Brink Residency: Samuel Lau, Q&A 'Walk of the Ancestors'

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Photo: Lok.

Public Q&A

When: Friday, July 8, 6pm

Where: The Mill Breakout, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta

Duration: 1 hour

Cost: Free

• Accessibility

  Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, access the pedestrian ramp on the corner of Gunson St. The Mill has concrete flooring throughout and a disability toilet. View more in-depth information on our accessibility page.

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The Mill will be hosting a work-in-progress Q&A for Samuel Lau’s Walk of the Ancestors, with mentorship from Brink Productions director Chris Drummond.

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Walk of the Ancestors is a project that explores how Eastern philosophy and values, such as filial piety and ancestor veneration have manifested and directed Samuel Lau’s life as a second-generation Chinese- Australian.

This development opportunity has provided a mentorship with Director Chris Drummond to explore further into the writings of the play.

The Q&A will be between Samuel and Chris, supported by The Mill Associate Producer Louie Dempsey.

• About the artist

  Samuel Lau is an Adelaide-based actor and musician. With cultural roots in Hong-Kong, Sam is a second- generation Chinese-Australian. A 2019 graduate of the Adelaide College of Arts Acting program, he has since worked in a variety of mediums such as ABC’s TV series Aftertaste, Anifex studio’s animation film The Better Angels and Too Dumb Blonde’s productions of Does it Please You? which was the recipient of the 2021 Holden Street Theatre Award. Sam often explores themes of diaspora in his works, such as through his 2021 MakeSpace Artist Residency where he dove into the cultural identity of being in-between cultures; investigating his lifelong navigation of liminal spaces both culturally and spiritually. 

• About the mentor

  Chris Drummond is Artistic Director of Brink Productions. His productions have been presented by most major theatre companies and arts festivals in Australia. Credits include The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Memorial, Long Tan, The Aspirations of Daise Morrow, Babyteeth, Thursday, The Hypochondriac, When the Rain Stops Falling and Night Letters. He was nominated for a 2009 Helpmann Best Director Award for The Flying Dutchman (SOSA) and his productions have won Ruby, Adelaide Critics Circle, Green Room (Vic) and Sydney Theatre awards. Chris was Associate Director of State Theatre Company of South Australia from 2001 to 2004. 

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This residency is presented in partnership with Brink Productions, supported by Arts South Australia. 

Breakout Residencies 2022: Announcing the successful recipients

Brink Residency: Samuel Lau

Photo: Jamie Hornsby.

Walk of the Ancestors is a project that explores how Eastern philosophy and values, such as filial piety and ancestor veneration have manifested and directed my life as a second-generation Chinese-Australian. 

I was driven to explore this as much of my journey as an emerging artist has been navigating and reconciling my place as an artist of colour, specifically, as an Asian-Australian. I have spent much of 2021 investigating what it means juggling a hyphenated identity in present day Australia with my group of collaborators - Cyrus Kung, Dan Phan, Steph Teh, Alice Yang and Jazmine Deng.

Family and filial piety have become a central theme for us in our investigations. However, though I feel I have somewhat reconciled a place in the present with my immediate family, I have had little opportunity to do so with extended and older generations of my family. This is in part due to all my extended family living overseas and also I have come to an age where all my Grandparents have passed. For me personally, filial piety has such power over me that - although never explicit - there is a great yearning in me to explore, reconcile and, perhaps in some respect, 'redeem' a relationship with my grandparents/ancestors that I never had. This is also fuelled by the fact that my Grandmother on my Father's side had ran out on my Dad's family when he was 2 years old. There are only inklings of what she had done, what kind of life she had before she returned to my Dad again on her deathbed in 2010. Perhaps in investigating this, I can both reconcile in myself my family's generational story and also my Grandmother's lost life. Because of the scarce nature and sources of my Grandmother's life after she ran away, I envision a blending of fiction and non-fictional storytelling of her life. This in part for storytelling purposes but also for me, its a way to honour her life; though it may be fictional, it is how I can remember her by.

About the artist:

Sam Lau is an Adelaide-based Actor and Musician. With cultural roots in Hong-Kong, Sam is a second-generation Chinese-Australian. A 2019 graduate of the Adelaide College of Arts Acting Program, he has since worked in a variety of mediums such as ABC’s TV series Aftertaste, Anifex studio’s animation film The Better Angels and Too Dumb Blonde’s productions of Does it Please You? which was the recipient of the 2021 Holden Street Theatre Award. 

Sam is a frequent collaborator with ActNow Theatre, and has also worked with companies and organisations such as OzAsia (SA), London Artists Projects (UK), CARCLEW (SA), Perform!Education (VIC), Contemporary Asian Australian Performance (NSW), and Echelon Productions (VIC). 

Sam is also an accomplished musician, classically trained in piano and trombone. Combining his musicianship with the theatre, he often acts and performs music in productions such as playing trombone in the musical Darlinghurst Nights directed by Michael Hill, piano in ROAD directed by Chris Drummond and has composed & performed original music in Daily Rice’s production of Between Our Stories.

Sam often explores themes of diaspora in his writing and works, such as through his 2021 MakeSpace Artist Residency where he dove into the cultural identity of being in-between cultures; investigating his lifelong navigation of liminal spaces both culturally and spiritually.

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Spotlight / Brand X Residency: Olenka Toroshenko

Photo: Lauren Connelly.

Most of us are transplants. Uprooted from one country and resettled, making home in another's. Do you remember where you came from? What happens when culture, language and ancestry are left behind? A lot of lumber, but few roots. What now?

