What is UB
Unfinished Business is a long term collaboration between artist/AD Leo Kay and artist/producer Anna Smith. We create projects within communities across the UK and internationally. We work with professional and non-professional artists to construct collective spaces for dialogue, exchange and the creation of shared meaning. Our current practice is grounded in participation and situated somewhere-between a conversation, installation, performance & workshop.
"Body, mind and spirit all well and truly nourished following one of the most generous cultural events I’ve ever experienced." Only Wolves and Lions
Who is UB _ Company
Leo Kay
Artistic Director
Leo Kay is an artist and performance maker based between London and Italy. His work has moved through physical performance and autobiographical storytelling, towards participation and social practice. Having established UB in 2010 and run the company for seven years, in 2017 he engaged in a post-masters in Artistic Research at a.pass (Brussels, BE), where he developed the current anti-capitalist social art practice: The Bakery Of Slow ideas (TBOSI). Drawing on his previous work exploring food, community and interaction, TBOSI is a durational participatory art practice based around the act of fermentation and sourdough bread baking. Central to the practice are processes exploring dialogue, magic, ritual, deep listening and collective DIY action. He has shared elements of this practice in Belgium, England, Brazil, Germany, and Italy.
Leo also works as an artistic mentor and consultant, recent clients include: Ice9 (Tromso Norway), Block9 (UK) and Derby CAN and mentees include: Y? (NYC), Sebastian H-W, Eva Bakkeslett, Tim Casson and fine art duo KeelerTornero.
Throughout his career Leo has worked as a professional performer with a range of companies including Clod Ensemble, The National Theatre of England, The London Philharmonic Orchestra, The Theatre Laboratory of Manipur, Lost Dog Dance, Ron Bunzl (Amsterdam), and Gisella Rocha Cia (Zurich). He's worked as director/movement director for The Birmingham Rep (Decypher collective), Don Letts Presents Speakers Corner (CMN), The Roundhouse, Contact Theatre, Quarantine, Polarbear and Baba Israel (NYC). He's taught workshops and run outreach projects internationally at: Taipei International Festival, the Kattaikkuttu Sangam Company of Kanchipuram (India), Au Brana Performance Research Institute (France), Vim Vanderkeybus and Ultima Vez (Brussels), Teatro Casto Alvez, Espaco Xi, Teatro Villa Velha (Salvador, Brazil), Contacting the World Festival (Manchester), Ottersberg University (Germany) and With Grupo XIX (SP, Brasil)
Anna Smith
Producer
Anna works collaboratively across live art, theatre and community arts as a producer and production manager. Since co-founding UB in 2010, she has developed a creative approach to producing, working closely with artists to realise new performances, socially engaged projects and community based work.
Having managed UB for seven years and produced the work of performance maker Ray Young for 4 (2015-19), she side-stepped in 2017 to undertake a masters in Applied Anthropology and Community Arts at Goldsmiths. This led her to work with community storytelling company - take stock exchange (TSX) and to dedicate more time to developing social art projects with UB. Alongside these and other freelance projects, Anna works as Production Manager at Lewisham Youth Theatre in South East London where she lives.
Who is UB _ Collaborators - past/present
Unai Lopez de Armentia
Performer and Deviser
Unai Lopez de Armentia is a Basque theatre practitioner who worked extensively with UB as a deviser, writer and performer on ‘Only Wolves and Lions’. He graduated from Rose Bruford College, London in 2003 with a degree in European Theatre and, since, hasn't stopped performing and working with companies all over Europe and South America, leaving behind a life of political stuggle and drug abuse.
Unai is currently a member of the internationally awarded theatre company NIE. He is also a founding member of Obra Theatre (France) and Zecora Ura Theatre (Brazil).
At the end of 2013 Unai opened Sala Baratza Aretoa, a new independent arts Venue in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain).
Mestre Carlão
Musician and Capoeira Master
Mestre Carlão is a long-term collaborator with UB, most recently playing percussion for ‘It’s Like He’s Knocking’ in 2011/12.
An international master of Capoeira Angola, his workshops inspire and motivate a range of people, from the favela-dwellers of Rio de Janeiro to The Royal Shakespeare Company; from Juvenile Detention centres in Austin, TX and Seattle, WA to Brixton prison.
Carlão has been practicing Capoeira Angola since 1982 when he learned with Mestres Marco Aurelio and Jose Carlos. He also plays Pandeiro Brasileiro with percussion-master and fellow UB collaborator Pedro Lima.
Carlao spends his life travelling the world performing capoeira and percussion and runs Kabula Arts, an intercultural exchange between Rio, London and other global cities.
Pedro Lima de Oliverira
Musician
Pedro worked with UB as composer and musical performer for Leo's solo production ‘It’s Like He’s Knocking’. A renowned percussionist in his home city of Rio de Janeiro and internationally, Pedro spends much of his time teaching and performing Afro-Brazilian percussion across the world. He often works with Kabula Arts and Culture in both the UK and Brazil and has previously lead workshops with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford.
