ERTH originate from Ballarat, Australia. There in 1990 young people from wide variety of arts practices came together organising events and performances, culminating in a Greenpeace supported schools touring production.
Following their 1994 Sydney Festival performance, ERTH moved to Sydney and are now recognised as leading innovators in physical and visual theatre.
ERTH's unique work combines a highly developed visual aesthetic with performance, using giant puppets, stilts, pyrotechnics, abseiling and rigging equipment, road works machinery and inflatables to create acclaimed productions such as: The Gargoyles, Incubator, The Garden, Waterheads, Caution and The Neds. Usually performing outdoors, the very accessible work appears both as large scale site specific theatre as well as street style roving performance.
ERTH tour extensively and are featured at major Australian and International festivals such as Melbourne International Festival and Fringe, Adelaide Fringe, Hong Kong Fringe, Galway Arts Festival Ireland, Stockton Riverside International Festival England, Singapore International Arts Festival and Festival of Arts and Ideas, USA. The company are also in continual demand for corporate and commercial engagements domestically and internationally.
Now one of the most sought after Australian performance groups, ERTH work with a core full time team of eight artists and managers as well as an extensive group of more than thirty freelance artists. This team combines established and emerging artists from fine arts, circus, costume, design, performance, physical and aerial theatre backgrounds. In addition to creating original visual and physical performance, ERTH are often commissioned to collaborate, consult, or direct on projects with other companies and to design and build theatrical props and devices.
ERTH have presented at the 1998, 2000 and 2002 Australian Performing Arts Markets and receive project funding from the Australia Council for the Arts and NSW Ministry for the Arts. Predominantly self funding, ERTH have built a reputation for prolific creation of highly original, accessible and acclaimed work whilst providing invaluable development opportunities for established and emerging artists.
2000 saw extensive involvement in the Olympics and Paralympics and in 2001 project highlights include: The Garden Olympic Park, Roddwanna - Rodd Island, Wild Knights - Cobham Juvenile Justice Centre/High St. Youth Health Services, Dinosaurs for Melbourne Museum and Astronauts for the National Museum, Canberra. In 2002 Erth are creating BUSHFIRE, in an international collaboration with pa-BOOM, UK. BUSHFIRE will be premiered at the Manchester Commonwealth Games, UK as part of the International Spirit of Friendship Festival.
