UnHOWsed: a theatre project about homeless women

UnHOWsed is a performance project about older women’s homelessness, Australia’s fastest growing yet largely invisible homeless demographic. 25 local women who have experienced homelessness will participate in music and performance workshops with internationally renowned artists, Theatre Maker Deborah Leiser-Moore (Tashmadada) and Composer/Music Director Nela Trifkovic (Saray Illuminado), culminating in a season of public performances in Port Phillip.

Immersive lighting and sound technology synchronised with original music and performance will convey the diverse experiences of older women’s homelessness. Leiser-Moore’s physical theatrical methods release fragmented narratives from women’s bodies. Drawn from original texts, multiple stories highlight older women's unseen struggles and triumphs.

UnHOWsed provides a platform for older women to share their diverse experiences of surviving homelessness and to be heard by the wider public. UnHOWsed gives this group and homeless women in general a voice within the current housing debate. It also offers the group of 25 women who have been marginalized the opportunity to create and perform a work of art with internationally respected theatre practitioners, and to have their various lived experiences publicly validated. By articulating the unique nature of older women’s homelessness, UnHOWsed brings understanding to the discourse, informing the community and therefore public initiatives addressing this issue.