Jewel Box Performances

The Jewel Box Performances project was founded in 2018 by cabaret lover David Gonzalez in Melbourne with the goal of raising the profile of early career Black, Indigenous and People of Colour artists.

Originally intended to provide marketing support and mentorship, the program spent its first three years at the Melbourne Fringe Festival and has evolved into a commissioning grant.

In 2022, the Jewel Box Grant started a three year residency at Footscray Community Arts.

The Dreaming Project by Dylan Singh and ensemble

Footscray Community Arts presented at Neighbourhood Festival 2022

Time. Place. Space.

Drawing inspiration from ceremony and cultural connection, The Dreaming Project celebrates multiple elements of Aboriginal dreamtime. A rich movement of storytelling led by First Nations creatives, The Dreaming Project brings together circus performance, lighting, dance and traditional practices.

Each show commences in darkness, then with a fire, gradually introducing new elements to heighten your senses. Through sound, light and performance – every detail is carefully selected, endeavouring to honour ancestry and represent the beginning of Country.

By illuminating and activating the outdoor grounds of Footscray Community Arts, Dylan Singh’s vision and creativity will breathe life into the story with a sequence of performances informed by ancestry and connection to Country. 

As you go through a cycle of interconnected and compounding stories, The Dreaming Project is a promenade performance that will transport you to otherworldly places for an unforgettable and enriching experience at Neighbourhood.

CLUB FRINGE: Klub Kong

Melbourne Fringe Festival 2022

Jewel Box Performances supported the appearance of Kween Kong though the 2021 Melbourne Fringe Festival program that was scuttled due to Melbourne pandemic lockdowns. We’re extremely excited that Kween Kong was able to make it to Melbourne in 2022 to present this session of Club Fringe instead.

Sensory

Melbourne Fringe Rebound Festival 2022

Sensory was created by Lynn Jacob as a part music, part immersive, part theatre experience. Lynn’s one-woman show featured original Gothic pop-folk songs performed on the ukulele, guitar, and piano. ‘Sensory’ was designed to engage your senses, to create connection without touch.

Lynn's subtle, eerie, and powerful vocal quality takes you to intimate and uncharted places. Get lost in a warm darkness - maybe you are falling, maybe she will catch you.

Where Do I Begin? was partially supported by the Jewel Box Grant program at the 2020 Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Where Do I Begin?

Melbourne Fringe Festival 2021

Where Do I Begin? was created by Melody Shotade as an immersive interpretive dance with poetic Auslan performance featuring Mayumi Mullins, Elvin Lam and Chelle Destefano with soundscape by Iron Rose. The idea was for the audience to intuitively perform in the show, with only few instructions. Audience members were also given the option to be observers instead as passive participants in the show.

Where Do I Begin? was partially supported by the Jewel Box Grant program at the 2021 Melbourne Fringe Festival.

RECKONING: Te Waiata Paihere Wairua - The Sounds of Woven Souls

Melbourne Fringe Festival 2020

WINNER: Best Emerging Indigenous Artist
Supported by Wilin Centre (VCA & MCM)
Candice Lorrae

WINNER: Emerging Company Incubator Award
Supported by Monash Centre for Theatre and Performance
BEAT Entertainment

WINNER: Market Ready Award
Supported by Regional Arts Victoria

WINNER: Space Cadet Award
Supported by RISING Melbourne

RECKONING: Te Waita Paihere Wairua was created by Samuel Gaskin and Johnny Hamilton. It included the performers Candice Lorrae, Kristel Kickett, Paula Barbee, Piri Neho and Mahana Maihi-Taniora. The concept combines personal stories of their ancestors with original songwriting exploring the power of connecting to their indigenous bloodlines.

RECKONING: Te Waita Paihere Wairua was partially supported by the Jewel Box Grant program at the 2020 Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Fringe Gala

Melbourne Fringe Festival 2020

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Fringe Fest Gala Stream was produced by Creatrix Tiara in collaboration with Maize Wallin. The Gala brought to fruition Creatrix’s dream of hosting their own mini fringe festival by creating a digital island hub within the wildly popular Nintendo game, Animal Crossing: New Horizon. The show featured a multitude of local, national and international guests during a mega 12 hour live interactive stream. The show was the first dedicated Animal Crossing Fringe Festival island in the world, and proudly debuted at the Melbourne Fringe Festival!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Fringe Gala was partly supported by the Jewel Box Grant at the 2020 Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Neon Corroboree

Melbourne Fringe Festival 2019

WINNER - Amos Roach Best Emerging Indigenous Artist

Neon Corroboree was written, produced and directed by Amos Roach. The performances brought together dance, music and story-telling traditions of First Nations performers on the never-ceded land of the Yalukit Willam. The performances were held in the shadow of one of the greatest symbols of British colonialism in Australia, Victoria’s Government House.

Neon Corroboree was partly supported by the Jewel Box Performances Grant program at the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Assimilate

Melbourne Fringe Festival 2019

WINNER - Daisy Nduta SIGNAL Young Creatives Award

Assimilate was created by Daisy Nduta and is storytelling at its rawest. Assimilate used movement, song, soundscapes and visuals to help navigate what it is to live in a society that erases your existence and suppresses cultural significance. Through the voices of four fierce women (Tamara Bailey, Anyuop Dau, Naomi Sepiso and Daisy Nduta) the show explores the themes of language, identity, belonging, migration, detachment and community. Assimilate also provided space to invite the audience to share, feel and reflect in a colonial world that enforces borders.

Assimilate was partly supported by the Jewel Box Performances Grant program at the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

The Lizard is Present: Gala in honour of Marina Abramalizardvic

Melbourne Fringe Festival 2019

The Lizard is Present was written by Vidya Rajan as a series of pop-up encounters culminating in a Melbourne Fringe gala event to welcome renowned artist and lizard Marina Abramolizardvic to the festival, and pay tribute to her radical and visionary work.

This historical moment was marked by an appearance of the lizard herself, as she explored being present and not being present with gala participants came dressed in their finest to walk the green carpet.

The Lizard is Present was partly supported by the Jewel Box Performances Grant program at the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Jessica Hitchcock

MPavilion 2018 Program

Jessica Hitchcock is an award-winning opera singer, actor and songwriter with family origins from Saibai in the Torres Straits. Her charismatic stage presence and versatile performance sphere draw on over 15 years of musical experience.

Jessica Hitchcock has established herself firmly in the Australian creative community through her collaborations with Jessie Lloyd's Mission Songs Project and Deborah Cheetham's Short Black Opera. This show was a preview of her now released debut EP, Bloodline.

Musical Collaborator: Kathleen Halloran

MC: Davey Thompson

Jessica Hitchcock at MPavilion was produced by Jewel Box Performances.

Mama Alto

MPavilion 2018 Program

To launch the Jewel Box Performances project, Mama Alto performed songs from her four live-to-tape albums at MPavilion.

Mama Alto is a gender transcendent diva, cabaret artiste, jazz singer & community activist. She is a non-binary trans femme person of colour who works with the radical potential of storytelling, strength in softness & power in vulnerability. Drawing on legacies of vintage torch singers & her own identity as a queer person of colour, Mama Alto’s vocal & visual aesthetic transcend gender, disrupting & discomforting societal constructions of dichotomous boundaries. By embracing perceived difference she reclaims narratives of othering, defies the normative & rejoices in the sublime. 

Musical Collaborator: William Elm

Guest Performer: Ali McGregor

MC: Davey Thompson

Mama Alto at MPavilion was presented by Jewel Box Performances.