Melbourne Arts Festival

I've just got back from the Melbourne Arts Festival, where I saw
Ros Warby's "Monumental"
La Clique (great circus on very small stage)
Peter Greenaway's "The Tulse Luper Journey" (3 films)
Robert Wilson's "I La Galigo"
Romeo Castellucci's "La Tragedia Endogonidia"

The photo is me at the entrance to the National Gallery of Victoria, standing next to a wall of water.

The performance that inspired me the most was "Monumental," a solo dance piece which had a wonderful precision and life to it (using Deborah Hay's "Chreography as Perception" technique) and a wonderful absence of showing off.

The other very useful thing has been the program notes to "La Tragedia Endogonidia" - which as a show was striking, sometimes disturbing, and overall a little devoid of integration and meaning. But some things in the program notes really helped me - especially to see my tendency to stand back too far, to let the actors do all the creating and to do very little shaping and crafting myself. I feel now much more excited about devising, sharing creativity and also being bossy.

I have also been reading "Hardcore from the Heart," a book about Annie Sprinkle, who I've always admired a lot. I think Christchurch could REALLY do with a dose of Sprinkle. I think this will feed into courage for my photographs. Exhibition in May!

Saucers

I have been wondering about ways to enhance the audience's experience of this site - the old colour scheme, carpets, the oldness of everything, cracking and peeling paint, the see saw ... and, having had a sudden inspiration for the whole progression of scenes throughout the house yesterday afternoon after a big pot of oolong tea at Mouse Love Rice, I thought of an intermission involving serving food/drink to the audience. Since it will have to be such a small number anyway, it will be easy to cook for them. Here are the saucers I bought today to serve them. Our oven is broken - even more than before, as the interior pane of glass fell out on Saturday night when Milton was trying to make lemon slice - so I am trying to invent something delicious that will be easy to make even if the heat is uneven.