Martyn Coutts (Chair), Kylie Belling, Matthew Kneale, post (Zoe Coombs Marr, Mish Grigor, Natalie Rose)
About the artist/s:
Martyn Coutts is a performer, director and video artist. He completed a Postgraduate degree in Animateuring at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2004. Martyn was a principal artist with Is Theatre in Hobart for ten years, being a part of over 30 productions as a performer, devisor, director and video artist. This work has taken him to Ten Days on the Island, the Adelaide Festival and the Bluebird Festival in Seoul, South Korea. Martyn is a founding member of Performance / Media company Blood Policy, who created the critically acclaimed work Operation for the 2004 Next Wave Festival. He has created video design for Luke George’s project LIFE SIZE; Is Theatre’s Passport to Happiness and Ten Wonderful Years; Brian Lipson’s King Lear; James Saunders’ Harry Harlow; and for his own work Inside and Bunker. As an independent artist Martyn has been a resident artist at Footscray Community Arts Centre in Melbourne, Performance Space in Sydney, Raw Space Gallery in Brisbane, Time Place Space 3 in Adelaide and Taipei Artist Village in Taiwan. Martyn’s latest work is Wayfarer, a real-time game and multimedia event that debuted at Performance Space, Sydney in September 2007.
Kylie Belling, a Yorta Yorta/Wiradjurri woman, was born and raised in Melbourne. Since graduating from the VCA School of Drama in 1985, her acting career has covered a broad range of work across film, television and theatre. She lists her greatest production accomplishment as her daughter Sofii. Kylie has always utilised her directing hat, having directed Nidjera for Melbourne Workers’ Theatre (1990) and Ilbijerri’s first play by John Harding, Up the Road in 1991; Maryanne Sam’s, Casting Doubts for the 2002 Blak Inside season (Ilbijerri/Playbox); Oh My God I’m Black (2003 Ilbijerri); Natives Getting Restless Funny (2005) & Natives Striking Blak (2006 Ilbijerri/MICF); The Dirty Mile (2006 and 2008 Ilbijerri) which she co-wrote; Seven Deadly Gins (Deer Park Women’s Collective); Chopped Liver (Ilbijerri) and Songlines of a Mutti Mutti Man (Edwards Family Collective 2007). A qualified Secondary School teacher, Kylie was Artistic Director of Ilbijerri from 2005 – 2008, a company of which she was a co-founder way back in 1990. She hopes to continue directing into the future having hung up her acting cap a few years ago!
Matthew Kneale is the Artistic Director of Spilt Second, a theatre company that engages in alternative ways of using and interpreting public space. Along with many of its members, he graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2005. Matthew has designed the set and costumes for Trouble on Planet Earth by The Border Project; Theatrical Trailer for Alien 5 for The Australian Dance Theatre; and At the Statue of Venus and The Station for The State Opera Company of South Australia. He also designed The Black Lung Theatre logo and advertising. Spilt Second are presenting Kids Can Get Lost in the Moonee Ponds Flood Channel as part of the 2008 Next Wave Festival.
post is a text-based, dance theatre group comprising Zoe Coombs Marr, Mish Grigor and Natalie Rose. Since forming in 2003 post have taken part in Groundwork, Memories and Letters to the Editor with Alice Cummings and Nikki Heywood in 2004; the 2UPACT ensemble program in 2005; and the UTP ensemble program in 2005. post hosted UTP’s Short and Sharp in 2005 and their work Idle Hands Wake up with Fleas was performed as a part of Accidents and Alchemies in 2005 and also at the 2006 Next Wave Festival. They performed again as part of Accidents and Alchemies at Performance Space in 2006, with the work Under 12s Competitor No 286. In 2006 post received funding from the Australia Council to undertake a creative development, resulting in the full length work Gifted and Talented. This work was remounted in June 2007 at PACT Youth Theatre with further support from the Australia Council. Gifted and Talented was also a part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival in October 2007 where post won The Age 2007 Melbourne Fringe Festival Performance Award, and the 2007 Adelaide Fringe Festival Award – Paradisiacal Performance. In 2007 post were also recipients of a Next Wave Kickstart grant to make their new work Swimming Home in Heels (a performance about lies) for the 2008 Next Wave Festival. See www.postpresentspost.com