Every Day Super Hero

Every Day Super Hero HQ is a bedazzled space of recycled materials, glue guns, world problems and inner powers. It is here that recruits (an audience of adults and children) will undergo training to become the Every Day Super Heroes we need in the world.

Facilitated by Trainers, children and adults are processed through a variety of “tests” involving conversation, imagination, tricky moments and striking a occasional Super Hero pose. “What is the biggest problem in the world, for an Adult?”, “What Inner Powers do children have, that adults lack?.”

With careful guiding, children are matched with an adult they don’t know and gently create a team of two through play Adults then explain their selected world problem to their Super Hero partner and together they work out some ideas to tackle it.

Children then dress up their adult! The teams collaborate to make a costume from the recycled materials in the HQ. Children have creative control, and we see incredible inventions and designs emerge. Why? Because by working with a child you don’t know brings out adults play and creativity, and children “step up” to the responsibility of the task. Dressing up in crazy costumes is also just REALLY fun.

Adults and children then launch into public space to complete a variety of real-world missions. From calling the prime minister to performing a small act of kindness to a stranger our Every Day Super Heroes are actualized and put straight to work to solve the world’s problems.

After the job’s done the audience retreats to HQ to celebrate, farewell their collaborator and graduate into the world to be heroes anytime anywhere.

Elated, hopeful, and empowered – this work is an antidote to the sense of overwhelm and hopelessness we each sometimes feel in the world.

Form and Style:

The set of the Super Hero HQ is an immersive installation. Audience move around the space participating with the performers and eachother. Action then spills out into public space and engages with other general public in the venue and/or on the street/grounds/public space.

A large empty space like a black box or town hall is ideal. .Then, nearby, outside, we set up Mission Control and several satellite stations at which real-world missions take place.

So far, the work has been presented: State Theatre Centre – Middar Room , spilling out into the state theatre Foyer and James Street, Perth City. Fremantle Arts Centre – Pavlich Room spilling out into the gardens and Finnerty Street.

Please note this show is site responsive and requires a pre show site visit. A minimum of 4 days will allow us to – Meet & train a local performing artist to be our third facilitator – Facilitate at least 2 x workshops with children to create a video about specific local and global problems relevant to them and their community – Source recycled, sustainable materials from local op shops & any other leads (eg council events team, your storage space etc) – Adapt the set to the venue & design site responsive missions for the location of the work.

Community and Audience Engagement:

Being responsive to different communities is a huge priority for this work, as we believe perspectives on world problems and their solutions are unique and dependent on place and time.

Our pre-show site visit is a time for us to engage with your community. We do this via workshops in schools, theatre clubs and sports clubs. We also strive to keep our set and costumes sustainable by sourcing materials at local businesses and op shops. It is also when we will engage a local artist and “train” them for the work. Giving community insight & a local flavour to each iteration of the show.

Asking those we connect with during the pre-show visit the simple question ‘what is the biggest world problem that affects you locally?’ can start important discussions and directly engage people to look at a shared experience in positive light.

A site visit is also a great way to stir up early interest and market the upcoming show.

Available Marketing:

• 2 x 30 sec promo video
• Photographs
• Marketing Copy

About the people involved:

// Alex Desebrock is an independent artist based in Perth, Australia. Her work spans interactive theatre, live art, installations, online and public interventions. Her practice focuses around empathy, connecting strangers, big questions and the child’s voice.

She is the lady behind Maybe ( ) Together which has presented works across Australia including Sydney Festival, Perth International Arts Festival, Come Out Festival, Awesome Festival, The Arts Centre Melbourne and ArtPlay. Maybe ( ) Together’s touring works include Small Voices Louder, Dear Hope Street, The Future Postal Service and aMoment Caravan. Maybe ( ) Together’s touring works are produced by Performing Lines WA and represented in the US by Boat Rocker Entertainment (Jim Weiner).

Alex completed Animateuring (VCA) in 2011 and was awarded the Barbara Manning Scholarship. She was the Australian representative for ASSITEJ’s Directors’ Seminar in Germany in 2015 & was an artist in residence at Arts Chiyoda 3331, Japan in 2016. Alex was the Program Co-ordinator at ArtPlay for 3 years and has a Masters in Primary Teaching. She is a Lead Artist for Shifting & Stirring, a national participatory online learning exchange.

Alex is passionate about creating high quality, insightful arts experiences for children and adults. Her work is described as “gently radical” using games and interventions to connect the ideas and opinions of children with stranger adults. Sharing the creative, brutally honest, playful, amusing, and guilt-inducing moments from future generations has become a long-term investigation, she believes this is ultimately what the world needs to hear.

// Tanya Lee is a visual arts maker, performer and educator. Her diverse social practice is highly shaped by audiences and people she pulls in to collaborate with her along the way. Creating sculptures and costumes to be used in humorous ways her absurd works often interrupt or subvert everyday social protocols.

Tanya’s videos and sculptures have been shown across Australia in galleries including ACCA in Melbourne, the MCA in Sydney and Lawrence Wilson gallery in Perth. Her large scale public participatory performance ‘Landing’ has toured multiple major festivals including Dark MoFo in Hobart and Bleach* festival on the Gold Coast.

Tanya completed her Masters in Visual Art at Curtin Universty after spending a year as a visiting scholar at the École Nationale Supérieur d’Art de Dijon (ENSAD) in Dijon, France. She was shortlisted for the John Stringer art award in 2016 and selected for the situate Arts Lab in Hobart in 2017.