Seed. Water. Root. Grow. Harvest. Eat. Die. Decompose. Repeat.

Told from the perspective of a Ukrainian Canadian living in Australia, this ritual performance - i am root - wonders into how one might question, create and nourish culture in a globalised, colonised world. Olenka enlists her mother tongue (Ukrainian) and the mediums of song, dance, clown, folk traditions and recipes, story, poetry and prayer to enliven the depths of the unspoken, mysterious places where spirit lives...if we're willing to cultivate it.

About the artist:

Olenka Toroshenko is a Ukrainian Canadian artist, writer and producer whose life is in service to a saner, meaningful existence. She is a multidisciplinary performer whose mediums include spoken word poetry, dance, clowning, song, storytelling and ritual performance art. 

She is a Katonah yoga teacher, student of The Orphan Wisdom School and lover of coniferous forests. She has worked in news broadcasting and politics which helped shape her understanding of the current cultural paradigm. She was the co-producer of “wild”, “Shakti Showcase” and “Shakti Rising” multi-artist/disciplinary productions and has toured 4 different continents as a singer, poet and dancer.

She enjoys producing video projects, Burning Man theme camps, and multidisciplinary shows. She is inspired by collaborating with other artists.

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Free-range Residency: Daniel Jaber

Photo: Sam Roberts.

Set in a small, decadent, ornate, unobtainable world of excessive wealth and gluttony. Inside the master suite of a penthouse over looking some fabulously lit metropolis of dreams and histories. An Egyptian-sheet smeared bed, which lay under a large French window of this surreal space creates a playground for Putrid Piggy to take place. Part penthouse apartment, part S&M play room, part bunker, the space evokes a voyeuristic insight into an elegant and sophisticated world of sordid desires. The windows become an evolving display of video and photography that dismantles the fourth wall and the audience transitions from shy onlooker to viscerally responsive participant.

About the artist:

Daniel Jaber was born in Nairne, in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia. He is of Lebanese and Maori cultural heritage. Daniel’s dance training began in Adelaide with Christine Underdown (Dancecraft Studios) and Barbara Komazec (Barbie Jayne Dance Centre). He further pursued his training through the Queensland University of Technology, Queensland Ballet Company Professional Year and the Adelaide College of the Arts before joining Australian Dance Theatre as a trainee dancer, under the direction of Garry Stewart, at the age of 17. 

As a company member of ADT (2004-2021), Jaber has toured the world extensively and participated in the creation of new works as well as touring repertoire. 

Jaber has created work for ADT, Expressions Dance Company (now Australasian Dance Collective), Houston Ballet 2, Qantas Australian Tourism Awards, Dance Moms, Dubai Festival, Architanz Tokyo and was the Creative Director of LW Dance Hub (now Dance Hub SA) in 2015. He has choreographed new works on many tertiary institutions, universities and colleges throughout Australasia and the US, including QUT, Adelaide College of the Arts, California State University (LA & Fullerton), Transit Dance and the New Zealand School of Dance.

Brink Productions Theatre Residency: Jo Zealand showing, 'The Circle Show'

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Photo: Daniel Purvis.

Public showing

When: Friday, September 3, 2021, 5.45pm sharp for a 6pm start

Where: The Mill, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta

Duration: 1.5 hours, including post-show discussion

Cost: Free

Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, and a disability toilet is also available. View our accessibility information page.

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This showing is the culmination of a two-week second development of The Circle Show by Jo Zealand; an interactive performance piece blending music, comedy, clowning, and dance. Jo has been collaborating with theatrical storyteller Suzie Skinner and musician Johnny Siegel to push the boundaries between performance and self-exploration.

As the successful recipient of the 2021 Brink Productions Theatre residency, Jo will be working with Chris Drummond as an artistic provocateur who will give dramaturgical, design and conceptual support to develop and extend this new work.

Due to venue capacity restrictions, we ask you only book a ticket if you are able to attend. All attendees must be aware of our hygiene policy before attending our venue.

The Mill is an accessible space. Disability access is available via Angas St, and a disability toilet is also available. If you have any questions or additional accessibility requirements, please contact us at info@themilladelaide.com

About the artist:

A performer for 25 years, Jo Zealand specialises in interactive theatre, comic character and physical theatre with a musical twist and has an Advanced Diploma in Professional Screenwriting from RMIT. Jo’s aim is to use performing arts to bring about connection, awareness and joy. Beginning her training as a founding member of Restless Dance Company and Slack Taxi, Jo has studied with master teachers across Europe, Asia, and Australia. Artistic Director of No Strings Attached 1999-2004, she lead the company on an overseas tour and was nominated for an Innovation Award.

Breakout Residencies 2021: Announcing the successful recipients

Spotlight Residencies: Bureau d’Exchange

Bureau d’Exchange is an immersive and entertaining cross-disciplinary art work set in a shop like installation. Here, the performers are shopkeepers engaging with the public through interactive story telling.

Participants are presented with an odd assortment of items. Similar to the idea of the readymade, this work takes commonplace objects and elevates them to the status of valuable commodities. The audience is invited into the ‘shop’ to browse, followed by a thought-provoking and enjoyable experience of exchange. The valuing and exchanging of goods is guided through the emotional attachment and associated narratives to the objects, posing questions about economic structure and the relationship to possessions.

About the artists:

Cynthia Schwertsik’s art practice is diverse, including visual art and contemporary performance, with a focus on activating public space. She works preferably in collaborations to investigate the oxymorons found in the wake of contemporary life. Absurdity and humour are central to Cynthia’s cross-disciplinary art-solutions

Cynthia has exhibited and performed throughout Europe, South Africa and Australia, been recipient of grants and residencies from Austrian and Australian government bodies. She has completed commissions for Australian councils, including the City of Sydney, City of Unley, and City of Port Adelaide Enfield. 

