2016 Program | Performing Lines

PERFORMING LINES 2016 PROGRAM

2016 SNAPSHOT PRESENTATIONS Nicola Gunn | Piece For Person and Ghetto Blaster HUMAN ANIMAL EXCHANGE | They Saw a Thylacine Roslyn Oades & Collaborators | Hello, Goodbye & Happy Birthday ILBIJERRI THEATRE | Jack Charles v The Crown Gravity & Other Myths | A Simple Space James Berlyn | I Know You’re There Sensorium Theatre | Oddysea Australian Theatre for Young People | Sugarland Jeff Michel | Pedalling Back Tom Holloway | As We Forgive William Yang | The Story Only I Can Tell The Farm | Cockfight Emma Fishwick | microLandscapes Sally Richardson | Trigger Warning PRAXIS | Dark Matter William Yang | Blood Links

DEVELOPMENTS Ghenoa Gela | My Urrwai Lz Dunn & Collaborators | Aeon Nathan Maynard | The Season Sensorium Theatre | WHOOSH! Nakkiah Lui | Blackie Blackie Brown Urban Theatre Projects & NORPA | My Radio Heart Outdoor Arts Development

SECTOR DEVELOPMENT Blak Lines Development Platform International Producers Exchange APPCAMP National Touring Agency NZ Indigenous Community Engagement Tasmania Performs Artist Residency

WELCOME We’re proud to present to you our program of productions, works-in-development and important sector development initiatives for 2016.

This program reflects our driving mission and passion: to identify and deliver new and transformative Australian performing arts.

The artist is at the centre of everything we do: we give independent artists and small-to-medium companies the freedom and support to create works that expand performance practice and give voice to the diversity of stories that make up the Australian experience.

We establish partnerships in all areas of the cultural sector to bring extraordinary performing arts to audiences around Australia and the world.

It will be a bold and impactful national program.

Karilyn Brown, CEO Performing Lines

NICOLA GUNN PIECE FOR PERSON AND GHETTO BLASTER This is the story of a man, a woman and a duck. It is about the excruciating realms of human behaviour. It is about trying to become a better person.

A performative exploration of the ethics of intervention.

Concept, Direction, Performance: Nicola Gunn Choreography: Jo Lloyd Sound Composition & Design: Kelly Ryall AV Design: Martyn Coutts Lighting Design: Niklas Pajanti Script Consultant & Additional Text: Jon Haynes Costume Design & Construction: Shio Otani Production Manager: Emily O’Brien A Performing Lines production Fringe World Festival, PICA Performance Space APAM, Brisbane Powerhouse World Theatre Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse Image credit: Gregory Lorenzutti

HUMAN ANIMAL EXCHANGE THEY SAW A THYLACINE For this thylacine tracker and zoo keeper’s daughter, it’s a quest to protect athreatened creature…and themselves.

The script, written in free verse, tells the stories of Alison Reid, the daughter of the last curator at Beaumaris Zoo and Beatrice McCullough, a trapper hunting the rare thylacine.

By HUMAN ANIMAL EXCHANGE Creators & Performers: Justine Campbell & Sarah Hamilton Artistic Collaborator: Matthew Lutton Set & Lighting Design: Matthew Adey – House of Vnholy Sound Design: Jethro Woodward Costume Design: Chloe Greaves 2015 Season Produced by Malthouse Theatre A Performing Lines Tour National Tour – 19 venues Image credit: Pia Johnson

ROSLYN OADES & COLLABORATORS HELLO, GOODBYE & HAPPY BIRTHDAY You are invited to a birthday bash like no other.

Scripted from intimate verbatim conversations with people aged 18 and 80+, Hello, Goodbye & Happy Birthday celebrates two very different perspectives on life. Eavesdrop on the candid thoughts, fears, loves and hopes of those working out where to begin, and those struggling with how to say goodbye.

