The Creative Projects Fund supports professional artists, creative practitioners, groups and small organisations to bring their creative project to life.
With the next round of applications now open, we talked to Samara Cunningham, Artistic Director of Gippsland-based inclusive theatre ensemble (it’s no) drama – a 2022 Creative Projects Fund recipient – about what the funding has enabled the company to achieve.
Tell us about your project No Sudden Moves.
No Sudden Moves is a mixed-media production. The interactive performance installation responds to the ways that personal items fill our lives with meaning. The ensemble performers, with lived experience of disability, share individual stories about their unique belongings and explore how the objects we keep remind us of our past, ground us in the present, and shape our identities.
A sonic amalgam of personal stories is intertwined with manipulated photographic images in lightboxes to form the backdrop for the work. No Sudden Moves is a visual and sound experience which invites the audience to move around, look, listen and interact with the (it’s no) drama live performers.
Who is involved in the work?
(it’s no) drama has collaborated with a team of regional artists, performers and arts workers. Sound designer Michael Shirrefs, photographer Lauren Murphy, costume designer Mayumi McPhee, Disability Arts Support Worker Kim McDonald and Technical Stage Director Mark Harrison all came together to make No Sudden Moves accessible to a broad cross-section of the community of South Gippsland. The artistic team worked closely with the (it’s no) drama ensemble to compile the individual narratives and create an interactive storytelling experience that reflects diverse voices and fosters inclusivity.
Tell us about the importance of the Creative Projects Fund grant.
In our part of regional Victoria, there are limited opportunities for disabled artists to contribute to local arts and culture in a professionally supported environment. Creative Victoria project funding has been critical to the 2023 (it’s no) drama artistic program. It has allowed (it’s no) drama to diversify its artistic offerings and present a broad range of creative perspectives, which challenge social norms.
No Sudden Moves shines a light on access-related issues, enabling the company to share and celebrate the contributions of disabled artists.
How was (it’s no) drama established and how has it evolved?
(it’s no) drama is a physical theatre company based in South Gippsland, two hours southeast of Melbourne. The company creates innovative art experiences for people with and without disabilities living in regional Australia. Our inclusive work is founded on the belief that everyone can contribute to an authentic artistic experience. This attitude means fostering artistic practices that build relationships, affirm lives, and reframe assumptions of aesthetic value.
In May 2022 (it’s no) drama became an independent, not-for-profit arts company and has continued to build a significant artistic profile in Gippsland and beyond. Since our establishment in 2015 by founding member Emily Ardley, (it’s no) drama has created multiple inclusive multi-media performance projects: Unreserved (2018), Real. Not Real (2019), Party of One (2020), Stasis (2021), Wild Woods (2023) and Everyone Can Dance (2023).
Other recent highlights include a collaboration with Back to Back Theatre for RISING festival Single Channel Video (2022), and On Display Global with Heidi Latsky Dance (New York), a global initiative honoring the United Nations' International Day of Persons with Disabilities.
No Sudden Moves is being presented in the Fish Creek Art Cubes from 18 December until January 3, 2024. From there the work will travel to other regional halls, theatre spaces, community hubs and galleries. To inquire about the work visiting a venue, please contact samara@itsnodrama.com