And just like that, 2013 comes to an end for Vitalstatistix...

Our office will be closed from Monday 16 December and we will reopen on Monday 13 January. We have a massive year planned for 2014, packed with shows, residencies, events, projects, festival experiences, and our 30th birthday celebrations. 

View our 2014 program here or download it here.

We have plenty of opportunities for artists throughout the year. Here are just three which it’s worth noting in your diary and keeping an eye out for further details early in the new year:

FUTURE PRESENT: artists, primary industry & climate change
Adhocracy 2014 residency with Rosie Dennis, Artistic Director, Urban Theatre Projects, NSW
26 May – 9 June

This opportunity is open to South Australian artists. There are 10 places only; expressions-of-interest close 23 March, details released by February.

ADHOCRACY 2014: national artist hothouse
6-9 June, Queen’s birthday long weekend
Project proposals from across Australia are invited with a closing date of 31 March, details released February.  

RIVERLAND ROAD TRIP
Including tickets to BINGO Unit by Team MESS, at Chaffey Theatre, Renmark
A weekend adventure with Vitals and Country Arts SA, for artists interested in regional and community engagement. The most fun artist opportunity offered all year!
Book by 30 June.

CUTAWAY PODCASTS

Each night at Cutaway, two speakers share their musings on the future and how we can be good ancestors. You can find selected podcasts of the speeches here.

A VITAL 2014

We have a massive year planned for 2014, packed with shows, residencies, events, projects, festival experiences, and our 30th birthday celebrations. View our 2014 program here or download it here.

Cutaway - a ceremony

Book now at trybooking.com

Join us at sunset and venture into the proud Waterside Workers Hall, for a night of ceremony, performance, supper, art, ideas and transformation. This special occasion celebrates and toasts that most ungraspable of places, the future.

Created and hosted by a team of artists and locals, Cutaway – a ceremony offers up a beautiful, never-to-be-repeated experience. These ten limited-edition events, unique each night, complete the Cutaway trilogy, a series of site-specific performance and art works made about the Waterside Workers Hall over the last three years.

Friends, family, comrades, happy strangers; travel with us from the end of yesterday to the beginning of tomorrow.

Creative team: Hilary Bell, Eileen Darley, Maude Davey, Stevie Goldsmith, Sasha Grbich, Ashton Malcolm, Mark Pennington, Annalise Rees, Stephen Sheehan, Victoria Spence, Jason Sweeney, Wendy Todd, Lara Torr & Emma Webb.

With: Born on Monday Choir, Kurruru Youth Performing Arts, local residents & special guests.

20^th NOVEMBER to 1^ST DECEMBER

Wednesdays to Sundays – 10 special events only

Waterside, 11 Nile St, Port Adelaide

Please arrive from 7:30pm, no entry after 8pm

This is a 3hr event

Please bring a cold supper plate to share

$30 full; $25 concession & groups of 10+

Tickets at trybooking.com

Bookings are highly recommended

Further info about the event will be provided on booking

All funds raised will support the Waterside Workers Hall

Dress code: Make an effort!

Download the e-flyer here

Access: During Cutaway – a ceremony guests will be required to move to different locations for sections of the event. All efforts will be made to accommodate mobility and other access requirements. Please contact us to discuss if your specific access requirements. 

I'm Your Man

A Belvoir production, created by Roslyn Oades 
Presented by Vitalstatistix and Mobile States

BOOK YOUR TICKETS HERE

You enter a boxing gym: place of dreams, of glory, of a better life. The walls are covered in inspirational quotes, bodies are in constant motion and minds are elsewhere. The stakes are high. Everyone wants to be special; we all have something to prove.

For 18 months theatre-maker Roslyn Oades and her trusty tape recorder followed a determined young boxer from Bankstown, NSW, through his preparations for a world-title fight. I’m Your Man is the story of who she met along the way: past legends, up-and-comers and failed contenders whose lives have been irreversibly changed by the fight game. 

I’m Your Man is no ordinary slice-of-life. The actors wear earpieces and take their words directly from the ringsides, gyms and dressing rooms of Oades’ recordings. The result is a hyper-natural form of documentary theatre where visual appearance is rendered unreliable and the audience’s focus shifts into a heightened state of listening.

