BACKGROUND

Forgotten Places is a community engagement project that involves close collaboration with a range of different artists. To create the project I collaborated with the Citizen Theatre team and we were proudly supported by the City of Stonnington Arts & Cultural Grants Program.

Forgotten Places started life with the simple notion that we would create a positive, colourful and optimistic vision of the future inspired by our surroundings and our relationships with our neighbours and fellow citizens.

In our current climate we are so used to hearing “No!” and I feel very strongly that every “No!” needs to be balanced with a resounding “YES!” in order to create a brighter, more sustainable future for ourselves, our communities and our environment. Forgotten Places is our “Yes!” 

Photo: Alex Christou

GUIDED PHOTOGRAPHY WALK

Forgotten Places began in November 2018 when I facilitated a free guided photography walk around the suburbs of Prahran, South Yarra and Hawksburn. The walk encouraged people to see the world around them with a fresh perspective through the art of photography.

The photographs have inspired artworks, poetry, stories, movement, lyrics, melodies, costumes, shapes and a fully immersive experience created by my wonderful, hard-working and talented Citizen Theatre collaborators.

“To capture street portraits can be challenging as you need to build a quick rapport with people. Getting some essential tips from Stu and Jayde during the two-hour walking tour was quite valuable.”

Weekend Notes - written by Nekoburro
Read the full article here

My photographs from the Photography Walk were used on social media to promote and advertise Forgotten Places. See more here: @hellostubrown / @citizentheatre

SET DESIGN

From the photograph submissions I created six abstract compositions which I then painted as murals. The compositions and paintings were used by the Citizen Theatre performers as inspiration and stimuli for lyrics, music, costume, poetry, movement and dance. 

EXPERIENCE DESIGN

The Forgotten Places world is divided into 4 areas, which represent the 4 pillars of the City of Stonnington’s strategic plan for an inclusive, healthy, creative, sustainable and smart community: Environment (Water Room), Economy (Gift Room), Community (Fun Room), Liveability (Mirror Room).

Forgotten Places is an immersive, “choose-your-own-adventure” experience and audiences were encouraged to let their curiosity guide them around our labyrinth of art, design and theatrical wonder.

Each room contained sensory stimuli that audiences would experience in addition to the performances that were taking place all around them. Performances took place in the Water Room, Gift Room & Fun Room simultaneously and most were performed more than once. The Mirror Room is an open space that you could enjoy at any time.

NAVIGATING THE SPACE

Audiences were provided with a free fold-out City Guide which showed a map of the space, details about the locations and times of performances, plus hints and tips about how best to navigate the Forgotten Places experience.

ARTISTS INVOLVED

Forgotten Places was a fully collaborative project made possible with the hard work, dedication, and talent of the following beautiful people:

Performing Collaborators

(in alphabetical order)

Jordan Barr
Kayla Hamill
Tomas Parrish
Willow Sizer
Margot Tanjutco

Non-performing Collaborators

Director/Dramaturge/Producer: Jayde Kirchert
Designer/Artist/Photographer: Stu Brown
Composer: Imogen Cygler
Costume Designer: Aislinn Naughton
Associate Producer: Steph Clare-Cover

THANK YOU

Cate, Ibrahim, Simon and the team at Chapel Off Chapel for being a superb ‘artist’s venue’ that is a delight to work with

Nicole, Rosalie and the folks at the City of Stonnington council for their support and guidance

All of our photography walk participants & volunteer ushers

Russell Mason for helping to photograph the performances (@stonningtonurbs)

Ines Iachelini for going above and beyond

Special thank you to Ron and Marg Dobell for their continued support

Marshall White Foundation for the use of their billboards at Como Park and Malvern Gardens

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