WE HAVE MOVED!

We now have a brand new website! Join us at vitalstatistix.com.au
the new home for all things Vitalstatistix. 

ST. JEROME’S LANEWAY FESTIVAL Hart’s Mill, Port Adelaide

Friday 6 February

Australia’s premier indie music event, St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival, returns to Port Adelaide in 2015. 

The iconic, heritage-listed Hart’s Mill and the Port River will be the backdrop to live performances from an incredible line-up of international and Australian artists, featuring tomorrow's superstars alongside the best of the underground.

Each year Vitalstatistix partners with Laneway to turn our venue Waterside into an artful indoor haven within the festival precinct, featuring the work of South Australian artists and musicians.

In 2015 Waterside will transform into a glammed-up industrial streetscape, designed by artist Celeste Aldahn. Two video art works will invite you to see people within a city landscape in very different ways. A new iteration of Paul Gazzola’s Street Walks series, filmed in Port Adelaide, depicts the meditative and durational act of walking; Lewis Godwin’s work, comprising archival footage alongside live filming at Waterside, is an analogue psychedelic collage of the music festival experience itself. 

Throughout the day enjoy Untzz, a collective of DJs and producers direct from the Adelaide underground who release heavyweight dance records on 12” vinyl only. The label has so far avoided being pigeonholed releasing forward-thinking techno, dub, house, disco and beyond.

Vitalstatistix Creative Producer, Emma Webb, says “Following the great collaboration last year with Format Collective, we are thrilled to work with the Laneway team again to provide opportunities for South Australian artists within this iconic festival and to create a great experience within our hall as part of the day.”

“Each year we plan to invite and commission artists and artist-run-initiatives to create a new space within our heritage-listed hall, and in 2015 we are delighted to work with Celeste Aldahn, Paul Gazzola, Lewis Godwin and Untzz.”

“Festival goers can find a specially designed bar environment here at Waterside and be treated to experimental video art alongside great local DJs.”

For info, the full line up and tickets see adelaide.lanewayfestival.com.au

Waterside is open within the festival precinct, for Laneway ticket holders only, from 12-9pm. 

What a year it's been!

Thanks to Matt Barlow/Five Thousand for the photo

As we head into the final few weeks of 2014, we'd like to thank everyone who has helped us celebrate our 30th birthday over the last month... in fact over the whole year! 

Very soon we will be announcing our plans for an artful haven at Waterside as part of St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival in February – stay tuned next week for details!

In early 2015, we'll be launching our exciting plans for the new year as well as a brand new website. We can’t wait to share this with you.

Our office will be closed from 18 December and will reopen on 15 January.

MAN O MAN

Mish Grigor
Presented by Vitalstatistix
A FREE PERFORMANCE EVENT
7PM FRIDAY 14 NOVEMBER
11 NILE STREET, PORT ADELAIDE

Man O Man is a new residency-made live art work by NSW-based performance maker Mish Grigor. Sitting at the crossroads of performance, artist talk, installation and public meeting, Man O Man starts from the provocation: what would we say, formally, on the last night of patriarchy?

Over the course of a month a team of women write speeches, together and alone. These speeches form a series of imagined futures, with multiple feminisms and disparate ideas. At the conclusion of their time together a town hall meeting is held.

Perhaps it is The Last Night of the World as We Know It. The Arnott’s biscuits are laid out, the urn is turned on. A speaker steps towards the lectern and the conversation begins.

Man O Man is a musing on feminism, the performance of gender and the act of conjuring the future through text and speech. Please join us for the formalities.

Creative teamLead artist-in-residence: Mish Grigor
Creative producer: Emma Webb
Collaborating artists: Anne Thompson, Celeste Aldhan, Jane Howard, Josephine Were
Project interns: Gemma Beale (assistant); Meg Wilson (event design); Sophie Byrne (documentation)

MAN O MAN is a free performance event (though donations are always welcome)
RSVP is not required
7pm Friday 14 November
Waterside, 11 Nile St, Port Adelaide

THE VITALSTATISTIX COMMUNITY FAIR

Sunday 9 November

10am to 4pm

11 Nile Street, Port Adelaide

Entry by Gold Coin Donation

Please come and support our annual fundraiser and 30^th Birthday celebration. Join in all the fun of the fair and learn more about what’s happening in Port Adelaide! 

