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Monsteria By GUSH Photo by Rod Noendeng PRESENTER’S INFORMATION GUSH
Monsteria By GUSH
Photo by Rod Noendeng
PRESENTER’S INFORMATION
GUSH
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Contents COMPANY PROFILE ....................................................................................... 2ABOUT THE SHOW ........................................................................................ 2PERFORMANCE SPECIFICS .......................................................................... 6AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT ............................................................................. 7MARKETING ................................................................................................... 8PRODUCTION DETAILS ............................................................................... 13CONTACTS ................................................................................................... 14
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COMPANY PROFILE GUSH is a physical theatre and circus ensemble made up of 4 highly experienced, culturally and generationally diverse women. GUSH uses the repertoire of circus and the theatricality of contemporary performance to explore the way the performing feminine body is read and misread. The circus is unconventional and the performance is beautifully grotesque, and disquietingly moving. Monsteria, GUSH’s premiere work, has been presented at Wonderland Festival Brisbane, 2017, and Adelaide Fringe Festival 2018. Monsteria is winner of Adelaide Fringe Festival Weekly Best Circus and Physical Theatre Award 2018, and Matilda Theatre Award Best Costume Design 2017 and nominated for Matilda Award Best Circus and Physical Theatre. Ensemble members are Anna Yen is a highly respected, multi-award-winning performer, theatre maker, director, writer and teacher; Bianca Mackail is an acrobat, aerialist and performer who combines passion, agility and a powerful physicality; Mayu Muto is an internationally trained dancer and performing as a circus artist specialising in unconventional aerial apparatus; Celia White, has a long history of using circus, movement and physical imagery to explore femininity and gender identities. GUSH is keen to present this work to broader audiences and communities of women to begin conversations about the themes of the work, the way women are viewed and the layers we put between ourselves and the world… ABOUT THE SHOW SHOW SYNPOSIS Monsteria is a highly visual, sculptural and exhilarating performance that reflects on our experiences as women and fiercely and fearlessly champions women speaking out about intrusions on our lives and bodies echoing the urgency of the “me too” movement. Blending superb circus skills with theatrical exploration, it meddles with extremes of femininity - distorting stereotypes, revealing assumptions and fighting off expectations. The three performers, identities concealed, are blindly born into this world filled with constraints. They journey through highly physical and metaphoric challenges, sometimes ridiculous, playful or confounding, until they find each other as allies. Together they embrace their monstrosity. Peeling away the layers until they are completely vulnerable, they find their power. This performance is thought provoking, and empowering, resonating long after the show finishes. Everything the performers touch is brought to life in a surreal exploration of female form and experience. The circus is unique, visceral and punchy.
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This is a slow burn of beautiful images that builds to a powerful and unexpected climax. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Anna Yen, performer/ devisor/ set and costume design and construction Bianca Mackail, performer/devisor/ set and costume design and construction Mayu Muto, performer/devisor/ set and costume design and construction Celia White, director/ devisor/ set and costume design and construction BIOGRAPHIES Anna Yen is a performer, theatre maker, director, teacher and independent producer. Performance credits include: It All Begins With Love Creative Regions 2015; Electric Dragon Federation Square 2015; The Serpent’s Table Sydney Festival 2014 Griffin Theatre/Performance4A; Living in Hope Creative Development 2014; A Creation Myth - tunCLOUD; Waterwheel Installation Igneous; Phoenix Rising Woodford; Wicked Bodies La Boite / Zen Zen Zo, Fortune La Boite, Load-ed Stories QTC-Ed. Anna was a performer in the Rock'n'Roll Circus (now CIRCA) ensemble for 4 years. She received a Matilda Award Special Commendation for her one-woman show Chinese Take Away (QPAC / GumYi Productions) and toured its film adaptation (commissioned by SBS) with a performance excerpt to Asia, Europe, and USA. She has directed/devised over 20 new works. Anna was MC for Taste of Asia and the Cosmic Closing Event - BrisAsia Festival 2016, performed Hong Kong Detectives, Chinese Grandma and Wushu Broadsword at BrisAsia, 2014, and WuShu in 2013. Anna's circus specialties include slackrope, clown and object manipulation. She teaches circus, movement and physical theatre widely. Her PlayMoves - Movement Workshops for Performance is now in its 11th year. Anna has received a Best Actor (Female) Award Qld Short Film Festival, a Churchill Fellowship, and a Creative Partnerships Art and Health Award (Qld) 2014 with The Lamingtons / Wesley Mission / Griffith University. Bianca Mackail is an acrobat, aerialist and artist who combines strength, agility and flow in the air and on the floor. Co-founder of 3 is a Crowd Circus Company in 2012, she has developed and toured work extensively in Australia, Asia and Europe with companies such as Tumble Circus (Ireland), Cirque du Loin (Switzerland), Wilde Applause Creative Productions, The Crack Up Sisters, CIRCA, Aerial Angel Productions and Clowns without Borders (Sweden and Australia). A graduate of the Circoarts School in New Zealand in 2004, Bianca has also trained with specialty trainers in the Ukraine and Barcelona’s La Central del Circ, Spain. Some highlights include: taking out the “Best Circus and Physical Theatre” award in Adelaide and Perth Fringe for 3 is a Crowd’s debut show Fright or Flight and a sell-out season at Sydney Festival 2015; and hula hooping in a Typhoon storm to a 10,000 standing audience in Taipei that would not go home without a show! Over the last sixteen years, she has performed in festivals around the world such as Recklinghausen Arts Festival (Germany), Spoffin (Netherlands), Helsinger Festival (Denmark), Adelaide
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Fringe Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Sydney Festival, Woodford Folk Festival, Hoopla Festival and more throughout Sweden, Denmark and Ireland. Mayu Muto has been performing as a circus artist since 2014, specialising in unconventional aerial apparatus. Mayu began training with Vulcana Women’s Circus after a career in dance. Her circus work combines skills from dance, circus and movement and she uses unique aerial apparatuses to express images and concepts. She has been performing her unique acts at various festivals and cabaret in and around Brisbane including Melt Festival (Brisbane Powerhouse), Queensland Poetry Festival, Anywhere Theatre Festival, Mullumbimby Circus Festival and more. Most recently she has presented her new work in progress which is being created based on Japanese folktales and female monsters mentored by Celia White and supported by Vulcana Women’s Circus. Prior to discovering circus and explorative space at height, her creative outlet was dance. She has a strong background in Classical Ballet and performed extensively in Japan during her youth. She trained skills in contemporary dance and other styles of dance at Royal Antwerp Dance School in Belgium and leant to collaborate with artists from other disciplines at Frankfurt University in Germany. Apart from creating her own work, she also works as an aerialist, roving acrobat, Stilt walker and character performer for Aerialicious Entertainment and Wilde Applause Creative Production. Mayu moved to Australia and graduated from Bachelor of Science Human Movement Studies from Queensland University of Technology. DIRECTOR, Celia White, is a devisor and director of contemporary circus and physical theatre. She has a long history of work as performer, maker and director, exploring the potential of meaning originating from the body and visual language, from circus, dance, the visual arts and other inspirations. She has directed and collaborated on site-specific and contemporary theatre, community theatre and circus theatre. In 2002 she completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Movement Studies at the National Institute of Dramatic Art. She was Artistic Director of Vulcana Women’s Circus from 2003 – 2009 and created an extensive body of diverse theatre works with a wide range of community groups and emerging and professional performers. She was director of The Crash Collective, producing Outside the Safety Zone, Brisbane Powerhouse; Juice, a collaboration between kinetic sculpture, circus and performance, Brisbane Street Mall, the Adelaide Festival Fringe and the Judith Wright Centre; and Weather a suspended performance work, Judith Wright Centre and Flipside Circus. She was Artistic Director of Contact Inc 2009 – 2010 working with young people from Indigenous and Pacific Island communities in Brisbane. In 2010 she was director and consultant with Stalker Theatre Company collaborating with Circo Ciudad for XII Festival Iberoamericano de Teatro de Bogota. In 2011 she was Show Director with Circus Oz for regional touring. She directs new work with a range of independent artist across Australia, including KooKoo the Birdgirl, touring to venues in New Zealand and Australia. Celia is again Artistic Director of Vulcana Women’s Circus creating and presenting new circus work with emerging, professional and new performers. She is co-founder and co-director of Circus Corridor, creating a culture of contemporary circus on the Gold Coast and produced
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The Rising for Commonwealth Games Festival 2018. She is director and co-founder of GUSH, whose premiere work is Monsteria. PERFORMANCE SPECIFICS DURATION 60 minutes with no interval SUITABLE VENUES This show can be presented in black box venues and theatres. As a circus-based performance it requires aerial rigging capabilities. And show is suitable for intimate audiences of 100 - 300 MAXIMUM NUMBER OF PERFORMANCES PER WEEK 6 performances MINIMUM BREAK BETWEEN PERFORMANCES 120 minutes LICENCING AGREEMENTS No Licencing agreements APRA OBLIGATIONS APRA licence applied for but not yet confirmed. TOURING PERSONNEL The touring party consists of 5 people.
