Wasteland Produced by Flipside Circus and premiering in partnership with Brisbane Powerhouse November/December 2017. What sort of world will you leave? Besieged by mountains of rubbish, four extraordinary performers recycle and reuse discarded items, reimagining circus and what our future could be. Wasteland is an energetic and engaging circus performance about potential, hope, resilience, and survival. The show combines beautiful aerial and fast-paced tumbling routines replacing recognisable circus apparatus with repurposed materials and scrap. The audience spent the night holding their breath, in complete awe of the talent of these young performers, The Creative Issue. Set on a rubbish heap with themes of recycling, reusing and repurposing Wasteland is a thoughtful, hopeful, and entertaining circus show for the whole family. Developed by Flipside s performance troupe, renowned circus artist Chelsea McGuffin, Flipside Creative Producer and dramaturge Robert Kronk, and designer Josh McIntosh. Wasteland asks; what sort of world will you leave? A little slice of home-grown circus magic, Australian Stage. About Flipside Flipside Circus is Queensland s largest youth circus company with a national reputation for excellence in training and performance. We believe circus provides a unique opportunity for young people to show off, to take risks, to trust, to dream and aspire, to work hard, to laugh, and to have fun! Flipside is a not-for-profit organisation that provides: Regular classes and training and our training centre and right across Queensland An artistic program of performances by, for, and with young people Community and social circus programs Support for emerging and professional circus artists and independent companies. Flipside values children and young people as cultural creators and works with a regular team of extraordinary trainers and artists as well as amazing guest trainer and artists from around Australia and the world. Production team Director/creator: Creators/performers: Performers: Dramaturge: Designer: Rigger: Head trainer: Trainer: Chelsea McGuffin Flipside Circus Performance Troupe to be confirmed Robert Kronk Josh McIntosh Chris Fleming Aliya Abiseva Davy Sampford
Devisors/performers: Flipside s performance troupe Flipside s performance troupe ranges in age from 9 to 18 years of age, and come from across Brisbane. They commit to over 12 hours per week to regular training as well as rehearsals and additional training. Creative director: Chelsea McGuffin Chelsea is a co-director of Company 2. She has worked extensively within the circus industry in Australia and internationally for nearly 20 years. Originally training in Dance at the Centre for Performing Arts, Adelaide, she moved into circus and worked with companies including Circa, Circus Monoxide, Tony s Imaginary Circus and Queensland Theatre Company, as well as working as Artistic Director with Vulcana Women s Circus. She co-created and performed in Cantina, and Scotch and Soda which have both gone on to tour extensively internationally. In collaboration with Flipside Circus Chelsea directed and co-created the critically acclaimed Kaleidoscope which has gone on to seasons at the Sydney Festival and will tour throughout 2018. Chelsea is a trainer at Flipside Circus and has been both head trainer and creative director for the company. Dramaturge: Robert Kronk Robert is the creative producer at Flipside Circus. He is a co-founder of debase and was debase s general manager until 2016. He was the director of programming and director of operations at Metro Arts until 2008 and has worked extensively as a director, writer, performer, and producer for companies including; La Boite, HotHouse Theatre, Brisbane Festival, Queensland Theatre Company, and Queensland Performing Arts Centre. He is a published playwright and has been twice nominated for an AWGIE award. Head trainer: Aliya Abiseva Aliya is Flipside s performance troupe head trainer. With over 20 years experience Aliya is an accomplished circus performer, producer and director having trained some of the world s best circus artists. Born into a circus family, she graduated from Moscow State Circus Academy (Russia) and has performed with companies including the Moscow State Circus, Circus Royale, The Great Siberian Circus and Circus Olympia. She has toured extensively throughout Australia and internationally. Rigger: Chris Fleming Chris is the venue coordinator and head rigger for Flipside Circus. He is a circus artist, trainer and rigger with over 10 years experience as well as a Bachelor of Human Movement Science, a Certificate Four in Fitness and a Level Two Strength and Conditioning Coach qualification. As a circus trainer Chris has worked with numerous companies in the US including Flight Club Aerial Arts and Trapeze School New York as well as summer camps and touring training programs. As a performer Chris has toured the US, Central and South America, Turkey and the UAE with numerous companies and ensembles including Circus Espana. Trainer: Davy Sampford Davy is a juggler extraordinaire having performed all over the world with a range of companies including Circa. Davy trained with Circoarts in New Zealand and was a founding member of Briefs travelling the world with the company before returning to Brisbane. Davy leads Flipside Circus social circus programs specialising in working with children and adults with special needs. He is also Flipside s head juggling trainer and a senior trainer and director for the performance program. Set design: Josh McIntosh Josh has worked as a freelance production designer for over ten years and has collaborated with some of Australia s finest talents in theatre, opera, musical theatre, dance, and festivals. Recent work includes the set design for the Australian premier of Green Day s American Idiot for QPAC and Shak & Stir, the touring area production of Grease for Harvest Rain, Opera Queensland s Kiss Me, Kate! And Queensland Music Festival s signature epic outdoor musical theatre event The Power Within to be staged outdoors at Moranbah, Isaac Shire. 2 P a g e
