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A New Face at Baseless Fabric

Hi! My name is Leo, and I’m delighted to have been chosen to join the Baseless Fabric team. I’ve been working with them for just less than a month so far, but here are 5 things I’ve already learned:
 

ENGAGEMENT IS AMAZINGLY REWARDING

Beatboxing Workshop in Mitcham Library

Opera sounds beautiful, but then so does the sound of a roomful of young people buzzing as they take part in a theatre design workshop, or parents waxing lyrically about how grateful they are that we’ve been doing work in areas that might not normally offer arts activities like stage combat or puppetry. It’s been a pleasure to see how seriously Baseless Fabric takes its community engagement projects – from school groups visiting Wimbledon Tennis, workshops in Mitcham Library – and I’m excited to start playing a role in making these things happen.

 

SOUTH LONDON IS BEAUTIFULLY DIVERSE

I’ve come down from Manchester to work with Baseless Fabric this summer. South London is quite new to me, but luckily, I’ve been preparing for a half-marathon at the end of this month, which has given me a great excuse to run all around the Mitcham and Merton area. It’s been a great way to get a sense of the local area, and the sheer diversity as the urban geography and landscape shifts every couple of minutes. The fact it’s been so sunny lately does not hurt at all.
 

TWO LEOS ARE BETTER (BUT MORE COMPLICATED) THAN ONE

One of the great advantages to being called Leo is that there’s not so many of us, so you always know if someone’s referring to you. But in Baseless Fabric’s small and wonderful team, there’s two of us now, the composer / MD Leo Geyer, and myself. That’s going to get very confusing!
 

THE WIMBLEDON FOUNDATION ARE INCREDIBLE

Wimbletech, where I’ll be working over the next few months.

There are some wonderful perks of having committed backing from the Wimbledon Foundation, not least that the school pupils we’ve been working with got to go on a private tour of the Wimbledon Tennis grounds, and most importantly, compare their shoe size with famous tennis players. And guess who got to tag along?

 

BASELESS FABRIC ARE TRULY COOL

I come from a background of wacky arrangements of classic operas, and in a world where people can be quite traditionalist about opera, it’s been lovely to find a company of kindred spirits who share the sense that operas can be made relevant not merely by changing the staging, but also going right back into the libretto itself. I can’t wait to see the production of Die Fledermaus take shape over the summer.

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