Name Role Anna Yen Performer Bianca Mackail Performer Mayu Muto Performer Celia White Director/ Sound operator Elyse Fitzpatrick Stage Manager
PERFORMANCE HISTORY
Year Venue Number of performances
2017 Brisbane Powerhouse 4 2017 Mullum Circus Festival 1 2018 Empire Theatre 13
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AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT OVERVIEW The ensemble are all highly experienced performance/ circus teachers and can deliver workshops to community groups and school students. They are all arts workers experienced in community engagement through their work with Vulcana Women’s Circus and other community arts organisations, in rural, remote and urban contexts. They can deliver workshop experiences to women’s groups that include basic and empowering circus and performance skills. For students, community groups and women's groups the workshops in physical theatre provide an exploration of trust and connection that circus and physical languages can engender within the workshop group. We can offer artist talks prior to performances, for those who are interested in the theatrical form, the ideas, the creative process or the pathways for working in the arts. We can offer workshops in devising, ensemble making and creating new work in movement, physical and visual based theatre. In particular the GUSH ensemble can deliver a tailored experience for women in the communities they visit, that will allow them to use their bodies in a way that proves their strength to themselves and will enrich their engagement with the work Monsteria. DESCRIPTION / DETAILS Example of physical theatre/ circus workshop, dependent on community and interest, ie schools, community groups, theatre students. 1 hour – 2.5 hours Introduction, warm up and games Basic trust building skills in circus-based activities Devising and improvisation based on learnt skills Short presentation to each other in the workshop group COST Cost will be dependent on time and numbers of participants and will be a one-off fee for presenters TARGET AUDIENCE FOR COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Physical theatre workshops for young people, or adults Circus workshops for young people or women
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MARKETING MARKETING COPY One line Monsteria, highly visual and exhilarating, thought provoking and empowering. Short Monsteria is a highly visual, sculptural and exhilarating performance that reflects on our experiences as women and fiercely and fearlessly champions women speaking out about intrusions on our lives and bodies echoing the urgency of the “me too” movement. Blending superb circus skills with theatrical exploration, it meddles with extremes of femininity - distorting stereotypes, revealing assumptions and fighting off expectations. This performance is thought provoking, and empowering, resonating long after the show finishes. The circus is unique, visceral and punchy. This is a slow burn of beautiful images that builds to a powerful and unexpected climax. Extended Monsteria is a highly visual, sculptural and exhilarating performance that reflects on our experiences as women and fiercely and fearlessly champions women speaking out about intrusions on our lives and bodies echoing the urgency of the “me too” movement. Blending superb circus skills with theatrical exploration, it meddles with extremes of femininity - distorting stereotypes, revealing assumptions and fighting off expectations. The three performers, identities concealed, are blindly born into this world filled with constraints. They journey through highly physical and metaphoric challenges, sometimes ridiculous, playful or confounding, until they find each other as allies. Together they embrace their monstrosity. Peeling away the layers until they are completely vulnerable, they find their power. This performance is thought provoking, and empowering, resonating long after the show finishes. Everything the performers touch is brought to life in a surreal exploration of female form and experience. The circus is unique, visceral and punchy. This is a slow burn of beautiful images that builds to a powerful and unexpected climax. MARKETING SUMMARY Reviews, audience responses and peer responses are available. Templates for posters and fliers are available Videos available of varying lengths for promotion on social media or website platforms