Pedro was a core member of the famous carnival group É Do Pandeiro and the all-star percussion group Lascamao. He first collaborated with Leo in 2008 on ‘In Blood the Bacchae’, a capoeira adaptation of The Bacchae at the Arcola Theatre, London, for which he was the Musical Director.
In 2009 Pedro composed a percussive score for the award-winning documentary 'Messias, Delicadamente Nobre', about the celebrated capoeira master Mestre Messias.
Patrizia Paolini
Performer and Deviser
Originally from Italy, Patrizia has been making experimental and physical theatre, comedy, live-art and music, from her base in London for the last seventeen years. She is collaborating with UB on ‘Only Wolves and Lions’ and recently joined Leo as co-host for their performances in Autumn 2013.
Patrizia’s solo and collective work is largely devised through a process focusing on improvisation as a creative and performative device. Through the years, she has worked with prominent experimental theatre companies such as Ridiculusmus, renowned live artist like Kazuko Hohoki and groundbreaking musician Adam Bohman. She has just attained an MA in Performance Making at Goldsmith College and founded the ensemble ‘Jesus Paolini Park’.
Diane Morgan
Lead Consultant
Diane and Leo have worked together on several projects over a span of fifteen-years; from large scale, site-specific collaborations in Birmingham to production work at Contact, Manchester, where Diane was Head of Projects. She is currently working with UB as a consultant to support their organisational, strategic and creative development.
Diane has created award-winning short films, digital art-projects, club & live music events and video art for numerous companies and productions. Whether leading strategic programmes or working independently, Diane has a passion for producing and developing work with young culture-makers as well as established artists.
Her previous roles include delivering the decibel programme for ACE West Midlands; launching a new carnival arts network/NPO in the East Midlands and working as Project Manager for the Cultural Leadership Programme where she created the inaugural ‘Women to Watch’ list profiling 50 female leaders, directors, producers and curators from across the UK. She is also currently working with Nitro as Executive Producer.
YAKO 440 is a Hip Hop artist: multi-instrumentalist, producer, human beatboxer, graffiti writer + family man.He holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree from Goddard College's Interdisciplinary Arts program. YAKO 440 has teamed up with Baba Israel, Sean Nowell, and Duv to form the "new rare groove" band SOUL INSCRIBED. Having created music with Baba Israel for over ten years, he is collaborating with UB on composing and performing music and sound for 'The Spinning Wheel'.
Baba Israel is a New York based hip hop theatre artists and international educator. He developed as a young artist exploring spoken word, Hip Hop, and experimental performance at venue such as the Nuyorican Poets cafe and with Akim Funk Buddah and the Nomadic Lotus. From 2009 - 2012 he was CEO/Artistic Director of Contact, Manchester. Whilst there he programmed Leo Kay's show 'It's Like He's Knocking', sparking off a new collaboration between the two artists on 'The Spinning Wheel', a multimedia autobiopgraphical performance, exploring the legacy of Baba's late father; steve ben israel.
Sam Campbell
Artist, Designer and DJ
Over the past few year Sam has become a core company associate, working with UB on a variety of projects doing whatever he can to help out.
As a trained graphic artist, he has designed much of the company’s marketing and communication material and uses video and photography to document and edit much of their live work. He is also collaborating with UB on upcoming film projects - 'Terminal 1 and 2' and 'Candomble: A Film in the Making'. Sam is also an ersatz DJ and tours with UB for 'Only Wolves and Lions', bringing bespoke, eclectic mixes to each performance.
Having graduated in Graphic Design from Salford University, Sam grafted for over four years in the commercial design and advertising industry, working for companies such as BBC Radio, PlayStation, Nickelodeon and Ministry of Sound. After taking an MA at UAL to focus on his love for the moving image, he set up the company, Lamb+Sea, with fellow filmmaker Lee Tesch. They've been making film, music, animation ever since.
Remi Stewart
Filmmaker
Remi Stewart is a filmmaker and creative media specialist, who works with UB as a documentary-maker and video-artist. He's been involved in documenting several events since 2012, including 'Life: Making a Meal of It' and 'Only Wolves & Lions' and is currently working with UB on ‘Change My Mind’.
Since graduating in 2011, Remi has worked as a freelancer for a range of UK clients, developing and creating short films, documentaries, producing music and audio art installation and teaching media workshops. A technology and travelling enthusiast, Remi is currently working in international cultural development, taking a closer look at Brazil as they prepare for the 2014 World Cup.
Nao is a London based Japanese artist who immigrated to the UK at the age of 15. She trained as a Lighting Designer and has worked in diverse genres from cabaret performances to Opera, Circus to Live art, almost anything cross paths in performance world, touring nationally and internationally. She teaches Lighting Design at Goldsmiths, University of London.
As a performer she has worked with postmodern pop performance pranksters Frank Chickens (winner of Foster's Comedy God Awards 2010) and has devised and performed in shows by Hey Ho Ha.
In her spare time she is a denizen of the floating world.
UB _ Links
Below you'll find a mix of some of the people we collaborate with, people we know, people we love and people we admire from afar...
