Bristol Old Vic launches its first set of Digital Shorts by emerging artists - specifically for YouTube and Instagram audiences

Bristol Old Vic today announced a first set of original shorts made by exciting South West artists, specifically for You Tube and Instagram - Sudden Connections.

Image: left to right  (top) Ash Kayser, Asmaa Jama, Gouled Ahmed. Left to right (bottom): Anna Rathbone, Muneera Pilgrim, Caroline Williams.

Sudden Connections is a series of multi-disciplinary digital commissions from Bristol Old Vic Ferment (the theatre's talent development strand), funded by the Genesis Foundation's Genesis Kickstart Fund and commissioned in partnership with Rising Arts Agency. This bold experiment in digital work sees five South West artists create new pieces of work, to be experienced online, that say something about who we are now and who we might be tomorrow. 

Each short will be released weekly from 4 Oct on Bristol Old Vic’s Instagram and YouTube channels. These pieces will be free to watch and range up to 10minutes in length - perfect for grabbing a cultural hit at any time of the day - presenting big ideas but on the small scale.

The artists involved include Anna Rathbone, an artist who works across multiple disciplines - exploring themes of loss after the death of a loved-one with All The Threads You Left Behind; Asmaa Jama & Gouled Ahmed with their moving-image collaboration unfolding from their perspective in the Somali diaspora, The Season of Burning Things; Ash Kayser's darkly whimsical animated short Retail Therapy, designed to be experienced on IGTV;  Muneersa Pilgrim' s exploration of consent and sexuality Lessons Taught to Boys and Girls, and Caroline Williams' irreverent and theatrical ode to the mobility scooter she began to use in the wake of Long COVID, A Love Letter to Penelope Cruiser.

Talent Development Producer Ben Atterbury said: "Our explorations in digital theatre began in 2020 and continue to go from strength to strength. Now, the opportunities for reaching new audiences are greater than ever - sharing work beyond Bristol Old Vic's walls and being able to create new work that's accessible to anyone is a vital part of our future. 

Sudden Connections, generously supported by the Genesis Foundation's Genesis Kickstart Fund and commissioned in partnership with the pioneering Rising Arts Agency, is a new future-facing strand of our work, doing two exciting things. It is supporting early and mid-career independent and freelance artists from the region as they explore how digital media could be used to create work in new and experimental ways, while also giving us an opportunity to start to engage with our digital audience differently, using the channels most of us use daily to release brand new work from the artists we're most excited about, completely free to watch.

Sudden Connections is a new way for Bristol Old Vic to take the work to where the audience is, and we're excited to share the results.”