The Farm... Not a cult | Dec 2017
A lot of people keep asking
"What is The Farm?"
We Answer, "Well, it's a lot of things"
"Are you a cult?"
We just laugh and say "Of course not"
A cult looks like this...
Or sometimes like this:
and even a little like this....
Whereas, WE look more like this...
Ok so we are a cult.
It’s time to break out the Kool Aid and celebrate a year that has basically flown past. Like Michael Jackson on a lighted pavement singing Billy Jean we have pulled off some pretty big moves this year and we’ve also done some serious crotch grabbing (that’s our own crotches mind you, we didn’t go all Donald on anyone).
This is our end of year newsletter and as anyone knows any self respecting newsletter has rules.
Step #1 - Open with a joke. Check. Follow with another joke. Check. Try to stop joking because you need to get to more interesting and informative aspects of the company’s life…ummm check.
Step #2 - Brag. Tell people about all the amazing things you’ve been doing.
OK, this is how it went, on Jan 3 we woke up, and then we got to work..
We premiered Bare Bones, an awesome 3-day workshop series in our awesome studio (The FarmHouse), at The Walls (art space and legends next door) and the beach, it was awesome.
“That was awesome” - Random Bare Boner
Through Bare Bones we started a partnership with Supercell Festival of Contemporary Dance in Brisbane, involving;
a master-class
"the C word” - a workshop on criticism
a talk about failure
a post show meditation called The Afterglow
And it was there at Supercell that we premiered the beautiful work, Depthless from Kate Harman and Ben Ely
"Depthless is a stunning collaboration" - The Weekend Edition
At Supercell 2018 there was the Australian Premiere of Gavin Webber & Kayah Guenther's work The Crossing.
We went to Melbourne to show Cockfight in Dance Massive, a perfect storm for adolescent linguists
"At times broadly comedic, with a Buster Keaton-esque physicality on show, Cockfight switches effortlessly to moments of beauty and poignancy" - Arts Hub
We premiered Frank Enstein at Bleach Festival and then took it to a sold out season in Perth with our fabulous co-producers CO3 Australia and Bleach Festival
"This is a thoughtful, engaging and necessary piece of dance theatre, that challenges how we view others" - Perth Arts Live
At the same time the GreenHousers got to hang with our friends from Branch Nebula while they were making their show Snake Sessions at Bleach Festival
“Great artists, great show” – Louise Bezzina, AD of Bleach Festival
Then, we realised we were already half way through our year, so we had a melted cheese sandwich and a nana nap...
Then we got up and kept going...
We premiered and then ran a three week season of Good Little Soldier, in Perth with Ochre Contemporary Dance Company
“It is engrossing, disturbing, text-based physical theatre, exceptionally well performed.” - Dance Australia
The GreenHouse performed their first self devised work at the 70th Birthday of Currumbin RSL.
“And to think, I just came for the schnitzel and the view, oh this is wonderful” - Brand new patron of the arts
And then we did a big fat tour of Cockfight, starting at The Arts Centre Gold Coast and then kicking through 8 cities in the UK with Dance Touring Partnership and Performing Lines before finishing in Santiago in Chile.
"Please please please go see it! It is exciting and bold and quite simply bloody good." - East Midlands Theatre
We’ve also been doing a bunch of workshops for schools, adults, professionals and training institutions, including a lecture takeover at Canterbury University.
“The Farm is the greatest company in the history of greatest companies” - No one said that, I just made that up as I’m typing this now
And to round out the year Gavin and Kayah took us out with a workshop and showing of The Crossing at Parachute - run by our friends at Legs On The Wall.
“Oooh, that Joshua is handsome isn’t he?” - It’s a safe bet, someone always says that
Keep your eyes out for us in 2018. We've already announced a co-production with La Boite Theatre Company on Suzie Miller's The Mathematics of Longing, we're presenting The Crossing at Artour Showcase Online in January and, as we've already mentioned,Supercell and Bare Bones are just around the corner. Also watch out for more Farmy-related news from Bleach Festival and Co3 Australia soon!
So that is our year.
We want you to know about it because we’re proud of what we’ve done. We want to thank you all for supporting us. The Farm is more than a PTY LTD to us. It’s a family. Sure a family that drinks too much pisco sour and makes bad jokes about cults and has way too many dick references in some of it’s shows, but it’s also a family that care deeply about art and how to make it. It’s a family that is not afraid to take risks without knowing how they will land, because in the end for us it’s all about the work. The work we make. The way we make it. The way we work together. The work that people watch. We’ve been working together for over 15 years and we want to continue working together for many years more. Sure the pisco helps. Of course it does but it’s not all about the pisco, it’s about the work.
That’s us. That’s it. That’s 2017 in a nutshell. Thanks for watching. And if you want to join our “family” just let us know, there’s still plenty of Kool Aid to go around.
Step #3 - Always end with a joke.