We are delighted to welcome a new producer into the fold, the inimitable Natasha Phillips. Natasha will be part of the Performing Lines team from 25 January 2021 and will take over the Victorian branch of the organisation as our excellent colleague Annette Vieusseux goes on maternity leave.
Natasha is an impressive and driven Creative Producer based in Naarm (Melbourne) with an interdisciplinary background. She began her career as an independent producer in 2013 while living and working in London and has historically shown strong engagement with the Chinese speaking region as a fluent speaker of Mandarin.
She has produced for Arts House, ArtPlay Arts Centre Melbourne (Associate Producer 2018-2020), and is currently a participant in the Victorian Independent Producers Initiative Mentorship Program.
With us Natasha will be producing a suite of works across theatre, circus and performance art. Firstly, she will assist the iconic Victorian experimental feminist theatre collective, THE RABBLE, in the development and presentation of their new work YES confronting women’s historically problematic relationship with the word ‘yes’, the drive to seek approval, the burden of emotional labour, and the nature of consent.
We’re also delighted to have Natasha producing the creative development of Momentum, a new series of works by the Footscray-based Women*s Circus co-commissioned by Arts Centre Melbourne and Metro Tunnel Creative Program. The commission was designed to support a public artwork within the Arts Centre Melbourne precinct by Deaf and disabled artists and their allies, and so Women*s Circus were chosen to deliver a work by a brand new ensemble of disabled circus artists to interrogate our perceptions of access and public space.
Another major project is the delivery of an exciting new program connecting independent artists and performing arts companies in metropolitan Melbourne, the full details of which will be announced soon.
Finally, Natasha will also take over the mantle of Pony Express’ Epoch Wars, an interdisciplinary immersive piece of performance art disguised as a symposium discussing the validity of the term “Anthropocene” when defining the era of Climate Change in which we stare down our collective doom.
It’s a privilege to have Natasha on board and we can’t wait to see our Victorian program continue to flourish under her care.
And it would be remiss not to take this opportunity to recognise the incredible work done these past two years by Annette Vieusseux. Annette has worked tirelessly to expand our Victorian presence into what is now a thriving collection of artists and works.
As well as seeding the above mentioned works, in two years she has produced two new major new works, Anthem by Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius, Melissa Reeves and Christos Tsiolkas and co-commissioned by (ACM, Melb Fest, Syd Fest, Perth Fest) a major new Australian work of scale interrogating our national character and turning up the volume on the everyday injustices we choose not to hear; and The Seen an Unseen by Kamila Andini an inter-cultural work produced in collaboration with Fourcolours Films, Komunitas Bumi Bajra, Melbourne’s Fraught Outfit and Komunitas Salihara, and co-commissioned by Esplanade Theatres Singapore and AsiaTOPA.
While she may be stepping back for a time from her role as producer she remains an integral part of the Victorian team and we look forward to welcoming her back in due course.
