Seating Bank

SEATING BANK (working title) is a new work in its early stages. Its initial creative development in March 2020 was interrupted due to COVID, and will restart in July 2021 at Arts House, Melbourne. 

The design concept for this work centres on the use of the seating bank as a combined space for both audience and performers. The goal is to create an immersive, hybrid performance where the seating bank acts as a representation of a continent, or a universe, or a community. In this space, audience members and performers move in and out of being ‘as one’. SEATING BANK will investigate how groups form and un-form, how we can be manipulated or manipulate others, and the natural and unnatural ghettoisation of groups depending on a range of factors. 

All of Carly Sheppard’s work – both her own and as a highly sought-after collaborator by leading contemporary Australian peers – is connected by a commitment to unveiling truths and nuances about class and community. Her practice as a dancer, actor and performance maker is known for its integrity, magnetism, humour and its bite.

A cross-disciplinary performance artist and proud Tagalaka descendent, Carly Sheppard’s work negotiates across dance and theatre performance, sculpture, drawing, voice and installation. Carly’s most significant and recent work Crackers And Dip With Chase And Toey, premiered in 2018 at Arts House, Melbourne and won the 2018 Green Room Award for Best Contemporary & Experimental Production.