The Newland family art and performing history
Chris and Tahlia Newland created Centrepiece Productions in 1986 to produce their unique Visual Theatre that used Venetian masks in performance plus comedy, striking images, evocative music and the drama of mystery and surprise. A particularly popular part of the performances were the commedia dell arte latex masks audience involvement section. They produced shows for both children and adults and toured extensively in Australia, New Zealand and Asia, first (from 1979) as Mr Jupiter’s Children’s Theatre and Jupiter Dance Theatre (for adults), then they became Tahlia & Kris for nightclub shows, and finally Centrepiece Productions. They performed in fringe theatre, schools, festivals and nightclubs from 1978 to 2003. Since 2003, Tahlia focused on producing masks for use in schools and then decorative masks she makes today.
Below is some of her masks in performance and other snippets from the family’s performing past.
Four Seasons Masks
Cosmic Masks
Renaissance style
Steampunk style
Photo Gallery from my performing past
And here are some very short video compilations of my performing days from the 80’s and 90’s.
Unfortunately video quality wasn’t that great back then, but you’ll get the idea.
Clowning