House of Sand
Charley Sanders
LOCATION
Variously Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide (Aus) and Wellington (NZ) in residence, and touring throughout Australia and New Zealand
WHAT I DO
House of Sand creates visceral, heart-led performance for audiences of creative risk takers. And we provide training, professional development, and peer knowledge exchange to professional and aspiring performers, creators and designers.
MY SUPERPOWER
Our ethical framework – Care-Based Creative Practice – places care at the equal centre of practice alongside creativity. The idea of “Care|Creation” is to our work as “Health|Care” is to a nurse: a practice compounding two enmeshed, equally prevalent elements.
First we create care-fully with artists, inviting them to explore, express, grow and take agency.
FUN FACT
As a woman who was only recognised as such by myself and society in my early 30's (I'm trans) I got to make a lot of life-plans and decisions anew from a place of greater wisdom than many get the chance to.
The most life-changing decision: I decided that I would not seek to find, pin down or otherwise 'secure' one or a string of bofyriends/partners/husbands. Instead I maintain what I call my Stable of Lovers. It usually consists of between 4 and 10 men. Each is a kind of part-time job-share boyfriend. We share some level of inter-dependence and intimacy, from 'live-apartner', thru mutually supportive friendships with benefits, and 'regular casual' guys who invariably end up assisting with some handyman-ish task (or I assist them with an understanding-the-social-world quandry). Some of the boys have been 'with me' since the idea commenced and a couple I suspect I'll have for life, others come and go as their life circumstances and our relationships grow and change.
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
a balm for the soul” (anonymous, event attendee, 2019)
"That Was Friday. I’m so grateful to have seen it.
I found it a beautiful, unexpected, intelligent piece with a fearless meta approach re the truth of its creation. I had such a great night in the theatre.
I hope to see it again on the festival circuit sometime soon."
(Jason Langley, Theatre Director , attendee at event "That Was Friday" 2022)
'House of Sand’ is the type of company that the Australian Arts Industry needs right now. I hope that we continue to push the boundaries of what live theatre is and ‘House of Sand’ is one of the companies leading the movement.
(Lachlan Martin, contractor collaborator (actor) on project "That Was Friday" 2021 - 22)
