Marlborough People: Louise Rennie of Curious Company

Local business Curious Company have a resume any company would be proud of. They were advisers for the West End production of Lord of The Rings and can boast high profile clients including the BBC, Sky, Richard Branson and The Walt Disney Corporation. You may have seen them at some events around Marlborough like the Christmas Lights Switch on with We Love Marlborough. So what do Curious Company actually do? I spoke to company founder Louise Rennie....

So, tell us about Lord of the Rings in the West End?

I taught the cast to stilt walk. I had a couple of days, which was crazy, but we got a handful of them right up to 3 meters, which is enormous. When the show was being developed I got to test ride these 3 meter stilts which was pretty intense.

How high are the ones I’ve seen you on around Marlborough?

Usually they’re just a meter, so 3 meters is quite extraordinary.

How would you describe what you do for a living?

I run a theatre company, I’m a stilt walker, I’m an actor and for the last 15 years I’ve produced my own work on a fairly small scale. Generally speaking I produce theatre that doesn’t go in to theatres. We perform everywhere but theatres- on the street, in public spaces and at private events. It’s not just fabulous costumes on stilts- although we do that. I’ve spent more than a decade in very commercial art. It’s very important for me that I earn a living and my crew gets paid.

So you work mainly in the corporate sector?

Yes, because I love what I do, I don’t want to do anything else, it’s my profession, and it’s how I pay my mortgage and support myself. The corporate market provides us with a vehicle to develop work that we don’t have to apply for funding for, that we don’t have to justify in other people’s terms. I can follow an instinct, develop the work, invest in it myself and then work in the corporate sector and make a living.

The Marlborough area can be quite conservative, how do people tend to react to, say the ice cream van? (An ice cream van used in one of the shows is parked near their house in the village)

It’s not a Volvo, you know. Half the village loves it and half the village hates it- I’ve had anonymous hate mail from a neighbour! We’ve only lived in the country for 5 years. There are a lot of positive things about it. It’s a lot more personal than in the city. However you are subject to people’s opinions. Half the village just thinks it’s fun.

I see you got funding from The Arts Council. Do you expect the recent cuts to affect future applications?

I don’t know. We were funded once with a one off project grant. I’m about to apply for a larger grant as part of the cultural Olympiad. We’re looking to stage The Little Mermaid in a pool in Gloucester with a combination of disabled dancers and synchronised swimmers. I’m just going to put the bid in and if it’s worthy it’ll work. It’s not that there’s no money in the Arts Council anymore, it’s just that there’s quite a lot less, however I think it’s put a lot of people off applying. I don’t have a job to lose, I’ve always been a freelance artist trying to survive in a choppy sea. You become robust, self sufficient. I’m constantly looking for new markets, responding to the economy. Richer people are still having parties. So that’s what we’re doing. It is tough, but it’s always been tough. I love the funding process, you learn so much about how to produce a show. The process is so rigorous that unless the show is really a goer you aren’t going to get the money, and nor should you. Although there’s a certain amount of luck in terms of timing and competition.

A lot of artistic people have “day jobs”, but judging from your client list you perhaps don’t need one? Can you make a living out of what you do?

Absolutely, and probably 3 or 4 of my crew get most of their income from my company which is something I hold really important. It’s a huge priority for me to keep people employed.

Do you employ many of your crew locally?

I’m focusing more and more locally for practical reasons. Originally the work I was designing for the corporate market was very low maintenance, characters that people could step in to with no rehearsal. Now we’re putting a lot more work in to more staged projects. In order to get funding the quality had to improve which meant more time needed to be spent in rehearsal, which led to focusing on a far more local cast. In a way the Arts Council instigated a move towards a more local crew.

How have you built up your amazing collection of costumes?

It’s all commissioned. I put my nose to the wind in terms of popular culture. For instance at the moment we think The Wizard of Oz will be popular because of the stage show and Finding Dorothy. We’ve commissioned characters from Oz from my costume maker who I’ve been working with since the very beginning. She’s amazing. At the same time I talk to various agents- party planners, entertainment agencies and production companies I’ve worked with in the past, so that between us we can promote Wizard of Oz themed parties. It’s a certain amount of creative inspiration and a certain amount of trend spotting. We took a punt on Alice about a decade ago and we just got a great revival of Alice with the Johnny Depp movie. That was just luck, but we were really well placed to do Alice themed parties.

How do your clients find you?

As well as working with agencies I approach councils, festivals, music festivals etc directly. When people find you themselves that’s very exciting.

Do you ever do workshops?

I teach people on a one to one basis as and when I meet somebody who I’d like to work with. I did do a television programme where I was brought in to help a girl who had very low self esteem. With the excuse of teaching her to stilt walk I got her to stand up, look out, become elegant... and it had such a huge impact on her personally that she ended up being quite successful. Because I was teaching her what appeared to be a difficult skill she just did exactly what I told her. We watched her blossom and I’d be delighted to do that with anybody because it was such a rewarding process.

What do you miss when you’re away from the Marlborough area?

The beauty of the area, the space and it’s my home, it’s where my nest is.

Can you recommend a place to eat in the Marlborough Area?

The Bell on the A4. It’s great, completely revived, new oak floors. They’re lovely and the chef’s amazing, the puddings are stunning. Also Armadillo’s great for coffee, and their ice cream in the summer.

What was the last book you read?

Eats Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss. It’s fabulous, but then I’m quite in to language.

A film you’d recommend?

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, anything from MGM in the 50s

What did you want to be when you grew up?

It took a long time to work this out. I wanted to be a lawyer for a bit. My mother told me I could be anything I wanted, which left me with the horrendous task of working out what that was. What I liked best was dressing up and going to parties-

Which is what you do!

Which is what I do.

Do you want your kids to follow in your footsteps?

The priority is to do what you want to do, whatever that is is what I want them to do.

Images courtesy of Curious Company.