You've worked on a number of occasions with Restless in quite different roles. Can you tell me a little bit about your history with the company?
I saw the first Restless work, IKONS in 1993, and remember it distinctly. A friend dragged me along because she had a crush on one of the performers!
I was intrigued by this style of performance - I had never seen dance theatre before, and I really connected to it. Since then I have seen most Restless productions, and performed in Perfect Match (performer, co-composer with Jason Sweeney), In The Blood (musician/composer with band Bergerac), Singing of Angels (composer), Safe from Harm (performer and co-composer with Catherine Oates) and The Heart of Another Is A Dark Forest (performer and co-composer with Jethro Woodward). I have been involved to a lesser extent in several other productions. Many friends have performed with the company, and my long time theatre collaborators, Ingrid Voorendt, Astrid Pill and Gaelle Mellis have long histories with the company. From the beginning the Restless approach to collaboratively devising material and the company's aesthetic has had a big impact on me. It's hard to articulate quite the extent of the effect Restless has had on my career, as it has so strongly influenced my attitude to performance.
Did you make a conscious decision to decide to direct? How did that came about?
I make very few conscious decisions, but I'm trying to make more of them as I get older! Until 2011 I was the performing arts tutor for an Arts Access Victoria respite arts program, and during that time I directed a work and had the good fortune to be mentored by Restless' former artistic director, Ingrid Voorendt. In my work with The Songroom I have directed performance pieces for school children but this is my first major work. Originally Kate Sulan and I were to co-direct the work and when Kate had to revise her involvement I thought about getting another experienced director to co-direct with me, but I realised I have such a clear vision of this work I wanted to take the directing on. Happily Kate is dramaturg for the work.
So where did the name Howling Like a Wolf come from?
Several years ago Restless invited the Melbourne-based performance company Rawcus to run a weekend residency with members of Restless, Tutti, No Strings Attached and Company @. I think it was the first time these companies had all worked together. I had been working as a sound designer with Rawcus at the time and Rawcus director Kate Sulan invited me to join her and two Rawcus performers, Mike and Clem, to help run the weekend. The title of the show came from one of the performers, Eleni, during this residency. Performers were given a piece of paper with an emotion written on it, and had to express that emotion on their face, like a statue. Eleni was given the word 'love', and struck a pose like a wolf howling at the moon. When we asked her why she had chosen that pose she replied that she has recently been in a newsagent and saw a Valentine's Day card that had an image of two wolves howling at the moon together, so she thought that must be what love is - like howling like a wolf. When she said this Kate and I realised we had to make a show! We approached Restless with the proposal of making a work involving all four companies and to our delight Philip agreed.
What's this new work about and can you tell me a little bit about the other artists that are collaborating with you?
The initial thoughts about the show came from the Malcom Gladwell book, Blink. The book explores rapid cognition, touching on nonverbal communication, microexpressions and intuition. Kate and I thought these themes would be interesting to explore with the performers. In collaboration with designer Geoff Cobham and sound designer/composer Jed Palmer we are creating a work that explores issues arising from the scientific study of nonverbal communication, from the pioneering electric-shocks-to-the-face work of 19th century French physician Duchenne and his influence on Charles Darwin to body language guru Alan Pease and the research work of psychologist Paul Ekman into facial expressions and how to read them to identify lying and deception. We have had great discussions in the rehearsal room about how we communicate with one another, body language, mirror neuron theory, empathy, and ultimately how we connect to one another. Exploring the body language of flirting has been the most popular topic for the dancers so far.
There's quite a lot of new faces in the Company since you composed and performed in Safe from Harm. How have you found working with the dancers?
It is a privilege to be working with performers who are so hungry to create work, and they take great personal responsibility for making the best work possible. It's lovely to be back in the rehearsal room with performers I know well. It has been wonderful working with Lorcan, Alice, Andrew, Dana and Jianna again, and welcoming Rachel High back to the company as a special guest. Rachel and I last performed together in In The Blood ten years ago! Its been really interesting getting to know the new performers, they all have fascinating stage presence and draw you into their world. I am excited by the possibilities.
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