Created by Yaron Lifschitz and the Circa Ensemble. Circa acknowledges the assistance of the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body and the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland. 23–26 NOVEMBER PLAYHOUSE | QPAC THE AGE LIMELIGHT
Photo by David Kelly
QPAC and Circa respectfully acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands across Queensland and pay respect to their ancestors who came before them and to Elders past, present and emerging.
Photo by Pia Johnson
Connection is a core human need. As humans we are wired to connect and thrive when we do; connection gives us purpose and meaning. On by Circa is a physical representation and celebration of human connection.
Every Circa performance is driven by precision connection between artists and this production is no exception: movement follows links and relationships between the artists. The stories in these movements speak to interdependence, attachment, and to the human need to relate.
This is a production that ebbs and flows in its energy, through stillness and silence and the business of the every day. It is a production that celebrates real human connection built on awareness and sensitivity to others and the joy and beauty that flows from that connection.
Circa is adept at bringing life to the stage and saying so much without words. We are always delighted to stand alongside this remarkable Queensland company and we do so again to co-present this season of On by Circa. This production is a reminder that connection is where meaning lives and it’s what makes us human.
John Kotzas AM Chief Executive, QPAC
WELCOME
And it was always the stories that needed the telling that gave us the rope we could cross any river with. They balanced us high above any crevasse…They made us be natural acrobats. (Ali Smith)
Eight lives intersect across a rectangle (perhaps it is an apartment, a courtyard, or maybe a sports arena). The dimensions change, the density of entanglement expands and contracts, the action happens inside or outside or simultaneously. But always there are moments of encounter.
The word “encounter” comes from the Latin words “in” and “contra” – literally “with” and “against”. We meet adversaries, we fall in love; we connect, lose, love, long, grapple, hold on and sometimes, occasionally, are at peace.
I don’t tell stories – I lack the gene that does that. But I create structures and spaces in which stories become possible. With our ensemble and creatives, we have worked from two meanings of the word “on” – namely “to be raised with contact” and “to be ignited” These two axes of encounter are in some sense vertical (rising up) and horizontal (running into). Shaped by these two dimensions, the stories of these eight lives emerge.
So is love the secret of acrobatics? Is it trust, yes: the desire to cross over into the other. The acrobat’s body is his soul. Is the crossing vertiginous? Like every crossing. Useless to contemplate or fathom what separates: the abyss is always invented by our fear. We leap and there is grace. Acrobats know: do not look at the separation. Have eyes, have bodies, only for there, for the other. (Hélène Cixous)
Yaron Lifschitz Circa Artistic Director
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
DIRECTOR YARON LIFSCHITZ COMPOSER AND SOUND DESIGNER JETHRO WOODWARD LIGHTING DESIGNER PAUL JACKSON COSTUME DESIGNER LIBBY MCDONNELL EXECUTIVE PRODUCER DANIELLE KELLIE TECHNICAL DIRECTOR JASON ORGAN CAST HOLLY-ROSE BOYER RHIANNON CAVE-WALKER GERRAMY MARSDEN ALICE MUNTZ DANIEL O’BRIEN PAUL O’KEEFFE LACHLAN SUKROO BILLIE WILSON-COFFEY PRODUCTION STAFFING TOUR DIRECTOR BEN KNAPTON PRODUCTION MANAGERS BRYCE HOLMES, LAURA PATTERSON TECHNICAL COORDINATOR LUKE LAIDLER PRODUCTION INTERNS RILEY CAMEJO, BRIANA CLARK A MONASH UNIVERSITY COMMISSION CREATED BY YARON LIFSCHITZ AND THE CIRCA ENSEMBLE
Pia Johnson
Photo by
Yaron Lifschitz is a graduate of the University of New South Wales, University of Queensland, and National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA), where he was the youngest director ever accepted into its prestigious graduate director’s course. Since graduating, Yaron has directed over 60 productions including large-scale events, opera, theatre, physical theatre, and circus.
