchic celebration of the everyday heroism of parenthood, set amongst a never-ending mess of plastic, flashing-beeping, bubble-blowing chaos. Search Party are parents, they have a son born in the same year as 'Baby Cambridge', and that's where the similarities end. My Son & Heir confronts the spectacle of the 'New Royals' and their strategic attempts to appear just like us. In a playful examination of the relentlessness of raising children, and the guilt-ridden one-upmanship of mainstream baby culture, Search Party consider what sort of man their son and heir will become. This new studio performance is part of Search Party's Growing Old With You series, a life-long performance project exploring their changing perspective of age, as they grow old together.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Canada Water Culture Space, London
23 Apr 2015
Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
piece
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageOutside
Synopsis:
Outside is a love story for commuters on buses and strangers at bus stops. Outside borrows the structure of individual pursuit cycling, in which two cyclists positioned at opposite points of the velodrome, starting at the same time and travelling in the same direction, attempt to catch each other. Using the street as their velodrome and buses for bikes Search Party travel in a clock-wise circuit attempting to catch one another. Strangers and passers by contribute to the creation of a tale of longing, of kiss chase, of desperation and hope.
Notes:
Outside uses sporting structures as a tool to re-mark, re-use, and re-imagine public space, so that other people might take these alterations as an invitation to re-use the space for its new purpose. Outside is a BAC Scratch commission created by Search Party whilst in residency during the 2008 Burst festival. The project was originally conceived during BAC's sports themed Inspiration Week residency.
1st Produced:
Bac Scratch Commission
2008
Organisations:
2008 Burst festival.
1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
piece
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSave Me
Synopsis:
Save Me playfully challenges the boundaries of intimacy. Using semaphore flags instead of spoken words, two performers attempt a rolling and improvised narrative that communicates across the city, exposing stories that are hidden, encoded, that simmer beneath the surface. Save Me is a durational, interactive, site based performance in which Live Art duo Search Party attempt to converse over a distance of up to half a kilometer. Standing atop of meter high platforms facing each other, the flagged exchange is themed around ideas of separation. The conversations are improvised during the performance and documented on large chalkboards. Audience members are invited to share their own stories of separation on yellow tags, which they write and then tie to the platforms. The tags ask three simple questions: 1) Who are you apart from? ?2) Where are they now? ?3) What would you like to say to them? Over time the platforms start to become reminiscent of impromptu roadside memorials that mark the locations of accidents. The tags display a whole range of narratives from emotional stories about love ones in other parts of the world, amusing anecdotes about lazy teenagers or adorable pets, and affective statements about death and regret. These tags become the subject of the conversation, using the many narratives of audience members to shape and inform the live flagged exchange.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Mayfest Bristol
01 May 2011
Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
piece
Parts:
Male: 1 Female: 1 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Top of PageSearch Party vs. . .
Synopsis:
Search Party vs. . . is a 3-day interactive durational performance in which Search Party challenge the host city/town to a marathon game of table tennis. The performance is situated in public space, and for almost 20 hours, over 3 days, spectators and passers-by are invited to form a team and play against Search Party. The performance is accompanied by a live durational commentary text, which creates real and imagined contexts for spectators and participants. The commentary text is re-written before every performance incorporating reference points, mythologies, official and personal histories specific to the host town/city. At the end of each day the commentary text is developed to include stories of the participants who have represented their town/city - the players of today become the stories of tomorrow. Existing somewhere between mass public spectacle and intimate 1-on-1 performance, Search Party vs. . .borrows the notion of team from sport to examine connections between the personal and the geographic, exploring ideas of community, place and belonging.
Notes:
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1st Produced:
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Organisations:
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1st Published:
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Music:
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To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
Booksellers:
Genre:
piece
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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