marketing kit

SHORT COPY

Please note: this is indicative copy only. We will work with your marketing teams to create copy best suited to your presentation context.

Glass Child is a poignantly revealing depiction of the sibling relationship between Kayah, a young man with Down Syndrome and his sister Maitreyah. Expressed through dance, theatre and storytelling Glass Child highlights their connection and how their lives have been affected by other people’s perceptions. The term ‘Glass Child’ refers to the sibling of someone with special needs who often becomes a facilitator in the family, someone who is “looked through”. Kayah is Maitreyah’s oldest brother & was born with Down Syndrome. Throughout their lives Maitreyah has watched him be left out, ridiculed or ignored without understanding why. Glass Child puts a microscope on their love and how their relationship has grown. It questions how the rest of us behave when we find the difference we inevitably look for. It asks us to examine why we search for difference when we share so much in common.

Long Copy

Please note: this is indicative copy only. We will work with your marketing teams to create copy best suited to your presentation context.

Glass Child is a poignantly revealing depiction of the sibling relationship between Kayah, a young man with Down Syndrome and his sister Maitreyah. Expressed through dance, theatre and storytelling Glass Child highlights their connection and how their lives have been affected by other people’s perceptions. The term ‘Glass Child’ refers to the sibling of someone with special needs who often becomes a facilitator in the family, someone who is “looked through”. Kayah is Maitreyah’s oldest brother & was born with Down Syndrome. Throughout their lives Maitreyah has watched him be left out, ridiculed or ignored without understanding why. Glass Child puts a microscope on their love and how their relationship has grown. It questions how the rest of us behave when we find the difference we inevitably look for. It asks us to examine why we search for difference when we share so much in common. The sibling relationship is best expressed through the words of the lead performers Maitreyah and Kayah Guenther. “Kayah is a brother of blood, but also a friend I rely on to lift my spirits. Down Syndrome carries many challenges for him, but it gifts him a love that is truly majestic, he sees spiritual beauty in places where I do not, which in itself gives him a strength I will only know through him” – Maitreyah Guenther “When Maitreyah was a little girl and fell over I would help her up and now she helps me up. I want people to see inside me and Maitreyah, the love, frustration, anger and the flower I have for her.” – Kayah Guenther

Gavin Webber

Co-Creator/Co-Director

Gavin started dancing late after many lost years spent hitch-hiking, skiing, writing, camping and studying. Eventually he decided to start making art instead and joined Meryl Tankard’s Australian Dance Theatre and following that, Belgian company Ultima Vez. Throughout his career Gavin has worked between Australia and Europe and was Artistic Director of Dancenorth from 2005 to 2009. He took the company from regional Australia to national and international touring and then left for Europe once again to join PVCtanz in Germany. In 2017 he was awarded the Sidney Myer Individual Performing Arts Award, in 2018 The Farm won a Helpmann for TIDE, in 2019 a Drover’s Award for Cockfight and in 2020 an Ausdance award for TIDE. Gavin still writes, camps and studies but the hitch- hiking and skiing is over for the time being at least.

Kate Harman

Co-Creator/Co-Director

Kate Harman is an Australian dancer and choreographer. Influenced by her years working in Germany within mixed genres has resulted in her work taking on various forms (performance, installation, duration performance and participatory works made with young people and amateurs). She is a founding member of contemporary performance group The Farm and with them has created numerous works including the Helpmann Award winning TIDE. Kate completed her dance training at QUT and has worked as a collaborator and performer with La Boite Theatre Company, Dancenorth, PVCtanz (Germany), KLARA Theatre (Switzerland), David and Ochre Dance Company. Her works have been presented nationally and internationally in contexts such as Dance Massive, Darwin Festival, Bleach Festival, Festival 2018 (for the Commonwealth Games), the United Kingdom through Dance Touring Partnership and GAM, Chile.

Kayah Guenther

Co-Creator/Performer

Kayah Guenther is a regional New South Wales based artist whose practice crosses dance and theatre and is deeply collaborative and inclusive. He has a wide range of experience as a performer, co-creator and co-choreographer including working with Philip Channells, Neridah Matthaei, Gabriela Green Olea and Travers Ross. In 2015, Kayah co-choreographed and co-performed The Crossing with Gavin Webber (The Farm) which has since toured nationally and internationally. The same year, he collaborated with HW Collective on the multi award-winning short film, The Battle, as part of the Screenworks Createability program. Kayah received an inaugural HOTA Home of the Arts’ Creative Development Program grant in 2019 which supported him to begin co-choreographing Glass Child with his sister, Maitreyah. He also currently has projects in development with Gabriel Comerford (Tasdance) and Paul Gazzola (OSCA).

