• IS THIS LONDON?
      London International Festival of Theatre 2012


      London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT) has invited UTP to create a new site-based performance work for the LIFT 2012. In 2010 Artistic Director Alicia Talbot and Executive Producer Michelle Kotevski undertook a 3-week research residency in London. In 2011 they returned to begin a four-week development and consultation process with a number of guest artists and community consultants.


      The work explores the internationalism of London, the dignity, silence and optimism of London's working poor. At a run down late-night burger van, there are some wooden tables and chairs, a stretch of concrete and the lights of the city. Six people who work cleaning, collecting rubbish, security, are waiting in between their late night shifts across London. The worlds of 6 strangers collide and through the night they negotiate some sort of shared space.


      Directed by Alicia Talbot this work will be created through a process of public dialogue that positions community members and industry professionals as experts within a creative process. The public dialogue process extends all artists' creative capacity and brokers new artistic territory.


      Development Artists
      Alicia Talbot
      Adura Onashile
      Simon Vinnicombe
      Tania El Khoury
      Ola Animashawun
      Rad Kaim
      Noma Dumezweni
      Gbolahan Obisesan.

      Partners
      LIFT, Citizens UK, Queen Mary University, Positive East, Federation of Poles


    • The financial explosion of football coupled with the growing success of African players in Europe has led to many Africans genuinely believing in football as a way out of poverty. African players are now a commodity perpetually shipped out to Europe, the Middle East and Asia. While the majority of African players displayed by the media are on million-dollar contracts, there is a growing under-class of football-aspirants living in harsh conditions in foreign lands chasing the dream of a decent football contract. There are an estimated twenty thousand homeless Africans on the streets of Europe alone.


      Michael Essien I want to play as you will explore the lines between hope and desperation of African migrants in Antwerp, Belgium trying to make a living from football.

      Key Artists
      Ahilan Ratnamohan
      Daisy Wouters


      Supporters

      IETM and Australia Council for the Arts Collaboration Project, Cultuurcentrum Luchtbal.




    • UTP undertook a first stage of research for a new work in residence in Canberra for Robyn Archer's Canberra100 Festival in 2013.


      Picture this... explores ideas of the longing and dreams, playing between the worlds of real and the surreal, of the everyday and the magical. This new performance work will be made in dialogue with young people and children who have experiences of falling in and out of the system. Picture this... will be co-created by Rosie Dennis and Alicia Talbot in a new artistic collaboration commissioned by Canberra 100.


    • An integral part of our artistic program is fueled by the passionate enquiry of a range of emerging and established western Sydney artists, many with long associations with the company and the area.


      Aesthetically distinct and formally ambitious, some of the city's most exciting and promising artists explore questions around such themes as fragmented identities and postcolonial posturing, the collapse of borders and human trafficking, suburban philosophy and sexuality.


      In 2011 the artists are Janie Gibson, Mohammed Ahmed, Peter Polites, Frank Mainoo, Georgie Read, Effie Nkrumah, Ahilan Ratnamohan and Helen Dallas.

    • A new collaboration between Melbourne-based Chamber Made Opera and Urban Theatre Projects


      In early 2012, musician, theatre maker and director Tania Bosak will work in residence in Bankstown meeting local artists, and individuals and organisations in traditional music activities. In particular she will focus on the more experienced members and the elders of these communities who work at maintaining and passing on their traditional knowledge.


      Some of the ideas explored will relate to personal experiences of defection, exile, displacement, and the importance of cultural maintenance. Discussions will also take place around how traditional music practices and untold personal stories could combine to create a new form of music theatre that focuses on engaging different generations and preserving both the stories and their traditions in a unique and meaningful context. These themes and questions are a rich source of inspiration for musical, theatrical and storytelling ideas. They have become the provocations that have led to Tania's compositional works and concerts since 2000, and will form the creative springboard from which Tania will work with individuals and local groups to generate initial material.


    • A new theatre work by singer songwriter Perry Keyes and filmmaker Johnny Barker in association with UTP.


      The Soft Blue Sky is a new work in development by ARIA-nominated singer/songwriter Perry Keyes. Perry, in collaboration with Johnny Barker and Alicia Talbot, is currently working on developing a solo theatre work, positioning his music within a theatrical and dramaturgical context. The Soft Blue Sky centres itself around the theme of post-industrial urban migration and its effects on the lives of the people that are caught up in the social dislocation that occurs when communities - whole and in part - are broken up and shifted away to outlying suburbs.


      In 2011 Perry, Johnny and Alicia undertook a week's residency in Minto.


    • Urban Theatre Projects co-produce a creative development process for a new performance, Posts in the Paddock with visual performance company My Darling Patricia (MDP). Harnessing My Darling Patricia's poetically savage visual imagery and delicate performance making, Posts in the Paddock is collaboration with artists who have a direct family connection to the story of Jimmy Governor. Through the oral histories of two families, the work investigates broader questions around shared grief and shame and contemporary dialogues of reconciliation.


      This project was seeded by our 2008 Intersection program and undertook an initial creative development in 2009. This year will see a final creative development to storyboard the work and construct visual imagery in preparation for the premiere.


      Performance Space
      Wed 9 - Sat 19 Nov, 8pm
      Matinees: Tue 11 Nov, 11am & Sat 19 Nov, 2pm
      Artist Talk: Fri 19 Nov post show
      [BAY 20 CARRIAGEWORKS]


      $30 Full / $20 Members and Concessions
      $15 Student Rush Fri 19 Nov
      (from box office on the night only)
      http://www.performancespace.com.au/2011/posts-in-the-paddock/