Schwertsik holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts and a Dance Diploma.

Emma Beech graduated from Flinders Drama Centre in 2000, and works across theatre and screen. She has established a practice developing theatre shows from meaningful conversations with strangers.

Emma has worked with The Last Tuesday Society, Real TV, Bron Batten, Patch, Monkey Baa, Playwriting Australia, Arts House, Open Space Contemporary Arts, STC, SA Museum, The Rabble and Vitalstatistix, 

Along with theatre director, Tessa Leong, and visual artist. James Dodd, Emma founded the Australian Bureau of Worthiness, a residency model that creates theatre from interviews conducted with people on the street. She spent a two-year residency with immersive theatre company Carte Blanche in Denmark.

Elyas Alavi’s practice is interdisciplinary bridging elements from poetry to visual arts, from archive to everyday events with the intention to address issues around displacement, trauma, memory, body and sexual identity.

Alavi graduated from a Master of Visual Arts at the University of South Australia in 2016 and a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) in 2013, and has exhibited at Mohsen Gallery (Tehran), Firstdraft (Sydney), Robert Kananaj (Toronto), IFA (Kabul),  Chapter House Lane (Melbourne), UTS gallery (Sydney) as well as Ace Open, Felt Space, Nexus Arts, CACSA Project Space (all Adelaide). He is the recipient of a 2019 Anne & Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship. 

Valerie Berry is an actor, performance maker and emerging director. Throughout her practice, she has focused on collaborative and interdisciplinary processes. She has worked with, CAAP for Sydney Festival and Asia Topa, 2020 (Double Delicious), Yana Taylor (Leading is Following is Leading, Liveworks Festival 2020), National Theatre of Parramatta (Swallow, 2016) and Directed (Let Me Know When You get Home, 2021), CuriousWorks (One of the mentors for the Beyond Refuge Program), Polyglot Theatre (Paper Planet: Sydney and Norway), Theatre Kantanka, Urban Theatre Projects, Belvoir, Branch Nebula, Performance Space, Sydney Theatre Company and Performing Lines (Tour Germany and Adelaide Festival, Ur/Faust; and National tour of The Folding Wife). 

In Adelaide, Valerie is an Associate Artist at ActNow Theatre and works as a facilitator, coordinator, lead artist and performer for their Theatre of the Global Majority program, and wrote and performed in The Decameron 2.0 project. She has worked with Cynthia Schwertsik (In My Name); Vitalstatistix (Game of I-Lands) Adhocracy 2020 and (Border Crossers) Adhocracy 2017; and with OSCA for the SUE Project.

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Spotlight Residencies: Thomas Fonua

MAMA is a new physical-theatre work which examines gender, identity and Patriarchy from a south pacific lens. Drawing from the origin stories of the Samoan Fafafine and Tongan Fakaleiti, MAMA is commentary from this generational perspective of the labour division which validated the act of pre-colonial gender fluidity in accordance to a patriarchal society. It also examines the differences in the rite of passage of a boy becoming a man from the past traditional landscape to a present western/urban environment.

About the artists:

Thomas Fonua is an artist of Pacific decent with an established career as a dancer, choreographer and emerging leader. Thomas has worked for companies such as Black Grace (NZ) , Australian Dance Theatre, Red Sky Performance(Canada) and has been touring internationally from the age of 16.

Thomas’ alterego Kween Kong, is the Reigning Dragnation Australia Winner. With a strong focus to inspire, challenge and nurture our community with his loved based leadership style.

Thomas is the recipient of The (NZ) Prime Minster’s Award for Arts and Creativity(2015), Out For Australia’s Emerging Leader(2019) and has recently been nominated for the Dora Award For Outstanding Choreography in Canada.

Fez Faanana is well known for creating accessible, ground-breaking, physically dynamic, risqué and contemporary performance that infuses his Pacific bloodline, political bite, gender juggling, visual spectacle and tongue-in-cheek.

Fez is also Shivannah. He-she is the host and MC, choreographer, creative director, performer, collaborator and co- creator along with an all-male circus burlesque gender bending cast. As an independent artist, collaborator and arts worker/educator, Fez has toured extensively throughout Australia and internationally through Canada, the Pacific, the UK and the USA. He has featured in various cabarets, co-productions and commissioned works including Melbourne Comedy Festival, Melbourne International Festival, Sydney Biennale, Sydney Festival, Harbor Front Centre Toronto, Big Sky Works & Galapagos Art Space New York, Performance Space Sydney, Duckie Royal Vauxhall London and the Sydney Opera House Studio. He has also independently produced and programmed work for Brisbane Festival & Adelaide Fringe Festival.

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Free-range Residencies: Jess Clough-MacRae

Trimates (working title) is inspired by the work of the pioneers of primatology, Drs Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Biruté Galdikas. Through a highly physical representation of the great apes, Trimates will explore the different ways that chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans communicate, whilst also telling the stories of the three women who studied them. Using text, movement and mime, this show will explore the parallel lives of the great apes and the pioneering scientists, in a bid to understand our complex relationship with the natural world. 

About the artist:

Jess Clough-MacRae is a British/New Zealand performer, director, and movement director currently based in Adelaide. She studied at the University of East Anglia, the Bristol Old Vic Made in Bristol Programme and the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq.

