Mrs Rosie Garton

Job: Programme Leader Performance and Digital Arts

Faculty: Arts, Design and Humanities

School/department: School of Visual and Performing Arts

Address: De Montfort University (DMU), Leicester, UK

T: +44 (0)116 2013 872

E: rosie.garton@dmu.ac.uk

W: www.zooindigo.co.uk

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Personal profile

Rosie is a Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader of Performing Arts. She is also a performance maker, director and writer. She is Co- Artistic Director of Anglo-German performance company Zoo Indigo, who make nationally and internationally touring multi-media performance work. She has mentored a range of emerging performance makers, and acted as a dramaturg for emerging and established artists.

Rosie's current teaching interests are:

Contemporary performance making
Interdisciplinary practices
Multi-media performance
Music in contemporary theatre.

Her key research interests include:

New technology in contemporary performance
Autobiography in Performance
Walking as a performative practice
Audience interactivity
Maternal performance and performance with family

Research group affiliations

DAPPER (Digital Arts Performance Practice - Emerging Research)

Institute of drama, dance and performance studies

Publications and outputs

In translation: walking and language as dramaturgical devises in a performance of maternal migration.
In translation: walking and language as dramaturgical devises in a performance of maternal migration. Garton, Rosie; Rippel, IIdiko This article discusses the performance walk as a methodology towards a dramaturgy of migration, enabling an authentic representation of the migrant mother through the staging of the exhausted female body, the interweaving of documentary footage and the real act of walking. In Zoo Indigo’s performative response to the walk, No Woman’s Land (NWL 2016), the duo attempt to re-engage with the experienced endurance. Throughout the piece the performers (and sometimes audience members), walk on treadmills, through digital projections of past and present landscapes. The re-tracing of this walk produced a change of the performers’ bodies, an “authentic” physicality, marked by exhaustion and the bodies’ memory of the endurance. The project explores a dramaturgy of migration, the maternal body and authenticity in performance through the inclusion of real (hi)stories and the embodied experience of a migratory walk. This is a 2500 word book contribution which has been accepted for publishing in 2020. An extended version of the chapter (5000 words) has been requested for the paper back due for publication in 2021.
Treading Old Ground in New Spaces: Authenticity in Performance Walking
Treading Old Ground in New Spaces: Authenticity in Performance Walking Garton, Rosie; Rippel, IIdiko This article discusses the politics of home and displacement and authenticity in autobiographical and familial performance (performing with family) through the inclusion of real (hi)stories. In 1945 Ildiko Rippel’s grandmother was expelled from her place of birth in Silesia, and walked 220 miles through the fractured landscape of Europe. In 2015 Rosie Garton and Ildiko Rippel re-walked this journey, and devised a performance based on the research. The proposed article investigates the kinaesthetic empathy sensed by the performers when re-experiencing this walk, which produced a change of the performers’ bodies, an “authentic” physicality, marked by exhaustion and the bodies’ memory of the endurance. In the No Woman’s Land performance the performers re-create the experience as they (and sometimes spectators) walk on treadmills. Through kinaesthetic empathy the audience are affected by witnessing the walking, the breathlessness, the sweat. No Woman’s Land investigates authenticity with a critical poststructuralist perspective: the familial micro-narrative of the grandmother deconstructs phallogocentric views on history often represented through the male war hero, and highlights women’s experience of migration. The authenticity of familial performance problematizes the conclusive narratives and universal truths reinforced by patriarchy. Intersected with performative notes, the article offers a subjective view on the experience of the walk as well as the individual experiences of re-performing the journey. These subjective artists’ voices will zoom into the personal experience of walking, enabling a kinaesthetic empathy though experiential writing. In conclusion the article argues that in the No Woman’s Land performance kinaesthetic empathy provides the ontological ground for historical and political knowledge. This proposal for a 5,000 word chapter has been accepted. The 1st draft is due in June 2018. The writing uses Zoo Indigo's 'No Woman's Land' as a case study.
No Woman's Land (Performance in Belgrade)
