In My Head

An extraordinary experience of ordinary, everyday sound.
A one woman dance theatre work with original sound design, poetry & text. A personal & universal exploration of everyday sound & hearing loss.

…a dancer wrestles with sound as it misbehaves in ways you wouldn’t expect. Sometimes it engulfs you & other times it’s on the tip of your tongue. It’s flirtatious, it hooks you into stories & sends you on your not so merry way to a corner of a room where it’s quiet, & you’re alone.

Hearing loss is a lonely business. 1 in 5 of us have it, but there’s no telltale sign or clue like glasses perched on the end of your nose to give away the secret hearing loss can sometimes feel like. You have to be bold & tell people about it; otherwise, it’s invisible & kept close. Close & quiet.

How do you know whether a sound is real if you don’t hear the same sound as the person next to you?
Can you believe your own ears?
How do you trust that what you hear is real?
And if you don’t, how do you keep yourself safe?

Performed by Emily Alden & created in collaboration with sound designer & composer Daniel Hayes (Alesandra Seutin, Tony Adigunn, Caroline Bowditch) & dramaturgy with theatre director & BSL interpreter Sue MacLaine. This project is currently in development with a project grant from Arts Council England.

Early ‘Work in Progress’ sharing’s as part of Kneehigh Presents Programme during The Asylum summer season 2019.

In My Head is supported by Arts Council England, Hall for Cornwall where Emily is an Associate Artist, Kneehigh Theatre & AMATA (Falmouth University). Read Emily’s blog post - she share’s her thoughts about working at the Kneehigh barns to develop her new show, In My Head .

In My Head is currently on hold as a project due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, but will resume in 2022/23.

All images by Steve Tanner

R&D phase in early 2019 supported with a Developing Your Creative Practice award.

Emily spent a week in February and another in May working with Sound Designer Daniel Hayes and Dramaturg Sue MacLaine and a small team of artists to investigate, play, experiment, and dig into ideas and new technical approaches to creating and recording sound and movement.

During this research time, supported by the technical department at AMATA, Falmouth University & working from the beautiful (and very remote!) Kneehigh Barns we used the coastline, vocals, natural and composed sound to uncover the underlying themes of the piece and key compositional techniques of the work. 

Research with the team of artists included binaural sound recordings in the studio & coastal locations in Falmouth with actor, writer, and theatre-maker Ciaran Clarke, currently studying for a practice-based PhD as part of the 3D3 Centre for Doctoral Training at Falmouth University. He co-created and delivered the sound design for Jordan Brookes’ internationally touring binaural stand-up Bleed, and has also as designed performer-focused, invisibly cued systems for audio, video and lights for several theatre companies.

This project was conceived with actress and musician Catherine Lake with initial support from Hall For Cornwall's 'Creation Space' programme; designed to give space and time to nurture new collaboration and ideas for artists based in Cornwall.