The street theatre start-up bringing community voices to life: Martha Harrison

Martha Harrison and Daz Scott were on the same course at University of Birmingham studying Drama with English. After graduating in 2021, they set up a theatre start-up called Calico which brings community voices to life through choreography and film.

Bringing a slice of La La Land to Birmingham, performances are often staged in outside locations in and around the city, offering thought provoking conversations to real life community voices.

Update: Their latest project 'Look Sharp - Making Spiking a Criminal Offence' is now available on the Calico website.

Martha shares her story with B-Enterprising and explains how creating a start-up has brought freedom to their work.

Martha: We are Calico, a Birmingham-based dance-theatre duo, creating movement-driven work that facilitates important social conversations. Our work normally starts with a question; whether it’s ‘What did you do last Wednesday?’ or ‘What would you do if men had a curfew?’, and is choreographed to a score of verbatim answers from as many people as we can reach.

We mould our work around the people and places it is for, and in the past, we’ve performed in shopping centres, car parks, cemeteries, reservoirs, and even on trains.

Driven by the aim of elevating community voices, the work we create is always socially engaged and often blends dance, theatre and film to find new and exciting ways to bring to life the stories we uncover.

The Calico team met on the Drama and English Literature course at The University of Birmingham. We worked together throughout our time at University in practical drama modules. 

During this time, the beginnings of Calico was forming (though we didn't know it yet). We began creating work together, honing in on our love of verbatim theatre, and finding a rhythm to working as a duo. When we graduated, we weren't ready to stop working together, and so we decided to make it our job.

The best part about running our own business is having the freedom to choose what we work on and what is important to us.

Starting our own business meant we could establish ways of working that speak to our values, generate meaningful relationships with community groups and other business, and choose the projects that really excite us, and matter to people. The hardest part is probably just the admin.

Running a theatre company isn't just about being in a rehearsal room, running a workshop or performing a show, we are constantly looking for new opportunities, sending out applications, coordinating projects, and are building systems for managing this as we go along.

I think one thing we wish we had known before starting our business venture, is that there are always more opportunities. When we first started out, we felt like we always had to be active, applying, working, and that we had to say yes to everything, in case we missed an opportunity. We felt like every opportunity had to be seized, and prioritised that over everything else. This meant that we burnt out, were stretched too thin, and couldn't give each project the attention it needed.

The biggest takeaway from our experience is that there is so much support out there. When we first decided to start a business it felt like it was us against the world, and we were having to manage all everything by ourselves.

But as time has passed we have been able to build relationships with so many people and organisations in the arts industry and beyond, and have had so much support which has made all the different. The most important thing we have learnt is to ask for help. For anyone who is thinking about starting your own business after graduating, make sure to ask for help!

Things like the Start-Up fund and other B-Enterprising opportunities, as well as support from other professionals in your industry, are so important and make all the different in the early days of setting up a company.

With thanks to Martha Harrison (Calico) Edited by Bob Lee (B-Enterprising)