No Woman's Land (Performance in Belgrade) Garton, Rosie; Rippel, IIdiko In 2015 Ildikó and Rosie retraced Lucia’s footsteps. Crossing borders, climbing fences, bleeding, crying, blistering. We walked through the united and borderless Europe, witnessing a post-national utopia, particularly at the borders of Poland and Germany. Once separated by barbed wire, armed border police and animosity between the two countries, this area now runs joint cultural projects, has opened German-Polish Kindergartens, as well as setting up a floating bar on the river Neisse which had formed an insurmountable border for many decades. Whilst we were walking the refugee crises escalated, and elsewhere borders and fences were erected. The escalation of the crisis placed survival, identity and migration at the forefront of the project. The project’s historical and current context of migrant mothers, borders and displacement raises interesting questions with regards to the traditionally gendered assumptions of heroic walking. This practice as research project examines the process of transferring the politics of home and displacement and experience of walking into an autobiographical and familial performance (performing with family) through the inclusion of real (hi)stories. In the No Woman’s Land performance the performers re-create the experience as they (and sometimes spectators) walk on treadmills. Through kinaesthetic empathy the audience are affected by witnessing the walking, the breathlessness, the sweat. No Woman’s Land investigates authenticity with a critical poststructuralist perspective: the familial micro-narrative of the grandmother deconstructs phallogocentric views on history often represented through the male war hero, and highlights women’s experience of migration.
Borders of time and transportations of digital image
Borders of time and transportations of digital image Garton, Rosie; Rippel, IIdiko In 2017 Zoo Indigo presented ‘No Woman’s Land’, a theatrical reaction to the historical story of Lucia and many other walking women at the end of WWII alongside Rosie and Ildikó’s experiences of their own walk. There is an unspoken reference to current plights of many refugees. Created in collaboration with Digital Artist, Barret Hodgson, and Musician, Matt Marks, the work takes its audience on a rhythmical trek through digitally projected past and present landscapes of the post-apocalypse. Emulating the border crossings that Lucia walked and the duo retraced; the digital media and performance text crisscrosses between then and now, between Poland and Germany. A Weimar Kabarett framework is employed; showcasing a series of acts that allow the performers to embrace ‘gallows humour’ as a mechanism to discuss challenging truths.
Celluloid Souls (Performance in London)
Celluloid Souls (Performance in London) Garton, Rosie; Rippel, IIdiko Movies are part of our collective memory and evoke an emotion of nostalgia, a sense of shared experience; they become part of our biographies and personal histories. Considering how we romanticise cinema, the question arises as to how ‘real’ our feelings can ever be if they are patterned on these pre-existing cultural texts, or blueprints. Zoo Indigo investigates the desires that movies evoke, desires to find love, to find a happy end, to be a hero, to be a villain, to be a sexy villain, to be a sexy German villain in long leather boots. The video clip is a promotional trailer from the rehearsal period. This is a performance as research project that examines the problematic heteronormative society promoted in Hollywood films and delicately pulls through film as a means of manipulation and propaganda with particular connections to WWII. Spoken in both German and English, this highly visual performance employs humor with a dark underscore, to address representations of gender and cultural identity in different movie genres, using a variety of ridiculous props, costumes, make up, fake moustaches and camera trickery.
No Woman's Land (Performance)
No Woman's Land (Performance) Garton, Rosie; Rippel, IIdiko 'No Woman's Land' (performance) is 1 hr 15 minute large-scale, multi-media performance work. In 1945, Ildikó’s grandmother Lucia Rippel, expelled from her place of birth, walked 220 miles across the fractured landscape of Europe, with her two small children and all her belongings dragged in a cart. In 2015, Ildikó and Rosie retraced her footsteps, crossing borders, climbing fences, bleeding, crying and blistering, carrying their flat-pack children. The performance is a response to our walk and findings, made in collaboration with digital artist Barret Hodgson and musician Matt Marks. The piece uses digitally mapped projection as the two performers (and sometimes audience members) walk on treadmills through past and present landscapes of the post-apocalypse. Drawing from the gallows humour of 1920’s Weimar Germany Kabarett, we are dressed as men to entertain, but also to avoid rape, keep our jobs and keep our children alive. The duo are accompanied by a live musical soundscore, which draws from the collected sounds from the journey and sets the scene of the politically charged Kabarett acts from the darkened Berlin Bars at the time. This practice as research project examines the process of transferring the politics of home and displacement and experience of walking into an autobiographical and familial performance (performing with family) through the inclusion of real (hi)stories. In the No Woman’s Land performance the performers re-create the experience as they (and sometimes spectators) walk on treadmills. Through kinaesthetic empathy the audience are affected by witnessing the walking, the breathlessness, the sweat. No Woman’s Land investigates authenticity with a critical poststructuralist perspective: the familial micro-narrative of the grandmother deconstructs phallogocentric views on history often represented through the male war hero, and highlights women’s experience of migration.
Yes/No/Maybe - (Performance in Oxford)