His work has been seen in 40+ countries and across six continents by over 1.5 million people and has won numerous awards including six Helpmann awards and the Australia Council Theatre Award. His productions have been presented at major festivals and venues around the world including Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Barbican, Les Nuits de Fourvière, Chamaleon and all the major Australian festivals. His film work was selected for the Berlin and Melbourne Film Festivals. He was founding Artistic Director of the Australian Museum’s Theatre Unit, Head Tutor in Directing at Australian Theatre for Young People and has been a regular guest tutor in directing at NIDA.
He is currently Artistic Director and CEO of Circa, and was Creative Director of Festival 2018: the arts and cultural program of the 21st Commonwealth Games.
YARON
LIFSCHITZ
CREATIVES
Jethro Woodward
Jethro Woodward is a Melbourne-based composer, musical director, arranger, musician and sound designer recognised for his expansive and highly layered film, theatre and dance scores. A multi Green Room Award winner and Helpmann nominee, he has worked with some of Australia’s leading major and independent companies including: Malthouse Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Opera Victoria, Chamber Made Opera, Back to Back, Chunky Move, Lucy Guerin, Australian Dance Theatre, Aphids, Stuck Pigs Squealing, Rawcus, Kage and more.
A composition graduate from the Victorian College of the Arts, Jethro draws upon his detailed understanding of contemporary music and its uses in live performance, including innovative uses of technology, combining live instrumentation with prerecorded, electronic, musical and sound elements into a seamless flexible and responsive score.
Jethro regularly tours his work internationally and has won Green Room Awards for his work on: The Bloody Chamber (Malthouse Theatre), Moth (Malthouse Theatre/Arena Theatre), Goodbye Vaudeville Charlie Mudd (Malthouse Theatre/Arena Theatre) and Irony Is Not Enough (Fragment 31). As a guitarist and singer, he regularly performs with Meow Meow and Paul Capsis, and has been a member of the band Cordarzine over the past 15 years. He most recently was the composer of Rapture at Sydney Festival 2021, directed by Michael Kantor and starring Paul Capsis and iOTA.
Paul Jackson
Paul Jackson is a multi award-winning lighting designer and theatre maker whose work has featured across Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Asia, Europe and the United Kingdom.
Paul has designed lighting for The Australian Ballet, Royal New Zealand Ballet, West Australian Ballet, Berlin Staatsballett, Victorian Opera, West Australian Opera, Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, Gordon Frost Organization, TML, The Production Company, Bell Shakespeare, Playbox, Malthouse, Belvoir, Circa, Ballet Lab, Lucy Guerin, Chunky Move, World of Wearable Art New Zealand, KAGE, La Mama, Chamber Made Opera and many others.
Paul was Artistic Associate at Malthouse Theatre from 2007–2013. Paul has received a Helpmann Award, two Sydney Theatre Awards, three APDG Awards, seven Green Room Awards and a Critics’ Award for Theatre in Scotland.
Jason Organ
Jason Organ graduated from Queensland University of Technology in 1988 and has had an extensive career as a Lighting Designer, Production Manager, Technician and Rigger.
He has worked with companies such as Queensland Ballet, Queensland Theatre, La Boite Theatre Company, Kooemba Jdarra and festivals such as Out of the Box, Queensland Music Festival and Brisbane Festival. Jason was the co-founder of JLX productions, a
lighting design and technical consultancy, based in Brisbane. Since 2010 Jason has been working exclusively with Circa as Technical Director.
Libby McDonnell
Libby is a designer and choreographer and she is currently Head of Design at Circa. Libby works in diverse genres and forms. At the heart of her work is people and movement.
Libby has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) in Visual Art from Queensland College of Art, Griffith University and an Associate Degree in Dance from Queensland University of Technology. Her professional career has included performing and making independent dance work, as an Artistic Director of Ballet Theatre of Queensland and Choreographer for Blue Roo Theatre Company. For eleven years Libby has worked with the team at Circa to imagine, develop and deliver their productions locally, nationally and internationally. During her time at Circa she has designed costumes for over thirty productions, codirected three main stage productions and led many of the company’s engagement projects including the pilot of the Circability program.
