Focus on Dorothy Max Prior

Dorothy Max Prior is a writer and artist working across many disciplines and genres, from theatre/performance, live art, music and installation to narrative  non-fiction / memoir, cultural commentary, and arts journalism.

 

Max has more than forty years experience in the performing arts – from punk-rock drummer to performance artist; ballroom dance teacher to street theatre director/choreographer, and site-specific performance and installation maker. She has a particular interest in immersive and interactive work that is placed outside of regular theatres, galleries and arts spaces.

 

​She is the director of UK based arts company Aurelius Productions  / former director of Ragroof Players working on the creation of outdoor arts and site-specific shows, including Shall We Dance?, Gloves On, Youth Club, and Bridges y Puentes. 

She makes her own performance/installation work, which usually features spoken word and sound art together with visual elements. Projects in recent years have included:

 Hen Party – A Parada Delas (2020), created in collaboration with Marilia Ennes, in Barao Gerlado, Campinas, Brazil. A walking, dancing, talking, celebrating exploration of the femme and feminism for the 99%

Box of Ghosts (2021) – a site-specific show for small audiences, set in a Sussex windmill, comprising sound art / spoken text

UNDERCLIFF (2021) – a site-responsive walking piece set along an undercliff walk from Rottingdean to Ovindean, created as sound file for walkers to experience solo.

Refloresta (2022) – a site-responsive walk created with Marilia Ennes in Lisbon for TePe Festival of walking arts

Refloresta (2025) – reworked / developed version, with the addition of 12 workshop participant who co-create a new version of the piece in each new location. Perfomed across the Sao Paulo state in 2025. 

Previous projects for Aurelius Productions have involved collaborations with sculptor/designer Isobel Smith and musician/composer James Foz Foster, including Sisters of Hera (Tuscany, 2014) and The Basement Bordello (2008–2010). Her solo show In My Room, an interactive installation for one audience member at a time, was commissioned by SPILL Festival 2015. She is also a freelance writer/dramaturg and director working with numerous companies in the UK and abroad, including an ongoing collaboration with ParaladosanjoS in Brazil.

See www.dorothymaxprior.com