Yes/No/Maybe - (Performance in Oxford) Wise, K.; Garton, Rosie ‘Yes/No/Maybe’ is a highly visual and physical theatre work that examines the relationship between the computer language of binary code and the rich and colourful language of human dialogue. In a playful performance, five performers step into the minds of Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage, leap between the cogs of the chad machine and balance in the grey areas between the yes and no of the here and now. They equate bits, personalize punch machines and fall in love with digital screens. Professor Gabriel Egan has commissioned directors Rosie Garton and Kerryn Wise to conceive a performance project that articulates the transition between binary code and human language. This unique blend of arts and science promises an informative, energetic and entertaining theatre experience. Between February - April 2018, the work is touring to six UK University venue with an accompanying workshop exploring the use of binary code in everyday circumstances (see tour list) Working with Professor Gabriel Egan, this practice as research project work unpicks the use of binary code within our everyday use of technology. The performance uses multi-media, physical theatre and performance text to examine the relationship between computer language and human communication and explain the transitions between binary code and the computerised word.
Maternal Ruptures/Raptures: Leakages of the real
Maternal Ruptures/Raptures: Leakages of the real Garton, Rosie; Rippel, Ildiko This article, co-authored by Ildikó Rippel and Rosie Garton of Zoo Indigo Theatre Company, explores two performance works; Under the Covers (2009) and Blueprint (2012), devised and performed by the duo. Both works present live video links to family members of the performers. In Under the Covers the live video was streamed from the bedrooms of the performers’ four young children, and the duo asked the audience to babysit their sleeping children so that they could ‘get on with the show’ (Zoo Indigo 2009). In Blueprint live video links brought the performers’ mothers (four in total) into the performance space. On occasions during the touring of both of these works, the relationship between the live performers on stage and the live streamed family members on screen caused unscripted reactions from the performers on stage. During a performance of Under the Covers, one of the crying babies prompted a let down effect for a breastfeeding performer. In Blueprint the sharing of anecdotes caused a performer on stage to cry. In these occasions the leaking of bodily fluids of milk and tears caused a momentary leakage of the Real into the Symbolic framework of theatre. This article uses the experience of performing these works to argue that the maternal body in performance has the capacity to cause a rupture, a fracture within representation, for a rapturous Real to emerge. The article draws on Psychoanalytical theory, specifically Jaques Lacan’s discussion of the Real, and Julia Kristeva’s writing on the semiotic chora. Important note: Zoo Indigo is a collaborative partnership between Rosie Garton and Ildiko Rippel, the duo have been making performance work together since 2002. Many of their published articles/papers/chapters etc are co-authored, emulating the collaborative nature of their practice. This article uses previous Zoo Indigo works 'Under the Covers' and 'Blueprint' as case studies to examine authenticity in performance. The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link
Celluloid Souls (Performance)
Celluloid Souls (Performance) Garton, Rosie; Rippel, IIdiko Movies are part of our collective memory and evoke an emotion of nostalgia, a sense of shared experience; they become part of our biographies and personal histories. Considering how we romanticise cinema, the question arises as to how ‘real’ our feelings can ever be if they are patterned on these pre-existing cultural texts, or blueprints. Zoo Indigo investigates the desires that movies evoke, desires to find love, to find a happy end, to be a hero, to be a villain, to be a sexy villain, to be a sexy German villain in long leather boots. This is a performance as research project that examines the problematic heteronormative society promoted in Hollywood films and delicately pulls through film as a means of manipulation and propaganda with particular connections to WWII. Spoken in both German and English, this highly visual performance employs humor with a dark underscore, to address representations of gender and cultural identity in different movie genres, using a variety of ridiculous props, costumes, make up, fake moustaches and camera trickery.
Unstable Geographies, Multiple Theatricalities
Unstable Geographies, Multiple Theatricalities Garton, Rosie; Rippel, IIdiko In 2015. Ildikó Rippel and Rosie Garton retraced Lucia’s footsteps. Crossing borders, climbing fences, bleeding, crying, blistering. We walked through the united and borderless Europe, witnessing a post-national utopia, particularly at the borders of Poland and Germany. Once separated by barbed wire, armed border police and animosity this area now runs joint cultural projects, has opened German-Polish Kindergartens, as well as setting up a floating bar on the river Neisse which had formed an insurmountable border for many decades. Whilst we were walking the refugee crises escalated, and elsewhere borders and fences were erected. The escalation of the crisis placed survival, identity and migration at the forefront of the project. The project’s historical and current context of migrant mothers, borders and displacement raises interesting questions with regards to the traditionally gendered assumptions of heroic walking (Heddon 2012). This paper focused on the elements of remediation of past and present borders. We use digital theatre and multiple performance screens to juxtapose archival footage with our own footage of the walk, and specifically the border crossing during our journey.