This is a surprising, sweaty, energy-fuelled study of a contemporary drama, not to be missed.

Creator & director: Roslyn Oades

Sound designer: Bob Scott

Lighting designer: Neil Simpson

Movement director: Lee Wilson (Branch Nebula)

Script dramaturg: Raimondo Cortese

Peformers: Michael Mohammed Ahmad, Billy McPherson, Katia Molino, Justin Rosniak & John Shrimpton

6 SHOWS ONLY!

7 - 11 August

8pm Wednesday - Sunday and 2pm Saturday (post show Q&A Thursday 8 August)

Waterside, 11 Nile Street, Port Adelaide

$32 full; $27 concession; $22 Fringe Benefits

Book at trybooking.com

For more information phone 84476211

Download the I'm Your Man e-flyer here.

The Vitals Book, Zine and Crafty Affair

Now over two days!

Vitals' once-a-year fundraiser is back and we'll be filling Waterside with bargain second-hand books, craft stalls and lots more in mid-July.Apart from the usual mountains of books, thius year there will be stalls selling vintage clothes, handmade jewellery, quilts and even an in-house hairdresser!

This year the event will be spread over Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 July- giving you even more time to buy-up big and support Vitalstatistix at the same time.

We'd love your old books
We're now seeking donations of good quality books, magazines and records for the Book Fair. To donate, please contact Lara on 84476211 or email program@vitalstatistix.com.au

Volunteers
If you'd like to volunteer to help sort books in the lead-up to the event or to help out on the day, we'd love to hear from you. Even a few hours of a volunteer's time is a huge help to us.

For those who are happiest turning up on the day with a few empty bags and some spare change, put these dates in your diary:

THE VITALS BOOK, ZINE & CRAFTY AFFAIR
SAT. 13 & SUN. 14 JULY
10am - 4pm
Waterside, 11 Nile Street Port Adelaide
Entry by gold coin donation

ADHOCRACY 2013 – it’s on this weekend!

DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAM HERE

Doors open from 3pm each day (Saturday, Sunday & Monday).  It’s at Waterside, 11 Nile St, Port Adelaide.

Here’s an hourly guide to how you can experience the 8 projects and 40 artists participating in this year’s hothouse.

Come early, from 3pm, and you can participate in public workshops as part of IN SPITE OF MYSELF by SANS HOTEL. Led by artist Nicola Gunn, a recipient of this year’s Australia Council Creative Australia Early Career Artist Fellowship, In Spite of Myself is an exploration of autobiography and myth-making. The team will also be presenting an exhibition all evening on Monday and a showing at 8pm on Monday. Sans Hotel’s previous work Hello My Name Is is touring Australia (including Vitals) next year as part of Mobile States.

At 4pm and then again at 7pm, each day, experience a collaborative new work by SA-based companies CLOSER PRODUCTIONS and SANDPIT (Sam Haren and Dan Koerner). RUN INTO YOURSELF is an alternate reality game, where you encounter yourself at various stages in your life, inspired by Closer’s upcoming feature film 52 Tuesdays. There are limited numbers for these showings – get in early!

Also at 4pm each day, sit down with renown South Australian sound artist TRISTAN LOUTH-ROBINS, don some headphones, and experience his process of making RECLAMATION, a solo sound work seeking out the sonic presence of the underwater natural world within the industrialised environment of Port Adelaide. Tristan will then Reclamation at 10pm on Monday.

5pm – hey it’s happy hour! And on Saturday join us for the launch of Adhocracy with guest speaker Amanda Duthie, Director/CEO, Adelaide Film Festival. On Sunday, Nicola will present an artist talk. And on Monday you can see one of three showings of OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND LET WORDS FALL OUT by DAVID WILLIAMS. Open Your Mouth and Let Words Fall Out is a movement-based experimentation with the barely coherent real-life testimony of a conman to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption. David is embarking on a number of exciting new performance projects post his 14 years with theatre company version 1.0.  His other artist talk/showings are at 8pm on Saturday and Sunday.

