Summer In The Studio: An Interview with Adam Kammerling From Seder
Tue 28 Jun 2022Tell us about yourself?
This question is quite broad so I’m going to interlace personal facts through professional achievements. I’m a poet, interdisciplinary artist and educator. My favourite colour is yellow. Some recent works include include Seder, my debut poetry collection which was a finalist in the National Jewish Book Awards (and from which this piece has been developed), Shall We Take This Outside, a three-person spoken-word/dance theatre piece that toured nationally, and Inside!, a piece of poetry/rave theatre commissioned by Centrepoint and the Saatchi Gallery. My favourite chocolate bar is a Toffee Crisp. I just wish they were bigger. I have written poetry commissions for the BBC, The Orwell Prize and Nationwide, and theatre commissions for Upswing Circus, Raise Dark, and Slide Dance. I once ran a marathon just because my younger brothers were doing it. I do lots of participatory work and I have created poetry-based theatre with emerging poets, musicians and circus practitioners at the Roundhouse, The Albany and Pentonville Prison. When I was a child I had a pet guinea pig called Scamper. He had red eyes. I once sleepwalked to his cage and woke up there. I’m the creative producer of The Nest, an arts education program for young people at the Fostering Network. I learnt how to make homemade custard over lockdown.
What inspired you to make the show?
I actually began researching the piece by exploring the connections between Judaism and heavy metal. I always felt that, for me at least, there was a conversation between these two parts of my identity and this was an opportunity to find out what it might look like. The research process led me through all the darkest spaces of my familial and cultural history and the poetry collection became its own animal and shed the heavy metal aspects. But some of that research has found its place in these performances, and I am very excited by what it brings to the stage. I always loved the ritual of the Seder, the Jewish passover feast; it always felt like a community endeavour, and so by collaborating so fully in creating this work, it feels like a continuation of the rituals I experienced in my early life, albeit louder, with more drums and dancing.
What can audiences expect when they come to see the show?
They can expect warmth, weirdness and power! The five artists I have with me are each stupendous. Bellatrix, (multi-instrumentalist, beatboxer) and Antosh Wojcik (drums, more drums) have made the most brilliant soundscapes. The live soundtrack is something to behold. And Emma Houston, Si Rawlinson and Selene Travaglia are each unique and fantastic movers. The physical world that these three create is immersive, dynamic and devastating. It’s really something.
Seder will be in The Studio on Thursday 14 July and tickets can be booked here.