Research interests/expertise

Virtual relationships on stage, The performance of motherhood, Collaboration models, Relationships between HE and Professional Theatre, Integrative digital technologies in performance, The role of women in popular film, Walking as a devising process,

Areas of teaching

Post Dramatic Performance
Contemporary Music Theatre
Deconstructing Performance
International Performance Project
Performance Company
Research Project
Postgraduate supervisor

Qualifications

MA Performance and Live Art. Nottingham Trent University 2005
BA (Hons) Theatre Arts. De Montfort University 2001

Courses taught

Drama Studies BA (Hons)
Performing Arts BA (Hons)
MA Performance Practices
MA Arts

Honours and awards

Nominated for Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Teacher Award in 2013, 2014, 2015

Membership of external committees

Reckless Sleepers- Board Member
Hand Made Theatre – Board Member

Membership of professional associations and societies

2016: Zoo Indigo - associate artists of Derby Theatre.

Forthcoming events

Currently touring (nationally and international) with Zoo Indigo’s multimedia performance works ‘No Woman’s Land’ and ‘Celluloid Souls’. Performance paper to accompany the work is also being programmed at arts/academic conference, for tour dates of both see: www.zooindigo.co.uk

Conference attendance

Garton, R., Rippel, I (2018) No Woman's land (paper presented) at Univerity fo Belgrade, Serbia 'International Federation of Theatre Research'

Garton, R., Rippel, I (2018) Borders and beyond (presented paper) at University of Notitngham: 'Biography and Public History'

Garton, R., Rippel, I (2016) Maternity and border lands: a reflection on No Woman’s Land (presented paper) at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok: ‘International Conference on Culture, Communication and Transnational Societies’

Garton, R., Rippel, I (2016) Performing Maternity (presented paper) atEdge Hill University: Performance and the maternal

Garton, R., Rippel, I (2015) Under the Covers: an interactive audience (presented paper) atThe University of Utrecht: ‘Play, Perform, Participate’ The International Society for Intermedial Studies

Garton, R., Rippel, I (2013) Under the Covers: re-creating film (presented paper) at Université Lumière, Lyon: The International Cinema in Theatre Conference

Garton, R. (2012) Between me you and the breast pump: the performance of motherhood in public spaces (presented paper) at University of Leeds: PSI Conference

Garton, R., Rippel, I (2012) Virtual distance: conversations between virtual and real spaces (presented paper) at University of Worcester: Space and place conference

Garton, R., Rippel, I (2010) This is now, this is live: Virtual parenting (presented paper) at Brunel University: DRHA – sensual technologies

Garton, R., Rippel, I (2010) This is now, this is live: Virtual parenting (presented paper) at University of Sussex: (re) Performing the posthuman Conference

Garton, R., Rippel, I (2010) This is now, this is live: Audience responsibility (presented paper) at Reading University: JAM The Audience Spectacular Conference

Garton, R. (2009) This is now, this is live: Immediacy of virtual relationships (paper presented) at University of Chester: MA symposium

Garton, R., Rippel, I (2009) This is now, this is live: Immediacy and unpredictability of live virtual presence (paper presented) at University of Exeter: Performing Presence Conference

