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2008:
Simon, Joel, Rachel and Claire joined Ralph's Honours research project at Victoria University, which was a practical exploration of UK theatre company Forced Entertainment. In July, we devised and performed 1001 Things You MUST Do Before You Die. 2009: With Fiona joining the company, we started the year by travelling to the top of Takaka Hill where we called ourselves Binge Culture and performed each day at the Canaan Downs New Years Festival, guiding a wandering anomaly 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 NZ Fringe 2009 and "Most Original Concept" at the Dunedin Fringe 2009. On the basis of this show 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 created six short videos for the the launch of the Gibson Group's interactive Mashpit website and published a column in the fold out gig-guide Bandwagon. We performed on Cuba street, Midland Park and Dunedin's Octagon, carried out a street publicity campaign for Barbarian's Good Night The End, and created a piece for Sebastian Sommer's Bite Size Theatre. 2010: In February we presented Storytime for the Hungry, a street theatre project and free workshop performance for the NZ Fringe. In April we performed Drowning Bird and Animal Hour together under the umbrella title Elimination Rounds to Wellington and Auckland. We began leading workshops in performance conventions, beginning with an the SGCNZ University of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival, and an open rehearsal and workshop for the VUW Theatre Programme. 2011: After a long process beginning in mid-2010 which included a showing at Stuart Henderson's Peek Party, This Rugged Beauty was performed at Studio 77 during the Fringe Festival. It was nominated for a Chapman Tripp award. Wake Less, a collaboration with Interrupt Collective which explored dreams through mask and AV, premiered at BATS as part of STAB 2011. 2012: Wake Less has an outing at Auckland's New Performance Festival in February, and Fiona presented Lucrece, based on Shakespeare's poem, at Toi Poneke in April-May. We begin an ongoing collaboration with youth network, JustSpeak. Hiatus from major projects as we travel and work with other companies. 2013: We have projects in NZ Fringe, Auckland Fringe and Dunedin Fringe. In May-June we developed This Rugged Beauty in partnership with Downstage. We try out material with an audience every second Monday in our Scratch Nights at Understudy, the bar at BATS Theatre. Other performances are planned for later in the year. |
The People
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