Salon Series: Intercultural Artistic Collaborations

How do artists from different disciplines and cultural backgrounds come together to collaborate? What challenges do they face, and how does inter-cultural collaboration differ from other artistic practices? And importantly, what does the inter-cultural context add to the process?

Some of the artists behind Asia TOPA commissions come together to discuss intercultural artistic collaborations.

Program

Salon Series: Dragon Ladies Don’t Weep
In partnership with Asia Society. Presented with support from National Arts Council (Singapore) and Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (Singapore).
Venue: Theatre, The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Federation Square
Date: Saturday 15 February 2020
Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Speakers: Margaret Leng Tan, Tamara Saulwick, Erik Griswold, Kok Heng Leun
Moderator: Leah Jing

How do you create a sonic portrait of a music icon in an intercultural context?

Join Asia Society Australia at Asia TOPA for an in-depth exploration into the making of Dragon Ladies Don’t Weep, a Singaporean-Australian work featuring avant-garde music icon Margaret Leng Tan exploring memory, time, control and loss. Pianist Margaret Leng Tan, director Tamara Saulwick, composer Erik Griswold and dramaturg Kok Heng Leun share their experiences and challenges working on what became a very personal sonic memoir that pushed Margaret Leng Tan to connect her background in experimental music into an exploration of new territories in theatre.

This event is open to the public and registration is essential via this link.

Related event: Dragon Ladies Don’t Weep

Salon Series: BLACK TIES
Venue: Common Rooms, Trades Hall
Date: Sunday 23 February 2020
Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Speakers: Rachael Maza, Tainui Tukiwaho, Amber Curreen

In this behind-the-scenes conversation, ILBIJERRI Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Rachael Maza joins Amber Curreen and Tainui Tukiwaho from Te Rēhia Theatre Company to reflect on the making of BLACK TIES, a ground-breaking collaboration between two First Nations theatre companies.

Please register to attend via this link

Related event: BLACK TIES

Salon Series: SAIGON - Between Life and History
A conversation between Caroline Guiela Nguyen and Benjamin Law
Venue: The Wheeler Centre
Date: Friday 13 March 2020
Time: 6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
Moderator: Beverley Wang

Theatre director Caroline Guiela Nguyen speaks with Australian writer Benjamin Law about their respective work in theatre and comedy. Families and individuals across the world carry within themselves the marks left by the changes of our world. Caroline and Benjamin discuss how rarely our international stages explore the experience of second generation migrants – children of parents frequently in exile from their homeland, and the impact of history and geography on our everyday experiences and identities. What happens when the places where your parents and grandparents lived no longer exist except in the memory and the experience of speaking a different language to your parents.

Related event: SAIGON

Salon Series: Independent Intercultural Producing - 'Best' Practice, 'Failed' Practice
In partnership with Theatre Network Australia - Victorian Independent Producers Initiative
Venue: Theatre Network Australia, G5 / 152 Sturt St, Southbank
Date: Friday 20 March 2020
Time: 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM

What does it mean to work as an independent producer across diverse cultural contexts? What are the cultural protocols you need to keep in mind? How does working in a multilingual context shape an artistic collaboration? What does it mean to be a 'producer' when you work in a context where art is a part of everyday life, rather than an artistic 'outcome' or 'product'? How do you navigate complex power dynamics in different cultural contexts?

Theatre Network Australia and Asia TOPA will host this roundtable discussion with independent producers working across cultures in Australia, the Asia-Pacific and beyond. This event is part of the Victorian Independent Producers Initiative (VIPI), an initiative of the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria, delivered in partnership with Theatre Network Australia.

Please register to attend via this link.
Registrations for this event close Monday 13 March 2020.

Salon Series: Oedipus Schmoedipus
Venue: To be announced
Date: Monday 23 March 2020
Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Speakers: To be announced

What happens when an original Australian theatre production is translated into a different culture and language? How are interpretations dependent on past, present and future contexts and understanding of artists and audiences experiencing performance in different cultures? This talk seeks to explore these questions through a discussion of the journey of Oedipus Schmoedipus and the artists involved.

Related event: Oedipus Schmoedipus