Director: Roslyn Oades Movement Director: Nat Cursio Sound Design: Bob Scott & Russell Goldsmith Lighting Design: Paul Jackson Set & Costume Design: Christina Hayes Audio-Script Editing: Roslyn Oades & Bob Scott Script Dramaturg: Raimondo Cortese Additional Dramaturgy: Nat Cursio, Paul Jackson, Bob Scott, Yana Taylor Interviews: Roslyn Oades Interview Assistance: Piper Huynh Cast: Matthew Connell, Jim Daly, Evelyn Krape, HaiHa Le, Roger Oakley, Diana Perini Originally produced by Malthouse Theatre & Melbourne Festival A Performing Lines presentation APAM, Brisbane Powerhouse Image credit: Jeff Busby

“In many ways, too, it’s the story of Australia. Just not the one we’re used to hearing.” – Crikey

ILBIJERRI THEATRE COMPANY JACK CHARLES v THE CROWN A powerful one-man show that shines the spotlight on the colourful life of one of Australia’s near forgotten treasures. Jack is an actor, musician, potter and gifted performer, but for a good portion of his 70-something years he has also been homeless, an addict, a thief and a regular in Victoria’s prisons.

Director: Rachael Maza Co-Writers: Jack Charles, John Romeril Performer: Jack Charles Musical Director: Nigel Maclean Percussion: Phil Collings Bass: Malcolm Beveridge Dramaturge: John Romeril Set & Costume Designer: Emily Barrie Lighting Designer: Danny Pettingill Audio Visual Designer: Peter Worland A Performing Lines tour Canadian tour – 3 venues Image credit: Bindi Cole

GRAVITY & OTHER MYTHS A SIMPLE SPACE Simultaneously raw, frantic and delicate, seven skilled acrobats push their physical limits without reserve. Supported by driving percussion, immersed in every moment, A Simple Space evokes real responses in audiences, visceral rather than cerebral.

Created & Performed by Gravity & Other Myths Company: Triton Tunis-Mitchell, Lachlan Binns, Jascha Boyce,

Martin Schreiber, Jacob Randall, Rhiannon Cave-Walker, Daniel Liddiard, Elliot Zoerner.

Understudy: Simon McClure.

A Performing Lines tour International Touring – Budapest, Hong Kong Image credit: Chris Herzfeld

“Like Cirque du Soleil with a fist full of grit” – Express (UK)

JAMES BERLYN I KNOW YOU’RE THERE Every family has its secrets. And James Berlyn is ready to share a few of his. Pull up a chair and join him around the table for an intimate investigation into the stories we tell and the things that remain unspoken.

Creator and Performer: James Berlyn Director: Jim Hughes Sound Designers: Late Night Shopping A Performing Lines WA production Perth International Arts Festival Image credit: Simon Pynt

SENSORIUM THEATRE ODDYSEA

Taking young audiences on an amazing undersea journey, Sensorium Theatre’s Oddysea is a multi-sensory performance specifically designed for audiences with special needs.

Artistic Directors: Francis Italiano & Michelle Hovane Performer/Devisors: Francis Italiano, Michelle Hovane, Jamie David, Rachel Riggs, Amity Culver Designer: Francis Italiano Textile Designer: Mand Markey Stage Director: Rachel Riggs Composer: Jamie David with Mark Cain A Performing Lines WA production WA regional tour – 6 venues Image credit: Jessica Wyld

AUSTRALIAN THEATRE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE SUGARLAND Following the lives of five teenagers and their local youth worker, Sugarland explores an unseen world of big responsibilities and simple pleasures, of complex issues and elusive solutions and gives insight to lives rarely seen on the Australian stage.

Writers: Rachael Coopes with Wayne Blair Directors: Fraser Corfield & David Page Set Design: Jacob Nash Costume Design: Ruby Langton-Batty Lighting Design: Juz McGuire Sound Design: Guy Webster A Performing Lines tour for Blak Lines National Tour - 16 venues Image credit: Zan Wimberley

JEFF MICHEL PEDALLING BACK For years Jeff has packaged his life up into the idealised world of cinema.

He now unpacks his American adolescence from a bicycle full of surprises.

Incorporating physical comedy, storytelling, puppetry and music, this is a show that delights in the raw possibility of theatre itself.

Writer / Performer: Jeff Michel Director: Frank Newman Co-Director: Melissa King Composer/Sound Design: Matthew Fargher Lighting Designer: Andrew MacDonald A Tasmania Performs production Theatre Royal, Hobart Image credit: Mary Michel

TOM HOLLOWAY AS WE FORGIVE Tom Holloway’s writing shines for its subtlety, integrity and grace and is one of Australia’s most celebrated playwrights. A searing investigation of contemporary morality, this absorbing production examines the motives, methods and meaning of forgiveness.

Accompanied on stage by a lone cellist, Robert Jarman portrays three men at the edges of society trying to come to terms with the events in their lives.