She founded award-winning Clownfish Theatre and has toured their show Attenborough and his Animals in Australia, the UK and Europe, with sell out runs in Adelaide, Perth and Edinburgh Fringe. Attenborough and his Animals won a weekly award for Best Theatre at Adelaide Fringe 2021. Jess is also a member of award-winning Cut Mustard Theatre and has recently performed with Tessa Bide Productions.

Jess was the assistant director on the Bristol Old Vic’s recent production of Cyrano and associate movement director on The Merry Wives of Windsor at Shakespeare’s Globe and Touching the Void at the Bristol Old Vic.

Jess is an experienced theatre practitioner and has run workshops for children, teens, and adults, in schools in the UK and Australia and for the Bristol Old Vic Young Company, the Theatre Royal Bath and Shakespeare’s Globe.

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Free-range Residencies: Lucy Haas-Hennessy

Autoeulogy is an original solo work by Adelaide-based theatre-maker Lucy Haas-Hennessy. An eerily prescient sci-fi tragicomedy about isolation at the end of the world, it was first staged at the Mill in early 2020 among the first ripples of the COVID-19 pandemic. One very long year later, the work will be redeveloped against the fascinating new cultural landscape that the pandemic is leaving in its wake, asking questions about what’s changed about the end of the world - and what hasn’t.

About the artist:

Lucy Haas-Hennessy is an Adelaide-based actor, playwright, dramaturge and theatre-maker, and was the entire creative team behind the first production of Autoeulogy. Lucy’s work is interested in the contemporary significance of the ancient art of live performance - in what makes it continue to make its inimitable impact on audiences and hold its ground even in the high-tech digital age. She is a 2017 graduate of the Adelaide College of the Arts acting program, a 2019 Helpmann Fellow, and a 2021 intern with Brisbane-based theatre company Zen Zen Zo. 

Lucy will be joined in this phase of development by Mary Angley (director and dramaturge), an emerging theatre-maker and a recent graduate from the Victorian College of the Arts’ Master of Directing program. In 2019, Mary created Paper Mouth Theatre as a forum for bringing together emerging creatives to work on experimental projects within a Queer, Feminist framework. Mary’s work has received support from The Helpmann Academy, Carclew, Splash Adelaide, Science Gallery, and La Mama.

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Free-range Residencies: Samuel Hall

The project is to develop a new immersive and interactive dance theatre production. The work will be performed in The Lab at Light Adelaide and will utilize the latest LED screen technology. The central dramaturgical premise of the work is a contemporary ritual that invites the audience to reconnect with themselves, place, and community in order to release that which holds them back, especially in relation to the experiences of the past year. 

About the artist:

Samuel graduated from the New Zealand School of Dance in 2016 with a Diploma in Dance Performance. In 2017, he created his first professional choreography ‘Subsequent Slavery’ for the NZ Fringe Festival before performing in Strut Dance Inc’s restaging of ‘One Flat Thing, Reproduced' by William Forsythe. He then went on to join Swedish dance company Norrdans for their 17/18 season as an Apprentice. In 2018, he joined the acclaimed production ‘Sleep No More Shanghai’ by immersive theatre company, Punchdrunk. In 2020, he returned home to South Australia where he began working as a freelance dancer. He worked for major Australian company’s Dancenorth and Australian Dance Theatre, before joining the cast of Lewis Major’s Adelaide Festival double bill, S/Words and Unfolding. Samuel has consistently sought choreographic opportunities throughout his performance career, creating works for Light Adelaide, Dance Hub SA, QL2 Youth Dance Company, Norrdans, and his own personal projects. 

Brink Productions Theatre Residency: Jo Zealand

Staged at Adelaide Fringe 2021, Jo Zealand presented the first stage development of ‘The Circle Show’, an interactive performance piece blending music, comedy, clowning, and dance. The work explores awareness of self; inviting the audience to connect with their true nature through creative play.

As the successful recipient of the 2021 Brink Productions Theatre residency, Jo will be working with Chris Drummond as an artistic provocateur who will give dramaturgical, design and conceptual support to develop and extend this new work. 

About the artist:

A performer for 25 years, Jo Zealand specialises in interactive theatre, comic character and physical theatre with a musical twist and has an Advanced Diploma in Professional Screenwriting from RMIT. Jo’s aim is to use performing arts to bring about connection, awareness and joy. Beginning her training as a founding member of Restless Dance Company and Slack Taxi, Jo has studied with master teachers across Europe, Asia, and Australia. Artistic Director of No Strings Attached 1999-2004, she lead the company on an overseas tour and was nominated for an Innovation Award.

Brink Productions Theatre Residency: Artist chat with Jo Stone

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Artist chat

When: Saturday, August 1, 2020, 4pm

Where: The Mill Breakout Space, 154 Angas St (enter via Gunson St), Adelaide 

Cost: Free

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This residency is an open project development platform co-presented by The Mill and Brink Productions. It is an opportunity for performing artists/writers and/or theatre directors to develop a new work with the mentorship from established theatre director Chris Drummond of BRINK Productions and professional support from The Mill team and Director Katrina Lazaroff.

Jo Stone is this year's recipient and has spent two weeks developing and interrogating a new theatre work around the idea of 'a final hour' with the support of Brink’s Chris Drummond.

This Saturday, we will host an invite only informal artist chat with Jo Stone and Chris Drummond who will discuss the process of developing new work and preview ideas. 

RSVP is essential to this session, which will be limited due to COVID restrictions. If you would like to attend, please click the button below and email through your full name and phone number to be notified of your spot by Director Katrina Lazaroff.

