Dave Coombs

Midsumma has a long history of cultivating new arts, giving the gay community a space to create works that represent their lives and the challenges they face. 

Gasworks Arts Park also have a strong history in cultivating artists and new works, particularly Circus which often artists find difficult to find support or space to make something new


My name is Dave Coombs and I've been given the opportunity by Gasworks to create a brand new piece of circus for the Midsumma Festival in 2016. This is a huge venture and thankfully I have the back of AfterDark Theatre in a Mentoring capacity.
This show is titled 'Uncovered" and seeks to use covers of music we know and love to bring back memories of first times, lost loves and ingite a little bit of passion. 

Uncovered is a project that has stemmed from the open space and platform for performing work that is tailored for gay audiences provided by Midsumma and the Support for new Circus work provided by Gasworks Arts Park and AfterDark Theatre.

We've been given the task of making something sexy, fun but also to deliver some work that really connects with gay audiences. The show is shaping together to be something both smoking hot that still leaves room for some really touching moments. So  we've pulled together a cast of fresh, hot and exciting Circus Artists from all over the world, who have performed on both the international stage and also the small local venues which we want to celebrate.

Since this is New Work we will be using all funds raised from the initial creative process , through to the final stages of polishing and staging the piece.

Funds will be directed towards these production elements as follows:
Costuming and Makeup: $500
Set Design: $700
Sound and Lighting: $750
Rehearsal Venue Hire (one of the biggest killers for circus productions): $1050 

Ultimately through this project we want to support our artists and want to be able to pay them for their time during the development of this show, so any money raised that exceeds our target will be going towards making sure they can afford to take time out of other paid work in order to be able to spend time in rehearsals

The more we're able to raise the more we can lift this project into being something truly unforgettable. 
Gasworks have already been generous enough to provide venue hire, technical staff, front of house and assistance with marketing strategies, so this project already has the clear go ahead with AfterDark already committing itself in a mentoring capacity and also as concept development and designers for the show.

We just need your assistance to get whats being created onto the stage and looking amazing.

Photographic Credit to Aaron Walker 

The biggest obstacle for this project is time. We have a limited amount of time to bring all the elements of this show together, With the support of this campaign, we will be able to bring other people into the project to reduce the workload of our creative team allowing them to focus on the areas they excel at and reduce any wasted time.

Also our other major obstacle is rehearsal venues. Finding space to rehearse a full circus show in Melbourne is not a simple or particularly cheap matter, we have options to use smaller venues however this will double or even triple the rehearsal time required. With funding we can eliminate that issue completely


Photographic credit : David Conway