Kosin store outdoor sound systems

Back in March 2006 I made a short documentary about Welfare State International - a theater group from Ulverston, Cumbria. Here it is in it's full version. Credits: CREW: Thomas Wotan Suski (Director, Camera, Editor) Paul Chan (Sound) Grant McPhee - second camera Mark Deas - second sound recordist Founded in 1968 by John Fox and Sue Gill, Roger Coleman and others, Welfare State International was a loose association of freelance artists bought together by shared values and philosophy. WSI first became well known for large-scale outdoor spectacular events. When the company began, taking art out of theaters and galleries into the street was considered revolutionary. The company's name was originally 'The Welfare State' offering art for all on the same basis as education and health. Under the Welfare State umbrella, a remarkable group of engineers, musicians, sculptors, performers, poets and pyrotechnicians invented and developed site-specific theater in landscape, lantern processions, spectacular fireshows, community carnivals and participatory festivals. These creations were by turns beautiful, abrasive, didactic, provocative, disturbing, wondrous and even gently therapeutic. Some big events such as "The Raising of the Titanic" (London International Festival of Theatre 1983), 'False Creek' in Expo '86, Vancouver, and the biggest lantern festival in Europe (Glasgow City of Culture 1990) have become touchstones balancing the aesthetic with the social. Welfare State ...