The Dirty Mother: a post-punk, post-natal descent story

17/09/2024

My MA Directing grad show OPENS TONIGHT !!!
If you want to see performance that is stripped back, real, raw, high-high-energy and goes for the jugular on gender based violence, then get in on this banger baby!!!!

Here’s some words from my dramaturg and feminist theatre maestra …

“Michelle Hall has written a deeply personal, multi-faceted work that invites us to consider the messiness of life through a suburban mother of a teenage boy, the daughter of a Vietnam Veteran, and the speed-limit-abiding driver of a small car on the vast highways of outer Perth. This work is borne from trauma: whether inherited and multi-generational, directly experienced in the form of gender-based violence, or linked to the experiences of childbirth. As such, it occupies itself with layers of resonances, interruptions, tangents, and squiggly, broken lines, rather than conventional structures. Things feel messy because they are messy. Trauma shapeshifts.“
Wooooo WE ARE READY!


arcy
lighting

30/07/2024

This is happening ... next solo autobiographical show ... up in mid Sept at VCA Theatre The University of Melbourne.

01/07/2024

Very excited to be re-entering the rehearsal room to make this next autobiographical work MATERNAL INSTINKT: a coming of Rage story.

It's been a looooooooooooooong non-linear, non-patriarchal time coming!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is a story about the intergenerational consequences of war.

Can't wait to flip-out with and bomb the patriarchy alongside the most fabulous femme artists Leah Shelton LIVE and Zheurzhi Ibis at Fine Arts and Music at Melbourne - VCA & Conservatorium. More on that soon.

13/06/2024

Some recent and not surprising research around barriers to artist m/others and non-binary parents.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/RxnhTJtFQGmGXmk2/

⏰Its – and the findings from our latest research are a wake-up call.

If the arts sector can’t offer Parents and Carers more options and more flexibility – then it will lose them from the workforce, and as we know, a truly world class performing arts is inclusive of ALL talents and circumstances.

Read and share the full report
🔗https://pipacampaign.org/research/balancing_act_2024

Call upon Arts orgs to join the P**A programme, we have the tools they need to be better at this
☎️https://pipacampaign.org/charter-programme

17/11/2023

Two FREE spots just became available for our wonderful workshop this Sunday Midland Junction Arts Centre. Come and imagine The Village with us, help us write an anthem and then sing it into being!

ALL WELCOME.

02/10/2023

Hooray! Just sending off the final images and alt text descriptions to go with my article that is about to be published in an anthology called "Performing Maternities" with the University of Brighton, UK.

The Dirty Mother: a post-punk, post-natal descent story has certainly made her mark far beyond the stage, with award nominated live and digital shows and workshops for m/others who have experienced Birth Trauma. Now there is an article that shares my process of creating an autobiographical work which busts taboos around the pregnant body and maternal mental health. RESULT!

Gratitude for all who have been part of it.

Image by Georgi Ivers

04/07/2023

Lots of conversations, with folks on all sides of the story.

I'm so grateful for MIDWIVES - they have survived a relentless history of misogyny in the health profession and in patriarchal cultures more broadly. MIDWIVES have been frontline healers in WOMEN-LED-CARE for millenia and so many have treated women when our reproductive rights have been completely taken away.

Midwives are caring for so many of us still.
My great grandmother was a midwife at the remote border between WA & SA and legend is she drove her horse and cart long distances to where women were labouring and in need of care.

Thank you to my midwife pal Ally, who speaks here of how our show spoke to her.

Video by Michelle Hall and Georgi Ivers.

18/06/2023

The Dirty Mother: a post-punk, post-natal descent story sparked so many sincere private and public conversations about birth trauma, maternity and mental health at a time when the words Birth Trauma weren't really spoken or even known yet.

We wanted to share some of what the show meant to our audiences and how the conversation is ongoing ...

Thanks to The Blue Room Theatre for their support right at the start of this shows gestation and to Kaitlin Tinker. for 'State of Play' midwifery.







Mothers Who Make Perth Hub
Australasian Birth Trauma Association - ABTA

07/06/2023

I am so happy to announce that this September to December, Mothers Who Make Perth Hub will produce an 8 week COLLAB-RESIDENCY with Midland Junction Arts Centre to support m/others and non-binary parents. PLEASE HELP US SPREAD THE WORD.

THE RESIDENCY will provide caregivers with a space for art making, workshops to navigate the histories and identities of m/otherhoods, access to a peer mentoring program and the chance to share what they are making in a relaxed showcase event.

To be involved YOU DON'T NEED TO HAVE A PROJECT and
YOU DON'T NEED TO GIVE ANY REASONS WHY you should be included.

Those in your care are always welcome and ALL SPACES WILL BE RELAXED and SET UP TO SUPPORT CARE-GIVING.

WE VALUE THE DUAL ROLES OF ARTIST & M/OTHERS, NON-BINARY PARENTS and CAREGIVERS.

If you are a caregiver, then this opportunity is for you to simply be supported to build, begin, start, boost, continue with your creative practise.

