WHAT WE DO

Established in 1996 and based in Cambridge, 30 Bird is an award-winning company, recognised as being at the forefront of interdisciplinary and transcultural arts practice in the UK.

Our creative process is a collaborative one, working with practitioners from a variety of disciplines: architecture, archeology, science, and any other non-art discipline; mixed with visual arts, dance, music, theatre and film. All contributors bring their own understanding, knowledge and sensibilities to co-create a multi-dimensional piece. Each piece is different and reflects the unique combination of its participants.

Equally, our work has an international flavour, collaborating with artists and practitioners from as varied a background as the UK, Iran, Germany, Italy, Poland, India, Japan and Turkey.

30 Bird’s core ambition is to create new art forms, influenced by and capturing the multiplicity of our cultural inheritance (Middle Eastern and European), engaging with a diversity of participants and audiences in various spaces and places.

Our artistic vision often captures and engages with dangerous moments where communication breaks down, opening widows to the possibility of accessing a world beyond the familiar.

We aim to

Use culture clashes to investigate new art forms across the arts, sciences and education

Engage with diverse communities nationally and internationally

Embrace diversity across every aspect of our work
develop new talents in transcultural performance

Participate and contribute to research locally, nationally and internationally

We value

INNOVATION / PROVOCATION / NEW TERRITORIES / DIFFERENCE / HUMOUR

OUR TEAM

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Mehrdad Seyf

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Mehrdad Seyf
mehrdad@30bird.org

Mehrdad was born in Teheran and has lived in the UK since his teens; he was educated at the Lycée Français in Tehran and London. After studying Literature and Philosophy, he trained as a psychoanalyst at the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research and subsequently worked for 3 years as an analyst. He trained as an actor/director with Complicité, Monica Pagneux, Zoltowski and Lorna Marshall. He founded 30 Bird in 1996 at Riverside Studios.

His theatre credits include The Parable of the Blind, Death By Heroine, Majnoun, The Persian Revolution, Plastic, Chodzenie-Siberia, Poland 3 Iran 2, 14 Tables and Domestic Labour: a study in love.   His productions have toured nationally and internationally. His film credits include: but you speak such good English (executive producer), Yalda for BBC Drama and Film London (writer), Shoes for BBC East(director). Radio Plays include The Virgin and Yalda both for Radio 4. Mehrdad also creates multi-disciplinary and site-specific performance work, collaborating with visual artists, architects, dancers and practitioners from non-artistic disciplines.

COMPANY MANAGER
Chris Cellier
chris@30bird.org

Born in France, Chris studied Philosophy at the Sorbonne, did a degree in ‘Administration économique et sociale (AES) in Reims, and a postgraduate course in Arts Management in Anglia Ruskin, Cambridge. She has been living in Cambridge since then and for the past 16 years has been working in the arts as an Education Manager, Finance Manager, European Project Leader and Assistant Director for organisations such as Escape Artists, Seeds for Growth and Photofusion.

She has a strong interest in European artistic collaborations and has led a fair few European projects working with arts companies across Europe. She is very keen on visual arts and also works locally as a freelance photographer.

As 30 Bird’s Company Manager, she oversees the management of the organisation alongside the Artistic Director and the rest of the projects teams.

Feel free to contact her anytime to find out about 30 Bird’s work, or for any questions related to the company’s management.

COMPANY PRODUCER
Lia Prentaki
lia@30bird.org

Lia studied Drama in Athens before coming to the UK to study Dance and Theatre Arts at the University of Birmingham and then at London Contemporary Dance School. Lia has worked extensively as a dancer, movement director, dance educator and producer.

Lia works at The Place as one of the Theatre producers as well as a Project Manager, Producer and Creative Consultant with a varied portfolio of independent dance artists such as Kate Flatt, Zoi Dimitriou, Hannes Langolf, Subathra Subramaniam, Moxie Brawl, Shane Shambhu and Rick Nodine. Has also relationships with organisations such as The Bloomsbury Festival, NFA international Arts and Culture currently co-producing Medea, Written in Rage translated and directed by Neil Bartlett.

Since 2015 Lia has been working with 30 Bird, delivering projects such as the British Council Funded Junctures in March 2015 and the HOME in the Service of Science, which was the culmination of the company year-long residency at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Lia is producing the flagship 30 Bird Projects: UN-FRAMED, JUNCTURES 2018 and a series of commissions and co-productions.

PARTNERS

Partners are key to our artistic creation process and we are grateful for the support they give to our innovative work.

Present or past, here are some of our main partners over the years…

Thank you all for your support!

If you would like to partner with us, please contact us @ chris@30bird.org

PRESS

Welcome to our press area. You will find most of our press material available here, including the latest press releases and images.

Do feel free to contact us if you have any queries

Downloading images

Images of 30 Bird productions are available to download on our Flickr galleries.
Please contact us for access.

Attending one of our productions/performances/events

If you are covering one of our productions/performances/events we are happy to put aside a ticket for you.
Please contact us in advance. Any filming and photography is not permitted without prior arrangement.