Second hand books

Art and craft stalls

Food vendors

Coffee vendors

Live entertainment

Sausage sizzle

Raffles

Free 30^th Birthday cake (and cake competition!)

Tours of historic Waterside Workers Hall

Interested in becoming a stallholder? It's just $30 to take part and we've still got room for more stalls. Contact our Program Coordinator, Lara, for more information at program@vitalstatistix.com.au or on 84476211.

      

HER STORY session 5: Emma Webb (2010 to NOW)

Throughout the year, Vitalstatistix is presenting HER STORY - Sunday afternoon sessions hosted by the artistic leaders from our thirty-year history. As a full set or as a solo experience, HER STORY is a delightful, personal glimpse into Adelaide’s feminist theatre history and the story of Vitalstatistix.

Join us for the final HER STORY session, presented by our current Creative Producer, Emma Webb, who joined the company in 2010.

Over Emma’s nearly five years at Vitalstatistix she has consolidated a focus on contemporary performance, experimentation, interdisciplinary projects and a new national engagement for the company. Her time has also seen the completion of a significant heritage restoration of our venue, Waterside Workers Hall.

Emma will talk about the exciting path Vitals has taken over recent years and bring our five-part HER STORY conversation up to the present day, with a nod to the future. Her presentation will be interspersed by a personal selection of songs performed by Eileen Darley, Ashton Malcolm and Anthony Pak Poy.

Our foodie theme for the final HER STORY is an old school sausage sizzle with vego options (a warm up for the following weekend’s community fair!) and a fruity Pimms punch at the bar.

3-5pm SUNDAY 2 NOVEMBER
WATERSIDE, 11 NILE ST, PORT ADELAIDE
$5 ENTRY AT THE DOOR

QUIET FAITH

DAVID WILLIAMS
An Australian premiere, co-commissioned by Vitalstatistix and HotHouse Theatre

“It's the burden of modern Australian faith communities to see that those most loudly trying to co-opt a religious identity to their political behaviour are those acting with the least selflessness or humanity.” Van Badham, The Guardian

From award-winning documentary theatre maker David Williams, comes a surprising journey into the world of the quietly, progressively faithful.

The place of Christian faith in Australian politics is often linked to conservatism and intolerance. Many members of the current Federal Government profess deep Christian beliefs and groups such as the Australian Christian Lobby loudly intervene in public policy debates.

Yet, new faith-based social movements such as Love Makes A Way actively campaign against government policies. The spectacle of religious leaders undertaking non-violent acts of civil disobedience, including prayer vigils in the offices of Christian politicians, has captured the imaginations of many. Other Christians work less publically to separate church and hate in their own communities and congregations.

Quiet Faith has been generated from hours of interviews with Christian Australians, each of whom has also selected a personally significant song. Beautiful, immersive, full of musicality and heart, Quiet Faith is an antidote to despair about religion and politics, offering a portrait of the very different ways that faith can underpin civic life.

“My hope is that the church expands its voice beyond moral issues, and becomes about what we're for rather than what we're against... And that is a project of broadening people's theology.” Quiet Faith interviewee

Writer, director & performer: David Williams
Performer & collaborator: Ashton Malcolm
Designer: Jonathon Oxlade
Sound designer: Bob Scott
Lighting designer: Chris Petridis
Outside eye: Roz Hervey

Creative producer: Emma Webb

8-19 OCTOBER

8pm Wednesday – Sunday; and 2pm Sundays

Waterside, 11 Nile St, Port Adelaide

$32 full; $28 concession; $25 Fringe Benefits

Preview 8 October, all tickets $25

Audience Q&A Sunday Oct 12 (2pm show) & Wednesday Oct 15

TICKETS at trybooking.com
E-FLYER here
MEDIA RELEASE here

HER STORY Session 4: Jane Fuller (2008 - 2009)

Throughout the year, Vitalstatistix is presenting HER STORY - Sunday afternoon sessions hosted by the artistic leaders from our thirty-year history. As a full set or as a solo experience, HER STORY is a delightful, personal glimpse into Adelaide’s feminist theatre history and the story of Vitalstatistix. 

Join us for the fourth instalment with Jane Fuller (Creative Producer of Vitalstatistix in 2008 and 2009).

