| | At the end of April, Binge Culture occupied the ASB Waterfront Theatre in Auckland. We were commissioned to devise and direct a show with a group of 16 young performers as part of Auckland Theatre Company's Here & Now Festival. Joel Baxendale, Oliver Devlin and Karin McCracken travelled up to work with the cast for three weekends followed by a two week intensive rehearsal period. The result was WATCH PARTY - a kaleidoscopic foray into the world of social media and online communication. The promenade performance took place across the entire public space of the building, barring the theatre itself. Theatrescenes called it "critically powerful, passionately social" and "comedy gold". Shout out to the talented, passionate and energetic cast who embraced our style of theatre and ran headlong into the crowds with it. |
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 That was the shock twist ending for hundreds of Cuba Dupa goers who took part in our mass-participation spy game, This Text Will Self-Destruct, as they tried to stay incognito in the crowds and complete their mission.
As wild as it was out in the crowds, the real panic was taking place back at HQ where Joel and Oli were sending all the texts manually. While at the same time trying to stay in communication with the performers as to what point we were at in the show. Running a spy agency is hard. (photo credit: Ben Woodward)
 Open Workshop: Contemporary Performance Gym
Dates: Weekly on Mondays 5:30-8:30pm from 29 April - 29 July Venue: Te Hau Kainga, Taranaki St, Wellington Fee: The programme is free thanks to the generous support of the Wellington City Council although places are limited. This series of workshops is an opportunity to learn first hand from Binge Culture’s contemporary performance practice. An in-depth introduction to the company’s performance and devising techniques, as well as their method of incubating, exploring and developing new works. Participants will work alongside Binge Culture members and associates as they train and explore new performance ideas. The workshops are designed to encourage and inspire directors, performers and makers to expand concepts of performance and methods of devising, including post-dramatic, site-specific and technology-driven performance. Over the course of the workshops series each participant will have the opportunity to explore their own performance ideas within a supportive collaborative environment. No prior performing experience required although a willingness to give it a go is essential. The Workshops are primarily aimed at emerging and professional performance makers but are open to anyone to apply. To apply: Send a letter of application explaining who you are and why you are interested to joel@bingeculture.co.nz Applications must be received by 5pm on Wed 10 April. Successful applicants will be informed by Fri 12 April. Please email any questions to the address above or leave a comment below  Binge Culture's Joel Baxendale and Oli Devlin are grateful and delighted to have been awarded funding through the Wild Creations programme, a partnership between DOC and CNZ. Their project will use video and binaural recordings from Kapiti Island and Wellington CBD to create a video walk that blurs urban and natural landscapes, giving glimpses of what was here before the city, finding interesting juxtapositions between the two. More info
 We’re off on our first tour to Australia next month. We’ll be performing Break Up in Melbourne and Sydney Fringe Festivals.
Joining 4/5 of our Edinburgh team (Fi, Ralph, Joel and Oli) is our pal and collaborator Freya Daly Sadgrove. Freya performed with us in Whales (Capital E) and performed and devised Smells Like Xmas. Freya is known about Wellington for her brutally honest poetry and we reckon she's going to nail five hours of tormented comedy. You can check out some of Freya's work here Show Details Break Up Melbourne Sunday 23 September, 6pm-11pm Fringe Hub - Arts House - Festival Club 521 Queensbury St, North Melbourne Tickets: www.melbournefringe.com.au Break Up Sydney Tuesday 25 and Wednesday 26 September, 8:30pm-11:30pm Archie Rose Touring Hub - Old 505 Theatre, 5 Eliza St, Newtown Tickets: www.sydneyfringe.com/buy-tickets  Our latest audio experience, Happy Hour, which premiered at Basement Theatre in February, is currently showing at Summerhall over the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
We're obviously absolutely stoked to be returning to the venue where we were nominated last year for a Total Theatre Award, and especially to be in the good company of great friend Stella Reid who's there with The Basement Tapes this year as well. It's been a long held goal of Binge's to find more sustainable modes of presentation, so we're also very pleased to be touring a work internationally with such a minimal carbon footprint. Happy Hour is available from the Summerhall Courtyard shed any time between 12pm and 9pm, 1 - 26 August. Audio time: 25min Click here for more details |
