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The Festival Sessions/Theatre/Visual Art

Welcome to the House of Joys

12 January 2018

Dreaming up new worlds for people to experience is what KAN Collective’s Noemie Huttner-Koros loves about performance-making, so she’s excited about inviting audiences into KAN’s interactive installation, House of Joys, at Fringe World 2018. She spills the beans on what makes her tick and what to expect when you enter the House of Joys.

Noemie Huttner-Koros

Seesaw: When did you first know that you wanted to be an artist?
Noemie Huttner-Koros: I knew when I performed in a production of Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis directed by Karla Conway at Canberra Youth Theatre in 2012. It was an exhilarating, terrifying and totally incredible experience showing me the power of performance to shed light on issues while also blasting open what I thought performance could look like, sound like, feel like…

S: Tell us about your training…
NHK: I am currently in my third year of a Bachelor of Performing Arts (Performance Making) at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). I’ve also studied at the Intercultural Theatre Institute in Singapore, at Makhampom Living Theatre in Thailand and at Song of the Goat Theatre in Poland. With performance it’s a lot of learning on the go, seeing what works in the moment, taking on feedback from directors and peers and collaborating and listening to people from all walks of life.

S: Describe your artistic practice…
NHK: My artistic practice centres around devised theatre, site-specific and intimate performance. I make theatre with people of different backgrounds and experiment with various forms such as physical theatre, musical theatre, puppetry, clowning and performance poetry.

Noemie Huttner-Koros performing her solo ‘Borders’. Photo: Stephen Heath.

S: Career highlight so far?
NHK: Devising and performing my solo show Borders at WAAPA as part of the Solo Stage 2017, “Moments of Being”. It was about my family history and refugees, using a combination of poetry, movement and puppetry. I covered the stage in white paper boats and lifejackets that I manipulated throughout the performance. It was very close to my heart and felt quite necessary in the current political and social climate.

S: What do you love most about what you do?
NHK: I love walking into a theatre or performance venue and seeing all the energy and creativity that goes into making and curating an experience for a group of people. I feel like performance is a gift that you share with a group of strangers in this awesome place we call the theatre. It’s an electric environment where you can dream up new worlds, alternate realities and make things explode.

S: Are you new to Fringe World?
NHK: Annika Moses and Kate Thresher (the other co-creators of KAN Collective) both performed and exhibited at Fringe World in 2017 with the show Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast at Paper Mountain and The Dream at YMCA HQ in Leederville. It’s my first project at Fringe though and though I’ve volunteered before I’m really excited to create and perform our first show together as KAN Collective!

S: What can we expect when we enter the House of Joys?
NHK: House of Joys is an immersive art experience where the rules of the outside word are replaced with excitement, play and mischief. Participants are guided through through a series of encounters, interactions and activities in a journey through a tactile playscape. This part installation, part one-on-one performance creates a world where transgressions are encouraged, difference is celebrated and freedom flourishes.

S: What is your favourite playground equipment?
NHK: KAN Collective love flying foxes. Annika says, “There used to be this playground down South made of tyres and old planks that felt like such an adventure.” We have been quite inspired by the setting of the playground/playscape while creating House of Joys, a place of fun, mischief and rule breaking.

‘House of Joys’ will be presented at Paper Mountain, 26-28 January 2018.

Top image: KAN Collective: Noemie Huttner-Koros, Annika Moses and Kate Thresher.

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Author —
Nina Levy

Nina Levy has worked as an arts writer and critic since 2007. She co-founded Seesaw and has been co-editing the platform since it went live in August 2017. As a freelancer she has written extensively for The West Australian and Dance Australia magazine, co-editing the latter from 2016 to 2019. Nina loves the swings because they take her closer to the sky.

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