6pm each night join a conversation between two artists and a human rights lawyer. KAREN THERESE, BORIS MORRIS BAGATTINI and JOE TAN are collaborating across borders and time zones in their cross platform project LOVE AND BOATS, an exploration of immigration, asylum-seeking, human rights and love through the symbol of the boat and its utilisation in Australian culture.

At 7pm on Saturday and Sunday, join performance-maker MALCOLM WHITTAKER in a discussion about theatre – and more specifically: what would be the best theatre show ever? Through his project JUMPING THE SHARK FANTASTIC Malcolm is taking a not-quite-tongue-in-cheek approach to discovering and presenting the answers to this question. This is a residency model for making a new response to this question in different places, an amalgam made according to the opinions of the people where the work takes place. You can see the final showing (and possibly the answer to the question!) at 7pm on Monday. Adelaide audiences may know of Malcolm’s work through Team MESS, including their hilarious This Is It presented at the Adelaide Fringe and APAM in 2012.

At 8pm you’ll find showings of Open Your Mouth and Let Words Fall Out on Saturday and Sunday, and the final performance lecture of In Spite of Myself on Monday.

9pm each night we enter the world of truth and illusion with USE YOUR ILLUSION by BRON BATTEN. Use Your Illusion is a performance work made collaboratively with hypnotists. The work partly draws on Bron’s recent experience of another work made with other non-artists (her parents) Sweet Child of Mine, a hit at this year’s Adelaide Fringe. Plus we all get to see if Bron can be hypnotised!

And finally at 10pm on Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 on Monday, come and see FOREVER NOW. This year’s Adhocracy lead-up residency has seen ten South Australian artists and curators collaborate with WILLOH S WEILAND, JEFF KHAN, BRIAN RITCHIE and a team of other collaborators. Forever Now is a cross-artform curatorial project, making a new digital ‘golden’ data record of culture now, in the footsteps of the 1977 Voyager Golden Records. Together through this residency, the team has spent a fortnight interrogating, explaining and celebrating this endeavour, through video-based and other responses. These will be presented in three public forums, each night of Adhocracy. This is an inspired, global-reaching project not to be missed and a perfect way to end your evening.

To make everything comfortable, the Vitals bar will be open 3pm to midnight each evening, and TACO CAT will be serving their handmade Mexican food from a 1960s caravan each evening, 6 to 9:30pm.

We hope to see you this weekend!

ADHOCRACY 2013

Full program available here 

QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY LONG WEEKEND, 8^th to 10^th June

Open studios, artist talks & work-in-progress showings

3pm to midnight each evening

Waterside, 11 Nile St, Port Adelaide

Entry by donation, bar & food available

Presented by VITALSTATISTIX

Adhocracy is Vitalstatistix’s annual make ‘n’ show hothouse, inviting interdisciplinary artists from around Australia to create, converse and critique in one space (our beautiful home, Waterside) over the June Queen’s Birthday long weekend.

This is how it works: artists, selected through a national call-out, spend the long weekend in a studio environment developing new work, which can span theatre, live art, dance, sound, installation and more. They are in the early stages of the process of making and are experimenting with ideas and form. YOU can contribute to their creative process by coming along and taking part in open studios, artist talks and work-in-progress showings. To keep it comfortable and real, there’s also a BAR (open all the time) and taco cat selling their handmade Mexican food from a 1960s caravan each evening, 6 to 9:30pm.

IN 2013 there are eight projects participating in Adhocracy – see a snapshot below and download the full program here.

Forever Now

Willoh S Weiland, Jeff Khan, Brian Ritchie, Thea Baumann & collaborators

A cross-artform curatorial project, making a new digital ‘golden’ data record of culture now, in the footsteps of the 1977 Voyager Golden Records.

In Spite of Myself   

SANS HOTEL            

An exploration of autobiography and myth-making, through a performance lecture and retrospective exhibition on the fictional career of a preeminent performance artist.

Jumping the Shark Fantastic      

MALCOLM WHITTAKER                

A research and residency model for discovering and presenting ‘the best theatre show ever’ according to the people where the work takes place.

