About

Judita Vivas is a Lithuanian-born performer, movement practitioner, educator, and parent artist. She is the Founder and Co-Director of a European theatre company Foxtale Ensemble.

Judita trained in the UK, Malta, and Greece and has worked on performance projects and interdisciplinary collaborations in Europe and the UK for the past 15 years. She has a PhD from the University of Kent and regularly leads theatre sessions for actors and non-actors.

Judita’s creative practice is underlined by contemporary performance-devising techniques and thinking. The work is physical, visual and poetic; it shifts between presence and representation, layers mythologies with true stories and looks for surprising uses of movement, sound and objects, in order to create theatre that is lively and thought-provoking.

Bio

  • 2024 Into the Woods: woodland promenade show, an adapted version of the performance for the Wellesley Woodlands’ Halloween event. In collaboration with Barbara Touati-Evans. Funded by The Conservation Volunteers.

    2024 Lift Off!, a participatory family show about air, flying and caring for our environment. In collaboration with Barbara Touati-Evans. Performances: Rushmoor Heritage Festival, Farnborough. Funded by Rushmoor Borough Council.

    2024 Into the Woods, a participatory family show inspired by Rushmoor woodlands and waterways. In collaboration with Barbara Touati-Evans. Performances: Playfest! 24, Aldershot. Funded by Rushmoor Borough Council.

    2023 performance-installation with Barbara Touati-Evans for Jyll Bradley’s “The Hop Square” at the Regent’s Park, Frieze London.

    2019 - 2022 Cambridge Physical Theatre Project, a community performance training project [in person and online] that engaged participants in Cambridge. Digital performances: 12 Impulses/40 second responses (2020) and Digital Playground (2022).

    2018 - ongoing SHIFTY, an ongoing, digital and live performance project with Foxtale Ensemble; R&D at Rich Mix Theatre (London, 2019); first draft premier at Voila! Europe Theatre festival 2019; online performances in 2020 & 2021.

    2018 Side Roads with Acting Now; a socially engaged theatre project for people with and without mental health challenges. Performances: Cambridge, Huntington and Saint Ives (UK). Funded by Cambridgeshire Community Foundation.

    2018 Urban Animal: The Hour of the Mayfly, performance project with DUENDE Ensemble, directed by John Britton. Performances: Rabbithole Theatre (Athens, Greece).

    2017-2018 Adventures in Black and White with Double Trouble, supported by Starting Blocks (Camden People's Theatre) and Battersea Arts Centre. Performances: Camden People's Theatre (2017 & 2018), Streatham Space Project and Voila! Europe festival 2018. Funded by Arts Council England.

    2017 Daphne in Three Movements, multimedia performance project with Rosemary Klich and Foxtale Ensemble, binaural video installation and work-in-progress performance (Canterbury, UK). Funded by Arts Council England.

    2016-2018 Herring Girls, performance project with dance artist Vicci Riley, with residential support form LIC Studio (Liverpool, UK) and Arts Printing House (Vilnius, Lithuania).

    2016 -2017 Seven Petticoats, directed by John Britton, dramaturgy by Rosemary Klich. Performances: Lumley Studio (Canterbury, UK), Herstory Festival (London, UK), Chester University (Chester, UK), Drayton Arms Theatre (London, UK), Art Factory (Athens, Greece) and Lithuanian National Theatre (Vilnius, Lithuania). Supported by University of Kent.

    2016 Foxtale Ensemble collaboration with Spun Glass Theatre (Jessica Cheetham and Simon Magnus). Performed at Aphra Studio, Canterbury, UK.

    2015-2016 Mr Jordan's Funeral: In Absence of His Memory with Foxtale Ensemble. Performances: Aphra Studio, Kent School of Arts Summer Festival, (Canterbury, UK), Brighton Fringe 2016 and Camden Fringe 2016. Supported by University of Kent.

    2014 Comings and Goings with Foxtale Ensemble, performed at Jarman Studio (Canterbury, UK). Supported by University of Kent.

