Who we are
We are a group of performers and collaborators based in Wellington. The core group is Rachel Baker, Joel Baxendale, Simon Haren, Claire O'Loughlin, Fiona McNamara (executive producer)and Ralph Upton (artistic director), and the wider group includes Gareth Hobbs (various theatre, street and multimedia productions), Rose Guise, Stephanie Cairns and Jake Baxendale (Animal Hour and Elimination Rounds).
Past collaborators include Rachel Marlow (lighting design and operation, 1001 Things, Drowning Bird), Hamish Upton (music, Drowning Bird) Laura Velvin and Sam Mannering. Ness Fowler Kendall often photographs our work.
We are currently artists-in-residence at the Victoria University of Wellington theatre programme, of which we are graduates. They have given us strong support though all our projects.
What we do
We think theatre should be serious fun. We make dangerous, immediate and surprising work with young Wellington audiences, and the real world, in mind. We believe strongly in collaboration and teamwork and are continually exploring the encounter between performer and audience. We want theatre that does the things TV and film can't handle.
History
Binge Culture formed in early 2008 as part of Ralph's Honours research project at Victoria University, which was a practical exploration of UK theatre company Forced Entertainment. We devised and performed 1001 Things You MUST Do Before You Die.
Next we travelled to the top of Takaka Hill where we performed each day at the Canaan Downs New Years Festival, guiding a wandering anomoly around the zones. Our major performance was called The Anomaly Opens. Festival organizer Simon Kong described it as "a phenomenal success where many others have failed and fled."
Drowning Bird Plummeting Fish won "Best Newcomers" at the NZ Fringe and "Most Original Concept" at the Dunedin Fringe. On the basis of DBPF we were invited to perform short pieces at Downstage's Pick of the Fringe.
Animal Hour was devised and performed in July 2009, and was described by Thomas LaHood on theatreview as "the kind of underground theatre that is at once the fount, the boundary and the acid test for the wider arts community it lurks beneath."
We've also created six short videos for the the launch of the Gibson Group's interactive Mashpit website and published a monthly column in the fold out gig-guide Bandwagon. We've performed on Cuba street, Midland Park and Dunedin's Octagon, carried out a street publicity campaign for Good Night The End, and performed a sketch for Sebastian Sommer's Bite Size Theatre.
In the first half of 2010 we presented Storytime for the Hungry, a street theatre project and free workshop performance for the NZ Fringe, and re-staged Drowning Bird and Animal Hour together under the umbrella title Elimination Rounds in Wellington and Auckland.
As part of our residency at Victoria, we are developing a workshop performance of a new theatre piece to be performed at the end of this year.
We are a group of performers and collaborators based in Wellington. The core group is Rachel Baker, Joel Baxendale, Simon Haren, Claire O'Loughlin, Fiona McNamara (executive producer)and Ralph Upton (artistic director), and the wider group includes Gareth Hobbs (various theatre, street and multimedia productions), Rose Guise, Stephanie Cairns and Jake Baxendale (Animal Hour and Elimination Rounds).
Past collaborators include Rachel Marlow (lighting design and operation, 1001 Things, Drowning Bird), Hamish Upton (music, Drowning Bird) Laura Velvin and Sam Mannering. Ness Fowler Kendall often photographs our work.
We are currently artists-in-residence at the Victoria University of Wellington theatre programme, of which we are graduates. They have given us strong support though all our projects.
What we do
We think theatre should be serious fun. We make dangerous, immediate and surprising work with young Wellington audiences, and the real world, in mind. We believe strongly in collaboration and teamwork and are continually exploring the encounter between performer and audience. We want theatre that does the things TV and film can't handle.
History
Binge Culture formed in early 2008 as part of Ralph's Honours research project at Victoria University, which was a practical exploration of UK theatre company Forced Entertainment. We devised and performed 1001 Things You MUST Do Before You Die.
Next we travelled to the top of Takaka Hill where we performed each day at the Canaan Downs New Years Festival, guiding a wandering anomoly around the zones. Our major performance was called The Anomaly Opens. Festival organizer Simon Kong described it as "a phenomenal success where many others have failed and fled."
Drowning Bird Plummeting Fish won "Best Newcomers" at the NZ Fringe and "Most Original Concept" at the Dunedin Fringe. On the basis of DBPF we were invited to perform short pieces at Downstage's Pick of the Fringe.
Animal Hour was devised and performed in July 2009, and was described by Thomas LaHood on theatreview as "the kind of underground theatre that is at once the fount, the boundary and the acid test for the wider arts community it lurks beneath."
We've also created six short videos for the the launch of the Gibson Group's interactive Mashpit website and published a monthly column in the fold out gig-guide Bandwagon. We've performed on Cuba street, Midland Park and Dunedin's Octagon, carried out a street publicity campaign for Good Night The End, and performed a sketch for Sebastian Sommer's Bite Size Theatre.
In the first half of 2010 we presented Storytime for the Hungry, a street theatre project and free workshop performance for the NZ Fringe, and re-staged Drowning Bird and Animal Hour together under the umbrella title Elimination Rounds in Wellington and Auckland.
As part of our residency at Victoria, we are developing a workshop performance of a new theatre piece to be performed at the end of this year.
The 'Elimination Rounds' team, April 2010
Links we like
VUW Theatre Department
BATS Theatre
Downstage Theatre
Barbarian Productions, Jo Randerson
Forced Entertainment, Tim Etchells
Playground Collective
Three Spoon Theatre
The Bacchanals
Free Theatre Christchurch
Theatreview
NZ Fringe
BATS Theatre
Downstage Theatre
Barbarian Productions, Jo Randerson
Forced Entertainment, Tim Etchells
Playground Collective
Three Spoon Theatre
The Bacchanals
Free Theatre Christchurch
Theatreview
NZ Fringe
