RISING 2021 Podcast
with Various Hosts

In 2021, RISING festival will take art and performance from behind closed doors to unexpected public places. In a post-Covid world, artists have recalibrated their ideas to reach audiences in new and challenging ways. The RISING podcast asks artists to unravel the concepts that drive their work by engaging their audiences on a sonic platform.

The series features artists Prof. Deborah Cheetham AO, Back To Back Theatre, Mohamed El Khatib, Sandi Sissel and The Necks. A special episode with Patricia Piccinini is coming soon. Their ideas will be challenged and illuminated by academics and makeshift art critics such as sexologist Annie Sprinkle, media personality John Safran, musician Jim White and RRR radio host Woody McDonald.

RISING 2021 Podcast • Trailer

Introducing RISING 2021 Podcast

In 2021, RISING Festival will take art and performance from behind closed doors to unexpected public places. The RISING podcast asks artists to unravel their ideas on an audio platform. The six-episode series will feature artists Patricia Piccinini, Deborah Cheetham AO, Back To Back Theatre Company, Mohamed El Khatib, The Necks and more.

TRANSCRIPT

Latest Episodes

  • RISING 2021 Podcast 1

    The voice of the rivers, the Birrarung and Maribyrnong, converge in colonial tragedy
    featuring Prof. Deborah Cheetham AO and Daniel Browning

    Acclaimed opera singer Deborah Cheetham imagines the bodies of water, the Birrarung and Maribyrnong, as she channels their significance in her song, remembrance and calling for The Rivers Sing. In a conversation with journalist Daniel Browning, we hear how the lapping water evokes the tides of a tragic history for First Nations people and asks who is really listening?

    TRANSCRIPT
  • RISING 2021 Podcast 2

    In a play led by neuro-diverse performers, a Hindu god reclaims the Swastika from the Third Reich. Whose story is it to tell?
    featuring Bruce Gladwin, Scott Price, John Safran and Dr. Vikrant Kishore

    Comedian John Safran is no stranger to religious controversy, yet, as he steers a conversation about a Hindu god’s attempt to reclaim the Swastika from the Third Reich, the controversial problem of identity politics takes centre stage. For context, Hindu academic Dr. Vikrant Kishore intervenes. Under the spotlight, Back to Back theatre’s director Bruce Gladwin and performer Scott Price are interrogated.

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  • RISING 2021 Podcast 3

    How two drummers, from Australia's most iconic instrumental bands, found their rhythm
    featuring Tony Buck, Jim White and Woody McDonald

    Tony Buck earned his stripes as a jazz drummer in the Sydney Conservatorium of Music before forming cult improv band The Necks. Jim White earned his chops as a punk drummer in raucous Melbourne pubs throughout the early days of noise rock trio The Dirty Three. From opposite ends, their rhythms lay the foundation for the best instrumental bands in Australia. This is the story of how it all unfolded.

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  • RISING 2021 Podcast 4

    Female agency in the golden years of pornography
    featuring Annie Sprinkle and Sandi Sissel

    In 1983, Sandi Sissel was behind the camera filming sex workers in a legal brothel in Nevada. Annie Sprinkle was at the frontier of America’s golden era of porn. Decades later, Sissel’s prolific career as a filmmaker and Sprinkle’s Ecosexual life as an activist intertwine in a conversation about sex work, the porn industry, female agency, Deep Throat and deepthroating.

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  • RISING 2021 Podcast 5

    In discussing divorce, children ask why their voices aren’t heard
    featuring children with theatre directors Jackson Castiglione and Mohamed El Khatib, translated by Isabelle Mangeot-Hewison

    The Dispute brings us words spoken in a direct, unflinching way on the subject of divorce. In the play, acclaimed French theatre director Mohamed El Khatib invites children of parents who have split up to take to the stage and give their own points of view. In this conversation, the children point the microphone towards El Khatib and Jackson Castiglione, director of the performance in Melbourne.

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Hosts

  • Various Hosts

    RISING is a major cultural event for the Asia Pacific Region, created by a diverse team of local, national and international artists and curators. RISING will begin on the evening of the total lunar eclipse in May 2021. Interlocking circles of experience and connection will radiate through the night, as the city re-synchronises and is re-energised with public art, performance and music spanning the emerging and iconic, the epic and intimate. The inaugural festival will take place 26 May – 6 June 2021 in the heart of Melbourne. The full program is available at www.rising.melbourne