HiRISE- a unique live art performance bringing stories from our city’s high rises’ to the stages of Melbourne Fringe 2013.

ReDefiant and RISE (Refugees, Survivors and ex-detainees) are excited to announce their latest live performance at this year’s Fringe Festival, HiRISE. Join us on Thursday the 19th and 26th of September for an hour of storytelling, visual arts and music that brings stories from Melbourne’s high rise urban environments to Club Voltaire.

HiRISE will see storytellers take the stage and explore the greater narratives which link us all. Hear about a young girl growing up in the Eastern Bloc, eagerly awaiting the return of her father from searching for work in the West, about a coming of age story from an Afghan athlete and student as he experiences the challenges of now living in Australia as well as narratives around responses to being asked to ‘speak English’. Accompanied by music and visual improvisation, HiRISE will transform, morph, challenge and promote exchange.

“It’s about starting a conversation, it’s a project that seeks to foster a creative space in which silenced and unacknowledged voices can publicly express themselves and share important narratives at Melbourne’s most successful independent arts festival” said Tania Canas, RISE Arts Director.

From RISE’s experience working with refugee and asylum seeker communities, one of the most common needs identified by young people is for their voice to be recognised and acknowledged in addressing the various challenges they face. 

So sit back with a cold drink at an intimate HiRISE performance space while you listen to stories that will make you laugh, cry, question and think. After each performance, a platform is created for the audience, inciting new conversations and understandings.

ReDefiant is a theatre, live and performance arts collective which exists to explore issues around race, racism, globalism, language and migration in Australia. ReDefiant actively committed to raising the profile and awareness of issues affecting refugees and asylum seekers, other individuals and communities of migrant backgrounds, and people of colour in Australia. The collective is creatively affiliated with and we support the work and values of RISE (www.riserefugee.org) which is Australia’s’ first organisation to be entirely run and governed by refugees, asylum seekers and ex-detainees.

HiRISE also builds from a weekend performance-storytelling workshop held in partnership with Chicago’s successful storytelling collective 2nd Story. Furthermore, one-on-one mentorship tutorial sessions were offered and delivered post workshop, by 2nd Story Programming Director, Bobby Biedrzycki. Participants were then offered the opportunity to record their pieces at RISE’s recording studio and receive dramaturgical coaching before the Fringe Festival season.

“Different people from different countries share our stories with each others. It’s Australia, a multicultural country” said workshop participant Hossain Ahmadi.

This has all culminated to make HiRISE, a live performance event at this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Date: Thursday 19th and 29th of September
Time: 6-7pm
Venue: Club Voltaire, 14 Raglan street North Melbourne
Cost: Full Price: $15/ Concession: $10
Get Tickets here:http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/hi-rise/

HiRISE is supported by VMC.

Media inquiries: Areej Nur 0433 019 733