“…If Tanja Beer is not one of Melbourne’s hottest and most inventive designers, then I have no idea who is…” Stage Whispers for “She’s Not Performing” La Mama 2010

What is The Living Stage?

The Living Stage is the world’s first living, breathing, sustainable, edible stage!

Combining stage design, sustainability, permaculture and community engagement The Living Stage is a recyclable, biodegradable and edible performance space. Part theatre and part garden, The Living Stage features vertical garden walls, suspended pots and portable garden beds with edible plants, and is the brain-child of stage-designer extraordinaire Tanja Beer in collaboration with Hamish McCallum (Permaculture designer) and Sas Allardice (Environmental Educator).

The Living Stage will make its debut at The Castlemaine State Festival from March 15^th-24^th but Tanja and her team hope to be able to design and bring The Living Stage to Melbourne and develop new site-specific and seasonal Living Stage designs for festivals and locations around the world – think a Living stage at the Edinburgh festival, or a climate specific Living Stage in Northern Europe! The Living Stage really has the potential to be the new ‘sustainable Spiegeltent’!

Being launched at The Castlemaine State Festival in March 2013, The Living Stage will house a series of new theatre, performance works and events that interact with the unique edible, living design that surrounds them.

Some of the performances and events that the Living Stage will host at the Festival include legendary improvisation troupe Born in a Taxiand The Garden Chef: an ‘Iron-Chef’ inspired theatrical cook-off using produce grown in The Living Stage, including local comics Tim Ratcliffe and Sam Downing, and contestants include 2012 Masterchef Finalist Beau Cook

Why we need your help

The Living Stage has received some funding from the Ian Potter Cultural Trust, Regional Arts Victoria and Growing Abundance. However, in the lead up to the Castlemaine Festival there are many community workshops and activities preparing gardens, growing produce and preparing for performances that aren’t covered by this funding.

We need your support to help fund the Community planting workshops and artists’ fees for bringing The Living Stage to life at the Castlemaine State Festival AND to help make sure The Living Stage has a life after the festival so the rest of the world gets the opportunity to experience the world’s first living, breathing, edible performance space!

More info about The Living Stage at The Castlemaine State Festival: http://castlemainefestival.com.au/2013/the-grove/

We are seeking a further $5,500 to fully maximise the participation, engagement and participation elements this exciting project could offer to so many people in the Castlemaine community as well as to make sure this incredibly innovative, world-first design has a life beyond the festival!

Valuable Rewards for Your Support

We are offering fantastic rewards for your support including your very own edible piece of the Living Stage – an instant veggie/herb garden for your backyard or balcony with a beautiful one-of-a-kind etching engraved in each planter box as well as one-off original framed artworks by artist Gisela Beer.

The Project Team 

Tanja Beer
Stage Designer/Scenographer & originator of The Living Stage concept
Based in Kyneton, Castlemaine and Melbourne      

Tanja Beer is a leader in ecological design practice and has more than 12 years professional experience, including creating over 50 designs for a variety of theatre companies and festivals in Australia (Sydney Opera House, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Queensland Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company). She is a proud member of Melbourne’s sustainability and theatre group, Greening Our Performance (GOP) and teaches Design Research and Climate Change at the University of Melbourne. Following The Living Stage in Castlemaine, Tanja will be hosted by Allegheny College in Pennsylvania and will guide them in the creation of their own version of The Living Stage.
More of Tanja’s design work can be viewed at http://www.tanjabeer.com

Hamish MacCallum
Permaculture Designer, Castlemaine   

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Hamish trained in fine art and theatre design in London before moving to Melbourne to train in horticulture and Permaculture. In 1997, he established Meridian Herb Farm (Castlemaine), with a break in 2000 to live and work with David Holmgren (co-originator of the permaculture concept). Hamish has designed over 100 projects in Victoria, including an arts project for Punctum Inc. and the Stephanie Alexander school kitchen program. Blending integrated, ecological design with aesthetics, Hamish works almost entirely with re-cycled and locally sourced materials, working to permaculture ethics and principles.

Sas Allardice
Environmental educator and community leader          

Sas Allardice is passionate about growing and sharing food with her local community. She is a gardening teacher with the Castlemaine Growing Abundance Project and Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Gardens at Winters Flat Primary School. Sas has worked with people of all ages and stages, from rural Victoria to rural East Africa, sharing the wonder and the power of simple acts like making compost and saving seeds.