discovering creatives
☆
discovering creatives ☆
WITH
Crystal & nadia
Interview by Liberty and Priya Chana
Meet Crystal (Artistic Director & Founder) and Nadia (Associate Creative Director) of Enlight Insight Theatre, a theatre company centered on creating thought provoking art that incites societal change. On October 21st we were invited to attend their Rebel Jam Cabaret and got some insight on their theatre company journey.
©enlight insight theatre
[Liberty] What inspired you to start the company?
[Crystal] So I’ll drop in with that one. I set the company up in 2022, as I was graduating university. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with it, I just knew I wanted to do a bit of change; something social activist-y. I kind of fell into Rebel Jam. Got given a theatre space, was told the fee and was like yikes, can’t afford that [laughs], so I got a bunch of friends together ― Nadia was in the first Rebel Jam performing.
[Nadia] Memories.
©enlight insight theatre
[Crystal] We all chipped a little bit in to cover the higher costs, and everyone loved it, it was such a great atmosphere. That’s how Rebel Jam was born. The company did a few bits and got quite big. That’s when Nadia got involved. We started running it, and the rest was history.
[Nadia] Because I was a part of the Rebel Jam, and we went to uni together we both had seen what each other was capable of creatively, so we already knew that kind of vibe. We work well together. As soon as Kiki [Crystal] asked me to be a part of the company, I was like yes of course, because I’m from Brighton, and obviously it’s a creative scene over there, but here [London] as well there’s so many creative opportunities and with Kiki already having set up a company, I was like yes I’d love to get involved, so yeah, its been really good.
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[Liberty] What have been the biggest challenges you’ve faced since starting?
[Crystal] I think one of the biggest challenges is keeping partnerships. I wouldn’t necessarily say making them, but keeping them fresh is kind of a constant challenge, because you don’t want to be emailing people too much, but you still want to stay active and engaged, especially with Rebel Jam. I find we get a partnership with a venue for a year, and at the end of that year you need to find a new partnership, because the landscape is constantly changing. The arts ― they’re struggling a little bit in terms of finances. Not everyone can offer a model that works for how we operate. So it’s just kind of keeping contacts fresh, but also constantly making new ones. For me, I’ve found that’s been my biggest struggle from more of the business side of things.
[Nadia] I suppose for me personally it would be the distance between us as a company. Obviously Brighton and London, could be much worse. Since everything’s very much based here [London] and around Camden, it does mean that I have to work from afar and I feel a bit out of touch sometimes, but Kiki makes that so accessible. We’ll have video calls, working together even when we’re apart. But it’s good, we’ve got another project coming up in the new year, which will be spread across both cities, so that will be really fun.
©enlight insight theatre
[Liberty] What important lessons do you look to convey through your work?
[Crystal] Maybe not so much lessons, but I think really social change is at the heart of everything we do. The uni that myself and Nadia went to is quite political in terms of what we were taught, and the stuff we covered. We did a lot of Marxism, and we always looked at cultural theory where it’s looking at art and how it impacts culture, so I think that is really carried into our work. The lessons we really want to teach are the lessons people need to learn. Our last cabaret was called ‘A Queer Starmer Cabaret’, and it was raising awareness on trans rights and how they’re coming under threat. We raised money and donated towards Gendered Intelligence, so doing stuff like that is really important to us.
[Nadia] I was thinking the exact same thing with our last cabaret. Obviously, the tension was so high. Everybody was feeling like rubbish because of the things that were going on with our government, you know, we’re both trans people so we felt really neglected at the time. We were like, ‘how can we shine a light on this as well as highlighting the horrible things about it, as well as bringing hope to people?’ That cabaret really helped me personally, like I could see the light at the end of the tunnel and just to come together as queer creatives was really nice as well.
[Liberty] So what makes your company different than other theatre companies?
[Crystal] I think what’s quite nice about Enlight Insight is that it’s never been about becoming a business and expanding. I think for us, it’s always been a passion project. As long as we can pay the acts and have money to do what we need to do, that’s kind of what matters. For us it really is art first, all the other boring stuff second, which is what I think makes it really special.
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[Nadia] I kind of love how there’s only two of us. Obviously, if there was anybody else who was really on our same wavelength would be so welcome to join in, but at the moment, it feels really really strong. I feel like we’ve got more that we can show one another. We’ve just got a strong core and that really shines out into the work we do, which I’m very proud of because the artistic connections we make also become friends, and so we’re creating this lovely community where everybody feels like they can get in touch again for artistic reasons, and just to have a safe space. What we do is very personal, it’s like one big family. It’s cute.
[Liberty] Definitely agree, because we’ve more or less done the same.
[Priya, assistant interviewer] Yeah, we’re kind of just doing it for the love of it as opposed to like - we’re not making any money, but we’re just doing it because it’s fun, you know? Yeah so, we relate!
[Nadia] That’s the artist life.
[Liberty] For anyone reading the magazine who’d like to follow in your footsteps, do you have any advice?
[Crystal] I think one of the best things for me was getting Nadia involved. I stress quite easily as Nadia can probably attest, and just having someone there to support you and tell you to walk around the room and breathe - [laughs].
[Nadia] [laughing] Like yesterday.
[Crystal] It’s really helpful and it’s just so much more fun when you do it with people. So, you know, find your people and just share creativity, share ideas and make something from it. In terms of putting on a show, I think everyone’s a bit scared to approach a theatre venue. That is the easy bit! It’s so easy to get a venue; just ask. The hard bit is selling tickets. I know a lot of people see that as a big hurdle. It’s not. Ignore it.