Love and Boats

KAREN THERESE, Boris Morris Bagattini & JOE TAN     

An exploration of immigration, asylum-seeking, human rights and love through the symbol of the boat and its utilisation in Australian culture.

Open Your Mouth and Let Words Fall Out

DAVID WILLIAMS               

A movement-based experimentation with the barely coherent real-life testimony of a conman to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption. 

Reclamation           

TRISTAN LOUTH-ROBINS             

A solo sound work seeking out the sonic presence of the underwater natural world within the industrialised environment of Port Adelaide.

Run Into Yourself  

CLOSER PRODUCTIONS/SANDPIT                      

An alternate reality game, where you encounter yourself at various stages in your life, inspired by Closer Production’s upcoming feature film 52 Tuesdays.

Use Your Illusion   

BRON BATTEN                    

A performance work investigating truth and illusion, made collaboratively with a professional clinical hypnotist.

Download an e-flyer for Adhocracy 2013 here

Curated by Paul Gazzola, Jason Sweeney & Emma Webb

Twitter: #Adhocracy2013 and #ForeverNow

OPAL VAPOUR

TO BOOK VISIT TRYBOOKING.COM

Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal
in collaboration with Paula van Beek & Ria Soemardjo

Presented by Vitalstatistix & Mobile States

Against a shimmering terrain of shadow and sand, a contemporary ritual inspired by ancient Java is danced and sung of mountains, bones and ghostly rivers.

Created across two countries, Australia and Indonesia, Opal Vapour explores ceremony, rites of passage and a deep sense of belonging to a place of birth. This powerful performance integrates contemporary choreography, Javanese Wayang Kulit shadow puppetry, and mesmerising live voice and projection.

Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal moves fluidly between powerful physical states that balance graceful Javanese classical traditions with adventurous contemporary dance.  Her sinuous transformation is held by Ria Soemardjo’s pure voice and evocative score. Performed in the moment, both artists are transported through time by Paula van Beek’s sublime lighting landscapes and shadow play.

Winner, Best Dance Show, Melbourne Fringe 2012

“Dancer and choreographer Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal has developed a unique and mesmerizing style of movement.” The Age

Direction & choreography: Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal

Dance performance: Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal 

Music composition & performance: Ria Soemardjo

Textile & costume design: Ria Soemardjo

Lighting, AV & set design: Paula van Beek

Sound design consultant: Kelly Ryall

8^TH to 12^TH MAY – five shows only

8pm Wednesday to Saturday, 6pm Sunday

Waterside, 11 Nile St, Port Adelaide
$30 full; $25 concession; $22 Fringe Benefits

Book at trybooking.com

For more info ph 8447 6211

Vitalstatistix are also offering a workshop with the Opal Vapour artists. More info here.

Download the Opal Vapour e-flyer here.

www.opalvapour.com.au

Twitter: #OpalVapour

DUST

Presented by Hupcap Productions

Supported by Vitalstatistix & featuring Born on Monday

Dust is a peek into Australian homes from the not too distant past, when families were exposed to asbestos through domestic products like toothpaste, playdough, hair dryers and cigarette filters - all made with asbestos!

Written by Donna Jackson, Dust takes its audience on an almighty journey performed by local singers and performers alongside professional actors and Mark Seymour from Hunters & Collectors.

By the 1950s a quarter of all houses built in Australia were clad with asbestos cement sheets. It was used by handymen to knock up a boat shed or add an extra room on the family home until the late 1980s. Their overalls were washed by women and the asbestos dust residue swept up by their children. Currently there are hundreds of people facing asbestos-related illness with diagnosis’ expected to peak in the year 2020. 

Far from depressing, Dust is joyous and inspirational. Like the people who battled James Hardie Industries and won, Dust represents guts, determination and the fighting spirit of working people. 

FIVE SHOWS ONLY

7.30pm, Friday 3^rd MAY

2pm & 7.30pm, Saturday 4^th MAY

2pm, Sunday 5^th MAY

Queens Theatre, Playhouse Lane, Adelaide 

Book at trybooking.com

Download more info about Dust here.

