OPEN SOURCE RESIDENCY
“As an ensemble we have found this support to be useful because it has been instrumental to the success of the project thus far. As an emerging drama facilitator and director, the mentoring and dramaturgical support in terms of the performance piece has been wonderful and much appreciated.”
DATES: All year
LOCATION: Backbone in East Brisbane
NUMBER OF EVENTS: 42
NUMBER OF ARTISTS: 230
NUMBER OF AUDIENCES: 850
ABOUT: Open Source residency program is designed to support individuals, groups, or collectives of young artists to move their practice and careers to the next level and beyond.
Backbone does this by offering free space, working with artists to create a responsive development program, holding workshops throughout the year, and presentation in the annual Backbone Festival.
“I have found open source to be a genuinely supportive, highly flexible and transparent program. Katherine Quigley and her team have provided me with opportunities, assistance and positive influence crucial to my newly found confidence as an artist, without compromising my practice in anyway.”
2019 OPEN SOURCE RESIDENTS
RITUAL THEATRE
Ritual Theatre is an ensemble of nine young Brisbane artists dedicated to multi-artform collaboration and ritualised storytelling. Born from the womb of physicality, intimacy and communion, our work explores what is sacred, to one or to many, hosting an exploration of the place where contemporary life and acts of ritual meet.
SARAH STAFFORD
Sarah Stafford, combines her camp and gritty storytelling to make contemporary theatre and performance art that blurs the lines between absurdist grotesque clown, ‘slice of life’ domesticity, and sociopolitical commentary.
SKIN DEEP COLLECTIVE
The Skin Deep Collective is a group of 8 creatives in Brisbane from expansive creative and professional backgrounds. The collective can be described in various ways; activists, educators, motivator, advocates or most importantly a community. Through acts, movements, music, community involved discussions and unbiased research they explore “colourist” ideals in history, relationship, culture, psychology, education, religion, crime, and many other facets of an individual and the world they live in.
YOURS SINCERELY
Yours Sincerely are a trio of Brisbane-based theatre makers; Madeline Border, Luke Diamond, and Honor Webster-Mannison. Their theatre is intimate and authentically personal, aiming to explore an individual’s relationship to their political landscape.
TIA NIKITA RUSSELL
Tia Nikita Russell is an up and coming young Australian playwright from South East Queensland. In her strive to create awareness surrounding current Australian issues, Tia was awarded ‘Best New Australian Play’ and ‘Most Socially Relevant Play’ in this year DramaFest Competition for her play ‘ When it Rains, it Pours’.
THE OULD SOUL COLLECTIVE
The Old Soul Collective is a Brisbane based theatre troupe which aims to produce an authentically comedic spin on modern day taboos. Lara Rix, Sam Webb and Madeleine Aprile showcased their collectives first production, Latecomers, at the Short and Sweet festival in 2018. With audiences enjoying the shows witty commentary on societies view of virginity, redevelopments of the show saw Latecomers featured in the 2018 FAST. In 2019 the collective were granted a position in the backbone open source residency program where they further developed Latecomers for the Backbone Festival. The Old Soul Collective plans to further develop Latecomers in their creative future.
THE NAUGHTY CORNER
The Naughty Corner was founded in 2018 by Brisbane based theatre makers Bianca Bality, Jess Bunz, Claire McFadyen and Joe Wilson. Since forming, The Naughty Corner has had a strong focus on bringing audiences bold new works that are visceral and dynamic.
HALF-HITCH
Half-Hitch are Brisbane-based arts duo extraordinaire with a focus on creation and production. Their inaugural show, an acrobatic bar-room musical called Hold My Beer took home an Anywhere Award in 2019. They also produced Fast & Loose, a monthly cabaret scratch night for artists to test their work.
VOMIT CABARET
A group of East Brisbane locals who use the space to create this DIY, open mic style event. The type of work presented has varied from plays, to live music, to drag, to performance art, poetry and much more. Vomit Cabaret has been a regular event in residence since 2018.
TRAGIC TRIVIA
Tragic Trivia was created by The Sui Ensemble as a way to experiment with developing communities through queer art forms (drag) and how events can play an important part in fundraising for the arts. Tragic Trivia was a regular event in residence since 2017.
BATTERSEA ARTS CENTRE - HOMEGROWN FESTIVAL
DATES: 1 April - 14 April 2019
LOCATION: Battersea Arts Centre, London
NUMBER OF EVENTS: 9
NUMBER OF ARTISTS: 10
NUMBER OF AUDIENCES: 210
For the first time in Backbone’s history a delegation of young artists presented work internationally. In April 2019 a group of 10 Backbone artists and arts workers were immersed in the Homegrown Festival: Occupy at Battersea Arts Centre in London.
ABOUT HOME GROWN FESTIVAL: As the UK faces an uncertain future, Homegrown Festival: Occupy gives a platform to rethink it from a fresh, internationalist perspective. Together underrepresented communities, collectives, entrepreneurs, young artists and activists occupy all corners of Battersea Arts Centre for a whole month. Gig theatre, live games, virtual experiences, rap, poetry and installations collide as old certainties are overturned and new possibilities imagined
ARTISTS: ESTHER DOUGHERTY, GRACE EDWARD, DANIEL GOUGH, FINLEY KUBE, SAMUEL PANKHURST, STEPHEN QUINN, MARTELLE SIMON-GREENE, ADAM SLEEMAN, SAMPSON SMITH.
WORKS: ABSOLUTE OBJECTIVITY & LA SILHOUETTE by the Sui Ensemble