Tarraleah Artist Residency

The Tarraleah Artist Residency is a core part of the annual program of Performing Lines TAS, creating a space for roughly 20 artists per year to share ideas and develop their professional practice.

This game-changing initiative began in 2012 and is for artists from across Tasmania, from all walks-of-life and at any stage of their career. It allows them to come together and explore new project ideas that often go on to reach the national stage. A range of highly skilled mentors from different arts practices across Australia are invited to inform each project’s development.

In an intensive three-day event, the residency provides an exquisite regional setting, a supportive creative environment to test ideas and push projects to their next level of artistic discovery. After delivering over 10 years of annual residencies, with iterative improvements each time, the Tarraleah Residency affords a highly efficient and inclusive platform for the generation of new works, new networks for artists, and additional resources for the sector.

Each residency has at least one First Nations mentor and four First Nations participants.

Performing Lines TAS also has an ongoing partnership with Blue Cow Theatre’s Cow Shed writing program such that a group of writers and their dramaturg are in residence at Tarraleah alongside the Artist Residency affording cross over with the other participants for workshops and presentations.

Local and national Festival Directors are also invited as observers, so they can connect with projects early and where aligned, begin conversations with artists about their work.

What Artists Can Expect

The Tarraleah Artist Residency is a 3-day, 2-night residency providing a supportive, creative environment to test ideas, consider new collaborations and explore cross art form possibilities.

A range of highly skilled mentors from different arts practices across Australia are provided to inform project development.

The Residency features:

Presentation sessions of participant projects ideas featuring group discussion
Professional mentorship in groups and one-on-one,
Optional morning warm ups
Informal networking and skills workshops.

Whilst the residency is heavily subsidised by Arts Tasmania and supported by Tarraleah, each successful applicant will be required to pay a deposit of $400 to secure their spot of which $310 is fully refundable after attendance at the residency and completion of the debrief survey.

Who Can Apply?

Tarraleah is an opportunity for Tasmanian artists at all points in their career and from all aspects of the performing arts  to come together and explore new performance project ideas. We welcome applications from;

People at the start of their artistic practice
Senior artists with significant experience
Mid-career artists
Returning participants exploring new ideas.
Writers, directors, makers, dancers, performers, sound designers, choreographers etc – any artist with a project idea they want to work on.
Collaborative teams working together on a single concept and should apply under the name of whomever is the lead artist on the project.

We celebrate diversity and welcome all artists to apply including those with diverse abilities, sexualities, genders, age, ethno-cultural and socioeconomic status.

Outcomes

Many residency project proposals have gone on to full creative development and presentation. Performing Lines TAS actively seeks out collaborations with organisations to support residency artists. We have teamed up with the Moonah Arts Centre (MAC) who support up to three residency projects with in-kind venue hire for a week for self funded creative development. Past recipients have included Sinsa Mansell’s solo dance work BACK, which premiered as part of Ten Days On The Island in 2021.

Other projects supported in their development and production include; Hera Direen and Ana Thema’s Drag Queen Murder Mystery, Anna Kidd on her show That Parking Lady with Dramaturg Peter Matheson. In 2020 Anna completed a creative development with Director Maude Davey and Musician Craig Irons working towards a premier production.

Helen Swain brought her solo work Who Cares to the residency and has gone on to work with Director Care McLean.

Jordy Gregg has worked on his first script Park Days. Jordy went on to be selected to participate in New Zealand’s Breaking Ground and Yellamundie as part of Sydney Festival 2019 to further develop this work and has just received further funding from Tim Minchin, The Australia Council and Arts Tasmania.

The Tarraleah Residency has been working with palawa/pakana artists for a number of years and during the residency supports them with specialist First Nations mentors.

Applications

Applications for the 2023 Tarraleah Artist Residency have not yet opened. Be sure to check our page for updates.

The application call out will also be advertised across the Performing Lines TAS social media.

Testimonials

(The residency) connects artists from the north to the south. It broadens the scope of thinking. It creates a concentrated environment to explore an idea. It opens up new connections to bring in to your project. It generates important discussions of the wider arts community & local arts. It gives artists a chance to meet with someone / several people who they look up to in their industry and have multiple chats which would otherwise never exist. – Bec Jones (2018)

I went to the residency to push myself out if my confort zone by starting Les Petites Annonces with Edith Perrenot. We both are new to theatre rules, and we learnt a lot. It was very challenging and confronting to test our project in front of everyone but we felt safe and positively criticised. Concerning my ongoing practice, this residency was highly relevant because the discussion and workshops with other artists and mentors were very encouraging and will help me to push my personal practice more deeply into performance with less apprehension of the stage fear.
The availability and conversation with the mentors were precious because they took time to listen to us, analyse how they could help us with their knowledge and networks. Being exposed to them also forced us to articulate more what we wanted. – Julia Drouhin (2018)