Twitter: #Dust and #DustatQueens

TWO GREAT OPPORTUNITIES FOR ARTISTS

Adhocracy 2013

7 – 10 June

Adhocracy is Vitalstatistix’s annual make ‘n’ show hothouse, inviting interdisciplinary artists to create, converse and critique in one space (our beautiful home, Waterside, Port Adelaide) over the June Queen’s Birthday long weekend.

This is how it works. Selected artists spend the long weekend in an open studio environment developing new work, which can span theatre, live art, dance, sound, installation and more. Audiences engage with the artists, their projects and their creative process through a public program of artist talks and work-in-progress showings. To keep it comfortable and real, there’s also a bar and one of Adelaide’s boutique food vans joins us for the ride each year too.

We are now seeking proposals from artists across Australia for this unique creative development opportunity. We will select between five and seven projects for participation.

ALL THE INFO ON HOW TO APPLY IS HERE 

This opportunity is open to artists from across Australia

Applications due Friday 12 April

See a short video about Adhocracy 2012 here
See the 2012 Adhocracy program here 

#Adhocracy2013

FOREVER NOW

artists-in-residence project at Vitalstatistix for Adhocracy 2013

Forever Now is a cross-artform curatorial project that responds to our cultural obsession with immortalising ourselves. In the footsteps of the Voyager Golden Records, sent into space in 1977 by NASA as a record of culture and science at that time, Forever Now will research, curate and spectacularly launch a digital ‘golden’ data record of culture NOW.

For Adhocracy 2013, Vitals is hosting a residency with Forever Now curators Willoh S Weiland (Artistic Director, APHIDS, VIC), Jeff Khan (Co-Director, Performance Space, NSW), Brian Ritchie (Curator, MONA FOMA, TAS), Thea Baumann (independent artist) and other guest artists.

WE ARE SEEKING 10 SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS AND THINKERS TO JOIN THIS RESIDENCY (27^th May to 10^th June)

ALL THE INFO ON HOW TO APPLY IS HERE 

This opportunity is open to South Australian-based artists

Applications due Monday 1 April

#ForeverNow

FOREVER NOW

Artists-in-residence project at Vitalstatistix for Adhocracy 2013

WE ARE SEEKING 10 SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ARTISTS AND THINKERS TO JOIN THE FOREVER NOW RESIDENCY 
27^th May to 10^th June

Collaborating with lead artists Willoh S Weiland, Jeff Khan, Brian Ritchie & Thea Baumann

Expressions of interest now open, due Monday 1^st April

Don’t miss this incredible opportunity!

Forever Now is a cross-artform curatorial project that responds to our cultural obsession with immortalising ourselves. In the footsteps of the Voyager Golden Records, sent into space in 1977 by NASA as a record of culture and science at that time, Forever Now will research, curate and spectacularly launch a digital ‘golden’ data record of culture NOW.

For Adhocracy 2013, Vitals is hosting a residency with Forever Now curators Willoh S Weiland (Artistic Director, APHIDS, VIC), Jeff Khan (Co-Director, Performance Space, NSW), Brian Ritchie (Curator, MONA FOMA, TAS), Thea Baumann (independent artist) and other guest artists.

In a finger to the ‘best of humanity’ framework of Voyager, the artists are looking at the queer, the horrible, the sustainable and the precious, alongside the possibilities for digital democracy. An initial catalogue of content will be launched at the 19^th International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA 2013) in June. Following a global public submission and response process, the Forever Now record will be spectacularly sent into space by Florida’s Deep Space Communications team, to coincide with MONA FOMA, January 2014.

During our Adhocracy 2013 residency, ten selected SA artists, curators and creative producers will help prepare the ISEA 2013 presentation. You will collaborate with the Forever Now curators to interrogate, explain and celebrate the initial choices of the record by making video-based and other responses. In three public forums, each night of Adhocracy, both the Forever Now works and the responses will be presented.

All the info on the residency and how to apply is here

#ForeverNow #Adhocracy2013

We're back...

