HOTA launches new audio-led theatre experience from home
HOTA, Home of the Arts has launched a new audio-led theatre experience, ‘Mountain Goat Mountain’, for families across the Gold Coast and beyond, developed during isolation by Australian company, Threshold.
The unique theatre experience takes families with young children on an interactive journey, through a series of activities that help families set up and step into their own magical, imaginative world.
Guided by a narrative soundscape, families will embark on the 45-minute theatrical experience using only a charged audio device, bed sheet, a piece of blank paper and pencils, pens or textas. Participants will crawl through tunnels, cross lava pits and swim through underwater caves, all without leaving home!
Created by artists, Zoë Barry, Liz Francis, Nikita Hederics, Tahli Corin and Sarah Lockwood for Threshold, this adventurous performance was developed with support of a national collaboration by art organisations, including HOTA, Arts Centre Melbourne, Adelaide Festival Centre’s DreamBIG Children’s Festival and AWESOME International Children’s Festival.
HOTA CEO, Criena Gehrke, said HOTA continues to bring great art directly to homes through its online programming.
“RAGE ON(line), and our artist fund, Rage Against the V(irus), has enabled us to give the Gold Coast great art from some extraordinary local artists over the last few weeks,” Gehrke said.
“They continue to be ambitious and nimble and as the Home of the Arts, we are deeply grateful for their creative spirit and generosity. ‘Mountain Goat Mountain’ was the very first piece of digital art we co-commissioned when the doors closed in March. Threshold have created a beautifully mesmerising and playful experience for families. It’s simply outstanding.”
Threshold, who uses theatrical tools to create experiences that bring people together, created ‘Mountain Goat Mountain’ to provide a space for creative connection through play and imagination. Co-creator, Sarah Lockwood, said Mountain Goat Mountain is for families with young children (5+) who enjoy adventure and are missing going to the theatre, or to their special magical place.
“It’s for families needing a break from monotony and who are looking for a sense of occasion and a way to celebrate each other and this time together,” said Lockwood.
“Over many years I’ve been working with members of this creative team to create invitational spaces that encourage relationships to grow. When theatres started shutting down, we realised that we had a unique offering.”
Co-creator, Tahli Corin, expressed that as artists who live regionally and are raising small children, they had been thinking about how to bring theatres into homes for some time.
“Threshold launched in June last year, so we were already interested in how we could work to create theatre in people’s homes before the pandemic hit and made it a necessity,” said Corin.
“There’s a lot of commentary right now about what the world will be like post coronavirus, and Mountain Goat Mountain is an opportunity to imagine and explore a new world together.”
Audiences can access ‘Mountain Goat Mountain’ via the HOTA website from 12.00pm on Thursday 14 May.
For more information, visit HOTA’s Website – ‘Mountain Goat Mountain‘.