Garton, R., Rippel, I (2009) This is now, this is live: Virtual relationships (paper presented) at Lincoln University

Recent research outputs

Published

Rippel, I. & Garton, R. (2017) Maternal Ruptures/Raptures, Performance Research Journal, 22:4, 36-43

Garton, R. & Rippel. (2016) Fantasizing Motherhood, Live Art and the Maternal, Live Art Development Agency (online study guide)

Garton, R. & Rippel, I. (2016) Constructing Performance, The Drawing Board (online journal)

Garton, R. (2016)Collaboration is a curious lover, Collaborations Choreography

and Dance (online journal)

Garton, R. (2015) Reflecting on partnerships between Higher Education and Professional

Theatre Practices in Higher Education and Theatre Conference 2015 (online)

Rippel, I. & Garton, R. (2011) This is now, this is Live, Body, Space and Technology Journal (online)

Awaiting Publication

Garton, R. & Rippel, I (2019) ‘Great Escapes: Kinesthetic Empathy and the Maternal Migrant Body' (working title), in Meerzon, Y. and Pewny, K [eds.] Dramaturgy of Migration: Staging Multicultural Encounters in Contemporary Theatre, Routledge

Garton, R. & Rippel, I (2018) Borders of time and transportations of digital image in

Intermediality in Theatre, ed. Crossley, M. London: Routledge

Under review

Garton, R. & Rippel, I (2021) My feet, My actions in an extended version of Dramaturgy of Migration ed. Romanska, M. & Meerzon, Y.

Zoo Indigo’s performance work features in:

Komporaly, J (2016) ‘Making a Spectacle: Motherhood in Contemporary British Theatre and Performance’, Theatre History Studies. Vol 35 USA: University of Albama Press

Senior, A (2016) ‘Natality: Performance’s Ontological Other and the Arendtian Appearance of Children in Contemporary Performance’,Theatre Research International. Vol 41, Iss 1 P70-84. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Meyer-Dinkgräfe, D (2013) Observing Theatre. New York: Rodopi

Key research outputs

Public projects

No Woman’s Land - performance(2015 – continued)

No Woman’s Land - documentary film(2016 – continued)

Celluloid Souls –performance (2016 – continued)

Flat Out – street performance (2013)

Blueprint - performance(2010-2012)

Circle Symphony – site specific performance(2011)

Under the Covers - performance (2009 – 2013)

For further practice as research projects please see www.zooindigo.co.uk

Consultancy work

Mentor: Rosie worked as a mentor for Creative Partnerships, supporting practitioners in developing community and educational practices. She also mentored a range of emerging artists.

Dramaturg: Various established and emerging arts companies

Producer/manager (previous): Reckless Sleepers and Retina Dance

Manager/fundraiser (previous): Access 2 Arts (Nottingham), Project 2 Project (Nottingham)

Co-curator (previous): circuit performance platform

Externally funded research grants information

This is a sample of external grants for Zoo Indigo projects. The company has received commissions and funding for performance projects and mentorship schemes from a variety of sources since 2002, for details of further grants please contact Rosie Garton. As an independent fundraiser and project manager for a range of arts organisations, Rosie has raised funds from organisations such as Arts Awards, Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation for outreach projects and dance/theatre touring projects.

2018

Project: Research and development for Britizenship

Details: Research in Romania, Ireland and Hungary - re-tracing our British-ness (or lack of it) in a post-Brexit Britain

Funders: Arts Council England

Project: Yes/No/Maybe

Details: touring performance work exploring binary code

Funders: AHRC

2016

Project: Organisational Development
Funders: Arts Council England

Project: No Woman’s Land - performance
Details: Multi-media performance exploring a history of expulsion and walking mothers post World War II
Funders: In Good Company and Arts Council England

Nationally and internationally touring project

Project: No Woman’s Land – a film documentary
Details: An experimental film documentary following the Zoo Indigo duo across Poland and Germany retracing the footsteps of Lucia Rippel in 1945
Funders: In Good Company and Arts Council England

Nationally and internationally touring project

Project: Celluloid Souls - performance
Details: A multi-media performance using the cinematic experience to examine gender and cultural roles in cult films
Funders: Arts Council England and In Good Company
Commission: Pilot Nights, Birmingham

