The Art House Presents World Premiere: ‘Preparing Ground’ 

Six years in the making, The Art House is thrilled to announce the world premiere of Preparing Ground on Darkinjung Country Wyong. Preparing Ground, co-directed by Marilyn Miller, Jasmin Sheppard and Katina Olsen, is a powerful new language that dances the weight of history and the fire of resistance. It holds the warmth of family voices, quiet moments of care, and the heartache of displacement.

This is a call to join First Peoples’ care of Land – an urgent act for our shared future.

Three women share the stage – their bodies carrying stories through cycles of resilience and reclamation. Projections reveal a landscape that is both sacred and stolen, while sound and movement entwine to evoke a connection to Country for the audience, and for the performers one that cannot be erased. Over 60 minutes, Preparing Ground shifts between past and present, tradition and disruption, asking us all to listen, to witness, to remember.

Preparing Ground began in 2019, and has been a process of rematriation; returning, listening and remembering. Across six creative developments and eight trips to Country, this work has grown through the care and commitment of the matriarchs who made it – Country, Elders, Knowledge Holders, artists and communities. Their support ensured Preparing Ground arrives grounded in story sovereignty.

Weaving intricate choreography, vivid projections of Country, and a dynamic set that shifts and transforms, the performance examines the enduring impacts of colonisation on land, language, and community, this world premiere is an invitation to consider, what does it mean to belong to a land that remembers?

Preparing Ground will be at The Art House for one night only, 16 May at 8 pm. Adult tickets are $18. Buy now.

Preparing Ground, Image credit Matt Cornell