About the Company – Latest News!
Announcing…
Barking Spider Visual Theatre has a stack of new projects rolling out this year – plus exciting updates on existing projects:
The Memorandium a work that will evoke the audience’s memories through objects, interactive & improvised story-telling and puppetry.
This work had two creative development periods last year, with showings at La Mama Theatre, at the 2011 7th biennial International Museum Theatre Alliance conference at the National Gallery of Victoria, and at The Village Festival in Fitzroy’s Edinburgh Gardens. This year, with support from Arts Victoria and the Ian Potter Cultural Trust, we will further develop and present a season of The Memorandium at Theatre Works, St. Kilda, in August this year. We have a residency at Fitzroy High School (FHS), and will be developing and rehearsing at the school with selected students participating. Additionally, Barking Spider Artists will be running workshops with FHS students in various theatre-arts disciplines – puppetry – making and performance, lighting design, percussion, installation creation, physical theatre, production, improvisation, story telling & creation, and creative development processes.
Season Dates:
Preview – Thursday August 16th
Opening: Friday August 17th
Season Close – Saturday September 1st.
(Booking info to be announced closer to season)
Barking Spiders’ Big Butterflies
Our gorgeous new butterflies – Penelope & Ulysses, took their maiden flights on at the AlburyCity Picnic in the Gardens event in November, and have been flitting about other events around Victoria ever since. CLICK HERE to see them at the Northcote Kris Kringle Market, and HERE for the Butterfly Webpage.
Barking Spider at Heide Museum of Modern Art
Mother’s Day
Barking Spider Visual Theatre presents Tea & Secrets in the Heart Garden at Heide. Treat mum – treat yourself -to a beautiful, poetic and inspirational event. Become enchanted by Sunday Reed and her story while sipping chamomile tea in the Heart Garden. Write your own heart-secret to post in Sunday’s letterbox.
DATE & TIME: Mother’s Day, Sunday 13 May, 11am-1pm
COST: Free
VENUE: Heart Garden, Heide I
Education Week 2012
Follow the leader to explore and compare indoor and outdoor art works in the Heide Collection, exhibitions, sculpture park and gardens. Children work with a Barking Spider Visual Theatre artist to discover and explore ways to use artworks as a catalyst for imaginative inquiry, then work together to create a large drawing inspired by the experience. CLICK HERE for info.
Arts Victoria – Extended School’s Residency:
Barking Spider Visual Theatre and Dandenong West Primary School
This year, with support from Arts Victoria, we have an Extended School’s Residency with Dandenong West Primary. 90 children, from year levels 4 & 5, will participate in the creation of a hybrid work, using art installation, sound design, puppetry and physical theatre. The theme of the work is “Am I Different”.
Children will create a series of art installations and performances, which will be developed from exploration of a variety of sensory materials sourced from Dandenong market. The sensory materials will provide the springboards into puppetry, performance, sound design, story creation & telling and installation creation workshops. From these workshops, the artists will guide the development of the final works, which will have a public display/performance outcome.
Artists engaged are:
Nat Grant (sound design & percussion), Dan Goronszy (shadow puppetry & physical theatre) and Penelope Bartlau (puppetry, story creation, art installation & overall project artistic director). the Barking Spider team will be working with kids & school teachers staff across terms 2 & 3, with the presentation at the end of term 3 – dates soon to be announced.
Just Done….
Heide 30th Birthday Celebration Weekend – We designed the event entertainment spots, around celebration themes “Art, Architecture & Landscape”. Gorgeous girls in ’50s outfits making the Biggest Heide Birthday Card!
The Big Hand for the opening night of Big West Festival – This large-scale community-based puppetry project created for the opening night of Big West Festival in November 2011. Barking Spider artist Penelope Bartlau worked with children from Footscray North Primary School to create lantern puppets, and she directed the puppetry segment of the opening night performance. Snuff Puppets provided the Big Hand, and the Melbourne Museum the Federation Hand Bells which will underscore the puppetry event, music was directed by Karen Berger. CLICK HERE for more details about the event.
Stories of Sunshine – Our presentation of “Stories of Sunshine” for City of Brimbank, an evening of site-specific, local and history-based puppetry performance as part of the local “After Dark” series. The work was incredibly beautiful, funny and deeply satisfying for the local community – Stay tuned for updates as we may be presenting the work again at different sites in the West in 2012. CLICK HERE for more details about the event
Barking Spider Philosophy
Established in 2006, Barking Spider Visual Theatre is a Melbourne-based puppetry and visual theatre company that develops and presents work to diverse audiences across ages and cultures, in Australia and internationally. The company members are dedicated to excellence in the form and practice of theatre, with a collaborative creative process. With illusion and transformation as the guiding aesthetic, Barking Spider aims to generate beautiful and truthful work that challenges habits of perspective and which allows audiences to feel, to delight, to dream and to be inspired.
It was incorporated in September 2006 and is on the Register of Cultural Organisations (ROCO), holds current Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) and Tax Concession Charity (TCC) status as well as is registered for GST. The ABN is 86 698 299 732.
All of the members/board of Barking Spider Visual Theatre Inc. reside in Melbourne.
