Directing

In 2021, Jolie Rose (formerly Booth), Artistic Director of Kriya Arts, guided 28 members of the public on a transformative journey to create their own ensemble piece of theatre, Listening to the Land Pilgrimage for Nature. This epic 500-mile walk culminated in a performance presented to delegates at COP26 in Glasgow. This project developed organically, trusting the process and allowing the story to tell itself, resulting in a beautiful, ceremonial, and emotive piece that was partly improvised and unique each time. You can watch this performance here and see a documentary about the process here.

Off the back of this life-changing experience, ten of the pilgrims formed a new theatre company: Strolling Mummers. Together, they staged the ancient mummers play Saint George and His Many Enemies, which you can watch here. The following year, they co-wrote a new mummers play, Arthur’s Awakening; A Rousing Tale, which you can view here. Both productions were performed as pilgrimages across 500 miles, walking the length and breadth of the UK.

In 2020, Kriya Arts collaborated with acclaimed director Andrea Brooks (Zygo Arts) and a dynamic team of women to create Sisterhood. Jolie took this new play to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2018, performing throughout August at Pleasance Beneath, and then touring East Anglia on a ‘healing’ tour. Performances took place at sites where Matthew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General, tortured and executed witches, with each performance ending in a healing ceremony honoring those persecuted in that space. You can watch the performance here.

Award-nominated HIP made a return to the Brighton Fringe Festival in 2017 as an immersive walking tour, HIP Trip of Brighton: A Psychedelic Wander. This tour explored the true story of Brightonian Anne Clarke through the diaries and letters discovered by squatter Jolie Booth. The journey took participants to the actual locations Anne wrote about, revealing the deep imprint of her life on the city. You can watch this tour here.

In 2016, Jolie (then Booth) developed her first one-woman show, HIP, with support from Arts Council England, Lou Rogers, Brian Lobel, Emma Kilbey, Jess Mabel Jones, Max Barton, John Hinton, and the Marlborough Theatre. Based on diaries and letters found in a squat 15 years earlier, this show celebrated the lives of ordinary people, with the audience playing an integral role in its development. You can view the show here.

Jolie Booth also worked with Clara Gutteridge and Frances Hill as Artistic Directors of the hybrid company Double Blink, which explores issues surrounding surveillance, privacy, and human rights.

Additionally, Jolie is part of the creative team for the Suffolk Howlers, a troupe of Mummers Players that first formed at the award-winning Tudor Re-Creation Kentwell Hall over a decade ago. Since then, they have written, directed, and performed mummers plays across the UK, including at the National Gallery, Cecil Sharpe House, Trafalgar Square, Secret Garden Party, and The Lord Mayor’s Show.