Setting the context for 2026
Information and imagery of prior work informing new participatory activities
Box of Frogs
In 2012 - from the 2011 one-man show ‘Bipolar Ringmaster without a circus’ we made an ensemble show that imagined circus as Bipolar Disorder itself.
Toured to 11 venues 2012, including The South Bank as part of Unlimited Festival.
Symptoms of Bipolar disorder described in circus performance in Box of Frogs 2012
Publicity image describing the polar opposites of Bipolar disorder, through circus imagery
Characters in Box of Frogs represented different places on the spectrum of emotions experienced as a result of Bipolar Disorder - such as loss of self esteem, or rejection sensitivity
Characters in Box of Frogs represented different places on the spectrum of emotions experienced as a result of mental ill health such as self-harm, dyphoria or mania
Box of Frogs represented internal monologues via circus competencies such as keeping lots of balls in the air and unbridled passion for an activity
For Box of Frogs 2027 we will build a new model of engagement, using exhibitions of strength, flexibility or dexterity, to celebrate how the way that someone’s brain works might affect the amazing things they can do with their body.
Moving towards this we are developing a programme of research and workshops with justice-impacted and neurodivergent people. We will work with animation techniques to represent a mental state, a perception of mood disorder or just a feeling.
…below is a tiny snippet of an animation made for the original production in 2012.
A brightly coloured playmobile figure wearing an orange fedora whizzes past, playing a golden trumpet, disappearing out of site.
WAITING SONG
2025 Without Walls Commission. A sung trapeze duet which emerged from engagement activity in Stockton-on-Tees with Parade of Horribles (see below). We decided on this way to talk to people about hope and reflect back their thoughts within the performance.
Waiting Song 2025 a sung trapeze duet
Waiting Song 2025 a song about looking forward to good things
We asked people what they were looking forwards to
Children and adults alike considered what hopes they had
we reflected back people's hopes and sang the Waiting Song
We performed Norfolk and Norwich Festival, Brighton Festival, Ensemble Festival and Birmingham Weekender - where we spent 3 days inside Birmingham New St train station
In Birmingham people were invited to write up their hopes
PARADE OF HORRIBLES
2023 Engagement experiments in the street and amongst community groups, asking people what they feared, what they would like to celebrate and what gave them joy. Performers created temporary public sculptures, in hilarious and immediate response by public request. We variously celebrated Geoff, a matchstick factory, trans people, the widest UK high st and murmurations…
we invented a game 'pass the buck'
we had fabulous bass guitarist Steve Ojay accompanying us
we asked people questions
we invited people to share their fear, and offered to 'juggle it for them' - creating new ways of observing scary things.
we shared ideas with various community groups
people made requests for celebratory public art
we offered up temporary public art on specific themes
we herded the much-maligned pigeons
Mish Weaver is an artist, director, designer, and educator working across performance, education, and community engagement since 1993. Her practice focuses on mental health, disability access, and climate psychology, with audience engagement at the core.
Ongoing engagement projects include Waiting Song and Mummy, what is wrong with that man’s legs? - an Unlimited/Oxford University commission for Head Over Wheels exploring access and social models of disability in schools.
Mish has created accessible and inclusive work with partners including No Fit State Circus, KLVD, Articulture, Wales Outdoor Arts Consortium, British Council, Imagineer, Gravity and Levity, and special school Ysgol y Gogarth. Her CV include tactile and audio-described environments for visually impaired performers and audiences, large-scale community performances, and street-based engagement projects.
Mish has held teaching and leadership roles at the National Centre for Circus Arts and Bath Spa University (Circomedia), and has delivered education work within prisons, community settings and projects across the UK, Nepal, Cambodia and Stockholm.
Mish’s work aims to be deeply prosocial, using creativity to open dialogue, challenge assumptions, and create moments of connection and joy. Mish’s education cv is available on request.
Currently Mish is developing her engagement ambitions around two themes:
Hope - The experience of hopefulness - identifying what we hope for and experiencing the effect of believing that good things are coming up. Waiting Song is further developing conversations with strangers, and wrap-around activities/workshops that might accompany Waiting Song to outdoor festivals.
Neurodivergence - For Box of Frogs 2027 Mish will be building a new model of engagement with workshops for justice-impacted people.