Debbie Lee-Anthony
A Nice Little Project
'A Nice Little Project' is a series of performative vignettes which engage, provoke and entertain. Through spoken text and dance, I present a wry and subtle look at 'notions of niceness'. Playing with ideas of universally nice things to eat, see, touch, hear or think. I invite my audience to participate as I share thoughts and musings on ordinary and - at times, extraodinarily nice things. The work explores issues of self and identity and the project is a continuation of my interest and fascination with creating work from an autobiographical frame work.
In this piece - which can be tailored to suit a range of audiences in intimate settings - and can vary from 15 minutes to 35 minutes in duration! - I interrogate the idea that 'niceness' is often used as a survival technique, masking the small ever present losses that are a reality of life.
The work has been presented at Salisbury Arts Centre, the University of Winchester, Mind the Gap Older people's community group at Salisbury Playhouse, The Arc THeatre, Trwobridge, Circomedia, Bristol and Shenandoah University, Virginia, USA.
Photographs by Elizabeth Lydia