The Bendigo Studio

12 - 30 April 2021

The Bendigo Studio is a collaboration between Arena, the Victorian College of the Arts, Bendigo Venues & Events. It is a Development Studio that brings artists and VCA students together to create brand new performance works.

With the Covid risks inherent in bringing artists from around the country to Bendigo, we shifted the emphasis of this year’s Bendigo Studio to a tighter format involving fewer partners to work on concepts for Arena’s new large scale project, Journey.

The Studio extended to 3 weeks, which gave us the opportunity to partner with local school, Camp Hill Primary to run engagement workshops and test the outcomes.

Over the course of The Bendigo Studio we worked on creating adventurous story lines, responding to every conceivable size of space – our playing spaces included everything from miniatures to the whole of Rosalind Park.

We sent signals from the poppet head, we made scenes at distance that needed binoculars, tiny puppet shows that could only be seen using a camera attached to a microscope, and Augmented Reality both indoors and out.

The Studio culminated with a promenade performance for the Camp Hill students that began at their school gate, crossed through Rosalind Park, rambled around the outskirts of The Capital Theatre, before moving into The Engine Room Theatre, and finishing in the car park out the back. The children were taken on a journey through incredible worlds, of all shapes and scales, using high technology and the most perfectly simple theatrical techniques.

It was a marvellous and rewarding Bendigo Studio. We thank all our partners for The Studio and Camp Hill Primary School for making it possible.

Bendigo Easter Festival:

3-4 April 2021

Dream Big Festival:

18-29 May 2021

West Gippsland: 13-17 July 2021*

Hamilton Halloween Festival: 26-30 October 2021