Projects in Development

The Memorandium

Talking Head – A Storytelling Machine.

Using a travelling carnie-sideshow-circus aesthetic, harkening from the late 19th early 20th century. We will be creating a series of six to eight stories, which can be adapted to our touring location using the principles of Commedia Dell Arte.

The show will be housed in an hexagonal, wooden carousal-type structure, on a self-contained revolve. Each side of the hexagon will house a series of shadow screens, puppets, dioramas, lights etc. which can either tell a single story or rotate during shows – so audiences can see a variety of different shows in the one “arena”. We plan that each show will run for only 10-15 minutes, and be limited to an audience of up to 12 – 20 (to be determined) in a tent-type structure ideally or some other small venue.

The centre-piece, the voice and eyes, of each story will be a talking, disembodied head – a freak that is imprisoned in the machine, yet is sustained by it. The person playing the head will operate some of the puppetry, while the Show Master will command and entreat the audience (like the medicine men of yore) – seducing audiences in. Additionally, the Show master will be available to operate other puppets and technical elements of the show.

The dynamic between the Head and the Master will be a source of intrigue and understated horror: who really has the control? This is the underlying tension in all the stories – nothing stated – all implied through performance/non-verbal cues.

We want to make some great, quirky art and take it regional – to travel Australia with what we love: a taste of the bizarre, with a beautiful aesthetic underpinned by stories that are engaging and have been structured to adapt to include local content (politics/town personalities/history etc). Rather than developing a single show and performing it again and again we want people to come to Talking Head without knowing what story they will hear or see but with a desire to experience and be immersed in the world we create.

For our first Creative Development the team is:

Jason Lehane – designer/director

Penelope Bartlau- writer/artistic director/producer

Danielle Goronszy – Maker

Sayraphim Lothian – Maker

Sarah Walker – maker/documenter

We have support of Melbourne Workers Theatre at North Melbourne Town Hall Arts House May 16th – 29th, 2011

Workshops

To add to our slate of available workshops, we are proposing to create a Children’s Theatre Making Group, with whom we can develop and create works for children.