More Postcards from the Verge
Curated by Catherine Magill and Peter Trotman
Friday 20 October, 7pm—8:30pm
Sylvia Staehli Theatre
Postcards from the Verge – Tales from the year-that-was as we glide through the present and into the beyond. Glimpses, dreams, reflections, vignettes, worlds, and words that teeter on the edge of existence and the unknown.
During 2023, three events called On The Verge will have been hosted at Dancehouse to offer physically based performers a sustained opportunity to practise their skills of improvisation. In Postcards from the Verge several of the participants will perform pieces of expanded duration.
Performers: Lindy Ferguson, Des Barry, Rosie Fayman, Jay Clarke, Suzie J. Jarmain, Bronwen Kamasz and Edwina Entwistle
Curators: Peter Trotman and Catherine Magill
Catherine Magill and Peter Trotman each have over 30 – 40 years experience as Improvised Performance artists. Leading practitioners of the form they have taught and performed both nationally and internationally. Both artists work with movement and text and are known for their strong sense of theatre, clever repartee and diverse movement styles.
Lindy Ferguson has a background in contemporary dance, non-mainstream theatre, music and the arts. She has a longstanding somatic practice which grounds her creativity and underscores her improvisational approach. Lindy has performed at Adelaide Arts Festival, Melbourne Fringe, Comedy Festival, The Bicentennial, Spolleto Festival among others.
She is currently working with the improvisational trio, Rock Paper Scissors (Sarah Cathcart, Edwina Entwistle)
Des Barry is a dancer and storyteller. Introduced to Butoh by Yumi Umiumare, he followed up with Helen Smith, Kan Katsura, Seisaku and Yuri Nagaoka, and Yumiko Yoshioka. He performed with Takashi Takaguchi and Caesar in Kan Katsura’s choreography Psychic Wind; with Alicia Jones and Theatre of Thunder in Surreal Flesh; and his solo piece, Mourning my Mother, at Haiku Studio, Brisbane. His multiplatform novel, Far South, published by Serpent’s Tail under the heteronym David Enrique Spellman, is a collaboration with actors and dancers. It was performed at The Laugharne Weekend in Wales. His novels The Chivalry of Crime, A Bloody Good Friday, and Cressida’s Bed were published by Jonathan Cape; short prose in The New Yorker, Granta, London Noir (Serpent’s Tail), Wales, Half Welsh (Bloomsbury); and for Writing in the Expanded Field vol 3, at ACCA. He writes nonfiction at www.3ammagazine.com . Some film experiments are at www.vimeo.com/mrdes
Rosie Fayman has been learning practicing and performing improvised vocal/movement for about 30 years or more. She has worked with a number of experienced teachers and has had regular long term practice commitments with peers. She is committed to a long lived, daily movement practice which supports her explorations in improvisation.
Jay Clarke is a recovering ex-professional performing artist and delights in being an amateur. Their interests include art in public space and playing around the boundaries of things. Jay is very happy and grateful to be part of the Melbourne improvisation community.
Suzie J. Jarmain is an actor, actor-trainer and writer having multiple degrees due to an obsession with knowledge and creativity. She trained in acting within the School of Creative Arts at Wollongong University (AUS), University of New England (AUS), Victorian College of the Arts (AUS), Monash University (AUS), Michael Chekhov Association (US), Royal Scottish Academy of Dramatic Art (UK) and in solo improvisation with On the Verge (Dancehouse) and at Cecil Street Studios (AUS). Suzie has worked with world-wide companies such as: National Theatre of Scotland (UK), BBC Scotland (UK), Traverse Theatre (UK), The Arches (UK), North Edinburgh Arts Centre (UK), Performance Space (AUS), Melbourne Theatre Company (AUS), La Mama (AUS), Victorian College of the Arts (AUS), Monash University (AUS), NIDA Open and Melbourne Actors Guild (AUS). She is a recipient of the Phillip Parson’s Prize for performance-as-research from the Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies (ADSA, AUS).
Melbourne based artist, Bronwen Kamasz, has been honing her skills as an improviser for several years. Originally a sculptural installation artist, Bronwen has blended her experience with material in space to the body in space to create a kinaesthetic experience for the viewer that investigates the psychosocial space of the gallery/stage. Bronwen is a core member of Environmental Performance Authority (EPA) who create site specific and participatory walking performances.
Always happy to pick up old threads from the past, Bronwen has been delving into printmaking and alternative photography processes such as frottage and sun printing, as they rely on immediate relationships to built and natural environments.
Edwina Entwistle has spent much of her life performing in one capacity or another. She began theatre in earnest in the drama club at Heatherdale primary school to great critical acclaim from her drama teacher and her Mum. She has explored many forms of theatre including cabaret, puppetry, experimental, community theatre and comedy. Her love of performance saw her tour with companies such as West, Sidetrack, Etc., Out, The Partyline, Death Defying, The Signoras, to name a few. Edwina continues her exploration of improvisation with emerging group, Rock, Paper, Scissors. We will have to wait to see what happens in the end …