Jane joined Vitals at a time when Australian theatre – how it is made, how it is presented and how it is funded – was in flux. Under Jane’s leadership and responding to these changes, Vitals forged ahead into a new era focused on providing a supportive creative hub for independent artists to produce new work and broad cultural activity.

This HER STORY presentation will take the form of a conversation, with Jane joined by Jennifer Greer Holmes (former General Manager of Vitals). Together they will explore the significant transitions that occurred at Vitals during this time, and the new artistic relationships this created such as the company’s association with Sydney-based feminist art collective Brown Council, our significant collaboration with the South Australian African community through the Go-Go project, and many other highlights of Jane’s short yet significant tenure.

In celebration of the last day of winter and the soup-kitchen tradition at Vitals, we will be serving delicious vegetarian soup and crusty bread. 

3-5pm SUNDAY 31 AUGUST
WATERSIDE, 11 NILE ST, PORT ADELAIDE
$5 ENTRY AT THE DOOR

After winter, comes spring

We're hunkering down until the very last day of winter, getting ready to bring you an action-packed spring season.

In the meantime, we suggest scribbling the following dates into your diary:

31 AUGUST: our penultimate HER STORY event with Jane Fuller, 3-5pm at Waterside.

8 - 19 OCTOBER: QUIET FAITH is David Williams' timely exploration of the way that faith can underpin civic involvement and political activism.

2 NOVEMBER: our fifth and final HER STORY event with Emma Webb, 3-5pm at Waterside.

8 & 9 NOVEMBER: The VITALS COMMUNITY FAIR is the book fair you know and love with fewer books and lots more craft stalls, as well as performances and a few 30th birthday surprises...

14 NOVEMBER: Artist Mish Grigor will present the results of her Incubator residency, MAN O MAN. The work asks the question: what would be say, formally, on the last night of the patriarchy?

18 - 23 NOVEMBER: Presented as part of the Feast Festival, MY LIFE IN THE NUDE is Maude Davey's nude-performance-swansong and not to be missed!

29 NOVEMBER: our final 30th birthday event, the 30TH GALA FUNDRAISER will be a night to remember including live music, dancing and cutting of the Vitals birthday cake.

YOU CAN VIEW OUR FULL 2014 PROGRAM HERE AND DOWNLOAD IT HERE

July at Vitalstatistix

KEEP EVERYTHING Chunky Move 

AC ARTS, 39 Light Square, Adelaide 

Presented by Vitalstatistix & Mobile States 
Tour produced by Performing Lines 

From the critically acclaimed, genre-defying Chunky Move comes Keep Everything, a fusion of dance and performance from one of Australia’s most innovative choreographers, Antony Hamilton. Combining forces with ARIA award-winning musicians, Kim Moyes and Julian Hamilton, Keep Everything splices choreography, electronica, spoken text and improvised movement to trace human evolution from primates to robots and back again. 

Hallmarked by Chunky Move’s unpredictable, inventive style and showcasing three extraordinary Australian dancers, Keep Everything champions the absurd and sometimes vulgar nature of the spontaneous, by understanding that sometimes, it’s important to keep everything. 

“The world of Keep Everything is simultaneously primordial and apocalyptic. It's a double helix of a Philip Glass opera and 2001: A Space Odyssey.” The Australian 

Director & choreographer: Antony Hamilton 
Lighting design: Benjamin Cisterne 
Sound design: Julian Hamilton & Kim Moyes 
AV design: Robin Fox 
System design & operation: Nick Roux 
Design consultant: Paula Levis 
Performers: Benjamin Hancock, Lauren Langlois & Alisdair Macindoe 

Five shows only 
16-18 JULY 8pm, 19 JULY 2pm & 8pm 
AC ARTS MAIN THEATRE> 39 LIGHT SQUARE, ADELAIDE 
$32 FULL / $28 CONCESSION / $25 FRINGE BENEFITS 

Download the e-flyer here Tickets on sale here
CHUNKYMOVE.COM.AU

HER STORYSession 3: Maude Davey (2002-2007)

Throughout the year, Vitalstatistix is presenting HER STORY - Sunday afternoon sessions hosted by the artistic leaders from our thirty-year history. As a full set or as a solo experience, HER STORY is a delightful, personal glimpse into Adelaide’s feminist theatre history and the story of Vitalstatistix. 

