Performance & Dance
Gail was originally trained in acting and theatre-making and found her way to sonic art through sound design for performance. Over the last 25 years she has collaborated with leading experimental writers, directors and choreographers in Sydney. She also occasionally instigates her own larger-scale sound driven performance projects.
A continuous self-vibrating region of intensities
Gail Priest & Thomas Burless
with guest performers Carolyn Connors & Sonya Holowell
Liveworks, Performance Space, 23-26 October 2019
An installation and performance where science, sound and sculpture meet. Inspired by the lesser-known work of pioneering vocalist Margaret Watts Hughes and her invention, the Eidophone (1885), Gail Priest and Thomas Burless created a collection of sculptures and devices that convert the human voice into a mesmerising display of visual patterns and effects. Each night, vocalists Carolyn Connors and Sonya Holowell joined Gail to sing these objects to life, enabling us to hear and see sound at the same time..
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Obscene Madame D
Theatre Kantanka
Riverside, Parramatta; 107 Projects, Redfern, 2018
Iconoclastic Brazilian writer Hilda Hilst’s hallucinatory novel has been called “shocking, exquisite, mesmerizing, metaphysical” and “like Kafka but with the laugh of the Medusa”.For this daring new adaptation, the audience wears wireless headphones to directly inhabit the psychological landscape of grieving recluse, Madame D., living below the stairs after the death of her husband. As she ponders ineffable questions both familiar and absurd, we share the atmospheric sounds and intimate voices of Madam D.’s insurrectionary life and mind.
Director: Carlos Gomes
Performer: Katia Molino
Composer Sound Artist: Gail Priest
Video Artist: Sam James
Light Design: Fausto Brusamolino
Producer: Harley Stumm, Intimate Spectacle
Memory, madness, or manifesto? Enter the shadow world of the Obscene Madame D. with Theatre Kantanka, an immersive and spellbinding environment of binaural sound, hand-crafted animation, and gripping live theatre.
Image: Katia Molino, photo Heidrun Löhr
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One thing follows another…
Gail Priest & Jane McKernan
with Angela Goh &Lizzie Thomson
20-23 August 2014, Performance Space, Carriageworks, Sydney
Anything can follow anything else providing nothing is taken as the basis. JOHN CAGE
One thing follows another… is a negotiation between the art forms of dance and music. Jane, Angela and Lizzie do not always dance to Gail’s music and Gail does not always make music to dance to. This balancing act of independence and collaboration is played out with more than a nod to the Fluxus movement and 1960s avant-garde.
Concept & Research: Gail Priest
Co-creators: Jane McKernan (choreographer), Gail Priest (composer)
Performers/devisors: Angela Goh, Jane McKernan, Gail Priest, Lizzie Thomson
Video Consultant: Samuel James
Lighting Design & Production Management: Clytie Smith
Image: Glossolalia, 2022, Plimsoll Gallery, University of Tasmania, photo Eden Meure.
More on One Thing…Commssioned sound design/composition for performance & dance
2020-2023
Sunshine Super Girl
Creator/Director Andrea James
Performing Lines, 2020-2022, National Tour
Evonne Goolagong’s heartwarming story is a celebration of spirit and passion over adversity, and a tribute to a woman whose sporting prowess continues to inspire a nation, giving hope to thousands of young girls across the country. With its distinctively Australian sensibility and humour, Sunshine Super Girl asks us to consider our nation’s future and the part we can play for the next ‘Goolagong’ waiting in the wings.
https://www.performinglines.org.au/projects/sunshine-super-girl
Kantanka VR Projects
Performance and Pandemic (2020-2021)
For this project Kantanka invited a number of artists to develop a performance for a Virtual Reality film, responding to the societal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.In collaboration with KANTANKA each artist has created a short work that responds to COVID-19, its origins, its impact on human behaviour and the environment, and the future possibilities for a world post-pandemic.
https://kantankacreative.com/new-realities-performance-and-pandemic/
Magic Carpet (2019-2021)
By using Virtual Reality, Kantanka employed the device of the mythical flying magic carpet to transport audiences on poetic journeys. These journeys explore ideas of family heritage, cultural memory, migration and the establishment of new home-lands. The project investigates the application of a new technology (VR) to facts, fables and dreams to present stories that reflect the diversity, cultural richness, and resilience of the Australian community.
https://kantankacreative.com/magic-carpet/
CDP Theatre Producers
Magic Beach, 2020, National Tour
Guess How Much I Love You?, 2021, National Tour
Are We there Yet?, 2022-3, National Tour
https://www.cdp.com.au/index.html
2019
PYT: Playlist
2019 PYT, Fairfield, 2020 Sydney Opera House
PLAYLIST is Beyoncé meets the women’s marches meets Australian Idol. It’s full of suburban dreams and pop star fantasies. It’s a pop culture call to action, about the critical issues of our times.