Maitreyah Guenther

Co-Creator/Performer

Maitreyah Guenther began dancing at the age 11, and later pursuing Dance/Theatre at the age 15. She has a deep love for dance, theatre, and writing. She has taught integrative dance classes at studio Aperio, and co-choreographed a 20 minute piece that she co-performed with her brother Kayah at the World Down Syndrome Conference in Scotland in 2018. An integral part of her journey with dance and theatre has been her training with The Farm, in their youth ensemble GreenHouse since 2017. She is currently working with The Farm co- creating a new work, Glass Child. Rozina Suliman – Set and Costume Designer Rozina Suliman is a theatre designer, community artist and maker with a background in installation art, independent curating and arts administration. Rozina’s work as a designer for live performance spans dance, theatre, opera, musical theatre, puppetry and outdoor spectacle theatre. She has worked with both large scale companies and independents in Queensland and interstate, including; Opera Queensland, Black Swan State Theatre Company, Woodford Folk Festival, Phluxus 2 Dance Collective, Lisa Wilson Projects, The Last Great Hunt, Ochre Contemporary Dance Company, LINK Dance Company, Ballet Theatre of Queensland, Timothy Brown Choreography, Claire Marshall Choreography and Connect 2 Productions. Rozina has designed and facilitated community art projects in both urban and regional locations and run workshops for primary and secondary students as well as adults. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Queensland College of Art (2005) and a Bachelor of Performing Arts (Production & Design) from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (2017).

rozina suliman

Set and Costume Designer

Rozina Suliman is a theatre designer, community artist and maker with a background in installation art, independent curating and arts administration. Rozina’s work as a designer for live performance spans dance, theatre, opera, musical theatre, puppetry and outdoor spectacle theatre. She has worked with both large scale companies and independents in Queensland and interstate, including; Opera Queensland, Black Swan State Theatre Company, Woodford Folk Festival, Phluxus 2 Dance Collective, Lisa Wilson Projects, The Last Great Hunt, Ochre Contemporary Dance Company, LINK Dance Company, Ballet Theatre of Queensland, Timothy Brown Choreography, Claire Marshall Choreography and Connect 2 Productions. Rozina has designed and facilitated community art projects in both urban and regional locations and run workshops for primary and secondary students as well as adults. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Queensland College of Art (2005) and a Bachelor of Performing Arts (Production Design) from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (2017).

Chloe Ogilvie

Lighting Designer

Chloe Ogilvie is a Yamatji Nanda woman from Western Australia, where she graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts specialising in Lighting Design. Chloe works mostly as a designer but has crossed over into other areas such as production management and event coordination. Chloe has been a resident artist with Black Swan for three years and is currently co-curating the Maali Festival. Chloe Ogilvie is also a member of the arts collective The Farm where she has designed and production managed a range of shows including Throttle, Cockfight (Drover Award Winner), Ninth Wave, TIDE (Helpmann Award Winner) and Depthless. Other highlights of hers include, Spinifex Gum (LD/ALD), Bungul (ALD), The Visitors (LD), Winyanboga Yurringa (Belvoir, ALD), Fever and the Fret (Yirra Yaakin, LD), Bayala (Sydney Festival, Event Coordinator) and Toast (Maiden Voyage Theater Company, LD).

Anna Whitaker

Composer and Sound Designer

Anna Whitaker is an award-winning Brisbane based sound designer, composer and audio engineer with a palate for experimental, acousmatic works and surround sound composition. She graduated from Queensland Conservatorium of Music with a Bachelor of Music Technology, and since has designed and composed for productions including MONA FOMA, Festival 2018, Bleach* Festival, La Boite Theatre Company, tasdance, Brisbane Festival, MELT Festival, and The Farm. Her vast background in classical music and technology-based sound art result in musical concoctions from the traditional and contemporary worlds. Anna received the 2019 Matilda Award for Best Sound Design and Composition alongside colleague Luke Smiles for their work on Throttle, and she also designed for The SUI Ensemble’s La Silhouette, which won Best Independent Production. Anna’s unique voice is also evident in her installation works which have exhibited at Bleach* Festival, HOTA, Flowstate and Metro Arts.