Biography
Company History | Artist Profiles
Artist Profiles
Hardey McMurrick
Founder, Director and Performer
I was raised by hippie parents in the bush just out of a little town called Conondale which had one shop, one pool, and an eccentric elderly brother and sister that sat permanently on the verge outside their ramshackle house opposite our school. I grew up with lots of music, my parents and their friends were avid listeners to all the great bands that came out during that time and many a jam session went into the wee hours at our house. My first interest in the performing arts began with break dancing at the age of 12 and with my classmates produced a play directed by my mum called 1984. It was a story of redemption set in the ghettos of New York and featured many an extended breakdancing piece. I still remember the feeling of exhilaration I experienced after that performance and the moment in the play when the sound cue for the cardboard juke box did not come in and we had to improvise, a light went off in my brain.
Not much happened on the theatre front for a while in that small town but at 15 I discovered the blues and took up harmonica then guitar and set the lunch hours alight with the 12 bar blues. As rock stardom was very appealing this seemed to be my chosen artistic path but two events happened which planted seeds in my creative bed; I was part of a short lived street performance group directed by Bill Rough, a wonderful character of the QLD theatre scene and attended an arts camp where I failed to get in the music strand and was put in the circus workshops run by the Rock N Roll circus and was taught to juggle by Derek Ives, a significant figure in Australian new circus.
I left school and played in various bands and in particular in one of the bands we began to dress up and do theatrics onstage and my passion for theatre was reignited. The nearest avenue I had to get back into it was through the juggling skills I had acquired and with help of some street performing pals I hit the streets to become a circle show busker.
One thing led to another and the world of theatre and movement opened up to me and I took part in various small and large performance projects around Australia and sought training in different modalities with wonderful, inspiring and notable teachers. I was one of the first students of the short lived Le Coq based Noosa Physical Theatre School, trained for six months in a Le Coq based theatre project with Marie Dumont, worked in Melbourne with Al Wunder in his Theatre of the Ordinary workshops, attended the first alternative dance course run by Janis Claxton featuring teachers like Greg Sheehan and Helen Clarke Lapin in Byron Bay and trained in circus classes all over Australia.
This broad background now feeds and informs my creative process giving me a pool of resources to draw upon for my work with Flying Heart Productions. My strength is my imagination and self starting attitude and challenge is to keep my feet on the ground and be human.
Curriculum Vitae [pdf]
Rebecca Bradley
Performer
As a child I often imagined my future as a Prima Ballerina. However this dream was thwarted when I failed my grade two ballet exam for impersonating a dinosaur in the improvisational dance section. Having two oversized left feet didn't help either. Quickly I realised my calling in this life was to entertain, not through poise and grace but rather through clumsiness and a propensity to accidents.
After completing a degree in Theatre and Philosophy (clearly unmotivated by a desire for stable employment…), I began my international travels and training. I tried a myriad of disciplines and techniques, starting with Shakespeare in Ye old London Town, and finishing in Spain, training in El Clown. It was there I learned I had a physical aptitude for causing laughter...ahem.
Now back in my hometown, I continue with a clown's work- that of embracing my follies, relishing in my stupidity, and bringing joy to as many people as possible. (By the way, my clown is a great ballerina and looks superb in her hot pink tutu...)
Curriculum Vitae [pdf]