Breakout Residencies: Announcing Successful Recipients 2020

Brink Productions Residency: Jo Stone

Solo Development; July/August, 2020

Presented in partnership with Brink Productions

A solo development based on the diaries and final writings of Kafka. A reflection on a final hour: a play of mourning, remembrance and ultimately a celebration of life.

Jo Stone graduated from Flinders Drama Centre and works in theatre, television and film. She formed Stone/Castro with Paulo Castro in Europe 2002. Jo has taught for various institutions over the last 20 years including disability arts, professional workshops and school drama workshops 1-12 and with STCSA/The Road home creating new work with Veterans with PTSD.

Theatre credits: Welcome the Bright World / Sewell (Charles Sanders/ STCSA umbrella), The Country /Martin Crimp (Stone/Castro) Adelaide Festival 16, Infected / Stephen Sewell (Charles Sanders), White Rabbit, Red Rabbit (Nassim Soleimanpour), Blackout (Paulo Castro) Adelaide Festival 14, Information for Foreigners (Benedict Andrews), Danton’s Death (Paulo Castro), Congratulations (Stone/Castro), B-File (Paulo Castro) (nominated Best performer Green room awards 07), Superheroes (Stone/Castro), Pyjama Girl (LadyKillers) and Please Continue by Duncan Graham (David Mealor), MiWi 3027 development (STCSA/ Country Arts SA) Julian Meyrick. Directions: Dis-integration (DanceNorth), Untitled, SOF#1 and Fragments of Faith (AC Arts Dance Dept), Private Lives (Feast Festival 09), and Superheroes (Stone/Castro),‘Fury’/ Joanna Murray Smith (AC Arts Acting Dept). Movement Consultant/Director: Thursday (Brink Productions), Metro Street (STCSA), Pornography (STCSA), Jesikah (STCSA). Dance theatre/Self devised/ Opera performances: Foi (Sidi Larbi Cherokaui / Co les Ballet C de la B, Blue Love (co-directed/performed with Shaun Parker), Big in Bombay and Back to the Present (Constanza Macras), Writing to Vermeer (Peter Greenaway), Madam Butterfly (Moffatt Oxenbould /Matthew Barclay) State Opera SA and Cube (ADT) Adelaide Museum. Film credits: The Big Nothing (Sharptooth Pictures) (nominated Best Actress FirstGlance Film Festival Hollywood), Grounded (Luke Wissell), Going for Gold (Glen Pictures) and Double Happiness Uranium (Cole Larson). TV credits: Children’s TV series Music Shop (Ch:9 Series 1, 2), Changed Forever, Plonk Series 2, ABC mini-series Anzac Girls and Pine Gap.

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Spotlight Residencies: Felicity Boyd & Zoe Gay of Motus Collective

The Credits; August, 2020

Work in Development: The Credits is a dance-theatre work focusing on the undeniable relationship between performer, creator and audience. Through examining our power and choices, The Credits deconstructs the traditional theatre experience as we know it.

Felicity Boyd has spent the last eight months touring Europe, three as part of Swedish dance company ilYoung. She has worked with artists from Batsheva Dance Company, Hofesh Schecter, Gothenburg Opera, Sascha Waltz & Guests and Wim Vandekeybus of Ultima Vez. In 2019 she performed in Jessie McKinlay’s A Supposed Truth, performed for Gravity and Other Myths at RCC Adelaide Fringe, and co-founded Motus Collective. In 2018 she worked as a replacement dancer on Australian Dance Theatre’s South, toured and performed with The Human Arts Movement, and toured and performed with Lewis Major Projects on Losers. She graduated in 2017 from Adelaide College of the Arts with a bachelor’s degree in Creative Arts (Dance). In 2020 Felicity performed Howl alongside of Aphids, which premiered at the Art Gallery throughout the Adelaide Fringe.

Zoe Gay graduated from Adelaide College of the Arts in 2017, where she had the opportunity to work with renowned choreographers such as Jo Stone, Larissa McGowan, Tobiah Booth-Remmers and Kialea Nadine- Williams. In her second year of training, Zoe joined Australian Dance Theatre for their production of Objekt choreographed by Garry Stewart. Upon graduation, Zoe received a scholarship from Helpmann Academy and The Mill to travel to Sweden and join IlYoung, a youth dance company run by Israel Aloni and Lee Brummer. While in Europe, she also spent time with National Dance Company Wales, Norrdans and completed a residency with IcoDaco. Upon returning to Australia, Zoe has had the opportunity to work with many established artists including Lina Limosani in her production of Not Today’s Yesterday, Larissa McGowan in her production of Cher and Jessie McKinlay in her Fringe performance of A Supposed Truth. In 2019, Zoe co-founded Motus Collective, a collective aimed at exploring inter-disciplinary connections and creations. The collective run improvisation classes weekly and have conducted residencies at ADT, The Mill and recently performed in VitalStatistix Adhocracy program, performing a self-choreographed work called Old Body: New Management. In 2020, Zoe performed in the award winning Retrieve Your Jeans at the Adelaide Fringe.

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Spotlight Residencies: Adrianne Semmens & Jennifer Eadie

Leave only your Footprints; August/September, 2020

Work in Development: This project builds upon a collaboration between dance practitioner Adrianne Semmens and writer Jennifer Eadie and the text created together, Leave only your Footprints, facilitated by The Mill Adelaide Writer in Residence program, and commissioned by Delving into Dance in partnership with Critical Path as part of the Digital Interchange Festival 2019/20.