Barking Spider Visual Theatre Objectives
Barking Spider Visual Theatre is a company aiming for excellence in form and practice and which seeks to work with artists from various backgrounds and disciplines.
Our Aims are:
To create excellence in the form and practice of theatre, with an emphasis on puppetry and visual theatre. To foster an open, spontaneous and uninhibited atmosphere of creation.
To develop a holistic working process, which ensures all aspects of production work together to create pieces defined by harmony and excellence.
To develop, promote and present work to diverse audiences across ages and cultures, in Australia and internationally.
To create beautiful and truthful work which allows the audience to feel, to delight and to dream.
To inspire wonder and awe. To transport audiences into new, complete and extraordinary worlds, so that they may see their own with fresh eyes.
Brief History – Older Stuff
Over the past five years BSVT has developed and produced no less than 16 productions, and when counting additional co-productions, workshops and current works in development, the company’s output to date comes to 31 works. Many of these works have had continuing lives: with tours and subsequent presentations to their premieres.
2010
Home – Albury Library-Museum & Art Gallery – “Home”, was a hybrid-arts project for children and adults, integrating art and historical objects in an exploration of what “home” means. The project combined visual arts, theatre arts, history and interactive storytelling for children and for adults.
In 2010 BSVT collaborated with Hoa Pham in her development & presentation of “Silence”, with two successful La Mama seasons and a outer Melbourne tour through Six-Pack.
Other 2010 works include BSVT a percussion meets object puppetry piece, “Page Turner”, an addition to our earlier collaborative piece “Breakfast Serial”.
In November ’10 we developed and presented “Beardo – A Tableaux Vivant”, an art performance work for Hawthorn Art Gallery ‘Beardo” exhibition. Beardo is now available for roving performances.
In August 2010, BSVT collaborated with Gorkem Acaroğlu, Creative Producer and Melbourne Workers Theatre to develop “The Revolution Will Be Televised” – TV pilot. Penelope Bartlau curated the event and filming of the television pilot. Jason Lehane assisted as lighting advisor, and Sarah Walker was event photographer. “The Revolution Will Be Televised” will screen on Channel 31 in 2011.
BSVT attended the Museums Australia conference in Melbourne, during September ’10. Penelope Bartlau and Maria McGann presented an abstract/workshop Reinventing Community Heritage for a Contemporary Audience.
2009
In 2009 we created “The Biscuit Readings”, a one-on-one interactive theatrical work which has performed at various festivals and events in Melbourne, regional Victoria, Sydney, Tasmania and in Adelaide at WomAdelaide in Feb ’10. At the Regional Arts Victoria AGM in Dunkeld, Victoria, Coburg Carnevale and Kew Courthouse Arts Launch most recently. Sponsored by Arnott’s. Additionally – our biggest news – The Biscuit Readings was launched online 2011.
Also in ’09 we created children’s work (with children involved in the development of the work) called “Short Pants No Holes“, premiering at La Mama for Kids, with performances at ArtPlay and Northcote Kids. “Short Pants No Holes” was invited to “Out the Box” puppetry festival in South Africa in May ’10.”Short Pants No Holes” has ongoing city and regional performances booked. We recently attracted a touring agent for Asian tours, Japan Global Network, in December 2010.
See the You Tube Link for “Short Pants No Holes”.
In 2009 artists Jason Lehane and Penelope Bartlau toured to Wagga Wagga, NSW, to present 3 days of workshops in theatre-making, object puppetry, Bunraku puppetry and Bouffon, with Gearstick Theatre.
In 2009 we also developed, created, management and presented a large community-based project “Invisible Connections” – The Wangaratta Heritage Theatre Project. This project was researched and developed from local history and objects. We worked with kids and adults across the whole production and presentation, from the ground up in research, to the creation of an art installation, to developing performances.
2008
In 2008 we produced “The Keeper”, with Canberra artist Chrissie Shaw, funded by Arts ACT. “The Keeper” had successful seasons at Canberra’s Street Theatre, La Mama, Melbourne, and is currently touring regional Victoria (RAV Funding) and NSW.
In June ‘08 we created two children’s shows commissioned by the Immigration Museum: “Chinese Shadow Tales” for the focus on China (January) and “Bunraku Baby” for Japan Day (July).
Also in ‘08, Barking Spider was also instrumental in assisting indigenous artist Jacob Boheme obtain funds from Arts Victoria and City of Melbourne for his large-scale community project “Stories from the Birrarung”.
2007
In 2007, we toured “Hatch”, a puppetry work for children, to three major Arts Festivals in India, with support from DFAT/Australia Council, Visy and the Handspan Visual Theatre Travelling Scholarship.
In this year BSVT travelled to Europe where various company members collaborated with Czech puppeteers for a performance of “Windows” at the Prague Quadrennial.
Also in 2007, “Dispatch” received the RE Ross Trust Playwrights’ Script Development Award. In ’08 “Dispatch” toured to Adelaide for the ASSITEJ Festival &; Brisbane for Brisbane Festival, supported by Myer Foundation. In February ’10 “Dispatch” completed a very successful season at 45 Downstairs funded by City of Melbourne.
