www.silverguide.site –

My friend and colleague Andrew “Sid” Siddall was an outdoor performance maker who worked for many years with Emergency Exit Arts (EEA) as a project manager, designer, builder, pyrotechnist and even stilt-walker. He signed up with Lift (London International Festival of Theatre), the Albany theatre, Deptford, and was also a freelance.

Born in Bolton, Lancashire, he was the third of the six children of Brenda (nee Mason) and Keith Siddall, a kitchen fitter, and grew up in Burnley, when his father took a job managing a nightclub there.

He attended Burnley grammar school and found his first performance home at Burnley Youth theatre. In 1985 he went to Dartington College of Arts to study theatre.

It was Dartington that first took Sid, who has died of cancer aged 60, to south-east London, to work for Multiple Angel, a performance project with the Rotherhithe Theatre Workshop at a biscuit factory in the late 1980s. An explosive finale not only pointed to Sid’s later great love of pyrotechnics, but also his passion for non-theatre locations and enabling communities to tell their own stories with boldness and impact.

Another important early influence was Neil Bartlett, the writer, director and performer, who inspired Sid to explore creative ways to express his sexuality and to find his gay family, who gave him support, love and fun.

After graduating, Sid based himself in Deptford. Through Lift, in 1996 he was invited to be a founder member of the Phakama project, an international programme developing large-scale, site-specific participatory performances in South Africa, India, Argentina and Northern Ireland. Lewisham Youth Theatre was also a partner in several international projects, and Sid became their trustee, and later chair, from 2002 to 2010.

He spent almost 25 years as creative director of huge, multi-theatre collaborations across Europe, working with thousands of international artists, students and community participants. He also formed an enduring relationship with Tallaght Community Arts in south Dublin.

In 2014 he began working with London Metropolitan University and eventually became course leader for its design degree, also running a studio there.

Sid was kind, wise, fierce, loyal, witty, strong when needed, and gentle when gentle was better. He never looked for praise – his focus was always on concrete creative results for individuals and communities.

He is survived by his father, sister Terry, and brothers Martin, Nigel, Kirk and Glenn.