Adrianne Semmens is a dance practitioner with experience working across the arts, education and community sectors. Born in Adelaide, Adrianne is a descendant of the Barkindji People of NSW and a graduate of NAISDA Dance College and Adelaide College of the Arts.

Adrianne’s professional experience includes: the Australian Ballet’s Dance Education Ensemble; Wagana Aboriginal Dancers (NSW) and Erth Visual & Physical Inc; Adelaide Fringe Festival seasons with choreographers Jade Erlandsen (2014 & 2011) and Cathy Adamek; and Spirt Festival performance Songlines choreographed by Gina Rings (2011). More recently Adrianne has performed the work of Kaine Sultan-Babij (for Dance Rites 2019) as a member of Kurruru’s Senior Dance Ensemble and has returned to her own choreographic explorations, including Unravel, a site specific work during Panpapanalya, the 2018 Joint Dance Congress. A qualified teacher, Adrianne maintains a passion of dance education, supporting Kurruru Art and Culture Hub’s education program, providing professional learning opportunities and tutoring for the University of South Australia’s Arts Education Course.

Jennifer Eadie is a writer and artist, living and working on Kaurna Yerta. Currently, she is a lecturer in the Aboriginal Pathway Program at the University of South Australia and a PhD Candidate in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Flinders University. She is a graduate of UNSW Art & Design. Her creative practice combines text and art to explore connection to place, while her research focuses on ecological rights and approaches to caring for Country. Recently, Jennifer was Writer in Residence at The Mill (2019/20) and Scotch College, Adelaide (2020). Her art and writing has been published in Critical Path, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Borderlands e-journal, Extempore and Frankie Magazine.

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Free-range Residencies: Monte Masi

U want me to see you, I see u my son. Now go flourish with that clout u received; June and September, 2020

Work in Development: This is a performance which examines desire, online shopping trends, and what we do with the things that we buy (and say) late at night.

Monte Masi is an artist living and working on Kaurna Land who makes performances, videos, and text works which examine the labour of looking and the ways we look together. Recent exhibitions and performances have included IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII performed at the Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide; Born (as part of Transcriptions for Fine Print), performed at the Art Gallery of South Australia, 2018; INSPI-RAY SHUN-SHUN APP-LI-KAY SHUN-SHUN at Hobiennale 2017, Hobart; and Work in Progress: Investigations South of Market at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco. In June 2019 he attended Behaviour Swarm, a performance art-focused residency program at the Banff Centre for Creativity, Canada.

Previous curatorial and collaborative presentations have included The Case for Nonsense, presented at the 2016 Adelaide Festival of Ideas, Art on Tap for the Australian Experimental Art Foundation and Model United Nations at Open Engagement, USA. Additionally, Monte was a co-founder and co-director of the artist-run gallery FELTspace from 2007 to 2010. Monte holds an MFA in Social Practice from California College of the Arts, as well as Visual Art and Education degrees from the University of South Australia. He is the recipient of several grants and fellowships including the Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship, John Crampton Traveling Scholarship, Ian Potter Cultural Trust grant and Arts South Australia project grants.

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Free-range Residencies: Steph Daughtry & Hannah Rohrlach of Post Dining

Eating Tomorrow; June/July, 2020

Work in Development: A brand new interactive performance around the themes of future foods, featuring a progressive narrative exploring what and how we might be eating over the next 100 years.

Steph Daughty and Hannah Rohrlach co-founded creative production company Post Dining in 2015, exploring the artistic merits of using food as a tool to explore socio-political concepts, and to push the boundaries of intimate audience engagement. This often involves collaboration between local artists, musicians and designers, and they have produced work with the Australian String Quartet (ASQ), MOD., Open State Festival and are currently in the development stage of new work in collaboration with Tai Kwun Arts Centre in Hong Kong, London based Feast Festival, and the Edinburgh International Science Festival.

Awards: 2019 Nominated: Adelaide Critics Circle Award, Independent Arts Foundation Award for Innovation; 2019 Adelaide Fringe Weekly Award, Best Interactive, Film or Digital; 2017 New Venture Institute, Venture Dorm Finalists;
2017 Adelaide Fringe Weekly Award, John Chattaway Award for Innovation; 2016 Adelaide Fringe Weekly Award, Best Emerging Artist Award; 2016 Adelaide Fringe Weekly Award, High Commendation for Interactive Category.

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Free-range Residencies: Jamila Main

How To Eat Rabbit; July, 2020

Work in Development: This project is an early stage development of new play How To Eat Rabbit, a one-act play featuring two characters written by Jamila Main.

Jamila Main is a trained actor and self-taught playwright based on unceded Kaurna land. A graduate of the Adelaide College of the Arts Acting program (2018), Jamila performs across stage and screen, most recently as Leen in the acclaimed Aleppo, A Portrait of Absence (Adelaide Festival, 2020) and Karin in Set Piece (Anna Breckon, Nat Randall, Vitalstatistix, 2019).

Jamila’s plays have received accolades from STCSA (Immaculate, Commendation, 2016; How To Eat Rabbit, Merit, 2019), HotHouse Theatre (When I Was Eleven, 2016), Feast Festival and Writer’s SA Queer Short Story Competition (Butterfly Kicks, Winner, 2018; Queer Utopia is on the Roof of a Westfield, Winner, 2019), with Butterfly Kicks shortlisted for the 2020 Queer Playwriting Award in Midsumma Festival. In 2019 Jamila was selected for ATYP’s National Studio, mentored by Lachlan Philpott, a participant in Playwriting Australia’s workshop with Patricia Cornelius, and interviewed Kate Mulvany for the This Is How We Do It podcast. Jamila sits on various MEAA committees, is one of the founding artists of RUMPUS and currently serves on the RUMPUS Finance Committee, is an Endometriosis advocate, and a 2020 Carclew Fellow. Jamila is currently producing Butterfly Kicks to be staged at RUMPUS.

