ABOUT

Urchin started as a commission from the Melbourne Recital centre called Sea Sounds
It was designed to be a 25 minute work for babies under 24 months.
It performed for the Music Play festival in January 2018

Urchin is a performance project for the very young and their immediate carers.

Inspired by research about the sea including incredible things like :
fish communication, bio-luminescence, extraordinary life forms, layers of incredible pressure,
the action of sound underwater, and the the nature of light.
We considered the way that humans pollute the ocean. 

We use research, composition, improvisation, physical training, performance testing and evaluation to make performances that are unusual and unique for our audiences.

Three performers used movement, music and the space to make a performance that tried to capture the massive world of the sea from the view of animals, biology and importantly our ears.

Responsive & Interactive

This show engages the very young and their carers. The audience is encouraged to move freely in the space. Adults are asked to be quiet but the kids can move (if they could crawl or walk) speak or sing or cry - we don't mind. We want to understand if we can capture their attention and get them involved. We are able to come right up to and into the the audience. Some who feel very adventurous are able to move into the space. We want create a performance that makes it possible to imagine what it might be to inhabit the alien and powerful world of the ocean not just as a person but as a microbe, animal, or even the water itself.

We suspended some of our instruments and also sculptures by Gina Gascoigne to help make an environment that could be underwater. We used strong colour to help make a sense of otherwordliness.

The performers are Aviva Endean, Dan Witton and Justin Marshall: musicians who have a real interest in making theatrical experiences for audiences using sound. Some of the instruments were traditional like clarinet, double bass and vibraphone. We also use shells, shakers and natural materials like bamboo or deconstructed instruments like the reeds from an accordion. We want to make instruments from recycled materials as a way to explore some of the questions that we have about the way humans are destroying our oceans.

The participants:
Daniel Witton  - performer, project leader, double bass, tuba, voice - danwitton.weebly.com/
Aviva Endean - performer, clarinets, voice www.avivaendean.com/
Justin Marshall - performer, percussion, vibraphone, voice
Jessica Wilson - outside eye, performance consultant  ​jessicawilson.com.au/about/

---

THE FUTURE

Our plan is to develop performance material from our previous work and set up experiments with groups of children of very specific ages. We want to build instruments that can be played in the work. We want to see how we can make a show that allows very young children into the performance area where sounds are made and performed around them, that amuses them and their carers that uses beautiful strange sounds made right in front of them and inspires the imagination using sound and image.

HEAR SOME SOUNDS