Out of the Box Theatre

Thanks to a RADF grant from the Qld Government and the Tableland Regional Council, for emerging artists, I was able to form a writing team, PhoenX, to design a framework for writing social discourse theatre. As our research and writing developed, we came to naming our theatre type Out of the Box theatre. Similarly we came to name our raw scripting, 'Seven Rotations of Risk'. Rehearsal workshopping has further 'turged' the raw script into a reasonably crisp 10-15 minute performance of the tensions with a family around the risks the parents perceive of various activities to the child. 'The Seven Rotations of Risk' and the first 'Out of the Box' script writing for social discourse workshop will be held at the Tablelands Folk Festival on 24th October 2010.

A revised version of Out of the Box Theatre Workshop was held in Atherton, Qld, on 11th Jan 2011. Attended by 10 people of diverse theatrical (none to experienced, drama and dance)and occupational backgrounds. See Group Photo in Flickr

A one hour 'taster' workshop called Empathy, was taken to the International Unity in Diversity Conference, Townsville, Queensland, Australia, August 2011.

PREVIOUS EVENTS

THE INAUGURAL EVENT produced by Phoenix Functions was on Friday evening 28th March 2008. ROMANS IN EGYPT: Lessons for Australian Towns was presented by Professor Barry Rowney, Architectural Historian. Barry has been helping with archaeological digs in Egypt and Syria, annually, for many years. We hade a fabulous opportunity to hear Barry discuss the process of archaeology, and the things we might understand from it about modern human society. The evening was supported by Saeed Derakshan playing old middle eastern instruments - the Oud and Santoor. With a home grown introductory animation of Anubis. See video summary of the evening on the media page.

The trial production of an educational theatre project with The Wilderness Society of Australia was staged on December 2nd 2008 for some 200 Grade 4 and 5 students (9 & 10 year olds). See here for a video clip from the performance. The aim of the project is to develop broad awareness among children and families of the Cape York Wilderness in Queensland, Australia. The performance went over very well with the students, with two contributions of poetry about Cape York, and feedback that indicated the message was well-understood.

The second production of "Cape York Critters and Wild Country" was performed at Trinity Anglican School in April 2009.

PHILOSOPHICAL FRIDAYS

In 2010 Phoenix Functions trialled two themed events for the CBD of Atherton, called Philosophical Fridays. The first event celebrated The Child. The second event celebrated Australian Fauna Critters