A Messy, Playful, Sensory, New Performance Work Invites Children To Reimagine The Material Of The World In New Ways

The Wild is a sensory, visual celebration of the power we all have to make the world anew. Performed in the school holidays 19th-23rd April at Q Theatre LOFT.

Theatre-makers Julia Croft and Virginia Frankovich are taking their desire for revolution, and their desire for a new and better world, and are getting ready to build a whole new universe that is chaotic and beautiful at the same time.

They want adventure. They want possibility… And they want to make a mess.

In their attempt to build this wild utopia they create worlds of hairy beings, inflatable eco-systems, coloured foam landscapes, walls that leak and ooze, smoke bombs that explode and plenty of pop music. We are building this together. 
The Wild is a performance landscape for everyone, to participate in and feel immersed. Little ones are invited to help move materials and build their own cosmic universes. All materials are non toxic. But a change of clothes might be a good idea!

Brought to you by some of the leading performance-makers working in Aotearoa, Julia Croft and Virginia Frankovich are joined by performance designer and visual artist Michael McCabe (Silo, ATC, Objectspace, The Dowse), Laika Rountree who will be performing an original score live onstage. All produced by Nahyeon Lee (The First Prime Time Asian Sitcom - Silo Theatre).

This will be a universe for people just like Virginia and Julia, who find it difficult to fit in and play by the rules. They want to build a new universe where they can be kinder to each other, their bodies, and the leaky and oozey living material around them. The Wild is inspired by the Expressive Therapies Continuum (ETC) which provides a framework for artistic expression, incorporating psychological and neuroscience approaches to imagery and visual information-processing in relation to childrens’ developmental stages.

Virginia Frankovich is a theatre-maker and live performance artist who is currently completing an MA in Creative Arts Therapy (CAT) at Whitecliffe. Virginia’s processes are centred around playfulness and poiesis, encouraging curiosity and spontaneity to allow materials to lead in art-making. Inspired by Winnicott’s transitional play spaces, she is interested in creating tranquil environments where free play is used to create a sense of freedom, joy and hope. Her most recent project was working with tamariki in various West Auckland Kindergartens, creating magical large characters to inhabit within communities.

Irrepressible, Julia Croft is a force in the live and performance art world both locally and internationally. Since 2015 she has created over 10 full length works that have toured extensively throughout Aotearoa and beyond. She creates multidisciplinary performance works which use bold imagery, movement and sound, creating non narrative worlds, informed by feminist and queer theory, but full of joy, humour and pop music. This is her first time making a work for young audiences.

THE WILD
19 - 23 April, 11am
Loft, Q Theatre
$15-$25

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