Les Sharpe
This is my memoir. It is also my personal history of Emergency Exit Arts from 1980 to 2007, where I was Co-Artistic Director from 1991 to 2007. It was the largest theatre and arts company in the UK committed to outdoor and spectacular shows.This book is my first. It describes my experiences and adventures from a poor working-class childhood, school, further education, dead end jobs and the meanderings in the underbellies of Soho in London and Amsterdam.It then charts my second life with Emergency Exit Arts. I have kept this section discursive and I hope entertaining for both the general reader and professional theatre workers. I can only talk with veracity about the work I was responsible for. The history is unauthorised and at times contentious.It concludes in my current hometown, a small fishing and agricultural town in The Dominican Republic named Rio San Juan.It’s a remarkable achievement. Shocking, funny, brilliantly remembered with immense detail.... especially dealing with the traumas of your early years has been fulfilling and maybe even cathartic for you. It can be a huge and difficult task to unearth and objectify hidden stuff and your work here seems to be very thorough, intense, exceptionally honest and tightly (and brightly!) written.As an outsider your personal revelations are enthralling to read and may well grab a wide audience. The story of your father’s suicide with your reflections on it is a compelling example. It is very particular and unusual but paradoxically it might strike a universal chord.From my point of view, thank you very much for letting me into your special world. It has been a privilege to read of experiences where our paths have crossed and crossed creatively and great to learn of so much other joy and chaos you have engineered. As I have said, your insights into your early years are revelatory and awful. I am glad you appear to have transcended them to fly off with multi-coloured wings.John FoxCo-director with Sue Gill of DEAD GOOD GUIDES, Ex Founder and Artistic Director of Welfare State International. Published poet, image maker, author, lecturer, grandfather and cultural provocateur.