Libby is based in Brisbane with her family.
Holly Rose-Boyer
Growing up in Albury, Holly-Rose was introduced to dance at the age of two and fell in love with all things performing after joining her local cheer and dance studio. In 2014, Holly-Rose auditioned for a place in The Flying Fruit Fly Circus, where she trained in handstands, hand to hand, aerial straps and tumbling under the mentorship of Loic Marques and Nick Hutchinson. During her time at the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, HollyRose toured JUNK both in Australia and internationally. She also took part in Sydney Festival’s Nanjing Project, while travelling to Melbourne most weekends for additional dance training and performances. Graduating in 2021, Holly-Rose packed her life into two suitcases and moved to Brisbane to start the next chapter with Circa. Outside of circus, Holly-Rose loves swimming at the beach and dogs, especially pugs.
Rhiannon Cave-Walker
Rhiannon began training with the Spaghetti Circus, Youth Circus Family in Mullumbimby from the age of four. At 18, Rhiannon was accepted into DOCH, School of Dance and Circus in Stockholm Sweden. Here, Rhiannon specialised in hand balancing and hand to hand flying, focusing on a unique movement quality and research approach to my circus disciplines.
After three years of training Rhiannon graduated with a BA in Circus and was asked to join Australian company Gravity & Other Myths, with whom she developed and toured the show A Simple Space internationally for two years. During this time Rhiannon also cocreated another small award-winning show Cadence which planted the seed to eventually co-create the successful circus company Arts House.
Rhiannon joined the Circa ensemble in March 2020.
Gerramy Marsden
Gerramy started his circus training at the age of 14, joining a youth circus based in Queensland. After discovering a natural talent for object manipulation, it was not long before he found himself performing seasoned shows at different venues from the Brisbane Powerhouse to the Adelaide Fringe Festival.
Gerramy completed a Bachelor of Circus Arts, studying at the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA), where he further advanced his training in the art form of acrobatic basing and rolla bolla.
Gerramy has been performing with Circa since 2014.
Alice Muntz
Alice joined The Flying Fruit Fly Circus when she was eight years old. During her ten years at Fruit Flies she performed in a number of productions and was involved in workshops, teaching and a technical traineeship at the neighbouring theatre company, Hot House. These experiences took Alice all around the country, leaving her hooked.
Alice graduated in 2010 and joined Circa at the age of 18. Since then, Alice has toured the world, performing in many Circa productions, including Wunderkammer, Opus and Shaun the Sheep’s Circus Show. Alice has performed with Company 2, and Gravity and Other Myths as an acrobat/flyer, specialising in static trapeze, duo trapeze, diabolo, hula hoop, clowning and dance (swing, contemporary).
Alice’s passion as a performing artist is to interrogate, explore and share experiences, stories and ideas using circus as a medium.
CAST
Daniel O’Brien
Daniel has been physically active throughout his whole life, primarily focusing on his gymnastics training in his hometown of Maryborough and a few small gyms along the Queensland coastline.
After attending National Institute of Circus Arts for three years, where he specialised in hand-balancing and aerial straps, Daniel joined Circa as an ensemble member in 2015.
Having fostered an immense passion for circus, he has since performed in many iconic Circa works including What Will Have Been, Closer and Humans
He spends his spare time feeding his unhealthy addiction to video games or reading whatever he can get his hands on.
Paul O’Keeffe
Paul, aka ‘the human whippet, dexterous daredevil, neat freak and mister fixit,’ had his first professional gig in 1996 playing one of the lead roles in Company Skylark’s Wake Baby. Since then, he has toured the world from outback Australia to 42nd Street/ Broadway, New York performing in circus, dance, puppetry, musical and physical theatre.
Off stage, Paul co-founded circus company Kronik, co-set up a professional circus training studio in Melbourne, co-managed Warehouse Circus, ran independent circus troupes, and co-coordinated and implemented a number of circus workshops including one for 10,000 scouts over a 10-day period. Paul has performed with companies including Circus Oz, Circus Monoxide, Kronik, Cantina by Strut & Fret Production House, The Australian Choreographic Centre, Jigsaw Theatre Company, Out Of the Blue Studios, Malcom C Cooke & Associates and Legs On The Wall.