Director and Dramaturge: Julian Meyrick Composer: Raffaele Marcellino Lighting Designer: Nicholas Higgins Original Production Design: Jill Munro and Julian Meyrick Photographs: Lisa Garland Cellist: Antony Morgan With Robert Jarman A Tasmania Performs presentation Griffin Theatre Company Image credit: Peter Matthews

WILLIAM YANG THE STORY ONLY I CAN TELL The Story Only I Can Tell is the fascinating story of William’s life.

His forebears migrated from China to Australia over a hundred years ago and subsequent generations adapted to Western culture.

William grew up in North Queensland on a tobacco farm, and has made his way in the world as an architect, a playwright, a photographer, a visual artist, a film-maker, and now a storyteller.

Creator & Performer: William Yang Composer: James Brown A Performing Lines production APAM 2016, Brisbane Powerhouse National tour 2016 + 2017 Image credit: William Yang

THE FARM COCKFIGHT

Powerful and dangerous physical performance, Cockfight is a moment in the lives of two men from different generations, trapped in an office, fighting to be top dog.

Directed by Joshua Thomson, Gavin Webber, Kate Harman, Julian Louis, Performers: Joshua Thomson and Gavin Webber Lighting Design: Mark Howett Sound Design: Luke Smiles Set Design: Joey Ruigrok and Joshua Thomson A Performing Lines production APAM 2016, Brisbane Powerhouse Image credit: Darcy Grant

EMMA FISHWICK MICROLANDSCAPES An immersive multi-tiered performance experience, navigate your own path through a shifting environment of osculating movement, digital landscapes, sculpture and rippling sound. Space and time can stretch and contract‌depending on where you stand.

Creator and Choreographer: Emma Fishwick Sound, Video and Technical Design: Kynan Tan Dancers: Ella-Rose Trew & Niharika Senapati A Performing Lines WA production Next Wave Festival 2016 Image design: Matt Sav

SALLY RICHARDSON TRIGGER WARNING Inspired by the unknown and unidentified women affected by war, Trigger Warning looks at the motives of a woman who feels she has nothing to lose amidst the broader context of our obsession with security and terrorism.

A complex and visceral new performance experience from an acclaimed artistic team.

Writer/director: Sally Richardson Composer/Sound artist: Cat Hope Performer: Hayley McElhinney Designer: Zoe Atkinson Dramaturg: Francesca Smith A Performing Lines WA production PICA Performance Space Image credit: Gibson Nolte

PRAXIS DARK MATTER Drawing on concepts of human displacement and the processes by which our identity and experience is shaped by our environment, this premiere dance work features six dancers, live score and projection mapping in an installation made of 1 tonne of rice.

Director/ Choreographer: Laura Boynes Visuals/ Installation and Projection Mapping: Alexander Boynes Sound Live and Pre Recorded: Tristen Parr Projection Mapping Programmer: Roly Skender Performers: Ella-Rose Trew, Storm Helmore, Harrison Elliot, Isabella Stone, Imanuel Dado A Performing Lines WA production MoveMe Festival, State Theatre Centre of WA Image credit: Emma Fishwick

WILLIAM YANG BLOOD LINKS Blood Links is an moving blend of storytelling, social history, performance and documentary photography by renowned Australian artist William Yang. Blood Links traces the scattering of his family.

Creator & Performer: William Yang Music Composer: James Brown A Performing Lines tour Tour venues: Hungary, The Netherlands, Belgium

Europe tour – 6 venues 2016s Canberra Theatre Centre

SPOTLIGHT ON THE FARM Performing Lines will be working with new Gold Coast-based dance company The Farm on their strategic development, producing and touring. Bringing together members of companies Splintergroup and Animal Farm Collective on two continents, Performing Lines will work on the development of a new work, and national and international touring for Cockfight.

Image credit: Darcy Grant

TOUR DEVELOPMENT Performing Lines is currently pursuing touring opportunities nationally and internationally for the following projects: The Farm | Cockfight Optioning 2017 European and national tours Sensorium Theatre | Oddysea Optioning 2017 United States and national tours Roslyn Oades & Collaborators | Hello, Goodbye & Happy Birthday Confirmed 2017 national tour and currently investigating international options James Berlyn | Crash Course Optioning European and national 2017 tours William Yang | The Story Only I Can Tell Optioning 2016/2017 national tours The Emergence Co | Under This Sun Optioning WA regional and national touring opportunities for 2016/2017 Malthouse Theatre | Blaque Showgirls by Nakkiah Lui In discussions for national tour development for 2017 NORPA | Railway Wonderland Looking at touring options for 2017/2018 The Skeletal System | Great White National tour development for 2017 Sue Healey | On View Optioning national and international presentation and touring for 2017 Image credit: Jamie Breen

DEVELOPMENTS

GHENOA GELA MY URRWAI My Urrwai (My Style) is a dance theatre, one woman show about the life of a young Torres Strait Islander woman and her struggles to find a place for herself, not only in Western society but also her culture.