UK touring project

2015

Project: No Woman’s Land – walking project
Details: International project walking across Poland and Germany, research and creation of film documentary
Funders: Arts Council England and In Good Company (Derby Theatre, Attenborough Arts Centre, Create Theatre)

2012-2013

Project: Blueprint - performance
Details: Multimedia theatre/science collaboration
Commissioned: Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham
Funded: Arts Council England

Nationally and internationally touring project

Project: Flat Out - Street Performance
Details: Intervention performance work exploring public mothering
Commissioned: Hatch, Nottingham and Hazard Festival, Manchester

2011

Project: Circle Symphony – large-scale site specific performance
Details: Site-specific durational project at Nottingham Playhouse; part of NEAT11 festival
Commissioned: Nottingham Playhouse
Funded: Arts Council England

2009

Project: Under the Covers - performance
Details: Multi media performance collaboration with ventmedia exploring virtual mothering
Commissioned: HATCH Nottingham, Forest Fringe (Edinburgh);
Funded: Arts Council England

Nationally and internationally touring project

2008

Project: Cultural exchange project
Details: Research project making links with artists in Nottingham’s twinned city Karlsruhe
Funded: Arts Council England and Nottingham City Council

2006

Project: White as Snow, Red as Blood - Performance
Details: Collaboration with multi-media artist Barret Hodgson exploring the relationship between Grimms Tales and the modern day woman
Funded: Arts Council England
Commissioned: Loughborough Town Hall, NTU

2004/05

Project: Dress Code: Indigo (unplugged) - Performance
Details: Collaboration with musicians of the Knife and Forkestra.
Funded: Arts Council England

UK touring project

2003

Project: Lounge Living - Performance
Details: Collaboration with FLYdance dance company and Barret Hodsgon digital artist
Funded: Arts Council England
Commissioned: Derby Dance
Supported by: Power House, Nottingham and The Place, London

UK touring project

Project: Private I – Performance
Details: Investigative collaboration with dance artist Kerryn Wise and multi-media artist Barret Hodgson
Funded: Arts Council England
Commissioned: Bonington Gallery, Nottingham

Professional esteem indicators

Komporaly, J (2016) ‘Making a Spectacle: Motherhood in Contemporary British Theatre and Performance’, Theatre History Studies. Vol 35 USA: University of Albama Press

Meyer-Dinkgrafe, D (2013) Observing Theatre. Rodopi

Case studies

Zoo Indigo Projects – Audience attendance figures – ongoing

No Woman’s Land (touring performance) (2015 – continued): to date 5 performances, to total audience of 450. Expected further audience in 2017/18: app 1750

Related article about the work:

Komporaly, J (2016) ‘Making a Spectacle: Motherhood in Contemporary British Theatre and Performance’, Theatre History Studies. Vol 35 USA: University of Albama Press

Quotes:

‘One of my all time favourite shows, funny, moving and sadly never more topical’

Michaela Butter, Director Attenborough Arts Centre

‘A funny, dark, moving, snarling cabaret that breaks your heart’

David Parkin, Reviewer

‘A clever, funny and powerful show’

Simon Hollingworth, Programmer

No Woman’s Land (documentary film) (2016 – continued):to date 4 installed public screenings, total app. Audience 690

Quotes;

‘An absorbing and poignant film, an engaging contemporary narrative of historical events and family endeavour’

Tracey Kershaw, Curator

‘The contrast between Europe than and Europe now, between yesterday and today, suffering and relative comfort, is established without fuss in this moving and powerful film’

Mark Patterson, Nottingham Evening Post

Under the Covers (touring performance) (2009 – 2013):25 performances, total audience 1750

Related article about the work:

Quotes:

“An unexpected show. A lot of laughs, ingenious involvement of the disarmed and willing audience, and some seriousness too. Great ending. I hope more people can see it.”

Caryl Churchill, Playwright

“Crying with laughter, and with sadness, an emotional rollercoaster. I must say I don’t laugh out loud that often, you had my sides splitting! Amazing work, well done! “

Audience member, Nuffield Theatre, LICA Lancaster

Celluloid Souls (touring performance) (2016-current)to date 2 public work in progress performances, to date total audience of 65