Programs
Actorvate/Playback Theatre Ensemble
- Following on from our Actorvate ‘train the trainer’ program funded by artsACT, we received extension funding to develop an ongoing Playback Theatre Ensemble. Rebus Artistic Director Robin Davidson and Creative Programs Director Ali Clinch created a year long program to train local theatre practitioners in Playback Theatre techniques.
Flair
- Continued our Flair program in which a cast of people with differing abilities devised and performed an original work, Utopiate, to packed houses at the Belconnen Arts Centre Theatre. The play received rave reviews from audiences and critics alike.
Systems of Sanity
- We began work on our Systems of Sanity program in which a cast of people with lived experience of mental ill-health were led through theatre games and exercises to explore different ways of thinking and communicating about mental health, mental illness, and the mental health system and create an original work to be performed in 2023.
Acting Out: On Screen
- With the support of the Hands Across Canberra Canberra Day Appeal, we successfully fundraised enough money to continue our Acting Out: On Screen program providing a 4-day intensive school holiday film program for LGBTQIA+ young people in July 2022.
iDrama
- We rebranded our weekly drama classes for people with intellectual disability to iDrama, and took over delivery of a 3rd weekly program from another organisation. These classes now operate in Braddon (Monday am), Kambah (Wednesday am) and Downer (Wednesday pm) and guide participants through the process of writing, rehearsing and performing an original play each semester.
Re-Emergence
- Re-scheduled our Re-Emergence project due to new COVID-19 outbreaks until 2023. This project explores the experiences that people with disability in regional towns have had of drought, fire and pandemic.
Pandemic Players
- Delivered an 8 week online extension of our Pandemic Players program for +65 year old cast members of our 2021 show Titanic 2020.
Other Performances, Awards and Grants
Chemical Reaction
- Commissioned by Questacon to perform Chemical Reaction, a Forum Theatre performance about how science communication can go wrong adapted from our March 2021 production What If Scientists Ruled the World?. The show performed once for staff of Questacon and other Canberra cultural institutions, and twice for the general public.
Inner Climate
- Delivered 8 workshops of Inner Climate, a theatrical investigation into the voices in our heads that stop us acting on climate change. It was presented five times for the general public, at Questacon, Smiths Alternative and Kambri at the ANU, and for three presentations in schools, two at Tuggeranong College and one at Canberra College.
At The End of Our Street
- Delivered 9 performances of Playback Theatre show ‘At The End of Our Street‘ across venues in the ACT, Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council, Eurobodalla Shire, Bega Valley Shire and East Gippsland as part of Project Alchemy, a cross-disciplinary community arts and cultural development project funded by the Federal Government Black Summer Bushfire Grant Program. The show asked audiences what they loved about their communities and saw these stories improvised back on the spot with text, physical theatre and music.
Demented
- 2022 saw Rebus enter into our first auspicing arrangement. We were approached by Ruth Pieloor to auspice her application to ArtsACT for funding for Demented, a full-length play about the experience of Dementia at the Q Theatre. With Rebus auspicing, her application was successful. Demented went up in July 2022. The Script was also turned into a book which is now available here.
Workplace Training
It has been a relatively quiet year for Rebus in terms of delivering our suite of Access All Areas forum theatre-based workplace training programs. This has partly been due to the effects of COVID, and partly due to an increased focus on developing other programs and performances. That being said we did begin work on a new workkplace training project this financial year.
Community Law Project – Just Hearing
- Just Hearing is a three-year project that uses the Forum Theatre model of interactive theatre. It is a commission from Canberra Community Law in partnership with Legal Aid ACT, to help lawyers work better with people who are experiencing mental distress. The project involves short performance seasons around October and March each year, until March 2025. Contracts were negotiated in early 2022 for first performances which took place in October 2022.
