Writer, Director, Theatre Maker, Creative Consultant, Performer
Writer/Director
- We Built This City 2006
Large-scale industrial site specific performance working with 124 building workers. Audience walked through Scienceworks Museum and saw story telling about the building industry as well as a multi media installation, rock concert and machinery ballet. I choreographed bobcats, front end loaders and a 100 tonne crane to tell a story. I worked with Associate Director Andrea James and composer Mark Seymour. I was employed by Melbourne Worker's Theatre.
- Women's Circus 1991-1996
Between 1991-1996 the annual performances of the Women's Circus attracted audiences of 4000. I also developed a passion for outdoor large-scale performance works in non-traditional spaces. I also developed a style of directing which celebrated the use of up to 60 performers on stage in venues that ranged from Brickworks, barges on the Yarra River and the National Gallery of Victoria. In 1995 I directed and toured the company in a series of shows in Beijing China. I returned to the company for a year in 2005-2006
- Watermark
The opening performance for the Brisbane River Festival 2004
I devised a performance with 120- students from Queensland University of Technology. The work was a site specific, physical theatre performance, in which the audience of 1200 walked between 5 stages at Kangaroo Point next. The work included aerial rope skills, new media and acrobatics and dance. I directed this work in my role as Artist In Residence for Queensland University of Technology. The music was composed by Zane Trow.
Director
- The Bridge 1990
A production about the collapse of the Westgate Bridge which I developed with the local community and writer Vicki Reynolds. This production took place in an old warehouse next to the Footscray Community Arts Centre. It was a theatre production and a memorial to the 35 workers who died when the bridge collapsed on October 15th 1970. Workers who survived the collapse helped us develop the performance.
- Melbourne Moomba River Pageant
Wrote and directed performance for 120 performers on 11 moving barges on the Yarra River at night. Physical theatre, dance and pyrotechnics. This was a large scale site specific work using boats towing barges with performers on them. It was a parade on a river for which I wrote in narrative and worked with circus, indigenous, Rock n' roll and fire performers.
Audience 120.000. 1993.
- Meeting Place 2004
National Regional Arts Conference
I directed this conference which took place at the Horsham Show grounds. This conference demonstrated how to use a show grounds for a high quality arts event. I commissioned artists to use fireworks in an artistic manner and link them with sculpture. I also commissioned hairdressing art events and body piecing art installations.
- Maribyrnong Festival :: People & Industry 1998
A festival celebrating the industrial landscape and diversity of the Maribyrnong area. Based in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia
- Bute Utes
In 2002 I directed Bute Utes for Melbourne International Festival and Regional Arts Victoria. I developed the concept of turning Utes into sculptures/sets for four regional towns. I directed four artists who built the artworks in the towns of Rushworth, Lakes Entrance, Hopetoun and Kyneton.The Utes were profiled at the Victorian Arts Centre as a feature of the Melbourne Festival.
- such fertile ground
Landscape installations acrooss 12 communities & landscapes working with 12 visual artists from regional Victoria.
- Isle of Plenty
As part of the Ten Days on the Island Festival, I worked with 3 communities in regional Tasmania building landscape installations in Dan, Bridport and Cygnet
Writer
- Car Maintenance, Explosives and Love
The script for Car Maintenance, Explosives and Love was developed over thirteen years. My intention was to create a work that would theatrically extend me as a writer and performer. Car Maintenance Explosives and Love premiered in Melbourne in 1996 (dramaturged and directed by Andrea Lemon). It then toured between 1996 - 2007, with seasons in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Tasmania, London, the Edinburgh Festival, and a British tour. The show received consistently good reviews, including a major focus from The Guardian, London, which described it as
'The most perfect fusion of writing and performance.'
The script of Car Maintenance Explosives and Love (CMXL) was published Spinifex Press in a collection of writing that takes the script as the book's title. The script of CMXL was provocative and challenging and emerged from having space and time after leaving the Women's Circus (of which I was the Artistic Director for six years,) to craft a piece of theatre that was deeply personal and satisfying as a theatre writer and practitioner.
Artistic advisor
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I have been the artistic advisor to Regional Arts Victoria from 1998.
During this time I have developed, supported and instigated a range
of projects which have been presented across Victoria. In this process I have collaborated with many regional artists. These projects include the artistic direction
of the Such Fertile Ground project and Bute Utes and artistic advice on the Fresh and Salty project.
Performer
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