Nature is healing (recording)

The Flying Nun by Brand X presents
 
Nature Is Healing
by Too Rude

The impossible story of the Australian Bush Turkey and its domination of Sydney’s North Shore.

Part performance lecture, part hymn, and part transformative bush doof – Nature is Healing is a new performance work about the relationships between human and non-human animals sharing urban environments. Based on the story of the Australian bush turkey, Nature is Healing spotlights this misjudged scrub-dweller and its fight against the gentrification of urban areas.

Filmed on (15 December 2023) as part of Season 8 of The Flying Nun in front of a live audience at the East Sydney Community and Arts Centre, Darlinghurst.

About the Artists

EMMA McMANUS is a theatre-maker and interdisciplinary artist living on Wurundjeri land. A founding member of performance collective Applespiel, she has performed at Next Wave, Sydney Festival, Performance Space, Malthouse Theatre, Arts House, and Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres. She was an intern with queer feminist theatre collective The Rabble and Playwriting Australia, assistant director on La Traviata by Sisters Grimm (Belvoir), part of Sipat Lawin Ensemble’s Karnabal artist exchange program and a participant in the Besen Family Artist program (directing) and the first Theatre Works Directing Lab (Melbourne Fest). 

MARIA WHITE is an artist, educator and academic living and working on Gadigal and Bidjigal land. She holds a PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of New South Wales (2020), where she is a sessional academic. Maria's PhD thesis looked at democratic performance practices in the greater Sydney area. She has made performance work with theatre-maker Emma McManus since 2015, and has collaborated with vocalist and performance artist Annette Tesoriero since 2013. Maria is the Commons Academic Course Coordinator at the National Institute for Dramatic Art. 

MELANIE LIERTZ is a freelance designer and maker for theatre, film, dance, opera and circus. Design highlights include How to Catch a Star (Australian Chamber Orchestra), Jekyll and Hyde, Merrily We Roll Along, Lizzie and HMS Pinafore (Hayes Theatre Co.), Romeo and Juliet (Bell Shakespeare), Good Cook. Friendly. Clean (Griffin Theatre).  Melanie designed Fade for National Theatre of Parramatta and Rainbow’s End for Moogahlin Performing Arts/Darlinghurst Theatre Company. Melanie’s collaboration with Ballroom Projects Threads won ‘Best Kids’ award at Melbourne Fringe this year. She was nominated for two Sydney Theatre Awards for HMS Pinafore (Hayes Theatre Co.) and received an APDG award nomination for Athalia (Pinchgut Opera). She has won two Sydney Theatre Awards for Antigone (Sport for Jove). She is a graduate of The Victorian College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Creative Arts.

ANGUS McGRATH is a writer, artist and performer based on Gadigal Land/“Sydney”, who sees his three modes of making as comprising one practice. He is currently undertaking a Masters of Fine Arts by Research at UNSW, exploring the potentials of horror film and long-form fiction within a visual arts context. He has made work for Performance Space, First Draft, ANCA, Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres, Photo Access and Dark MOFO. He makes music under the name California Girls. 

CLARE BRITTON lives on Bidjigal Land in Sydney, Australia, and is an artist interested in how artworks, people and landscapes hold stories. Informed by her work in live performance, Clare’s visual art practice includes installation, site-specific art and writing. Clare’s work has attracted awards for sculpture, performance, design and research and toured in Australia and Internationally.One of the resident artists at the Carriageworks Clothing Store, Clare’s work is animated by research and interdisciplinary collaboration. Clare facilitates Magnetic Topographies with artists Therese Keogh and Kenzee Patterson and is an active member of the Mullets. Her time as part of the performance collective My Darling Patricia (2004-14) informs her process. A Sidney Myer Creative Fellow (2014), Clare holds a Masters of Studio Art (2016) and a Doctor of Philosophy (2020) from Sydney College of the Arts, the University of Sydney. Her PhD, A Week on the Cooks River, was completed under the supervision of Julie Rrap, Ann Elias and Mikala Dwyer.