Unique performance co-created by VCA Theatre students to feature at Alter State festival
An innovative durational performance event created by Joshua Pether in collaboration with Bachelor of Fine Arts (Theatre) students from the Victorian College of the Arts at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music will feature as part of disability-led arts initiative Alter State 2024.
The performance piece PHASES explores the notion of duration, with each iteration of the work over three consecutive nights conceived as an extension of the performance the night before.
Created by First Nations artist and choreographer Joshua Pether in collaboration with VCA Theatre students, with dramaturgical support from Senior Lecturer in Theatre Dr Sarah Austin, PHASES builds upon Pether’s interest in duration and ritual practice to create a ceremony that extends beyond the walls of the performance space. During each 3.5-hour performance, audiences are invited to come and go for the duration of the event.
Dr Austin said the process for creating the durational work, which involved long silent group walks, finding artefacts together, and improvised performance, is a first for VCA Theatre students.
“We haven’t really done something like this before,” said Dr Austin. “PHASES gives our second-year Bachelor of Fine Arts (Theatre) cohort – a number of whom identify as neurodivergent and/or disabled – the opportunity to learn from, and work alongside, a leading disabled performance maker.”
“The piece evolves over the course of three consecutive days and bears all the hallmarks of Joshua Pether’s work – exploring ideas of ritual, place, and time. Joshua has brought his theatre-making process to our students, and together they have co-created a performance work that is contemporary, experimental, and very singular.”
Joshua said: “working with the students from the VCA and Sarah Austin has been a fascinating process for me. To see how the process has evolved with Sarah’s expertise and assistance over the past few weeks has been a real eye opener and to see where the students were from the time we started to where they are today is astounding. Melbourne is in for a real treat over the course of these three days.”
PHASES features as part of Arts Centre Melbourne’s disability-led arts initiative Alter State. The performances take place on 3, 4, and 5 October from 6pm - 9.30pm. Find out more.