Speakeasy Developments
Darebin Arts Speakeasy Development program closed in mid May, receiving 66 submissions, a 37.%% increase on the 2019 round and an 87% increase on the 2018 round. The program provides artists cash and space in the Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre and the Darebin Arts Centre to develop new performing arts projects. The 2020 round supported 73 artists through 17 applications with $34,000 being distributed.
Below are the recipients through the 2020 program.
| Recipient | Project | Brief Description |
|---|---|---|
| Vidya Rajan | Loot | A hybrid contemporary performance work for a solo performer investigating the connection between two concepts: the historical imperialist museum, and the museum of the living self. |
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| Joel Bray | Considerable Sexual Licence | An immersive dance-theatre work weaving together storytelling, dance and audience participation, to invite the audience to ponder the sexual ecology of Australia before the Coloniser and the Bible. |
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| Nesceda Blake / A_tistic | Gamma Burst | A theatre work examining ADD and family relationships using genre fiction conventions, following the strangely mundane journey of two brothers learning how to get along with each other. |
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| Benjamin Nichol | Fairybread | A new play, exploring queerness, youth and surviving against the odds, written by emerging playwright Benjamin Nichol and directed by Mark Wilson. |
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| Cassandra Fumi | The Rhinos Project | To stage a piece of Absurdist Theatre with an ensemble of performers from the Parkville Youth Justice Precinct, specifically young people aged 15-21 who have been sentenced or remanded by the Victorian Court. |
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| Glen Walton | Playable Web | A virtual interactive gallery showcasing the work of children from around Darebin. |
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| Alexandra Aldrich | ‘Tis Pity She’s A Whore | A new adaptation of Elizabethan text ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore’ by Alexandra Aldrich distilled, reconfigured and reframed through a female lens. |
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| Nebahat Erpolat | Mesopotamia | A new multidisciplinary collaboration to create a live performance work, in response to the recent conflicts playing out in Syria (Mesopotamia). |
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| Aaron Orzech | CORINTHIANS | A new solo contemporary theatrical work, CORINTHIANS: a dissection of the controversial, enigmatic practice of male circumcision, interrogated through the politics and poetics of the performer’s own body. |
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| Christopher Harley | When The Trees Spoke Up | A theatre work for families about rabbit who goes missing, a mum who dies, and a girl who discovers she can talk to trees. |
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| Koraly Dimitriadis | I say the wrong things all the time | A theatre piece exploring sexuality and the relationship with one’s self through the lens of the migrant experience. |
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| Alice Heyward | Outcry | Outcry is a dance and video work in development that explores movement and vocal scoring in relation to crying. |
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| Tarah Carey | Future Proof | Drawing on the relationship between environmental distress and power structures, Future Proof is circus and text work that questions if our moral ‘line in the sand’ changes when linked to our own survival. |
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| Stephen Nicolazzo | The Monkey’s Mask | An adaption of Dorothy Porter’s seminal queer poetic novel The Monkey’s Mask for stage by Little Ones Theatre and Jane Montgomery Griffiths. |
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| Louisa Wall | Lousical the Musical | A pop-comedy musical about To-Do List Anxiety from multi-award winning comedian and composer, Lou Wall. |
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| Clare Bartholomew | Otto & Astrid’s Joint Solo Project | Part theatre, part rock concert performed by two character comedians with live instruments. |
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| Tré Turner / Stone Motherless Cold | The Oasis | A drag and spoken word performance exploring the stories of water, reflection and power. |
Meet some of the artists supported by this program:
Artist Profile: Vidya Rajan
Artist Profile: Lou Wall
Artist Profile: Joel Bray
Artist Profile: Benjamin Nichol
Image of Vidya Rajan by J.Walter Thompson for Melbourne Fringe.
