Nicola Gunn: Performer, Writer, Producer and Australia Council’s New Theatre Fellow

Nicola Gunn- Image Credit: Sarah Walker

Nicola Gunn plays with form and pursues narrative. She has worked as a performer, writer, director, producer and dramaturg; responsible for realising her own projects from conception to presentation since 2002. She borrows from theatrical, choreographic, literary, comedic and visual art languages to create her own mode of contemporary performance. As an artist, Nicola is interested in people and relationships as well as how language complicates them.

Her many works have been presented at international festivals including PS122’s Coil Festival (NY), Santarcangelo Festival (Italy), 100% Festival (Paris), PuSh International Arts Festival (Vancouver), Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (USA) as well as venues in Chile, Portugal, Helsinki, Austria, Norway, Czech Republic, Belgium and France. Her new piece, Working with Children, premiered at Southbank Theatre this September and will tour to Liveworks Festival (Sydney), On the Boards (Seattle) and Meteor Festival (Norway).

In 2013, Nicola was awarded an Australia Council Emerging Artist Creative Australia Fellowship to develop her theatre practice, seed new collaborations and explore international markets. In 2017 she received a Churchill Fellowship to research socially-engaged and site-specific practices in the UK, Germany and US.

Nicola shared her thoughts on receiving the Fellowship;

“This Fellowship is an extraordinary recognition by the Australia Council. I have benefitted enormously from several opportunities over the last 5 years; those experiences have indelibly shaped my current practice and informed new areas I intend to move into, and I couldn’t be more grateful. This fellowship will drive my preoccupations with language and create the space for me to pursue international collaborations, specifically with The Chocolate Factory in New York and BIT Teatergarasjen in Norway, and open up possibilities for exploring new forms.”

For her Australia Council Fellowship, Nicola will undertake a 2-year period of professional development to create two new works, Super Imposition and The Interpreters. Super Imposition will be developed in a residency hosted by USF Verftet in Bergen, Norway. Nicola’s Super Imposition project collaborators are architect Cristian Stefanescu and Hong Kong-based electronic artist, Steve Hui. Her second project, The Interpreters, was sparked by conversations during a residency at Cite des Arts in Paris in 2018. It will be developed while working with artist Aaron Landsman while in residency at The Chocolate Factory in New York.

Nicola plans to devote herself to researching new approaches to performance making, exploring exciting collaborations with prominent international artists, deepening her touring networks and connecting Australian performance practice to a wider audience.