Call Out: The Breakout Residencies - Brink Productions Residency 2020

The Brink Productions Breakout Residency is an open project development platform co-presented by The Mill and is available to artists working in the performing arts and mixed arts disciplines.

This residency is an opportunity for performing artists/writers and/or theatre directors to develop a new work with the mentorship from established theatre director Chris Drummond of BRINK Productions and professional support from The Mill team and Director, Katrina Lazaroff.

The successful applicant will receive:

• 2 weeks use of The Mill’s Breakout space 

• A $2000 artist honorarium ($1000 from The Mill & $1000 from Brink Productions)

• Profiling and support from The Mill

• Mentorship from Chris Drummond of Brink Productions

Outcome:

The successful applicant will be required to present a ‘work-in-progress’ performance outcome at the conclusion of this residency for industry, VIPs and invited guests supported by The Mill.

To apply for this unique opportunity, artists must complete and submit the following online application form.

Applications
Open: 19th March 2020
Close: 16th April 2020
Notification: On or before 22nd April 2019

Contact Director Katrina Lazaroff for further inquiries: director@themilladelaide.com

Breakout Residencies: Announcing successful recipients 2019

Spotlight Residency: Brittany Plummer

Chameleon; April/July 2019

Work in development: Throughout her Spotlight Residency, Britt will be collaborating with Hew Parham, as Director, and Ben Brooker, as Dramaturg, to shake up original work Chameleon that Britt devised and performed in for its premiere season at Adelaide Fringe 2019. Britt, and her creative team, will be turning the piece on its head and delving further into the world of the Bouffon. Bouffon is a way of shining a light on the injustices in society, the lead up is slow burning, and then the message lands strongly. Chameleon was created with the desire to rouse social change around men’s attitudes towards women, sexism, and harassment women encounter in the workplace, in relationships, and wider society. The ways we adapt, and mould our selves to meet other's expectations; changing our behaviour, appearances, and masking of emotions, to blend in, and sometimes survive. Chameleon is a personal piece for Britt, as all stories are her own. It is a conversation, a celebration of women, authenticity and embracing our individuality. 

Britt Plummer is an actress, theatre-maker, teacher, and director of FRANK. Theatre, she is a graduate of the Adelaide College of the Arts, and École Philippe Gaulier in France. In 2018, Britt founded FRANK. Theatre, a SA company presenting original work that explores the human condition with honesty, humour, and heart. Specialising in bouffon, clown, and vaudevillian styles, Britt is driven by theatre rooted in the realms of pleasure, play, and connection with the audience. Britt has worked with Monski Mouse Productions, Foul Play, Punctum, Early Worx, Slingsby, Five.Point.One, ActNow, and State Theatre Company of SA. Britt is a teacher of Le Jeu, Neutral Masque, Mask Play, Bouffon, and Clown, to acting students at the Adelaide College of the Arts. In 2018, she directed students in a Bouffon show in Paulo Castro’s ‘La La Luna’. Britt premiered ‘Chameleon’, her first solo work, in the 2019 Adelaide Fringe Festival at MakeSpace, and received the Adelaide Fringe Weekly Award for Emerging Artist. In March 2019, she worked with Punctum on the immersive durational theatre work ‘Public Cooling House at WOMADelaide. In June 2019, Britt joins the London cast of the Edinburgh Fringe hit, Flabbergast Theatre’s ‘The Swell Mob’, presented by Adelaide Festival Centre as part of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival.

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Freerange Residency: GIRL

Masc; May, 2019

Work In Development: Masc will be a sonic event, an electronic song cycle and a live experimental sound performance that responds to the following provocations: How do we forge a sonic template for queerness? How does a non-Masc body exist in that space?

GIRL is an Australian-based queer music and live performance project by Jason Sweeney and Em König in collaboration with LGBTQI+ comrades. These artists formerly known as Winter Witches seek to amplify queer sonics and bent gestures into a world gone normal. Their work to date spans live art concerts, art DJ duo (Vegan Festival, Wild Style, Laneway Festival, Adhocracy) and sound art installation/performance. Their first major work, Sentients, was commissioned as part of the Vitalstatistix Climate Century Festival in 2018. As a live art project, GIRL continue to tour across Australia. Their new work, MASC, is being developed with support from Adelaide Festival Centre, The Mill, The SUBSTATION, pvi collective and Performance Space in 2019. 

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Freerange Residency: Tobiah Booth Remmers

Damaged Goods; June, 2019

Work in Development: Damaged Goods is a solo research project that explores the frailty and unpredictability of being human. Through metaphor and imagery the work will delve into the experience of living and surviving in a world that sometimes throws everything at you, and at other times leaves you completely alone. It will search through ideas of endurance, vulnerability, unknowingness and revelation in an attempt to make some sense of this continuing journey.