­Download our 2013 program here

Download a media release about what’s in store here

We are back on deck, ready for a jam-packed 2013.  First up is Margie Fischer’s solo, autobiographical show The Dead Ones, presented for the Adelaide Fringe, and theatre-maker David Williams’ Incubator residency developing Quiet Faith, a new documentary performance work charting the entanglement of religious faith and contemporary Australian politics.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR ARTISTS THROUGHOUT 2013

Throughout 2013 we are offering a range of professional development opportunities for artists – and to make it easier for you to plan, we have listed them below. Most involve either an expression-of-interest process or at the very least a registration or RSVP. More information on each will be posted here as it becomes available. In the meantime please email Lara at program@vitalstatistix.com.au to register your interest and receive more info about particular opportunities.

QUIET FAITH David Williams

Artist talk and work-in-progress showing

Wednesday Feb 27^th from 3-5pm at La Boheme

Limited numbers, RSVP essential

FOREVER NOW residency, 27^th May – 10^th June

Ten places only, for South Australian artists

Expressions-of-interest due 31^st March – more info coming very soon!

ADHOCRACY 2013, 8^th – 10^th June

Call for projects: creative development opportunity for Australian artists

Proposals due 12^th April – info available in March

DANCE MASTERCLASS with Jade Dewi Tyas Tunggal

Fri 10^th May TBC, limited places, registration essential

DOCUMETARY THEATRE MASTERCLASS with version 1.0

Saturday 22^nd June, 11am – 3pm

Limited places, registration essential, $50 incl lunch & a ticket to The Table of Knowledge on 21^st June

THE THINGS I SHOULD BE SORRY FOR Chris Scherer

Work-in-progress showing, July, date and details TBC

VERBATIM THEATRE MASTERCLASS with Roslyn Oades

Fri 9^th Aug TBC, limited places, registration essential

INCUBATOR RESIDENCIES call for proposals
Applications for our 2014 Incubator residency program
Info available July, applications close 31st August

FARRUGIA Torque Show

Work-in-progress showing, December, date and details TBC

Stay in touch with updates and opportunities throughout the year by subscribing to the Vitalstatistix e-news bulletin here

Now showing in Melbourne...

THE DEAD ONES

Presented by Margie Fischer, in association with Vitalstatistix

The Dead Ones explores death, memory, family and the power of objects through storytelling and photography.

Margie Fischer’s parents were Austrian Jews who fled from Vienna to China to escape the Holocaust. After 10 years in Shanghai they came to Australia as refugees. 

Margie lived with her extended family in the house her father built in Sydney. Her grandparents died there, so did her brother. When both her parents also died Margie was left to clear out and sell the house. While doing this she became fascinated with what is left when loved ones die. Throughout this time she documented her feelings and the processes involved. 

Part obituary, part theatre, part slideshow, part lecture, part wake, part homage to William Yang, this life-affirming solo performance is the first created by Margie Fischer since her critically acclaimed award-winning show The Gay Divorcee.

“Deceptive in its simplicity, deftly weighted, beautifully detailed.” The Australian 

“Raw and beautiful.” The Advertiser

Writer and performer: Margie Fischer

Director: Catherine Fitzgerald

Designer: Kathryn Sproul

Lighting Design: Justin Pennington

ADELAIDE FRINGE

20^th FEB to 3^rd MARCH

7pm Wednesday to Sunday

2pm 23^rd Feb & 2^nd March

5pm 24^th Feb & 3^rd March

The Chapel, Migration Museum, 82 Kintore Avenue, Adelaide 

$23 full; $18 concession

Tickets through FringeTIX at adelaidefringe.com.au or ph 1300 621 255

MELBOURNE SEASON

29^th JAN to 3^rd FEB

7.30pm, 29^th Jan to 2^nd Feb

2pm Sat 2^nd Feb

5pm Sun 3^rd Feb

Theatre Works, 14 Acland St, St Kilda 

$30 full; $22 concession

Tickets from theatreworks.org.au, ph 03 95343388 or at the door

You can read an article about Margie and The Dead Ones here

Twitter: #TheDeadOnes