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POW Circus

Performances and Events

Small Shows & workshops

2017 - The Coming Back Out Ball, Melbourne Town Hall, Melbourne

2016 - Ovarian Cancer Australia Support group, Queen Vic Women’s Centre, Melbourne

Women’s Circus Skillshare, Footscray
Ignite book launch, Brunswick Neighbourhood House: video link here
White Night, Circus Circus cabaret, Melbourne Exhibition Building: video link here
Park Lounge II, Midsumma, Werribee - see images here

2015 – Senior's Week

Senior’s Fitness Expo, City of Moreland, Coburg Town Hall - view slideshow here

Senior’s Fitness Expo West Footscray Senior Citizen'sCentre

Circus of Life, Brotherhood of St. Laurence, Collingwood Town Hall: - view slideshow here and video link here

2014 - Senior's Week, Hobson’s Bay Council, Laverton Hub: video link here

2013 - Lynden Aged Care Nursing Home, Camberwell

2012 - Senior's Week, Flash mob # 52, Nillumbik Council’s Bushfire Recovery
Project, Eltham: video link here

2011 - Double trapeze act, Women’s Circus Skillshare

Watch & Try Workshop, Broadmeadows Leisure Centre

2010 - International Women's Day, Expo, City of Darebin, Preston Town Hall

2009

POW Show N Tell, Footscray
Rylands Retirement Village, Hawthorn
International Women's Day, Expo, Darebin Arts Centre

2008

Planned Big Day Out, Dept. Human Services, Ringwood
Bendigo Rural Health Activity Day; Strathdale
Where Angels Dare, Cecil Street Studios Xmas show, Fitzroy

2007

Women’s Health Day, Brunswick Neighbourhood House

2006

Consider Rivers, Farewell to the Pit, Footscray Community Arts Centre
Fair Play! International Women's Day, Melbourne Town Hall
Scenes from This Skin, Chelsea Heights Community Centre;
Social Work Dept. University of Melbourne, North Melbourne Town Hall
Excerpts from This Skin, Melba Project, Healesville

2005

Australian Physiotherapists Conference (Neurology & Gerontology)
Age Does Not Weary Her, Senior's Week, Horsham; Warrnambool
10th Birthday, Hume University of Third Age, Broadmeadows
Alzheimer's Awareness Australia Forum, Melbourne

2004

National Breast Cancer Conference, Melbourne Convention Centre
Health2004 - World Conference on Health Promotion & Health Education, Melbourne Convention Centre
ReActive Ageing Debate, Parliament House, Melbourne
Falls Don't Just Happen poster launch, Box Hill Community Arts Centre
Global Garden Party, City of Port Phillip, St Kilda Gardens

2000 - The House That POW Built, Braybrook Community Centre

1999 - Balancing Acts, 8 Sept & 29 Oct, Footscray Community Arts Centre

1998 - Community Week, Moonee Valley Race Course

1997

Castlemaine Festival
Midwives’ Conference, Grand Hyatt Hotel
Carnivale, Victorian Business Women's Christmas Party, Swinburne University, Lilydale Campus

1996

International Midwives Conference, Hyatt on Collins
Politics of Radical Feminism, Deakin University, Toorak Campus
Seniors Week, Caulfield Race Club
IWD luncheon local women’s services, St Kilda Town Hall
Launch of Journal of Australian Lesbian Feminist Studies 5, Shrew Women’s Bookshop
Start of rally for IWD March, steps of Parliament House, Melbourne
Seniors Week: Westhaven, Footscray; Moonee Ponds Community Centre; Bendigo
Opening of Amazon Games, Northcote Park Cricket Ground, Northcote.
Launch of Radically Speaking (Feminism Reclaimed), Deakin University, Toorak Campus
Women’s fundraiser, Rascal’s Hotel, Richmond, Melbourne
Women in Motion Conference, Deakin University, Geelong
University of the 3rd Age, Wonthaggi, Victoria

 

1995

Senior’s Expo, Melbourne Town Hall
Opening of Amazon Games, Northcote Park Football Oval
National 10/40 Conference, Sydney
WIRE unpaid workers’ ‘Shindig’ , Victoria Hotel, Brunswick
UN International Day for Older People, Caulfield Racecourse Health Function Centre
Breast Cancer Day, Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne
National Sexual Assault and the Law Conference, Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne

 

Major Shows

This Skin - April/March 2006
North Melbourne Town Hall, North Melbourne
Director - Vanessa Chapple
Script - written and researched by members of POW - see images here
Remembrance, reflections, regrets of performer's lives. "This is the skin I was born in, this is the skin I'll die"

Something Old, Something New - 11 to 20 September 2003
North Melbourne Town Hall, North Melbourne
Director - Kim Baston
Script - written and researched by members of POW
The wedding of the year is in preparation, then the town is set alight ... a virgin birth - but with two mothers ... a story of fire safety, leg waxing, discrimination against lesbians, and rock 'n' roll!

The Maiden Aunt's Story – 3 seasons in 2002
Director - Kim Baston
Script - Susan Hawthorne based on stories written and researched by POW members.

  • 26, 27, 28, 31 July and 1, 2, 3, 4 August - North Melbourne Town Hall,
  • 9, 10, 11, 12 October - The Cromwell Road Theatre, South Yarra
  • 6, 7 November - 2002 Sydney Gay Games Cultural Festival, Paddington Town Hall, Oxford Street, Sydney

The Maiden Aunt's Story dealt with loss and resilience in humorous and physically daring ways that inspire audiences to reflect on family, companionship and being alone.

Power Moves - 27 September to 7 October 2001
Pit Theatre, Footscray Community Arts Centre
Director - Kim Baston
Script - Susan Hawthorne
This show toured to rural and metropolitan Victorian in April and May 2002.
Power Moves was a show about strength - physical strength and the role it plays in improving women's lives, especially as we age; and also emotional strength - the real strength that is needed to confront change - change in our lives and change in the world in which we live.

The Art of Falling is Never Landing - 27 July to 5 August 2000, rural tour in 2003
Footscray Community Arts Centre
Director - Kim Baston
Script by - Susan Hawthorne and Kim Baston
Additional performances:

  • 23 June 2000 - Human Services Conference at Moonee Valley Race Course (work in progress)
  • August and September 2000 - tour of community centres in Melbourne's western suburbs
  • 3 September 2000 - opened Community Safety Week at Southbank
  • 5 September 2000 - follow up performance at the Melbourne Town Hall
  • 20-23 March 2003 - rural tour to Beechworth, Rutherglen, Mount Beauty, Tallangatta and Wodonga

This show, developed in conjunction with the City of Casey, aimed to raise awareness in relation to falls prevention, particularly for older people.

Over the Top with Tarot - 24, 25, 26 September 1998
Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne
Director - Nancy Amendariz
This show was dedicated to a founding member of POW who died just before the show's season began.

Unstopped Mouths - 30, 31 October and 1 November 1997
Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne
Director - Jean Taylor
Script - Susan Hawthorne
A circus performance featuring herstorical highlights from 40 centuries of lesbian culture.

Every Witch Way - 28, 30 November 1996
Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne
Director & script - Jean Taylor
The witches theme in this show covers the matriarchal period through the Burning Times, when so many millions of women were burned as witches over three centuries of the Christian inquisition, to the present day where the women with their circus skills are an example of the indomitable courage and strength of women generally.

Still Revolting – 29/2, 1, 2, 6, 7 March 1996
Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne
Director & script – Jean Taylor
Depicting four decades of the Women’s Liberation Movement by womyn over 40 who were there.

Act Your Age - 8, 9 March 1995
Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne
Director & script - Jean Taylor

Four small shows written specially for community performance have also been created:

  • 29th July 1995 - GAS Gallery, Hepburn Springs, in conjunction with Daylesford under-15’s Drama Group
  • Carnivale - 1 December 1997
    Performed at Victorian Business Women's Christmas Party, Swinburne University, Lilydale Campus
  • Balancing Acts - 8 September and 29 October 1999
    Footscray Community Arts Centre
  • The House That POW Built - April 2000
    Braybrook Community Centre
    Women over 40 daring to create, leap, balance, spin plates, walk on stilts, climb ropes and make music while having a great deal of fun.
 
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