Theatre Director: Rachael Maza Dance Director: Kate Champion Rehearsal Assistant/Project Manager: Melinda Tyquin Production/Stage Manager: Anna Pidgeon Music Composer: Ania Reynolds Lighting/Interactive design: Toby Knevette A Performing Lines development Image from Ghenoa Gela’s Winds of Woerr, image by Gregory Lorenzutti

LZ DUNN AEON Aeon is a sound and movement performance informed by bird flocking and the field of queer ecology. It invites us to refocus our senses and manoeuvre through urban parks, public space, exterior and interior worlds, guided by the flocking strategies of urban birds.

Project lead Lz Dunn With Collaborators Lawrence English, Shian Law, Lara Thoms A Performing Lines commission through Mobile States Arts House, Melbourne | January 2016 WTF16, Brisbane Powerhouse, February 2016 Artist in Residence – Adhocracy at Vitalstatistix, Adelaide, August 2016 Image supplied by Lz Dunn

NATHAN MAYNARD THE SEASON The Season is a funny insight into the inner workings of a family mutton bird shed on Dog Island (part of the Bass Strait Islands) during the unique six week harvest season of the mutton birds

by Aboriginal Tasmanian people.

A Tasmania Performs development

SENSORIUM THEATRE WHOOSH! Are you a pilot, navigator, engineer or responsible for communications?

Choose your role and get ready for blast off in WHOOSH! – an interactive multi-sensory adventure for children with complex and multiple disabilities.

Artistic Directors: Francis Italiano & Michelle Hovane Performer/Devisors: Francis Italiano, Michelle Hovane, Jamie David, Rachel Riggs, Amity Culver Designer: Francis Italiano A Performing Lines WA development Image credit: Jessica Wyld

NAKKIAH LUI BLACKIE BLACKIE BROWN Blackie Blackie Brown: the Traditional Owner of Death is the story of a young Indigenous vigilante woman (‘Blackie Brown’), on a quest avenge the massacre of her ancestors 100 years earlier. It will be structured as a live-action comic book – with performers interacting with animated projections via an interactive video system.

Director/Creator: Declan Greene Writer/Creator: Nakkiah Lui

A Performing Lines development Image courtesy Belvoir Theatre

URBAN THEATRE PROJECTS & NORPA MY RADIO HEART Immersing it’s audience into a journey between the virtual and the natural world in the search for love, My Radio Heart is a boy-meets-girl love story of the 21st century.

Performing Lines has been invited by UTP and NORPA to co-produce a reworking of the production to a more flexible format, while still keep the central theme of love and loneliness and giving it more of a fantastical feel.

Director/Writer: Rosie Dennis Performers: Mathew Daymond, Lydian Dunbar, Claudie Frock, Zac Mifsud, Phoebe Rose & Randolf Reimann Sound Design: Lawrence English Co-sound Design: Randolf Reimann Video Design: Samuel James Original Production Manager: Phil Downing Original Producer (NORPA): Bethwynn Hackett Original Producer (UTP): Bibi Serafim A Performing Lines development Credit: Donatella Parisin

OUTDOOR ARTS DEVELOPMENT Working closely with the City of Newcastle, University of Newcastle, ICE, Artlands and to Bleach Festival and various artists, presenters and stakeholders, Performing Lines will develop a framework in which to develop large scale site specific, street arts and outdoor performance for public spaces to capitalise on renewed and growing interest in contemporary outdoor and site based performance. This project will see two small-medium scale indoor performances adapted for the outdoors and a participatory outdoor work developed in Newcastle and Artlands Festival and presented as part of the Newcastle Summer Season launch, and a one day symposium.

A Performing Lines development Image credit: Claire Abrecht

SPOTLIGHT ON SENSORIUM THEATRE Performing Lines WA has worked closely with Sensorium Theatre for four years, producing two productions, establishing their first regional and interstate tours and overseeing the establishment of their board of management. In 2016, Sensorium will take over managing all schools engagements, with Performing Lines WA representing performing arts venue touring.