Join us for the third instalment with Maude Davey (Artistic Director of Vitalstatistix from 2002-2007). For Maude’s contribution to the HER STORY series she will explore how ideas about feminism and performance, and feminist performance, have changed from 2002 until now. 

In 2002 Australia had had a Liberal federal government for six years. Feminism was a dirty word, dusty and tired, encrusted with denigrating assumptions about the usefulness and currency of feminism in theory and practice. Taking on the directorship of a self-declared women’s theatre company at that time felt a little like taking up the reins of a horse drawn buggy in a fast car era. It seemed like no one wanted to know. 

In 2014 we’ve seen the implosion of a federal Labor government and have been disgusted by the way in which Australia’s first female Prime Minister was treated.  Feminism is unapologetically back on the agenda, in the Twitter-sphere, and in monthly events like Cherchez La Femme in Melbourne. And the Australian theatre world has also been part of this new wave of feminist conversation and debate. This is a discussion that refuses to go away, and that has shifted notably in the last decade.

Maude will speak personally to these issues, and revisit some her own significant performance moments from 2002 to 2007 and to now. 

Warm up for this provocative afternoon with a bowl of sop sop (a delicious, vegetarian, savoury dish from the Torres Strait Islands). 

3-5pm SUNDAY 6 JULY
WATERSIDE, 11 NILE ST, PORT ADELAIDE
$5 ENTRY AT THE DOOR

LIFE IS SHORT AND LONG Emma Beech

Incubator Residency

Life is Short and Long is an exploration of crisis by South Australian theatre-maker and conversationalist, Emma Beech. This new work is creating a surprising and beautiful catalogue of human resilience, made from performance, installation, film and community events.

“First of all I’m very curious about the GFC. What does it mean? It seems a fiction sometimes in Spain, sometimes what we discover about the political system and the politicians, it is so heavy it is so incredible, that for me (the whole situation) jumps into the territory of the fantasy. This is what I’m thinking now.” MARGA, ARTIST, BARCELONA

Life is Short and Long was inspired by Emma’s time in a tiny town in the mid-north of SA and in Barcelona during the most recent global economic crisis (GFC). In each location, she found that people had created informal economies and networks to cope with extreme circumstances. This year, Emma has travelled back to Spain, to the quiet corners of SA, and to Melbourne for the Festival of Live Art, to find out more about how people respond to crisis.

What are some of the ingenious, heart-breaking, hilarious and fascinating strategies that communities come up with when corporate and state money disappears? Where do these strategies, created by necessity, jump into the worlds of fantasy and utopia? Are Australians in crisis? How does crisis manifest in people’s identities?

Emma’s Incubator residency with Vitalstatistix will draw together these questions and travel experiences, completing the first stage of developing this long-term project.

EMMABEECH.COM

BINGO Unit Riverland Roadtrip
Join Vitals and Country Arts SA on a boutique road trip to the Riverland, especially designed for South Australian artists interested in regional and community engagement.
The most fun artist opportunity offered all year!

Over the weekend we will visit arts, cultural and environmental locations in Renmark, Blanchetown, Waikerie, Kingston-on-Murray and Loxton, including a special visit to the new Australian Landscapes Trust/Country Arts SA partnership at Calperum Station.

You will also meet and talk with regional artists, get to know the Vitals and Country Arts SA producers and, of course, visit some local op shops and wineries.

A feature of the trip is a chance to see participatory performance BINGO Unit, by NSW-based artists, Team MESS, at the Chaffey Theatre in Renmark, as well as meeting with them to discuss engagement strategies.

This road trip, hosted along the way by Riverland-raised artist Emma Beech, is a fantastic opportunity for theatre and live art makers, curators, creative producers and any artists delving into the process of making new work outside of city theatres and galleries. Get on board quick – ten places only!

10AM SATURDAY 26 TO APPROX 6PM SUNDAY 27, JULY 2014
DEPARTING AND RETURNING: WATERSIDE, 11 NILE ST, PORT ADELAIDE
$150, WHICH INCLUDES BUS TRAVEL, ACCOMMODATION, SHOW TICKET AND SNACKS 
*Meals not included.

LIMITED NUMBERS! BOOK BY 30 JUNE
To book email Becci at program@vitalstatistix.com.au

For more information about BINGO Unit see
COUNTRYARTS.ORG.AU/SHOW/BINGO-UNIT/