Who is going to shape the future for women in Australia? Living in the #MeToo world, PLAYLIST explores the experiences, ideas and power of young women. It promises to be an adrenaline rush of a show, bringing together the diverse skills of the performers, street dance forms and pop songs to offer an unconventional dance theatre experience.
Co-composition with Jasmine Guffond
2017
Martin del Amo: Champions
FORM Dance Projects
17-22 Jan 2017, Carriageworks, Sydney Festival
In an epic, adrenaline-fuelled choreographic match, a dream team of 11 female dancers makes the moves of the football field their own. From the training drills to the victory dances, contemporary dance and soccer collide. Under the direction of Martin del Amo, one of Australia’s most innovative choreographers, CHAMPIONS celebrates the talents of elite performers and harnesses the energy and enthusiasm of sport fans.
https://www.form.org.au/champions/
2013
Tough Beauty
August 2013, Casula Powerhous
Directed by Claudia Chidiac, written by Finnegan Kruckmeyer
2012
version 1.0: The Table of Knowledge
August 2011, Merrigong Theatre Co; April 2012, Carriageworks
version 1.0 & ATYP: The Tender Age
June 2011, Sydney Opera House; August 2012, Carriageworks
2010
Rosie Dennis: Downtown
Sept 29-Oct 3, residency and performance, Anti Festival, Kuopio, Finland
Martin del Amo: It's a Jungle Out there - Tour
Performance Space @ CarriageWorks; Dancehouse, Melbourne; Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth
version 1.0: This Kind of Ruckus - Tour
Marchh 2010, Norwood Concert Hall, Adelaide Fringe Festival; August 2010, The Arts Centre, Melbourne
2009
version 1.0: This Kind of Ruckus
3-12 September 2009, Performance Space @ CarriageWorks
Martin del Amo: It's a Jungle Out There
25-27 June 2009, Campbelltown Arts Centre
Karen Therese: Riot Act
5-13 June, 2009, Campbelltown Arts Centre
sound design assisted by James Brown
2008
Nalina Wait with Jane McKernan: Dual
5-7 September, Live Works festival, Performance Space
sound design assisted by James Brown
2007
Deborah Pollard: Blue Print
26 October-4 November 4 2007, Performance Space @ CarriageWorks
Version 1.0: Deeply offensive and Utterly Untrue
25 August-8 September 2007, Performance Space @ CarriageWorks
Martin del Amo: Never been this far away from home
7-17 March 2007, Performance Space @ CarriageWorks
2006
Martin del Amo: Can't Hardly Breathe
20-22 July 2006, Performance Space
Martin del Amo: Under Attack
February 2006, Breathing Space UK tour: Inbetween Time Festival, Arnolfini, Bristol; The Green Room, Manchester; Tramway, Glasgow
2005
Karen Therese: Y.Smith
18 July 18-7 August 2005, Performance Space
Version 1.0: The Wages of Spin
20 May 20-5 June 2005, Performance Space
Martin del Amo: Under Attack
23 Feb 23-16 March, Performance Space
PACT/Karen Therese: Constellations
23 February 23-6 March, PACT - New Mardi Gras Festival
2004
Frumpus: Crazed
18-29 August, 2004, Performance Space
Martin del Amo: Unsealed
15-25 April 2004, Performance Space & Perth International Arts Centre
PACT/Regina Heimann: Song of Ghosts
15 - 25 April 2004, PACT
2003
PACT/Regina Heilmann: Altered States
March 2003 PACT, Sydney; Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbnae
2000
White Collar Project
Gail Priest & Caitlin Newtown-Broad
April 2000, Peformance Space presentation
site specific multi-media performance on the rooftop of the Coronation Hotel, Sydney