Our annual unconventional convention for everyone involved in theatre and the performing arts, is back! This year we are at Slung Low’s The Warehouse in Leeds from 16th – 18th Mar 2024.
An invitation from Improbable’s Associate Director, Matilda Leyser;
Devoted and Disgruntled: What are we going to do about Theatre and the Performing Arts?
That’s a genuine question.
And this is a real invitation, to come and work on that question – and any others you are holding – and to explore a myriad of answers, together with us, in Leeds, in March this year, at our annual Open Space event.
We ran our first Devoted and Disgruntled event in 2006- 18 years ago. Since then we have used Open Space to run our company, make our shows, birth some children (true story). But through all the years, we’ve continued to come back to the beginning – to this core annual event – the one we are inviting you to be a part of in 2024.
And it starts now.
Because the beginning of this event – the very first thing that happens – is that we write an invitation.
Writing an invitation is something of art.
Like any art, it’s a kind of practice.
Which is to say, we are still practicing it – still finding out how to do it.
But also, as with any practice you keep at for a while, you start to form habits.
So, over the years, we have tended to use our annual D&D invite to reflect on the current state of the performing arts, of the country, of the world, and then to use that as a sort of motivator to encourage you to come along and do something meaningful, instead of moaning.
The problem with this formula is that the state of the arts/ country/ world keeps on getting worse, so the invites sound increasingly bleak. Or maybe it’s just that we keep on getting older. Or maybe a bit of both. Either way, when we tried to follow the formula this year, it came out like bitter old actor’s version of the queen’s speech (she did 70 of them – we are far behind!). We felt a little desperate. We tried AI, which, to be honest, did a fair job of turning the bitterness around into something more positive.
But because I cannot think of a single, fricking event better than D&D at connecting us back to our ‘HI’ – our deep, natural, human intelligence and creativity (yes, I believe we have this- that’s where theatre comes from) – as opposed to the heart-breaking individual and collective stupidity we witness every day on the news – I want a person, not a software programme, to write the invite: so here I am writing this to you.
The definition of a true invitation is that you can say ‘no’ to it. It invites you to check in with yourself, and what you want, because it comes from someone who is checking in with themselves:
Right now, I am feeling cold, but also naively glad that it can still get this cold. I just reassured my neurodivergent son that we are safe and am wondering if we truly are. I am thinking of the aerial-theatre-storytelling-impro show I want to start to make this year, and how the heck I am going to do it, amidst everything else I am holding. I am thinking of you, reading this, wondering what you are feeling, what you are bothered by, excited by, devoted to, disgruntled about.
I am inviting you to check in with yourself and see what you need right now, whether that’s time out on your own in the rain and wind, or whether that’s time in a circle, connecting with your community. Or whether you don’t have a sense of community and you’d quite like to find one – that was Phelim, 18 years ago, when he wrote the first invite.
And maybe you were at that first 2006 D&D, or you’ve been to some others.
Maybe you meant to get along one year but you haven’t yet quite managed it.
Maybe you have never even heard about us, and you thought ‘D&D’ was a fantasy tabletop game (it is – ask my son if you decide to come to our version of ‘D&D’).
Tickets
To reflect the different positions of everyone coming to this event we’ve made tickets Pay What You Choose starting from a minimum of £10. Improbable will be subsidising this event as much as we can, but to cover costs we need to make a further £6,250 from ticket sales which works out at an average of £25 per ticket, so If you can afford to, please do consider paying that.
If you are able to, you could also ‘Pay It Forward’ which means buying another ticket to help others attend.
If you are in receipt of Universal Credit, you are able to access a ‘Pay It Forward’ ticket. If this applies to you, please contact us via: office@improbable.co.uk.
Event timings
D&D 2024 starts at 10.30am (doors open) and ends at around 7pm on the Saturday and Sunday (16th and 17th) and starts from 10.30am to about 2.30pm on the Monday (18th). You are free to take a break whenever you like, and there is a lunch hour between 1/1.30pm and 2/2.30pm (approximately – the timetable is only a guideline!).
Travel
Leeds train station is mainly served by LNER, CrossCountry, Northern and TransPennine Express trains.
Local bus services regularly run from Leeds Station to the venue. More information on buses can be found here.
Parking
If travelling by car, please park on Ingram Road as parking immediately around the Warehouse is residents-only. There is no charge for on-street parking.
Wheelchair users and those with limited mobility are welcome to park on Crosby Street.
The nearest bus stop is on Holbeck Moor Road and we have bike storage facilities inside the warehouse.
Refreshments / Lunch
Tea and coffee will be available throughout the days. You are welcome to bring your own lunch or make your own lunch at the venue – there is a kitchen available to use with an oven, microwave and fridge.
Local Food
There are a handful of corner shops on Top Moor Side. There is a good simple sandwich shop called Armitages on Domestic Street- there’s a menu in the kitchen. And a Turkish Supermarket with a sit-down Kebab cafe called Venus. It is also on Domestic Street: there’s a couple of veggie options on the menu.
