Fuel leads the field in independent producing in the UK’s live performance sector. We work with brilliant artists to enable them to share their artistic vision. We develop and present an adventurous, playful and significant programme of live, digital, and multi-disciplinary work for a representative audience across the UK and beyond. Our mission is to produce art that exposes our fears, reveals our hopes, and empowers us to change what needs to be changed.
Fuel produce fresh work for adventurous people by inspiring artists.
We believe in supporting and stimulating artists to develop their own ideas through provocation and challenge. We have a rich and trusting creative dialogue with all of the artists we work with, and we engage with all aspects of the development of the work. Each relationship is unique, as we try to respond to the needs of each artist individually.
Some of the artists Fuel has worked with include Will Adamsdale, Inua Ellams, Encounter, Fevered Sleep, Lewis Gibson, Gyre & Gimble, Nick Makoha, Racheal Ofori, Frauke Requardt, David Rosenberg, Andy Smith, Sound&Fury, Melly Still, Tom Stuart, Uninvited Guests and Melanie Wilson.
• Be curious, beautiful and playful
• Care deeply about the audience’s experience
• Reflect the UK and its people
• Develop brave new voices
• Explore urgent questions
• Shine light in how we relate to each other and the world around us
• Be generous on spirit and dynamic in form
• Be rooted in theatre making
• Support both fresh and faithful collaborations
• Reach people across the UK and beyond
We choose every artist, company or project we produce carefully. Each relationship is different and unique as we try to respond to the needs of each artist individually.
Broadly speaking, there are two key ways in which we work with artists:
We commission artists to work with us on ideas we have. For example, we asked Sabrina Mahfouz, Rachel Mars and Paula Varjack to create three sound installations in collaboration with sound designer Gareth Fry around the theme of female incarceration as part of the University of Warwick’s Tate Exchange Programme in 2018.
We manage specific projects for artists such as Inua Ellams, Will Adamsdale, Melanie Wilson and David Rosenberg. We raise the money, do the marketing and press, handle the finances, project manage, production manage and administrate each project. We also work with them creatively on the development of each project. We tend to have an ongoing relationship with artists across multiple projects, and the long-term nature of our commitment to these artists reaps great benefits.
The Fuel team is based in a busy office at Somerset House in London. The projects we produce happen in all kinds of places: outdoor shows; workshops and residencies designed for particular groups; national tours to regional venues across all of the UK; and international tours across the globe.