Artists Reach Out: Emily Carding

Dear friends,

Welcome to Artists Reach Out: reflections in a time of isolation. I dreamed this series of interviews out of grief for my work both as a documenting arts writer and curator of live performance. In this time of social distancing, we are called to responsibly do all we can to safeguard ourselves and our neighbors. It is, literally, a matter of life and death.

But there's no distancing around what we still can share with one another--our experiences, thoughts, wisdom, humor, hearts and spirit. In some ways, there are more opportunities to do so as we pull back from everyday busyness out in the world and have time to honor the call of our inner lives.

So, let me introduce you to some artists I find interesting. I'm glad they're part of our beautiful community, and I'm eager to engage with them again (or for the first time) in years to come.

--Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody

Emily Carding

Emily Carding
(Chris Bailey)

Emily Carding is an experienced Shakespearean actor, having appeared in versions of over twenty of Shakespeare’s plays, both on stage and screen. She holds a BA (hons) in Theatre Arts from Bretton Hall and an MFA in Staging Shakespeare from the University of Exeter.  Emily has, together with independent theatre company Brite Theater, created a number of challenging and innovative shows including Hamlet (an experience) and Richard III (A One Woman Show) both of which have won awards and rave reviews internationally. Both adaptations use the audience as characters within the play and create a truly immersive experience with very little other than actor, text, space and audience.

In 2018 Emily was commissioned by London Science Museum to create a solo theatre piece inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Quintessence imagines a future where humanity has become extinct and must be recreated by an AI, using Shakespeare as a guide to the human spirit. This won the outstanding theatre award at Brighton Fringe in 2019 and will be performed there again in May 2020.

Emily is also a published author of esoteric works, with So Potent Art: The Magic of Shakespeare due for release in 2021.

Carding performs her Hamlet (an experience)
in New York City
(photo: Ellen Kushner)

Carding's Richard III (A One-Woman Show)
(photo: Manuela Gusto)

Do you have a current or planned project whose progress is affected by the pandemic?

Quite a few things. There was a period of a few days where everything just fell off the calendar, one by one. Meetings and conferences that I was hoping would lead to incorporating tech into my show Quintessence and staging it on a larger scale, plus the next run of that show which I was hoping would lead to further booking for the next year; I was due to play Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra this Summer, a role I've always longed to play...that's now postponed; I'd just joined a group of mother performers connected with the Globe, and we were due to perform at the opening of the Climate Change Festival in London, but that was also cancelled. A performance of Richard III (a one woman show)...all gone. I have been booked for an exciting new musical in the Autumn about queer society in WWII, and I'm really hoping we're sorted by then!

Briefly, tell me about how you got involved in the arts and in your particular practice.

After training as an actor in the nineties, I took a long break to raise my (unplanned) daughter. When I felt the burning need to come back to the performing arts (I had been working as a writer and artist of esoteric works during that time), I was able to do an MFA in Staging Shakespeare which gave me a wonderful grounding in making my own work. This was in 2012-14 and included residencies at Shakespeare's Globe. My particular interest is in the energetic connection between actor, audience and space, using direct address and audience participation to create immersive experiences with minimal props and set.

In a more specific way, what are you practicing? And what are you envisioning?

The works I am currently best known for were created with Kolbrun Bjort Sigfusdottir of Brite Theater, which are Richard III (a one woman show) and Hamlet (an experience) which have both won awards internationally and had successful runs Off-Broadway. Both shows bring the audience directly into the play by making them characters and giving them an amount of creative freedom within that framework to co-create the piece, making it different each time. It is theatre that is truly alive in the moment, and I have to be ready to respond in character to whatever they choose to do. This is the work that really fires me!

How does your practice and your visioning align with what you most care about?

I believe that a performer should be working with a united physical, emotional and spiritual energy to be truly alive on stage. this is what I aim for myself, and the work I have created so far is part of that. Ultimately, I would like to devise a new school of training for actors using the Hermetic wisdom tradition, which was the subject of my thesis.

How does your practice function within the world we have now?
My work requires direct and intimate contact with an audience. For now, I'm attempting to find that through a camera where possible, but mostly I feel the need to be still and process the enormity of this shift. I am also editing and working on rewrites for my latest book, which is on the esoteric content of Shakespeare, and includes exercises helping people to bring theatre to their magical practice and vice-versa.

Briefly share one self-care tip that has special meaning to you now.

The guidance I have received in meditation is to remember how to simply be. Enjoy the simplicity. Breathe. Find beauty in the moment and source strength from that. Be grateful for what we do have. Hold on to love and kindness.

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DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

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