Tobiah is a freelance dance creator, performer, teacher and facilitator from Adelaide, Australia. Since graduating from the ‘Adelaide College of the Arts’ Bachelor of Dance Performance in 2009 Tobiah has worked with a wide range of Australian and international artists; Garry Stewart (ADT), Graeme Murphy (Sydney Dance), Branch Nebula, Brink Productions, Larissa McGowan, Lina Limosani, Gabrielle Nankivell, Paul Gazzola and Paulo Castro among many others. Tobiah has performed in major arts festivals; Adelaide Fringe Festival, Adelaide Festival, Brisbane Festival, WOMAD, Dance Massive (VIC), Dublin Dance Festival and has performed at the Barbican Centre, London. Tobiah has choreographed numerous works with his Adelaide based performance collective; ‘The Human Arts Movement’ and short works for students at ‘Adelaide College of the Arts’ and ‘LINK Dance Company’ in Perth and has lectured at both colleges as well as at ‘Queensland University of Technology’ and ‘Transit Dance’, Melbourne. Tobiah has lived and worked in Europe during 2016/17, receiving residencies in Bulgaria, Brussels and Sweden, with resulting works being performed in Brussels, Bulgaria and Greece. Tobiah has also taught workshops on his own creative and movement practice in Brussels, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Sweden and Israel.

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Freerange Residency: Anya Anastasia and Aaron Austin-Glen 

August, 2019

Work In Development: Anya Anastasia and Aaron Austin-Glen are currently developing a theatrical musical comedy for stage and screen set in an unspecified rural Australian town that has seen more prosperous days. The crux of the script centres around the town’s attempt to return the community to its glory days through a series of heart warming yet ridiculous large scale schemes. With particular focus on the frustration, felt both on an individual and collective level with local bureaucracy and political inaction, the script is a razor sharp commentary on the current Australian and global landscape.

Anya Anastasia is an internationally acclaimed songstress with a vivid and twisted imagination. She has traversed the globe with her original songs and bold performance pieces appearing at festivals in Europe, the UK, around Australia and NZ.  Anastasia’s vocals range from husky jazz with a brazen Aussie inflection, to operatic soprano paired unusually with irreverent contemporary musings, though her roots firmly in the world of folk, and she wields a shamelessly un-ironic penchant for catchy pop melodies. Known for her wit and poetic lyricism she is the creator and writer of multiple critically acclaimed darkly funny musical theatre shows that are currently touring Australia. http://anyaanastasia.com/

Aaron Austin-Glen is an independent producer developing multi-disciplinary productions in unconventional spaces for major festivals and arts organisations. With extensive experience as a producer for Brisbane Festival, Woodford Folk Festival, New Zealand Festival and the Southbank Centre London spanning contemporary music, theatrical performance, community engagement, literature and large scale spectacle he has a wealth of creative knowledge and industry connection in Australasia, UK, Germany and India. Aaron has also written, performed and produced his autobiographical show 'Somewhere Else But Now' in Germany (Munich & Cologne), UK (Southbank Centre) and Australia (Anywhere Festival).

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Brink Productions Theatre Residency: Hew Parham

Three Bananas; April/May & August, 2019

Work in Development: Three Bananas is a one-man theatrical show about the bicycle, heroes, trophies, the ego and the ups and downs of life. Drawing from the styles of physical theatre, clowning and story telling, the show is ambitious, epic and crosses many continents in its scope.Inspired by legendary Italian cyclist Gino Bartali who said: “Medals aren’t meant to be worn on the shirt they are to be worn on the soul”, the "three bananas" are the performer himself searching for meaning, self worth and an award-winning story; an egomaniacal narcissist cycling champion whose relentless drive to win covers a deeper truth, and Bartali himself. It calls on the great socially aware clowns such as Chaplin, Tati and Fo in how the buffoon through humour can shine a mirror to what is happening in the world right now. Can the clown stop looking at himself for a second to see what is happening in the world? Can the clown move out of the shadows of his heroes to see his own worth?

Hew is a graduate of Flinders University Drama Centre, Adelaide Australia. In 2007 Hew was the recipient of the Neil Curnow Award where he studied at The Hunter Gates Academy of Physical Theatre one-year program in Canada. Hew has also extensively trained and mentored in the Pochinko Clowning/Clown through Mask Method with John Turner at The Manitoulin Conservatory for Creation and Performance (MCCP). In 2013 Hew received a grant from Arts SA to work with British Physical Comedy troupe Spymonkey in London, England. Hew has developed several solo shows with his comedic characters – including Odyssey Schmodyssey which played at the Sanguenay Fringe Festival in Quebec, Canada as well as the Amuse Bouche New York Clown Theatre Festival; The Giovanni Experiment and Giovanni! which also played at the New York Clown Theatre Festival in 2014 and more recently at The Wonderland Festival in Brisbane, Australia. In 2016 Hew was commissioned to produce a new work at The Adelaide Cabaret Festival Rudi’s The Rinse Cycle. In 2017 Hew was employed by Melbourne based company Bunk Puppets to tour their show Sticks Stones Broken Bones to Norway, Germany and China. He is the resident Clown teacher at Flinders University.

Call Out: The Breakout Residencies - 'BRINK Productions Residency' 2019

The BRINK Productions Breakout Residency is an open project development platform available to artists working in the performing arts and mixed arts disciplines. In 2019 this theatre residency is co-presented by The Mill and SA based theatre company, BRINK Productions.

The aim of the residency is to establish a platform for theatre artists to develop new or existing work with mentorship from an established theatre director. Successful applicants will receive one week's access to The Breakout (at no charge) for one week, plus an honorarium of $500 (from The Mill) and mentorship from Brink Productions Director Chris Drummond. Dates preferable Weeks beginning April 29th or July 22nd 2019.

Call Out Details

Online applications open: 20th March 2019
Applications close: 4th April, 2019
Notification: 16th April, 2019

Inquires contact The Mill Director Katrina Lazaroff via email; director@themilladelaide.com

Chris Drummond

click here to apply

BRINK Productions Theatre Residency Application