    2014 Founded Foxtale Ensemble, European contemporary performance company.

    2013-2016 Etched, multimedia collaboration with Andy Hurst. Performances: Sounds New Festival, Anselm Studio (Canterbury, UK), Tadeusz Kantor Festival, Lumley Studio (Canterbury, UK), Cultural Exchanges Festival 2016 (Leicester, UK). Supported by University of Kent and Christ Church University.

    2012-2013 Martyr Red with Frank Camilleri, Icarus Performance Project. Performances: Jarman Studio (Canterbury, UK), University of Huddersfield (UK), MITP (Valletta, Malta). Supported by University of Kent and University of Malta.

    2008 Duration 56, performance installation with Icarus Performance Project. Performances: University of Malta.

  • 2018-2019 Training with Acting Now: Theatre of the Oppressed and Applied Theatre techniques, Cambridge (UK).

    2018 Training with DUENDE, physical and vocal training, basic choreography, Athens with John Britton and Eva Tsourou.

    2016-2017 Training with Vicci Riley, movement improvisation, Liverpool (UK) and Arts Printing House (Vilnius, Lithuania).

    2016 Performing at the Edge #5, movement and vocal improvisation, basic choreography with John Britton, Eva Tsourou and Aliki Dourmazer (DUENDE), Lesvos, Greece.

    2015-2016 Vocal training sessions with Gey Pin Ang (Sourcing Within, previously a member of the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards), University of Kent (UK).

    2015 Collective Creation for Solo Performers, solo movement improvisation and creating performance material, with John Britton (DUENDE), Au Brana, France.

    2015 Intensive training with SITI Company (Suzuki and Viewpoints), Falmouth, UK.

    2014 Collective Creation for Solo Performers, solo movement improvisation and creating performance material, with John Britton (DUENDE), Au Brana, France.

    2014 Self-With-Others workshop, ball work and movement improvisation with John Britton (DUENDE), Leeds, UK.

    2011-2012 Vocal Action, vocal and movement training with Electa Behrens, Canterbury, UK.

    2010 Intensive training with Teatr Zar (Theatre Zar), Wroclaw, Poland.

    2009 Workshops on movement and acting techniques at the Moscow Art Theatre (MXAT), Russia.

    2007-2013 Intensive psycho-physical training, based on Grotowski and Decroux, with Icarus Performance Project, Malta and UK.

    2006-2007 Training and devising Ludd with Bill Hopkinson, Canterbury, UK.

    2005-2009 MDrama at the University of Kent, specialising in Contemporary Performance Practice, Canterbury, UK.

  • 2012 – 2016 PhD, University of Kent, European Theatre Research Network.

    2010 – 2012 MA European Theatre, University of Kent.

    2005 – 2009 MDrama: Theatre and Drama Studies, University of Kent.

  • 2020 Judita gave birth to her son, Reuben

  • Vivas, J. (2016), ‘A Response to DUENDE’s Pedagogy: Giving Yourself Permission, Theatre, Dance and Performance Training Blog, November.

    Hurst A. and Vivas J. (2016) 'iPad Svoboda: The Physical Theatre of Projected Light' in Inhabiting The Meta Visual: Contemporary Performance Themes, ed. by H. G. Markstein and A. M. Steijn, Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press

    Vivas, J. (2015) 'Dramaturgies of the Naked Skin: Homo Nudus Plays Sexuality', Platform, 9:1, pp. 12-29

©Glasses'n Beard Photography An image of two layered photographs that show two female performers, dressed in black, holding sticks, lifting a large piece of light fabric, resembling a fishing net.
©Verity Tan Photography A photo with dark background, showing a female performer looking up, so that only her long neck and arms folded across her chest are visible. Another person stands behind her, holding her by the hands.
©Larah Simpson A photo of two female performers, dressed in black, both holding large piles of shredded paper, one of them holds the pile over her head, with paper pieces floating to the ground.
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