This immersive visual and audio adventure for children and their families is the latest offering from the celebrated team at Erth. The audience moves through three distinct spaces, including being enclosed within a shark cage encountering life-like puppet sharks and other sea creatures. The audience views the experience from different perspectives, prompting questions about how humans co-exist with other species.
"If you get the opportunity to experience any of Erth’s work – go!"
Erth's Shark Dive is the latest work from the celebrated team at Erth, which includes an exciting community engagement offering. The tour is in the form of a residency model which allows for a local professional development opportunity. Two local performers are trained by the Erth team during the company's first 3 days in town (e.g. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for weekend performances). The local performers then form part of the cast and perform in each show. Not only does this provide performance opportunities for local artists, but is also a means of skill sharing and relationship development with the visiting artists.
Arts on Tour and Erth are committed to supporting alternative touring models that are lower in carbon emissions and high in impact. Training local artists to be integral to the performance not only reduces the size of the company on the road, but also creates a strong local resonance of the work in your community, ensuring the impact and legacy of Erth's Shark Dive is felt long after the touring company have departed. Presenters are welcome to partner with local training providers where available, or invite local performers to apply for the opportunity via a EOI call out.
The audience journey through three different spaces:
The audience spend approximately 10-15mins in each of the three spaces, with the full experience being 40mins total. The timings are dependent on the placement of the chambers from the main performance space. In general, the session are set up for 4 groups of 25 people moving through the rotations every hour.
Erth's Shark Dive invites audiences to either Play it Safe or Take a Risk: they choose their own soundtrack on headphones, bringing the experience to life as they move through three distinct spaces including being enclosed within a shark cage encountering life-like puppet sharks and other sea creatures.
Example:
Group A enters the first chamber - the Decompression Chamber - at 10am for 10 minutes; then they move into the Shark Cage in the main space at 10.10am for 15 mins; then move through to the third space - the Viewing Chamber - at 10.25 for the final 15 minutes, where they watch the next group in the cage through a scrim.
Group B, the 10.15am session, goes through the same schedule, followed by the next group at 10.30 and the 4th at 10.45, and so on.
There are ten 40-minute performances per 3-hour session. The final performance of each session is a relaxed performance. The company can perform two 3-hour sessions per day (ie 20 performances) with a minimum 1-hour break between them. Performances may also be split for day/evening sessions.
What type of space/s is needed?
Erth's Shark Dive is adaptable! It can be configured for black box spaces, a large proscenium arch stage, or bespoke non-theatrical venues.
A typical week in your venue looks like this:
Tues – TRAVEL
Wed – BUMP IN / TRAINING
Thurs – BUMP IN / TRAINING
Fri – BUMP IN / TRAINING
Sat – PERFORMANCES (20 sessions per day)
Session 1: 10 performances (3 hours)
Session 2: 10 performances (3 hours)
Sun – PERFORMANCES (20 sessions per day)
Session 1: 10 performances (3 hours)
Session 2: 10 performances (3 hours)
Mon – DAY OFF
Additional performances can be added for an extra fee.
Erth is a company fuelled by beautiful accidents; a team of creators, makers and performers pushing the limits of design, content and experience.
Erth’s puppetry-based theatrical productions and innovative community projects have challenged and inspired audiences for more than thirty years, driven by a special interest in natural history, First Nations stories and urban mythology. With a prime focus on environmental sustainability, conservation and social justice, the company’s core motivation is the creation of emotionally impactful artistic work. By connecting with audiences young and old, Erth educates, inspires, motivates and empowers people to make an impact in the world through their own actions. Today the company is recognised internationally as an innovator of physical and visual theatre, and a creator of brave, unbridled work for children.
Learn more: www.erth.com.au
If you are interested in touring get in contact!
Arts on Tour
02 8038 1880
touring@artsontour.com.au
Arts on Tour is based in Redfern NSW and we respectfully acknowledge the Gadigal people as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the unceded land on which we work.
As we tour artists and productions across these vast lands, we pay our respect to all First Nations Elders, past, present and future.
We celebrate their continuing connection and contribution to culture, country and community, and thank all First Nations peoples for their wisdom in caring for the land, the sky, the rivers and the sea.