[Nadia] Yeah, more of a mental hurdle. Just kinda leap over it.
[Liberty] Yeah, absolutely.
[Nadia] We’re so lucky, and I have Kiki [Crystal] massively to thank for this because you started the company by yourself. But there are so many connections, so many venues who we’ve worked with previously. So yeah, just get your foot in the door, like, literally just open that door and yell ‘please, can I come in?’ and they’ll probably say yeah! And if you’ve got a community behind you supporting you ― it can be friends, family, people that you’ve studied with. Don’t be shy to share those ticket links far and wide ― just send it to everyone you know.
“More people will be interested than you think”
[Crystal] Yeah, gotta spam.
[Nadia] People believe in you as well, so don’t give up.
[Liberty] So Rebel Jam, is that annual?
[Crystal] It’s quarterly. So we run one in Autumn, one in spring and one in summer. We don’t do winter just because Christmas is quite busy. So we run it three times a year, and then we do one big annual project. This year it was a play called ‘Inside A Mind’. We did it at the Bread and Roses Theatre and then we also did it at the Libra Theatre as a part of Camden Fringe. Nadia played the therapist in our second run of the show, which is really cool. And … I did a lot for it [laughs] yeah, I’ll leave that there. In the first round I just directed and produced it, but then one of our actors, bless her, she was in hospital, so I had to step in, which isn’t really my thing as much anymore.
[Nadia] But you did so well.
[Crystal] [laughs] Thank you.
[Nadia] It was the second run; it was stressful for you.
[Crystal] Like the week of I was like I-
[Nadia] Yeah but you really did so well. Stepped up.
[Crystal] The project Nadia was alluding to next year is in collaboration with Saatchi Gallery.
[Priya] Oh, wow!
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[Crystal] We’re doing a project called ‘We Exist’. Full title is ‘We Exist, Have Existed, and Always Will Exist’. It’s a photography exhibition looking at queer people throughout history, and we’ll be taking half of the photos is London and the other half in Brighton.
[Liberty] What particularly inspired the theme for this Rebel Jam?
[Nadia] Well I guess because it’s spooky season! [laughs] And we wanted to choose something that’s autumnal, Halloween-y. Nostalgic, as well. We both grew up on Scooby-Doo. We used to love, love, love it. Still love it, obviously. There’s just so much that you can do with it. We thought that if we were to ask the acts to do something inside of that theme, there’s so much that they could choose from. Like, all the monsters, all the characters ― all the funniness of it, spookiness of it. But I think Rebel Jam is very much an event where we don’t take things too seriously, so we didn’t want it to be scary [laughs]. We thought we could still have fun with it. Yeah, in result we’ve got such a range this time.
[Liberty] What particularly drew you to each act?
[Crystal] So for this one, we’re always looking for something fun. Getting acts can be a little bit tricky, because sometimes you don’t have time to go to open mics. With the comedian we have in this act, [Sam See] we had originally asked him to do our last cabaret, because he is openly queer as well, but the timings just didn’t work out so he is coming along to this one, which is nice. Our drag act [Amy Westray] actually did our Halloween cabaret the year before last and is coming back, which is really nice. I think I reached out to someone who did burlesque, and they recommended a friend, and the friend said they actually did aerial [Beka Dawn]. And I was like that’s so cool! You’re in! Then we also had another burlesque act [Gabrielle La Belle] get in touch saying they’re interested. So it’s a combination of people approaching you, people getting recommended and sometimes you go scouting.
[Nadia] It’s good to have the range that we’ve got. We have poetry and comedy – I’m yet to see the acts but they tend to be a lot more stand still-y and audience interactive, spoken word. But we’ve got burlesque, drag and aerial which is so body-movement based which will be really visually stimulating. There’s something for everyone, pretty much.
[Liberty] What do you hope the audience feels tonight?
[Nadia] Nostalgic, like we do.
[Crystal] I just want them to have a good time, really.
[Nadia] We’ve got some funny moments in there. I hope they feel engaged and happy with choices we’ve made.
[Liberty] What will your [Crystal] performance, as a poet, be like?
[Crystal] My spoken word tends to be more about something. So my set tonight is all about phobias. Some of them are silly phobias like the dark. Others are a little bit more political, like one of my poems is about the fear of finding somewhere to rent and live and the experience of that. It’ll be a nice little mix.
[Liberty] Do you guys have a pre-show ritual?
[Crystal] Do we always do a little warm up?
[Nadia] Yeah, yeah a little vocal warm up, a little physical warm up. I guess the important thing is to get people hyped and get their minds off of the nerves. I think that’s really important – to let go a little bit, physically. Just classic theatre games ― theatre kids know.
[Liberty] What inspired you to start your work?
[Crystal] Poetry is something I’ve just done for a really long time, way back to when I was like sixteen or seventeen, it was actually my kind of … first into the industry. I’d go to spoken word sets and festivals that I really enjoyed. It’s something that I never really wanted to completely get rid of. As I graduated university, going into the professional world of theatre, a lot more doors opened, but I still wanted to keep poetry a part of what I do. It’s nice to be able to incorporate it in this. And also it’s just an easy spot filler in terms of acts ― poetry is a little bit different from all of the more physical acts like Nadia said.