(The Residency) has given the project a clear pathway forward so that it will progress not just stay as an idea. It helps clarify your focus as an individual artist and what your strengths are. – Kirsty Grierson (2017)

How refreshing to be surrounded by colleagues all at different stages in their careers as well as their project formations. I didn’t sense any ego or competition between participants or anyone else, and perhaps it was this diversity and the fact that the art itself was never in question, it was taken for granted that everyone there would take what they had grown on the weekend and bring their own practice to the project to the best of their ability. – Rachel Myers (2017)

The residency has really impacted our understanding of how we should move forward strategically with our project, introduced us to some wonderful artists in Tasmania and it has given us a network to call on to start making the next stage real.  The mentors were incredibly generous with there time and the advice and questions they offered. Being exposed to the mentors has put us in contact with some really exciting artists to collaborate with as well as reconsidering some of our approaches in constructing the work itself. – Caitlin Comerford (2016)

My ideas are usually very scattered so having a weekend to describe my idea to a wider audience and to have assistance in refining and narrowing down what i wanted to do was a really valuable experience. It has especially changed the way I think about approaching new projects and has already started me thinking of next year.  Meeting such a diverse group of experienced mentors has helped me to create and envision works that not only satisfy me as a performer but to also reach an audience, how to experiment outside of the norm and opened a wider world of people to contact for this project and possible future ones. – Zeb Direen (2016)

Past Years

The Tarraleah Artist Residency has been running annually since 2012, offering dedicated time, space and resources to over one hundred artists to develop their ideas and practice.

Click below to see the cohorts of artists and mentors from each residency as well as video testimonials from a selection of participants.

2022

The Performing Lines TAS Artist Residency 2022 was held at Tarraleah, 7 – 9 October.

The weekend at Tarraleah saw 12 artists, working across various projects, supported by 3 mentors.

Mentors:

Sally Richardson
Nathan Stoneham
Nadine Dowd

Participants:

Richie Cyngler
Rosemary Cann
Keia McGrady
Amanda Hodder
Nicholas Tolputt
Feras Shaheen
Eri Mullooly-Hill Konishi
Billie Rankin
Tony Rooke
Conor Wilde
Josh Santospirito
Stevie Cabalzar

2021

The Performing Lines TAS Artist Residency 2021 was held at Tarraleah, 22 – 24 October 2021.

The weekend at Tarraleah (our largest ever) saw 31 artists, working across various projects, supported by 5 mentors and 3 staff.

Mentors:

Courtney Gibson
Lindy Hume
Lucy Forge
Paul Selwyn Norton
Simon Wellington

Participants:

Katarnya Maynard
Takani Clark
Nunami Sculthorpe Green
Felicity Bott
Paul Wakelam
Bryony Geeves
Carrie McLean
Cheryl Wheatley
Jodie Le Vesconte
Amanda Hodder
Danni Ashton
Mel King
Ivano Del Pio
Kerri Gay
Gabrielle Adkins
Emesha Rudolf
Edith Perrenot
CiCi Xiyue Zhang
Moran Wiesel
Rose Ottavi-Kokkoris
Julia Drouhin
Anand Kumar
Jem Nicholas
Nathan Pritchard
Lila Mileisea
Nathan Maynard
Jordy Gregg
Kat Trail
Bek Varcoe

2020

The Performing Lines TAS Artist Residency 2020 was held at Tarraleah, 9 – 11 October 202o.

The weekend at Tarraleah (our largest ever) saw 30 artists, working across various projects, supported by 5 mentors.

Mentors:

Laura Sheedy
Lindy Hume
Jo Duffy
Brian Ritchie
Shaun Wilson

Participants:

Amanda Hodder
Anna Barber
Caitlin Berwick
Charlie Smith
Dean Stevenson
Edith Perrenot
Felicity Horsley
Gabriel Comerford
Gerard Lane
Glen Murray
Indea Quinn
Jane Longhurst
Jason James
Julia Drouhin
Julian Pavy
Kelly Drummond Cawthorn
Laura Watts
Lauren Neal
Leigh Tesch
Luana Towney
Nathan Maynard
Nicole Robson
Nunami Sculthorpe Green
Quin Thomson
Rod Anderson
Rose Kokkaris
Sarah Hamilton
Stephanie Jack
Vivienne Seery
Belinda Bradley
Stephanie Briarwood
Stuart Loone
Jane Johnson

2019

The Performing Lines TAS Artist Residency was held at Tarraleah, 11- 13 October 2019.

The weekend at Tarraleah saw 19 artists, working across various projects, supported by 5 mentors and 2 staff.

