TARAH CAREY: TANDEM TALKS
A chose your own circus adventure, the world premiere of Gravity Doll’s new show Tandem opens at Chapel Off Chapel as part of the Poppyseed Festival in late November. Inspired by retro video games, board games, and the absurdity of Japanese game shows, the show features giant jenga with an acrobat on top (who will fall off the stack!), audience participation and a new hand to hand lift sequence. I spoke to Tarah Carey, co-founder, writer and performer in the upcoming show about being a part of the Poppyseed Festival.
“I’m so excited to get this show up and out in front of audiences! Whenever I start working on a show, particularly if I’m writing or creating it, there’s a fair amount of time outside the rehearsal room that I spend obsessing of elements of the show, considering the context, the balance of themes/ tones throughout the piece” Cary said.
“As we get further into the rehearsal process things start to settle down and come into focus. For Tandem in particular, the challenge has been how to draw on our inspiration material and create acts out of them. We’re not there yet, but I’m really proud and super happy with how it’s coming together’.
Carey has a strong background in circus, acrobatics and performing arts, studying acting at University of South Queensland and training with Vulcana Women’s Circus for three years before relocating to Melbourne in 2011. Since moving here, she co-founded the circus-theatre company Gravity Dolls and has performed across theatre, TV and circus. In 2016 Tarah was one of eight, Australian circus artists selected for the Circus Oz Strong Women’s Project.
The inspiration for the show draws on retro and vintage video games, and the absurdity of some Japanese game shows.
“The show came out of touring regional Victoria and seeing people in those communities have such a strong connection to one another. We wanted to create a show that fostered that same feeling on connection and that lead to thinking about how we seek that ourselves, and landed on games. We wanted to focus more on analogue games rather than modern high tech and add a dash of absurdity for laughs” she said.
One of the most exciting and unique parts of the piece includes an interactive game of giant Jenga, with an acrobat on top. Audience members will help remove the pieces and topple the acrobat off the top.
“Audience members will remove pieces one at a time until the stack collapses. They will be completely safe and have one of us looking after them but the acrobat on top will absolutely fall off”, said Carey.
“The show is also a ‘choose your own adventure’. We decided rather than directly asking which act they’d like to see, we could have a bit more fun by playing games to navigate the show. Throughout the show we play interactive games with the audience (like Jenga). Some of the games will be to select audience members to come up on stage and some will be to select the next act of the show. All of our audience participation is fun and not at all designed to embarrass anyone”.
During the show they premiere a new hand to hand lift sequence, a specific act that they didn’t think would be achievable for them.
“A hand to hand is duo act where one person is the ‘base’ and the other is the ‘flyer’. The flyer is then supported through acrobatic tricks by the base. This could be in the form of the standing or doing handstands on the base for example. It’s an act that Tim (co-founder of Gravity Dolls) and I thought was unachievable for us, because we’re a similar size”, she said.
“Usually with this act there’s a significant difference in size and weight between the base and flyer because those kinds of proportions are easier to work with. Because we don’t have that, we just have to have much better technique and we’ve been training along side some wonderful people to help us with that. We hope this act will be in the show, but it depends if the audience steer it that way… fingers crossed!”
They’ve had a great time working with the Poppyseed Festival.
“As an independent it’s so rare to have an opportunity to be guided on all aspects of producing your own work and get help when you need it. In major performing arts companies they have roles sometimes several roles dedicated to the different aspects of producing – marketing, finance, artists etc. But when your independent, you wear all of those hats in addition to making/ performing in the show”, Carey said.
“With so many different aspects to manage, and often teach yourself how to do, it’s really easy for it to become overwhelming or make mistakes that are easily avoidable. That’s where this festival is so great, because it really is an opportunity learn those things and road test them which your own work”.
Tandem plays at the Poppyseed Festival at Chapel Off Chapel from 28 November – 9 December. Details: http://www.poppyseedfestival.com/events-calendar/2017/11/28/tandem-gravity-dolls
This article first appeared at: http://www.theatrepeople.com.au/tarah-carey-tandem-talks on15 November 2017
