Hello.

You probably know me.  From the internet, a stage somewhere, or maybe even Real Life.  Or maybe you opened this at work and accidentally spent too long looking at the NSFW promo image above in which I appear.  Twice.

I'm Marcus (Ian) McKenzie (yes, there's another one - he lives in Adelaide and I've got my eye on his domain name), and I am creating a brand new show for the Melbourne Fringe Festival called Hyperspirit.  It's a deeply personal work that comes from the inner sanctums of my imagination, and will be showing in late September at the Fringe Hub.  I'm totally excited about it.

The work is a "solo-ish show", or "A Solo Performance Piece for Three".  What does that mean? It means you'll be seeing a lot of me, and a little bit of some other very special artists: namely fellow Tasmanian and musical virtuoso Maria Moles, and recent VCA graduate Ryan Forbes, who've both been killing it in the Melbourne performance scene of late.

A little bit about the show:

He's called the Hyperspiritualist. He knows your desires and your griefs, and will bring them into the light – for a nominal fee. His skillset is vast: hypnotist, clairvoyant, past-life regressionist, and conjuror of dead spirits. But some fortunes ought to remain untold, and even the dead are buried with their mobile phones.

Returning from Sydney after working with celebrated practitioners including and Xavier Le Roy and Belvoir Street Theatre, emerging performance maker Marcus McKenzie’s long-anticipated solo(ish) show delivers a psycho-mystical deluge of burgeoning realities: a stream-of-conscious eruption of body and tongue.

Glibly comical and brutally personal, HYPERSPIRIT draws on experiences and imaginings of death and love: from the surreal to the tangible. Highlighting the absurdities of spiritual practices and mystical thinking, it simultaneously acknowledges the deeply human nature of the transcendent impulse. This investigation is infused with musings on the nature of performance, presence and duration, drawing (often absurd) lines between the inherently performative and the inherently spiritual.

McKenzie’s work draws on a range of influences: experimental literature, post-dramatic theatre, contemporary dance and slam poetry. At the heart of his practice is a desire to evoke creativity and emotion; and to eschew the immediately representational. He seeks a body and a language that is disorganized, for a world that would have it stratified.

So now that you know a little more about what I'm doing, here's what I'm asking for.  

As you may or may not know, arts funding in our country isn't in the best place right now, so artists all over the place are banding together to support each other - both emotionally and financially. But we're also extending a friendly hat towards friends, family, and other enthusiasts as well.

The money raised through this funding campaign will go towards:

a) paying my fellow emerging collaborators a fee so that they can afford to live and grow as artists

b) cover some of the costs of getting a show like this off the ground: e.g. rehearsal space hire fees; venue costs; Melbourne Fringe administration costs; advertising; equipment hire; registration fees; etc.

These funds will go a long way to ensuring the success of this project.

You can choose to donate any amount as either a gift, or for one of the cool rewards (check it out!) I've laid out.

I am so excited about this project coming to fruition. Thankyou so much in advance for making the choice to support independant Australian art, and contributing to our truly vibrant sector by donating whatever you can spare. Every little bit really does help. Thankyou, thankyou, and see you at Hyperspirit in September!

- Marcus (Ian) McKenzie

marcusianmckenzie.com