1. Where are you working at present?
My bedroom/lounge. Mostly. Unless that answer contradicts housing/tax law, in which case the answer is 'you know, around...'
2. Describe your occupation and why you love it.
If I had to boil it down to a sentence, I guess I'd say that I 'write, think, talk about and make theatre and performance for a living'. If you wanted a longer version of that, I'd say my work specifically lives in some of the space between performance and digital technology; including speaking at conferences, running workshops, giving lectures, working with theatre/arts companies on their use of tech, writing for and making my own performance/performative projects, collaborating with others on creative projects, and a PhD which is mostly concerned with arguing what I do *is* theatre/performance. I'm also on the board of Third Angel. Oh and I do a bit of whining on my blog occasionally too.
I love theatre and performance and technology, and so count myself very lucky to be able to eke a living out of it. But what I think I love the most, is the energy and generosity of most people I encounter in the sector.
3. Who do you most enjoy working with and why?
ALL OF THE PEOPLE. No, seriously, I spend way too much time around books at the moment. Any chance to get out and talk to/work with creative people is awesome. A lot of my practice has so far been long-distance collaboration, so I'm hoping that over the next few years I can add a bit more 'seeing people IRL' into the mix. Maybe work with certain companies more regularly.
4. What's your dream day?
Gosh. I don't know. A couple of months ago I was walking through Nottingham past Page45 comics and tweeted how I wished I could afford something from there, and then half an hour later of lazing in the sunshine talking about setting up a new scratch night I got a DM inviting me back to the shop, where a benevolent stranger had put some money on account for me to buy 3 books. That day was pretty dreamy. I bought an ice cream and gave it to someone I'd walked past a few times holding a big sign in the sun. Pass it forward, you know?
But I suppose at the moment my 'dream day' is the end of the PhD - I'm going to try and go full freelance then, and move somewhere exciting and full of life, like Leeds. Lots of trepidations involved, but well outweighed by excitement.
5. Favourite ever show and why?
FAVOURITE EVER questions are difficult. There's no 'ever', as each show, musician, performer marks and shifts different versions of you. Sarah Kane's writing woke me up to theatre when I was 16. Black Watch took my breath away when I was 22, As If It Were the Last Time by Duncan Speakman opened my mind to performance that lived and breathed the streets 2 years ago. Right now, my favourite show is SlungLow's Mapping the City. Not only my favourite show, but one of my favourite ever experiences. I wax lyrical about how brilliant it was over here if you're interested.
6. Favourite actor/actress and why?
I tend not to think about performers as much as I probably should. I think the best disappear in front of you. I regularly fall a little in love in the theatre, though. Recently people like Lucy Ellinson, Chris Goode, Jon Spooner. What characterises them is passion, support when they're working with an audience, and the sense that they're offering you a little bit of their heart.
7. Favourite band/musical artist and why?
I'm into screamy, guitar-y stuff. I'm not doing you a favourite, but recent listening includes: La Dispute, Without Fire, Castavet, Deaf Havana, Piano Becomes the Teeth, The Wild, the Front Bottoms, Monument. I buy a lot of music at the moment. I grew up when Napster got big, so I only started paying for my downloads very recently. It was Bandcamp that did it. I have actual relationships with bands that mean something, all or almost all of my money goes to them, and they treat me like an adult, I can stream it all before I buy and then 'pay what you think it's worth' with two clicks. Some music is only worth £6. Some is worth much more than that. I'll often go back and give the band more money when I fall in love with something.
8. Where do you see yourself in 25 years?
No idea, and I kind of like that. Although I've given up hope of ever owning a house (I reckon anyone under 30 without rich parents has no chance), but hopefully it will be somewhere high up, with solar panels, a vegetable garden, and an independent water source. Plus I'd like to be still working with awesome people making awesome stuff.
9. Any exciting future projects you'd like to mention?
Is this where I'm supposed to plug stuff? I guess I just finished writing for a piece about the apocalypse to be done atop a London night bus next month, and I'm speaking at TEDxYork on the 7th about cities and art in the lead up to a month-long city-wide storytelling experiment starting in October. Oh, and me and Andy Field of Forest Fringe are getting together a 'flash conference' for Edinburgh this year, about performance, fringes, and the state of the world. We're going to be asking some big questions and inviting people to have conversations about them amongst performance, installations, and provocations from some exciting TBA people. YOU SHOULD TOTALLY COME. We're even doing lunch.
If you're interested in any of these things, best thing to do is follow me on Twitter @hannahnicklin, on my blog http://hannahnicklin.com, or on dedicated sites, like http://umbrellaproject.co.uk and http://flashconference.co.uk
10. Random one: what's your favorite cheese?
ALL OF THE CHEESE. Except feta. Which isn't cheese. It's chalky and malevolent.
11. Do you have Twitter? Do you follow @the_prompt? You should...
I do! I'm @hannahnicklin. I'm really fussy about the people that I follow, though, it's distracting enough as it is with only 1000 or so to follow! Quite often I'll list people, and go and check out what they're saying when I have a mo.
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