Interview with Mark: Associate Director of The Lost Feather
Mark is the longest-serving creative with Oily Cart. He is a learning disabled artist and performer who has worked with us for 25 years, performing in 14 shows so far. In 2022 Mark took on the new role of Associate Director, for our specialist school show The Cart. As part of this, he co-created the story of The Lost Feather, the sensory story which came out of The Cart. He also created the images that were the basis of the show’s design. The story was shared with more than 2,750 disabled and neurodivergent young people across the UK.
This year, we adapted The Cart into a sensory storytelling adventure called The Lost Feather. Mark’s story will be shared with even more children and families as it tours libraries, festivals and hospitals this summer. You might even see Mark pop up as a performer from time to time during the tour…
We spoke to Mark to find out more about his creative process.
Interview with Mark
What is your role for The Lost Feather?
I invented the story, and the puppet, always drawing. Like Fred the nightingale, fly to paradise.
How did you come up with the pictures and the story?
The idea was I saw a parrot on a Tv advert for Cadbury’s. And I got the picture and I started designing it. I brought it to Oily Cart on paper.
This is what I drew to go inside the story. That is Fred the nightingale, that’s what I drew. It’s like a puppet, all different colours, with a tail and wings where it flies and it’s got eyes, its own feet and a big feather tail. Next to it is another picture of Fred the nightingale. He’s got big wings and a rainbow-coloured tail. It’s got rainbow colours, blue wings, coloured head and a beak and wings and when it flies on a string. This is what I created – another parrot – a long time ago.
The designer Amanda Mascarenhas used Mark’s picture to design the puppet – you can see, for instance, that one of the wings is bigger than the other in both the original drawing and the final puppet. The collaborative team enjoyed this rejection of symmetry and sameness. The final puppet was made by Alison Alexander.
How did you develop these ideas in rehearsals?
Me and Amani (Amani Naphtali, Collaborating Artist / Writer of The Cart) did a poetry story to do this show. I called myself a sensory name. I called myself “Captain Sensory” and come up with a story with nice and sensory stuff. Super sensory superpower is vibration box. I was doing movement, rhythm, the beat of the story and sound, the beat and it keeps going. We were doing the movement with the sensory stuff with Stella (Stella Farina, Creative Enabler on The Cart and The Lost Feather) and Amani and it worked. Amani and me and Stella, we did our voices like making sounds and it did work.
Can you tell us about some more of your drawings and how they connect with the show?
I designed the Oily Cart Cart. That is the Oily Cart instrument. That’s like a magical wizard that gives all the magic. And there’s music and the magical stuff coming out of the cart. Teachers were dancing to the music of the cart. The music of the wheel is a triangle when it goes around.
That’s the finale of the Cart. That’s a finale of rainbow colours and everyone can dance. I wanted a rainbow sparkling waterfall. That’s a boy enjoying the finale – he’s got a good smile. Finale rhythm – come together, where they can dance and do movement. When we take it out to festivals, everyone can do the finale! This is a festival finale – you see it and it’s good.
What would you like to say to audiences coming to The Lost Feather?
Children, find this feather. If you find it, you’ll be sparkling special. You can dance with this feather and make the Fred nightingale smile. If you find it, you can dance with this parrot as your friend.
The Lost Feather is on tour until August 2023. You can hear Mark talk about one of his favourite Oily Cart shows from the past 25 years in our timeline.