Image credit: Jessica Wyld

SECTOR DEVELOPMENT

INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Following a successful pilot, we have now created an on-going an Indigenous Community Engagement Coordinator position. Focussing on the 2016 Sugarland tour, the Community Engagement Coordinator will work with presenters to connect with their Indigenous communities, secondary school students, as well as local agencies involved with youth at risk, suicide prevention and community health and well-being.

Image credit: Tracey Schramm. From ATYP’s Sugarland.

BLAK LINES DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM A Performing Lines initiative to be developed in partnership with key Indigenous theatre and dance companies.

We will facilitate a two-day event encouraging conversation between presenters and Indigenous artists/groups with early-stage concepts or developments underway. A different model to a traditional arts market, the Platform provides an opportunity for works in development to be profiled, a greater understanding of the range and scope of work, as well as a context for artists around the programming considerations of presenters.

INTERNATIONAL PRODUCERS EXCHANGE A Performing Lines initiative with Intimate Spectacle and Bundanon Trust Bringing together invited international producers from European, Asian and Australian markets to explore new ways of working internationally in a rapidly changing global ecology.  Key themes include: encouraging intercultural understanding and reciprocity; working conditions and contexts; the changing role of and conditions for artists; international partnerships to drive performance projects and artistic practice; and alternative models for exchange to transactional selling-to-presenter models.

ASIAN PRODUCERS PLATFORM | APPCAMP A partnership between Performing Lines and Live Performance Australia.

The four-year AppCAMP initiative will visit Japan in 2016 with producers from around Australia, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Our key partners in the Asia Producers Platform are: AsiaNow (South Korea), Performing Arts Alliance (Taiwan), ON-PAM (Open Network for Performing Arts Management (Japan), and Live Performance Australia.

NATIONAL TOURING AGENCY NZ A Performing Lines Initiative in partnership with Performing Arts Network New Zealand (PANNZ).

In a three-year strategic alliance with PANNZ supported by Creative New Zealand, Performing Lines is providing expertise, advice and resources to support the development of a National Touring Agency in New Zealand. In addition to tours, the collaboration will support professional development and capacity building with producers, presenters and production managers to facilitate performing arts touring in New Zealand.

ARTIST RESIDENCY AT TARRALEAH Independent artists from around Tasmania will have their creative concepts developed with some of the nation’s most esteemed mentors at the annual Tasmanian Performs Artists Residency. Held at magnificent Tarraleah Lodge in the Lakes district, this weekend-long intensive is a vital event for Tasmanian performing artists.

A Tasmania Performs initiative

PARTNERS KEY PARTNERS Australia Council for the Arts Arts Tasmania Department of Culture and the Arts (WA)

FUNDING PARTNERS Arts NSW Arts SA Besen Foundation Creative Victoria Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade Department of Regional Development (WA) Royalties for Regions (WA)

PRODUCTION PARTNERS Aurora Nova Artlands Festival Australian Theatre for Young People Bleach* Festival Boat Rocker Entertainment Bundanon Trust City of Newcastle Creative New Zealand Country Arts SA Dubbo City Council Griffin Theatre Company Information and Cultural Exchange Inc. ILBIJERRI THEATRE Intimate Spectacle Live Performance Australia Malthouse Theatre Melbourne Festival MoveMe Festival

Next Wave Festival Northern River Performing Arts Performing Arts Network New Zealand Perth Festival Perth Theatre Trust Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts Ping Pong Productions University of Newcastle Urban Theatre Projects

BOARD Bill Harris (Chair) Nicole McKenna (Deputy Chair) Doug Anderson Sarah Benjamin Anne-Marie Heath Michelle Kvello Tom Molomby Anna-Rose Stancombe Lize-Mare Syron

TEAM Karilyn Brown Fenn Gordon Pippa Bailey Narelle Lewis Denise Wilson Tom Cramond Thom Smyth Fiona McIntosh Liz Young Emma Murphy Barbara Peters

Chief Executive Officer Senior Producer Senior Producer Producer Indigenous Associate Producer / Community Engagement Administrator Marketing Manager Development Manager Production Manager Accountant Accounts Coordinator

PERFORMING LINES WA Fiona de Garis Senior Producer Rachael Whitworth Producer Lorraine Sanders Assistant Producer Rachel Audino Marketing Assistant

TASMANIA PERFORMS Annette Downs Jen Cramer

Senior Producer Associate Producer