dramaturgy

I work closely with writers, directors and choreographers to help them tell the story they want to tell.
Some notable shows I’ve worked on include these below. Further details about other works are available on my Arts CV.

INCANDESCENCE DEVELOPMENT 1

2022 - Arts House Wyong

by John AD Fraser

Tale of tales - Bow & dagger

2018 - The Blue Room Theatre.

Won Best Production, The Blue Room Awards 2018

Italy, World War Two. Fierce and brave Antoinetta, a known communist, and her two young boys, have to flee to Australia for safety. Her husband Sante, a gentle storyteller, stays to fight against Europe’s rising fascist regimes.

Separated by war and unimaginable distance, Sante and Antoinetta can communicate only through coded letters, their experiences mirrored and revealed through the folk stories they tell each other.

Based on true stories, Tale of Tales fuses fairy tales with the horrors of war. Filled with shadow puppetry, romance, and violence, Tale of Tales takes its name from the classic Italian fairy tale and looks at how the stories we tell shape us and our families.

Read more here.

Interrupting a crisis - ribs

I also directed this show.

2017 - The Blue Room Theatre, Bondi Feast
2018 - Subiaco Arts Centre
2019 - Perth FRINGE WORLD

Read more here.

hypatia - Open Lid ensemble

2017 - The Blue Room Theatre

Mathematician. Astronomer. Martyr.
The history books hold many stories of remarkable women meeting violent ends, few more tragic than that of brilliant academic and educator, Hypatia of Alexandria. Hypatia’s demise came when she was falsely accused of stirring conflict between two of the city’s most prominent figures; a mob of religious zealots stripped her naked and beat her to death.
Her legacy is an all-too-relevant example of an outspoken woman silenced by a fearful, narrow-minded society. In a time when “Nevertheless, she persisted” has become a feminist battle cry and periods of political upheaval can be defined by a hashtag, Hypatia delves into the life of one woman to uncover the stories of many. 

milk, moonlight - topographs

2017
Michelle Aitken and Sarah Chaffey
The Blue Room Theatre Summer Nights Festival, part of Perth Fringeworld

Two dancers delve into their experiences of modern womanhood. What is it to be seen as a siren or sphinx? How are our bodies tamed and regulated? What catcalls have we not already heard? This is a physical affirmation of our right to be, and to do the looking back. Dance, text and music are fused in a curious exploration of interiority.

The Martyrdom of Hypatia and the destruction of The Great Library of Alexandria

2016
Written and directed by Ross Vegas

Sad girls club

2016
Vidya Rajan, Grr Nights, The Blue Room Theatre’s Summer Nights Festival, Perth Fringeworld.

Welcome to the Sad Girls Club: a club for anyone who would like to learn to be a sad girl. No need to be a girl. No need to be a boy. No need to even be sad. From Ophelia to Cathy to Lana Del Rey to every woman in a painting ever, the sad girl is here to stay. Is she a protest? Is she a whine? Is she just hungry? She is sad. In this introduction to the confusing joys of being a sad girl, learn to sway and recline, repress your fears. Put on your face and ruin it with tears. Shout and be silent. Smile and glare. Ditch the comb and attack your own hair. There will be beauty. There will be food (perhaps). There will be the appearance of great sadness, but never will there be actual sadness. Because the first rule of the Sad Girls Club is never saying why you’re sad. When you say why you’re sad, it’s over. 
 

Frankenstein: Some Assembly Required

2016
by Theresa Izzard, inspired by Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Feet First Collective
Moores Building, Fremantle Festival.

Art exhibition by day. Immersive theatre experience by night.
"God? Monster? Which are you?”
Descend into a world of creation and destruction in this re-imagining of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Venturing through the haunting rooms of Fremantle’s iconic Moores Building you will become part of an interactive ghost story that brings to life the gods and monsters of this 200 year old classic. Your journey through eerie spaces and intimate encounters will merge the Gothic great with a contemporary experience of the ‘other’. Enter Frankenstein’s laboratory. Become his witness. His conspirator. His creation...

In My Steps

2014
THAT Production Company, Ipswich
Writer: Future Destin
Director: Timothy Wynn

salon 

2013
Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, Brisbane
Director/Choreographer: Timothy Brown

Led by the vocals of live art-pop performers Michelle Xen and the Neon Wild, and advertised as a must-see for fans of the exotic, erotic, sublime and exquisite, Salon brings together seven of Brisbane's best physical performers in a blend of circus cabaret. “I wanted to curate a diverse cast of Brisbane artists to create characters that reveal a little about the Salōn and also provide a platform to showcase their own skills, including acrobatics, ballet and pole dancing” says creator Timothy Brown. “Through an appreciation of each artist’s talents, artforms and unique approaches to live performance, we have created quite the spectacle.”

apples and eve

2013
Expressions Dance Company, Brisbane
Director/Choreographer: Lucas Jervies

“It’s a work that draws attention to the inherent misogyny within our society,” explains Jervies. “I stumbled across the Bible last year, decided to give it another go but I didn’t get much further than Genesis. I was very entertained but appalled at the modern, real world consequences of these inconsistent and simplistic fairy tales. By saying things like ‘I will put enmity between you and the woman’ and ’your desire shall be for your husband, and he should rule over you’, that trickles down to something as simple as ‘love, honour and obey’ in wedding vows and a niggling feeling that women just are somehow ‘lesser’.”