Mentors:

Angharad Wynne-Jones
Deborah Pollard
Bec Reid
Chris Mead
Kirk Page

Participants:

Nathan Maynard
Rob Braslin
Felicity Horsley
Sinsa Mansell
Alison Mann
Rhys Gray
Sarah Hamilton
Rose Ertler
Jamie Graham
Anita Bacic
Gillian English
Carmencita Palermo
Ivano Del Pio
Gabrielle Adkins
Robert Jarman
Hannah Vermeulen
Joel Fenton
Luke John Campbell
Loren Kronemyer

2018

The Performing Lines TAS Artist Residency 2018 was held at Tarraleah, 26-28 October. The weekend at Tarraleah saw 18 artists, working across 16 projects, supported by 4 mentors, 2 staff and 3 guest producers.

Mentors:

Edwina Lunn
Isaac Drandic
Maude Davey
Gideon Obarzanek

Participants

Shuangshuang Zhang
Zeb Direen
Emma Skalicky
Bec Jones
Helen Swain
Andy Vagg
Julia Drouhin
Edith Perrenot
Anna Kidd
Jessica Davies
Kate Boden
Bryony Geeves
Carrie McLean
Laura Purcell
Kartanya Maynard
Jordy Gregg
Sinsa Mansell
Denni Proctor

2017

The Performing Lines Artist Residency 2017 was held at Tarraleah, 27-29 October. The weekend at Tarraleah saw 17 artists, working across 16 projects, supported by 4 mentors, 2 staff and 2 guest producers.

Mentors:

Margi Brown Ash
Steve Mayhew
Kyle J Morrison
Deborah Pollard

Participants:

Bella Young
Chris Love
Jamie McCaskill (supported by Creative New Zealand)
Kirsty Grierson
Leigh Tesch
Nathan Maynard
Rowan Harris
Sara Wright
Jordy Gregg
Sue Hayes
Essie Kruckemeyer
Kim Jaeger
Jane Longhurst
Joce Nettlefold
Lucinda Toynbee Wilson
Takani Clarke
Rachel Meyers

2016

The Performing Lines TAS annual Artist Residency 2016 was held at Tarraleah from 21-23 October 2016.

In 2016, thanks to the Australia Council for The Arts and Arts Tasmania, Performing Lines TAS were able to additionally host the pakana Writers Residency with mentor Peter Matheson; featuring a group of Aboriginal artists curated by Nathan Maynard, as well as the attendance of our first Maori guest artist, thanks to Creative New Zealand.

The weekend at Tarraleah saw 21 artists, working across 18 projects, supported by 4 mentors, 2 staff and 2 guest producers.

Mentors:

Marion Potts
Martin Del Amo
Sue Giles
Peter Matheson

Participants:

Essie Kruckemeyer
Rosie Grayson
Andrea Breen
Sara Wright
Lucien Simon
Marty Spurway-Smith
Zeb Direen
Caitlin Comerford
Gabriel Comerford
Nicole Robson
Glen Murray
Emma Porteus
Cassandra Ng
Tullia Chung-Tilley
Kelsey Schober

pakana Writers Residency:

Nathan Maynard
Adam Thompson
Eva Grace
Denni Proctor
Michelle Maynard
Amber Curreen (NZ)

2015

The Performing Lines Artist Residency 2015 was held at Tarraleah, 16-18 October. The weekend at Tarraleah saw 22 artists, working across various projects, supported by 4 mentors.

Mentors:

Catherine Fitzgerald
Martin Del Amo
Raimondo Cortese
Nicola Heywood

Participants:

Aleksandra Mirjana Crossan
Alison Wilkes
Bryony Geeves
Dane Hunnerup
Fiona Stewart
Glen Murray
Heath Brown
Holli Gipson
Ivano Del Pio
Jane Longhurst
Jason James
Jeff Michel
Jordy Gregg
Justus Neumann
Lucy Pitt
Maeve Mhairi MacGregor
Mel King
Nathan Maynard
Robert Maxwell
Susan Wallace
Thomas Pidd
Zeke Guest

2014

The 2014 Performing Lines TAS Residency was held in October at Tarraleah for a collection of artists, supported supported by 4 mentors and 2 special guests.

Mentors:

Dr Julie-Anne Long
Pippa Bailey
Raimondo Cortese
Stephen Armstrong.

Special Guests:

Kate Davis (THE RABBLE)
Emma Valente (THE RABBLE)

2013

Due to the success of the first Performing Lines TAS Artist Residency in 2012 that saw numerous new collaborations between artists that had not worked together before, the residency was extended to become an annual event.

The Performing Lines Artist Residency was moved to its home base at Tarraleah. The Artist Residency is an opportunity for resident Tasmanian artists to come together to explore new project ideas with the support of skilled mentors.

2012

In April Performing Lines TAS hosted an Artists Residency on the East Coast of Tasmania for 19 artists working across 17 projects. The artists were supported by 4 mentors and one guest speaker.

Mentors:

Raimondo Cortese
Jo Duffy
Sarah Neal
Emily Sexton

Guest Speaker:

Moira Finucane

Information for Presenters

The Tarraleah Artist Residency is held annually in Tarraleah, lutruwita/Tasmania. For inquiries about the residency contact the team at Performing Lines TAS.