Creating new original performance from Scratch
Wellington theatre company Binge Culture Collective have a reputation for breaking performance conventions. Now they are
inviting everyone to join them in removing the barriers between the audience and the performer in the experimental
works-in-progress showings, ‘Scratch Nights,’ on the first Wednesday of every month at Understudy, the BATS Theatre bar.
“Scratch Nights is a very open, low-stakes environment where failure and brilliance go hand-in-hand” says Scratch Night
curator Joel Baxendale. “People play it too safe in performance, this format encourages artists to try out their riskier
ideas, which might not otherwise have made it into a full show, and get feedback from the audience immediately
afterwards.”
Hailed by NZ Herald as one of New Zealand’s “most exciting, direct and original theatre companies,” and winners of the
overall Best in Fringe at the NZ Fringe Festival 2013, Binge Culture Collective is all about knocking down the fourth
wall and collaborating with the audience to create the experience. This can mean inviting passers-by to help save a pod
of 30 whales who’ve swum down Cuba Street and stranded on the waterfront, or pitting audience against each other in the
soul-destroying beep test, or testing new ideas at these monthly Scratch Nights.
Recently returned from a rave review season at the Edinburgh Fringe, Wellington clown Jenny McArthur will be one of the
performers testing out new material in the next Scratch Night on Wednesday 6 November. “Scratch Nights are a very useful
if not necessary thing for the development of good performance work,” says Jenny, “especially in clown when the whole
piece depends on the relationship between the audience and the performer. It’s kind of impossible to rehearse that alone
in a studio.”
Come along and be an active witness to these live experiments – the most exciting and progressive new performance you’ll
ever see.
What: Scratch Nights
When: Wednesday 6 November, 8.30pm (and the first Wednesday of every month thereafter, after the last show in the theatre)
Where: Understudy bar, BATS Theatre out-of-site, corner of Cuba and Dixon
Cost: Koha after the show / Pay-what-you-think-it-was-worth
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bingeculture
All performing artists who want to test something in front of an audience are invited to perform. Contact Joel at
j.s.baxendale@gmail.com for more details on how to be involved.