Josh has also worked as the site and festival designer for QPAC s 2016 Out of the Box, worked extensively as a designer/realiser for Strut n Fret s Garden of Unearthly Delights and with Brisbane Festival over many years. He has also designed productions for Queensland Theatre, La Boite, The Australian Voices, Gold Coast Arts Centre, Empire Theatres, and many more companies. He has been awarded a Silver Matilda Award for his design for Dracula (2015) and a Gold Matilda Award for his body of design work (2011). Performance specifics Running time 55-60 minutes Maximum number of performances/workshops/activities per week 11 Minimum break between performances 90 minutes Performance history 2017 Brisbane Powerhouse, premier season November/December. Audience engagement activities Workshops: Fun and challenging workshops focusing on; building self-confidence, physical skills, fitness, trust, teamwork, and empowering participants to express themselves. Residencies: Over two or more days the residencies help empower local communities to tell their own stories in their own spaces, and often culminate in performance outcomes. Community activations: The Company will travel with a portable outdoor trapeze and can tailor activities for communities while the circus is in town. Successful past activities have included park activations, trapeze workshops at fetes, markets, or at sports fields (timed with regular training/games) and workshops with local sporting/gymnastic/community clubs. Example press release Piles of junk transformed into circus fantasy at Wonderland Festival Flipside Circus, Queensland's largest youth circus, returns to xxx on xxx. Besieged by mountains of rubbish, four extraordinary performers recycle and reuse discarded items, reimagining circus and what our future could be. Wasteland is an energetic and engaging circus performance about potential, hope, resilience and survival. The show combines beautiful aerial and fast-paced tumbling routines replacing recognisable circus apparatus with repurposed materials and scrap. Wasteland features professional circus performers as well as highly trained young performers from Flipside Circus young performance troupe. Set on a rubbish heap with themes of recycling, reusing and repurposing Wasteland is a thoughtful, hopeful, and entertaining circus show for the whole family. Developed by Flipside s performance troupe, renowned circus artist Chelsea McGuffin, Flipside Creative Producer and dramaturge Robert Kronk, and designer Josh McIntosh. Wasteland asks, What sort of world will we leave behind? Wasteland makes a strong statement about resilience, and about survival, we wanted to make people stop and think, we also wanted to show there is hope that the future is what we make it, said young troupe artist Kelsey Booth. 3 P a g e
Flipside s young artists are incredibly dedicated and have strong views on the world and how we can make a better future. For the older artists it s exciting to help channel this creative and political energy into a fantastic circus show, said Chelsea McGuffin. In keeping with the theme we ve set ourselves the challenge of creating the whole show and all our circus apparatus from repurposed and recycled materials, said Robert Kronk. Reviews AUSTRALIAN STAGE Lauren Sherritt "a little slice of home-grown circus magic" CREATIVE ISSUES Claire Boughey The audience hold their breath and in complete awe of the talent of these young performers Images https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bg90jfc4bqu4vrt/aadq6xuiwisuvtd6ztiezptra?dl=0 Flyers and posters templates 4 P a g e
Tech specs Lighting requirements Standard lighting rig with lights to cover aerial performance. Patch required for practical lights at rear of stage. Producer supplies lighting Practical lights at rear of stage. Sound requirements Front of house speakers w producer to provide laptop to patch into house system. Producer supplies sound Laptop to patch into house system. Stage dimensions Min width 7 metres / min depth 6.5 metres / min height 5 metres. Set Old lounge with rostra boxes across the rear of stage. Chinese pole, net or other aerials hung from freestanding aerial rig. Risk assessment Supplied on request Public liability Yes Website www.flipsidecircus.org.au Freight notes Set packs into 3 tonne truck. Suitable venues Cultural centres, proscenium arch, black box, town halls. Crew requirements 1 x venue technician to assist with loading bump in, patching into house system. Venue technician required for lighting plot and focus. Bump in time Bump out time 4 6 hours 2 hours Example bump in schedule 09.00 Arrive at space and unload 09.30 11.30 Bump in set and rigging plus PA. 11.30 13.30 Lighting plot and focus 13.30 Lunch break 14.30 16.00 Fix ups if required 18.00 Performer call and warm up 19.00 Show Touring party 5 (4 x performers, 1 x rigger/tour manager) Dressing rooms 2 x simple dressing rooms required for 4 x performers. First possible performance Day of bump in 5 P a g e