Paul used to believe in his own immortality, now he just believes he’s a nut. He joined Circa as a full-time ensemble member in 2013.
Lachlan Sukroo
In an effort to curb some of Lachlan’s seemingly boundless energy, his mother enrolled him in Canberra’s Warehouse Circus at the age of eight. After graduating from Warehouse’s Emerging Artist Program, Lachlan cofounded an independent circus troupe named Poncho Circus. Lachlan performed with Poncho for a year before deciding that a career in circus was definitely more appealing than sitting behind a desk.
He attended the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) studying Chinese pole, teeterboard and group acrobatics. After graduating, he performed with Circus Oz for two years performing internationally and around Australia before joining the Circa Ensemble in January 2019.
Billie Wilson-Coffey
Billie discovered Spaghetti Circus at the age of 11 before moving to Melbourne to study at the National Institute of Circus Arts in 2007. In her graduating year, Billie made her international debut at the 4th World Circus Festival in Moscow. Billie’s first creation with Circa was in 2011 for the world premiere of Nocturne in South Korea. She joined Circa as a full time ensemble member for Beyond in 2013.
Over the past 10 years Billie has been involved in a vast range of creations and performances with Circa, some highlights including How Like An Angel, Circa’s Peepshow residency at the Chamäleon theatre, Opus and Orpheus and Eurydice.
Photos by David Kelly
QUEENSLAND PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE
PO Box 3567, South Bank, Queensland 4101
T: (07) 3840 7444 W: qpac.com.au
CHAIR Professor Peter Coaldrake AO
DEPUTY CHAIR Leigh Tabrett PSM
TRUST MEMBERS
Julian Myers
Georgina Richters
Susan Rix AM Murray Saylor Leanne de Souza
EXECUTIVE STAFF
Chief Executive: John Kotzas AM
Executive Director – Stakeholder Engagement Strategy: Jackie Branch
Executive Director – Visitation: Roxanne Hopkins Executive Director – Venue Infrastructure and Production Services: Bill Jessop
Executive Director – Curatorial: Jono Perry
Executive Director – Business Performance: Kieron Roost
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The Queensland Performing Arts Trust is a statutory body of the State of Queensland and is partially funded by the Queensland Government
The Honourable Leeanne Enoch MP: Minister for Communities and Housing, Minister for Digital Economy and Minister for the Arts Director-General, Department of Communities and Housing and Digital Economy: Ms Clare O’Connor
We pay our respects to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ancestors of this land, their spirits and their legacy. The foundations laid by these ancestors – our First Nations Peoples – gives strength, inspiration and courage to current and future generations, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, towards creating a better Queensland.
QPAC warmly thanks our key donors who help us engage broadly across the state and continue enriching lives through performing arts.
Tim Fairfax AC and Gina Fairfax, Dr Lee and Professor Peter Coaldrake AO, Leigh Tabrett PSM, Susan Rix AM, Dr Sally Pitkin AO, Dare Power, Dr Cathryn Mittelheuser AM, Queensland Community Foundation, de Groots Charitable Fund, Klaus Beckmann, Barbara Snelling, Jill Hutchins, Leigh Wheeler, Frank and Karen Alpert, Jenny Morton, John Ryan, Margaret Heggie, Natalie Nelson, Ben Castleton and several donors who wish to remain anonymous.
Patrons are advised that the Performing Arts Centre has EMERGENCY EVACUATION PROCEDURES, a FIRE ALARM system and EXIT passageways. In case of an alert, patrons should remain calm, look for the closest EXIT sign in GREEN, listen to and comply with directions given by the inhouse trained attendants and move in an orderly fashion to the open spaces outside the Centre.
“NOTHING THEY CAN’T DO” BROADWAY WORLD
Photo by Pia Johnson