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Target audiences: Audiences interested in carnival, contemporary performance, issue-based theatre, physical theatre and dance General public interested in something and new and different Women and their communities MEDIA QUOTES AUDIENCE REVIEWS “Mesmerising from start to finish.” “We were all spellbound.” “Wow. So overwhelmed with joy and intensity, and exhilaration at the end of this show I felt like I might spontaneously combust or burst into tears. The most incredible thing I have seen in years. I could watch it again and again. Circus I hadn’t seen before. Circus that surprised me, stopped my heart, my breath, made me cheer like a mad woman. Achingly beautiful, shocking, hilarious, vulgar. Loved it!” COLLEAGUE RECOMMENDATIONS “Last night I saw 'Monsteria', and it is everything I love about physical theatre. I was brimming with wonder through the entire piece—the images these amazing women conjured lingers in my mind today. Everyday items of constructed femininity contort and take on new meaning; I so admire the rigour of not only their bodies but of their hearts and souls as they dove deep into unchartered explorations. The phenomenal cast of strong women are Bianca Mackail, Mayu Muto and Anna Yen. They are led by the direction of the incredible Celia White. Thank you so much to all of you for sharing your brilliance. My womanhood and I stand taller today. This is circus that transcends stunning physically; the work is imbued with meaning, heart and precision in every moment.” VIDEO LINKS https://vimeo.com/254816704 https://vimeo.com/254167445/5613c5e9a9
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IMAGES
Photo by Katrina Garvey
Photo by Rod Noendeng
Photo by Rod Noendeng
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Photo by Shane Smith
Photo by Katrina Garvey
Photo by Katrina Garvey
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Photo by Katrina Garvey MARKETING MATERIALS We have templates for fliers, posters and images for poster and fliers. Raw footage of performance Edited footage for promotional applications Digital images of high resolution. Example of flier:
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CONTENT WARNINGS / AUDIENCES TO AVOID Monsteria contains Unremarkable Nudity SPONSOR OR OTHER ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TEACHER’S RESOURCES No teacher’s resources for Monsteria, not appropriate for schools PRODUCTION DETAILS TECHNICAL SUMMARY Minimum rigging requirements: - 3 overhead rigging points for live load. - 3 overhead diversion points for live load (for counter weight). - 2 ground anchors for Slackrope. One of these ground anchors can double up to use for all the rigging lines. EXAMPLE SCHEDULE Rigging and set and costume bump in 9 – 1pm Sound and Qlab run through 11 – 1pm Break 1 – 2pm LX plot 2 – 4pm Technical rehearsal 4 – 6pm CREW REQUIRED FROM VENUE Rigger required for bump in and bump out. 1 x Lighting and sound operator required for bump in and season. Director can run Qlab for sound. STAGE 6 x 8 metre minimum floor space 5.5 metre Height – absolute minimum is 5 metres. Preference: between 5 – 7 metres Backstage or side stage area needed for costume changes, entries and exits. Set elements are 4 x standard domestic lamps with LED lamps and white extension chords provided by company. All ropes and rigging provided by company. Circus apparatus - lyra, rope apparatus and slack rope set up provided by company LIGHTING Lighting needs to supplement the onstage set elements that also provide light. Lighting design not yet available. Lighting rig, stock and operating desk to be supplied by venue SOUND
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All sound pre-recorded and sourced. Sound played through QLab Venue to supply Sound system and playback WARDROBE Costumes act as set pieces in some scenes. Performers are masked until near the end of performance All costumes supplied Venue to supply Dressing room necessary for dressing and warm up. The small cast doesn’t need a washing machine but if one is available it will be used for under costumes. FREIGHT NOTES Set elements need to be freighted or travel as fragile extra luggage on commercial planes. Costumes, Hula hoops and rigging equipment travel as suitcase luggage with crew. All crew and set elements can be contained in a 12-seater van suitable for regular licence. CRITICAL ISSUES Rigging capacity is critical for this show. See technical specifications. CONTACTS Company email – [email protected] Celia White – 0403 801 068 Mayu Muto – 0406 691 112
