The Mill is thrilled to announce Poppy Mee and Praise Mangena as the recipients of the 2024 Centre Stage Residencies.
The Centre Stage Residencies are presented in collaboration with Adelaide Fringe as part of their Arts Industry Collaborations program. This unique incubator program is for South Australian artists to progress a new performance work in its second or third stage of development to the next level, culminating in a season at The Mill as part of the 2025 Adelaide Fringe Festival.
About the artists:
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Poppy Mee is an actor, writer and theatre-maker working on unceded Kaurna land. Since completing her undergraduate training at ACArts in 2017, she has worked as an actor and writer on numerous local and interstate stage and screen projects.
Credits include Heavy Red, Lucy and DiC and Stateless. In 2019 she was the recipient of a Carclew Fellowship to study theatre-making at Fourth Monkey in London, resulting in her first solo project, A Slight Exaggeration, which premiered at The Mill for Adelaide Fringe 2021. As a member of RUMPUS Theatre she performed in various productions as well as serving as co-head writer on Hamlet In The Other Room (2021).
Poppy recently undertook specialist training at L'Ecole Philippe Gaulier in France, studying Le Jeu and clowning performance technique. Her second solo work, PSYCHOPOMP: A Cordial Evening with the Messenger God of Hope and Doom, premiered its initial season at The Courtyard of Curiosities at Adelaide Fringe 2024, and is currently holding its second creative development for Fringe 2025, with support from Adelaide Fringe and The Mill. Poppy is a proud MEAA member.
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Praise Mangena is a multidisciplinary performing artist, based in Kaurna Country-Adelaide, with strong interests in dance and poetry. Over the last three years she has featured in a variety of events and performances such as Word on the Street Vol. 2 (2024), Draw Your (S)words (2024), SA Playwrights Reading Night (2022/24), Mixed Bag Poetry (2023), Soul Lounge (2023), JAUMA FEST (2023) and WOMAD (2022).
This year, she debuted as a music video director under the company of Adverse Reign for ‘KABALA’ (by Magajie) and this sets as a continuation of her exploration in art now adding script writing as a skill. She’s continued her work as a creative director in the company playing an integral role in the success of the most recent live show of Word on the Street Vol. 2 which was featured Live at the Lab during the 2024 Illuminate Adelaide Winter Festival.
Her journey continues as she prepares to officially launch her project ‘Art is the Medium’ at The Mill Adelaide with musicians Jack Green and Vanté Kay for the 2025 Fringe season.
