Hallie Shellam

Part forensic interview, part dramatic re-enactment Is this somewhere you've been before? is a new intimate performance work currently in development for Proximity Festival 2014. Come on a sensory quest to discover the fate of a missing person (X). Using smell and taste stimuli and creative visualization, we’ll re-live an event that never actually happened: a dinner appointment from the night before.

Is this somewhere you've been before? will stimulate your senses to evoke memories and take you into a world of intrigue as the enigma of X's disappearance slowly unfolds.

This is an amazing opportunity to showcase my work in Western Australia, but it requires a significant investment of time and money. Every dollar you donate goes twice as far thanks to matched funding.

Artist fees for a sound designer, olfactory stimuli, food for audience members to consume, creating the set…it all adds up! Help me make Is this somewhere you’ve been before? happen.

Thanks to Creative Partnerships, every dollar you pledge up to $2500 will be matched through their Match Crowdfunding for the Independent Arts Sector initiative, provided we reach our target!

Is this somewhere you’ve been before? will be developed and presented as part of Proximity Festival at Fremantle Arts Centre 21 October – 1 November 2014. Proximity Festival is the first platform in Australia dedicated to the creation and presentation of one-on-one intimate performances. Co-founded by James Berlyn, Sarah Rowbottam and Kelli Mccluskey, Proximity Festival provides critical peer support, encouraging artists from all disciplines to experiment with new modes of practice in the creation of participatory art. www.proximityfestival.com

Hallie Shellam is a Melbourne-based theatremaker, director, performer and dramaturg. She creates form-breaking performance work that investigates our relationships to space and the impact of ephemeral works in the information age. Projects include: Hole in the Wall, Loose Thread, The Rooms, Far Away and The Lonely Instrument
Hallie has worked with artists including POST, My Darling Patricia, Benedict Andrews, Willoh S. Weilland, and companies Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Black Swan State Theatre Company, and Performance Space. She holds a Grad Dip Hons (Directing) from Victorian College of the Arts, a BDA (Acting) from National Institute of Dramatic Art and a BA (Theatre and Drama Studies) from Murdoch University.

Every dollar that I raise will go straight into making this performance project.

-I will be able to pay a sound designer to create an evocative soundscape that will help transport the audience.

-I will be able to thoroughly investigate the potential of the olfactory and taste stimuli concepts and make them strong elements of the experience. 

-I’ll be able to create the set, source props and costume pieces.

And last, but not least...

-The funds will contribute to the significant ongoing production costs such as rehearsal room hire, rehearsal materials and documentation.

It will make it all actually possible!

Proximity Festival will be held at the historic Fremantle Arts Centre in Western Australia. That’s 3462 kilometres away. I will need to source all set, props and stimuli on the other side of the country – all the costs add up. I’ll be performing on my own to an audience on one, twelve times a night! Fitting the whole experience and narrative into under 15 minutes will also be a significant challenge - it'll mean discipline in keeping what is moving the piece forwardI think the biggest challenge I will face in making 'Is this somewhere you've been before?' will be fitting the exoperience and narrative into under 15 minutes! It'll mean really engaging my discipline for only keeping what is moving the piece forward,