WE WANT TO MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO KEEP MAKING AND WE WANT TO SHARE THE WORK of Mothers Who Make

Please see the link below for full details and check our flier.
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b70a33950a54fc4fb5b1c62/t/647957aebcdf5b0590b33c19/1685673962927/MWM+Perth+2023+Collab-Residency+

06/06/2023

AFTER A MEGA BREAK … The Dirty Mother is back!

We just completed our first creative development for a fresh new work about an action-movie MOM who reaches a tipping point and jumps into the flames of her long-awaited rage.

This work explores the intergenerational consequences of war and the impossible identities of "good mother/nice lady" in a world where her personal safety is always at-risk.

Thanks to the multi-talented Leah Shelton LIVE, of epic feminist theatre Co , for her brilliant collaboration and direction.

Can’t wait to get-my-head-inside this story a whole lot more with my pals and collabz with and Samarobryn.

Thanks to the supportive folks at Midland Junction Arts Centre for residency space.

Mothers Who Make Perth Hub
Mothers Who Make

13/02/2023

FEB HUB SESSION at Midland Junction Arts Centre THURSDAY

ANY KIND OF MAKER
ANY KIND OF M/OTHER, GRANDM/OTHER, CAREGIVER

Those in you care are always welcome
Collage and sketching materials provided so you can make while we listen and support.


Mothers Who Make Perth Hub
Midland Junction Arts Centre

Thanks Liz Devlin for the flyer design.

10/02/2023

For the The Dirty Mother: a post-punk, post-natal descent story lovers ... she's trying on some new identities at Midland Junction Arts Centre. Artist Residency ... it's going great guns!

27/01/2023

A new publication about a subject at the centre of my research right now. MATERNAL RAGE doesn't happen because mothers are just bad people, nor is it only happening in America.

Minna Dubbin is a brilliant writer, academic and mother who has been working on this book for some time now, giving voice to a very taboo aspect of motherhood. I was lucky to have a little of my story included in it! Get your copy on the pre-order!!!

Mom Rage is now available on Preorder anywhere you buy books!

And through January 27th, you can get 25% off at Barnes & Noble with code: PREORDER25.

B&N link:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mom-rage-minna-dubin/1142902729?ean=9781541601307&st=AFF&2sid=Linktree%20Pty%20Ltd_100589976_NA&sourceId=AFFLinktree%20Pty%20Ltd

Amazon link:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1541601300

Hachette link:
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/minna-dubin/mom-rage/9781541601307/

14/08/2022

Rejoiced at the alter of last night.

Thank you Betty for sharing the ritual dance, the embodied poetry, the ancestors and your Tree family.

I'm re-energised with hope for a kinder, better resourced experience for all people who birth and mother. I feel energised to continue my work and the vision of a feminist maternal future!!!

Taking post-natal care today.





org.au

17/07/2022

It's BIRTH TRAUMA AWARENESS WEEK 2022!
Birth Trauma stories matter, being heard matters, recovery matters.

We thought this post from would be a good way to start Birth Trauma awareness week 2022.
​Since 2018, The ABTA has run a week dedicated to increasing both community and health professional understanding of Birth-related trauma.
​
👉 We want to help people recognise that if they are suffering, that there is help available.
​
'I’d like to tell you a bit about my daily experience as a perinatal psychologist - working mainly with women.⁣
⁣
Every day in my work I hear from women who tell me stories about feeling marginalised, unheard, unseen and sometimes (often) mistreated.⁣
⁣
Every day in my work women tell me their stories apologetically. ⁣
⁣
Every day in my work women feel ashamed of their experiences and wonder if they are the only ones to feel this way. ⁣
⁣
Then I leave work and people ask me what I do for a living. And when I tell people what I do, they tell me their stories.⁣
⁣
Their stories of trauma, their stories of distress and stress. ⁣
⁣
Their stories of feeling unheard and unseen and sometimes mistreated.⁣
⁣
And then they apologise. They say ‘oh I don’t know how I started telling you this’. ⁣
⁣
And then I come home and I tell my friends how angry I feel that women are holding these stories, keeping them buried deep so they can live their lives with smiles on their faces. ⁣
⁣
And then my friends tell me their stories. Of feeling unheard and unseen and sometimes mistreated ⁣
⁣
The more we tell these stories, the more we hear each other’s experiences, the less alone we feel. The more we realise perhaps the problem doesn’t lie with us. Perhaps the problem is greater than us- but we have the power to change it. ⁣
⁣
Tell your story. It means something. You mean something.'⁣
​
​We couldn't agree with you more Emma, YOUR STORY MATTERS.

​Image from
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​

17/07/2022

'I'm with Her' !!!!!!!!!

A thundering ocean of listening, feeling and celebrating women. For two whole hours, our credibility was not in question because women were telling HERSTORY with their own voices.

Thank you Victoria Midwinter Pitt for writing this play. Thank you and for making it happen and to all the performers. But especially the women who have fought to create change and whose lives, dreams and stories, power us through the upward and the downward waves ...

