Alysha Herrmann is an independent creative producer, writer, performance-maker and community organiser, and is the co-founder and Chief Storyteller at Part of Things. Part of Things is an ideas hub, small co-working space and producer of weird & wonderful creative experiences in the Riverland region of South Australia. As a creative practitioner, Alysha makes performances, installations, experiences, presentations, poetry, digital exchanges and small moments of connection in public places. She works across disciplines in the arts, education, tourism, community development, youth work, social justice and social enterprise
Alysha’s work is grounded in community arts and cultural development practice and she is dedicated to nurturing opportunities for regional communities and emerging artists to connect, create and experiment. Alysha writes and creates experiences about vulnerability, community, hope, grief, forgiveness and belonging. She’s a long-time fantasy nerd and would love to write for videogames in the future. Her recent work includes The Riverland of Rax for Critical Stages and Paines Plough’s Come to Where I Am Australia, and DEV for State Theatre Company and ActNow Theatre’s Decameron 2.0. Her written work has been published by Currency Press, Griffith Review, Rochford Street Press, The Dirty Thirty, ABC Open and others.
Tea-drinker, big dreamer and thinker of confusing thoughts.
#myriverland #letstalkyoutharts #bepartofthings #creativeregions
Once upon a time Alysha was a disconnected and very angry high-school dropout & teenage parent who thought the arts was a waste of time and money: https://griffithreview.com/articles/not-for-me/
Since then, Alysha has won numerous awards for her work including the Arts South Australia Geoff Crowhurst Memorial Ruby Award and the Australia Council Kirk Robson Award. Alysha is also an alumna of the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation’s flagship national leadership program ARLP, Business SA’s SAYES program and Foundation for Young Australians’ Young Social Pioneers program.
Along the way Alysha has been a high school dropout, teenage mum, single parent, waitress, artist, student, sewing machinist, blogger, dishwasher, community facilitator, speaker, pizza maker, theatre usher, youth worker, pre-service teacher, and many other things in between.
Recent creative projects that reflect Alysha’s practice include:
The Memory Shelf as part of FELTlive 2021 was a live-writing experiment exploring the frustration and gaps in Alysha’s family history and the responsibility she feels to create new histories for the future to inherit. Alysha invited the audience to interrupt, ask questions, make comments and (gently) handle items contributed to the performance by the three most significant women in her life: her nana, mother and daughter. Over the course of two hours Alysha wrote and rewrote a series of memories, fictional and factual, in response to the items. All of the writing created during the performance was hand-written in lead pencil and erased as the conclusion of the work.
2018 – 2020 project Art Squad was a two-year state-wide mentoring and development program for young creative practitioners aged 18-23. Building small business and freelance skills, project management skills, personal development and creative practice. Nine participants were selected through a competitive selection process and worked together through a combination of video-link, email, phone and online project management software. Squad members developed and drove creative outcomes in their own communities, including murals, exhibitions and festivals. Alysha was the Creative Producer and primary mentor of the Squad.
2017 project Losing Faith in Unicorns was a finalist for an Arts South Australia Ruby Award in the Community Impact category. Losing Faith in Unicorns was an immersive performance presented promenade style in a suburban house in southern Adelaide for 30 audience members at a time. Audience members could touch, listen, watch, open doors and explore the house in any order they chose. Losing Faith in Unicorns was an experience co-created by eleven teenagers and eight professional artists to spark dialogue and advocacy in relation to young people’s experiences of mental illness, grief, suicide, bullying and alcohol addiction. Alysha was the Creative Producer.
Another Elusive Maybe (2016) was a performance experiment presented as part of the Adelaide Fringe 2016. Each show was presented in a different (real life) lounge-room for a maximum of 8 people per show. The performance incorporated poetry & soundscape (via silent disco headsets), live text message conversations (with each individual audience member) and expressing breast milk (yes, really). Alysha wrote, directed, produced and performed Another Elusive Maybe.
“Amidst all the rabble about the true meaning of Fringe, I can tell you that this is it. Real art that pushes the boundaries – art that is completely different to anything you’ve experienced before. Another Elusive Maybe is truly special. It’s an intimate and absorbing experience that cuts you off but leaves you wanting more.”
Jen St Jack, Great Scott ★★★★½
Alysha Herrmann 