Unfinished Business
Unfinished Business (UB) is a small and ambitious company whose mission is ‘to make excellent performance work focusing on wellbeing, socio-political discourse and mental health with genuine audience and community participation’. Unfinished Business was established in 2010 by Artistic Director Leo Kay and producer Anna Smith.
Leo Kay
Leo Kay is a theatre maker who’s work has moved through physical theatre, dance theatre and spoken word, to explorations of site-specific performance and intimate interaction with audiences. His work aims to create an experience, conjured between the performer and audience which promotes a genuine exchange. Leo has extensive experience of working within a variety of community settings and is a specialist in creating powerful theatrical performance with often difficult to reach young people bridging the gap between adolescents and adulthood. Leo has repeatedly engaged with Brazilian culture to enrich his practice. A fluent Portuguese speaker, he has spent an extended period developing work in Salvador, and has worked with leading choreographers from Brazil’s northeast region.
Company Projects
Only Wolves And Lions: A meal, a conversation, a performance provocation. Inspired by quotes by Epicurus, the ancient Greek philosopher, it is an interactive experience, which invites a small audience to cook and eat together. Exploring themes of community, isolation and the meaning of the concept of crisis. Created and Performed by Leo Kay and Unai Lopez De Armentia
It’s Like He’s Knocking It’s Like He’s Knocking: a stripped back autobiographic performance exploring migration, mourning and coincidence, set in the intimacy of a bed-sit. (BAC, Edinburgh Festival and national tour 2011). Created by Leo Kay. Performed by Leo Kay And Mestre Carlao
The Remember Me Tea Dance an intergenerational interactive performance with Tea and Cakes (South Street Art Centre), Direction Leo Kay
Life, Making A Meal Of It. An intergenerational performance and meal exploring food, memory and community. (South Street Arts Centre Reading) Direction Leo KayChris Ventriloquist’s The Glass Menagerie (BAC). Ben Mellor’s Voices of Descent (Contact Theatre and National tour),
The Unfinished Business Trilogy; Short explorations of audience/ performer interaction, responsibility and transformation, performed at various Live Art Speed Dates (STK), Skype to Tokyo Connected Festival, Scratch Interact at Soho Theatre and Fatoria Das Fuegos Vitoria, Basque country. Created and performed by Leo Kay
Mr Sole Abode a solo show about a man who lives in a fridge (Lyric Hammersmith and national tour 2008/9), Created by Leo Kay and Benji Reid. Performed by Leo Kay
Direction over past 3 years include:
Why the fxxx Not?
A national tour of a A multi art form theatre show exploring control and freedom, youth disaffection and the cult of materialism. Performed and created with semi professional actors aged 18-25 from Contact Young Actors Company, first presented at Contacting The World International festival of youth theatre summer 2012. Touring to Midlands Arts Centre, Contact Theatre, South St Arts Centre, Corby Curb and The Round House London. Winter 2013/14. Directed By Leo Kay
OLD ME. Written and performed by Polarbear. (The Round house London 2011) Directed by Leo Kay
8sixteen32 A Grime Theatre Show by the Decypher Collective (Birmingham Rep and national tour).
Don Letts Presents Speakers Corner; contemporary music theater (Birmingham Rep, The Albany and CMN national tour).
I Hear Voices; a spoken word theatre show (Contact Theatre and national tour),
Actor
McFee in Jumpers (The National Theatre, Piccadilly Theatre and national tour), Narrator in The Young Peoples Guide To the Orchestra and An Ode to Charlie Chaplin with London Philharmonic Orchestra (Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Albert Hall and The Barbican), Hungry Ghosts by Lost Dog (national tour) The Golden Monkey in Phillip Pullmans His Dark Materials (The National Theatre). ‘Business Man’ in Under Glass By The Clod Ensemble.
For archive performance, direction and facilitation work go to: http://www.madrugada.info
“Leo managed to gain the trust of and to care tenderly for his audience whilst evoking/provoking powerful emotional responses from them. Brilliantly devised, Leo’s piece was a tender, explosive and exhilarating work.. Everything a live art speed-date should be.” [Gary Campbell of Stoke Newington International Airport]
…’the positive effects were undeniable. Audience members, who had met only a few hours before, were joking and embracing like old friends as they left. The extraordinary thing I both admired and loved about the show was its simplicity: get a group of people together to eat and talk. Unfinished Business’ success lies in turning these basic principles into a feast for the soul.” [Fiona Bradley of One Stop Arts on Only Wolves And Lions]
‘One of the most special evenings of my life’: [Nick Ahad BBC Radio Leeds on Only Wolves And Lions]
Anna Smith
Anna Smith graduated in Design for Performance in 2009 from Wimbledon College of Art. Since then she has worked as a designer, stage manager, project manager and producer with companies such as 30 Bird, Scratch Interact (Interactive performance event), Shakespeare Schools Festival & London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT). She set up the company Unfinished Business and works alongside Leo in all of the above roles to realise the company vision.
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