WORDS + SITES + SOUNDS
Dorothy Max Prior is a writer and artist working across many disciplines and genres, from theatre/performance, live art, music and installation to creative non-fiction, cultural commentary and arts journalism.
Max has more than forty years experience in the performing arts – from punk-rock drummer to performance artist; ballroom dance teacher to street theatre director/choreographer, and site-specific performance and installation maker. She has a particular interest in immersive and interactive work that is placed outside of regular theatres, galleries and arts spaces.
Her non-fiction writings have been published in numerous books, including Punk is Dead: Modernity Killed Every Night, (Zero books 2017) and Showboat: Punk/Sex/Bodies (Dashwood Books, 2016); and in journals including Total Theatre Magazine, which she edits.
She is a founder member of experimental music group Rema Rema, whose album Fond Reflections was released by 4AD in 2019, and she is a former member of Psychic TV. She continues to use sound as a crucial element of her performance and installation work.
She is the director of UK based arts company Aurelius Productions and former co-director of The Ragroof Players, working on the creation of outdoor arts and site-specific shows, including Shall We Dance?, Gloves On, Youth Club, and Bridges y Puentes. She makes her own performance/installation work under the name Dorothy’s Shoes, most recently the promenade street arts project Hen Party – A Parada Delas (Brazil 2020, created in collaboration with Marilia Ennes). Previous projects for Aurelius Productions have involved collaborations with sculptor/designer Isobel Smith and musician/composer James Foz Foster, including Sisters of Hera (Tuscany, 2014) and The Basement Bordello (2008–2010). Her solo show In My Room, an interactive installation for one audience member at a time, was commissioned by SPILL Festival 2015. She is also a freelance writer/dramaturg and director working with numerous companies in the UK and abroad, including an ongoing collaboration with ParaladosanjoS in Brazil.
Max is also a highly experienced teacher and workshop leader, and a visiting lecturer at numerous academic institutions.
Email: dorothymaxprior@gmail.com | Tel/WhatsApp: +44 7752 142526
In My Room
An interactive installation for an audience of one person at a time, commissioned by SPILL Festival of Performance, London
Pontes Integradas
A year-long collaboration with ParaladosanjoS (Brazil) making art within remote fishing and farming communities in Sao Paulo state.
A World in a Suitcase
Installation made for The Ragroof Players' Bridges y Puentes, a promenade show about migration set in a car-park, scripted by Dorothy Max Prior.
Dorothy's Shoes:
Honouring and usurping popular dance and vaudeville traditions in Hen Party, Flying Down to Rio, Cabaret Eccentrico, and more.
Aurelius Productions:
Sisters of Hera
Site-responsive performance and installation in residency at Tenuto dello Scompiglio,Tuscany.