04/07/2022

https://youtu.be/Ev4Q7RAfCeE

'Noone wants to know about birth trauma'. Many of us have been talking about it anyway ... and the conversation can still grow bigger. We were all born. Please support BIRTH TRAUMA AWARENESS WEEK.

ABTA Birth-related Trauma Support Group

The birth of a child is meant to be one of life’s happiest events. But for an alarming number of women, birthing people and families, it is anything but. In ...

27/06/2022

A couple of months ago I posted #4 of my homemade maps for .

This one means a lot to me because it marks a time when a few hundred of us protested, and, for a change we actually got the results we were shouting out for.

We marched across the Horseshoe Bridge in 1997, got spat on and shouted at by leery misogynists, as we were shouting out for reproductive rights. I'll be walking again on July 2nd, raincoat on in case there is more spit.

This time it's for womxn and folx in the US and for folx who should have the right to CHOICE and BODILY AUTONOMY, wherever they are.

https://fb.me/e/5vNy5o7N6

17/05/2022

Deep breath Michelle!

Diving in to my big research project this week. I'm nervous about it.
I think because this is about VOICE and finding a language that respects and RECLAIMS a language of CARE. There is, globally, a giant wound of disbelief when it comes to mothers talking and mothers being silenced. I say this as someone who has been talking with mothers for the last ten years across multiple countries.

I don't think we have the words to describe what it is mothers do 'between the visible tasks' of care, the intimacy of care. And this is, to my mind, because care has been ascribed primarily to women and even more intensely to mothers. We just expect them to care and when they don't there are many words to describe that, to critique and condemn.
CARE IS STILL DEEPLY GENDERED.
CARE REQUIRES GIVING INFINITE AMOUNTS OF ENERGY
CARE REQUIRES GIVING YOUR TIME
CARE REQUIRES YOU TO BE WHOLE-BODY-PRESENT

In her book 'What Mothers Do especially when it looks like nothing' Naomi Stadlen (2004) talks about this absence of a language to talk about the work of care, of mothering. She says,

'we have plenty of words to describe what mothers do when they relate badly to their children.' On the flip-side Stadlen says, 'there is a much shorter collection of words that we use to indicate our approval of mothers. Kind, caring, nurturing, concerned ... unselfish. Most of these words don't indicate anything good that she might have done. They describe the state of the mother's heart. The state of a mother's heart is invisible - and she herself may not be conscious of it. This means that, when she does a number of motherly actions for her child, she has no word to describe the particular actions'

Here I go ... in an attempt to find a language through my creative practise. And jump .... BOING!
Michelle Hall Mothers Who Make Perth Hub The University of Melbourne Mothers Who Make

09/05/2022

FROM my MIDWIFE PAL ... remembering those who help deliver us from wombs into the world. #

"Happy International Midwives day to all my fellow practitioners of the "dark arts"

They might not burn us anymore, but they still fear us...Birth-work is magic! Keep fighting Witches!

BTW the irony of Jack Nicholson delivering this speech is not lost on me. It was the 80's when middle-aged creeps cast other middle-aged creeps because they thought it was acceptable to be a middle aged creep."

15/04/2022

After a little post-Fringe break, ‘The Dirty Mother’ is back-at-work advocating for increased support and better resourced maternity services in WA.

Stay tuned for an upcoming explosion of fecundity as Michelle Hall steps on stage once again, this time to an audience of midwives and MP’s!

***rbirth

08/03/2022

INTERNATIONAL WOMENS DAY!!!
Celebrating the power of femmes making art together! I'm so lucky to have shared the process of making The Dirty Mother: a post-punk, post-natal descent story with some brilliant folx. Here's to many more stories of birth, motherhoods, femme life and art making!

04/03/2022

A new title for World Book Day!

for me was made just that little bit extra from getting my marketing materials from my publisher

Preorder is open and we will have special launch edition packs to send out! More details about these will follow in the next couple weeks before the release in 7 weeks time

ID: a press advert for AJ’s book. Support q***r birth. It shows their book with the progress pride flag colours in the bottom left hand corner on a navy blue background.


***rbirth ***rbooks

04/03/2022

Explains a lot.

Perinatal psychiatrist Professor Anne Buist writes about how CPTSD is often mistaken for perinatal depression or anxiety in new mothers.

01/02/2022

I'm delighted that 'The Dirty Mother' is part of this potent article by theatre maker and commentator Claire French , for The Conversation.

"Hall’s visceral narrative is performed with imaginative physicality. As she stands on her head, rotating her ankles and flexing her toes, she forms an image of a womb. She transforms into a mooing and chewing cow to the rhythm of Land of Hope and Glory and surrenders her body to the British medical system.

Through Hall’s use of her own body to create these images, she encourages the audience to respect the autonomy of the body found in the act of childbirth." Claire French, The Conversation.

https://theconversation.com/theatre-of-the-real-how-artists-at-perth-fringe-world-are-stripping-down-to-reveal-their-vulnerabilities-175652

With borders closed indefinitely, this year’s Fringe World is a decidedly local affair.