Rosa Postlethwaite (she/they) is a performance artist, dramaturg and facilitator presenting work in Visual Art, Theatre, Dance and Cabaret/Club contexts. They are based in Coventry, UK. Rosa’s practice is informed by socialist, intersectional feminist and queer movements and is interested in the relationship between macrostructures and daily life. 

Below is a list of reasons why I make performance, strategies for making performance, and what themes recur in the performances I make.

Reasons
For connection
To feel good
To try to know something
To work through shame
To seek attention
For resistance and survival

How
Follow impulses (Lois Weaver/Split Britches)
Follow desire (Lois Weaver/Split Britches)
How does it feel
Autobiography
Have conversations
Fail
What is the place & what is my position
Do it differently
Re-do (Lois Weaver/Split Britches)

What recurs
Discipline
Shattering
Intimacy & violence
Wonder in the everyday
Depression
Something unknowable
Love
Humour

Privileges:
I am a white, middle-class British person. English is my first and only language. These privileges, among others, have aided my freedom to be an artist. Thank you to Larissa Shaw for including a privileges section on her website and encouraging others to do the same.

Artists that inspire me: Amy Winehouse, Split Britches,
William Pope.L, Black Hole Club.

Thank you to Nadia Iftkhar for her mentorship.

Rosa Postlethwaite, The Security Hut (2014). Photography by Daneel Knoetze.

Rosa Postlethwaite, People are scared of laziness (2020). Cinematography by Adam Opie.

“Rosa Postlethwaite delivers a quietly devastating performance in her thought-provoking solo show about the arts industry” – ★★★★ The Stage

“Rosa Postlethwaite’s solo play is an intelligent, bold and thought-provoking look at the act of feeling” – ★★★★ Liam O’Dell Review

“Irony gets in the way” – ★★★ Guardian Review

Professional development:
BFI Creative Producer School: BFI Online (2020)
Active Reality Research Lab: New Arts West Midlands with Coventry City of Culture Trust, ARUP and artist Simon Poulter (2020)
Digi Transform: New Writing North (2018)
Expanding Horizons Artist Development Programme: Dance City (2016 – 2017)
Private Keep Out: Curious LADA DIY Lab (2016)