centre stage residency

centre stage residency

Centre Stage Residencies: Announcing the successful 2024 recipients

chloe metcalfe ·

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:

  • 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.

  • 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. 

 
 

centre stage residency, public program

Centre Stage Residency: Praise Mangena, 'Art is the Medium'

chloe metcalfe ·

Photo: Supplied by the artist.

Showing and Q&A

When: Friday, November 1, 6-7pm

Cost: $10 (+ booking fee)

Note: Please arrive 15 minutes early to grab a drink. This event will be 1 hour (including a Q&A). 

  • This showing and Q&A will be held in The Mill Breakout. Please come to The Mill at 154 Angas Street, the bar will be open to grab a drink before we take you through to The Breakout.

    Please arrive at 5:45pm arrival for a 6pm sharp start.

    This event will be 1 hour (including the Q&A).

    Accessibility

    Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, access the pedestrian ramp on the corner of Gunson St to get to our front door, which will be open.

    The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.

    Read more in-depth information on our accessibility web page.

    If you have questions or would like to talk to one of The Mill team contact info@themilladelaide.com

Praise Mangena, Jack Green and Jade Ianella collaborate in this work-in-progress showing, weaving together music, movement and spoken word poetry.

“Dear Lover”, she begins to speak, unseen, her disembodied consciousness extending an invite into a world of creation. The music plays, each string and key carefully woven as the words are truthfully spoken…”no longer just an incarnation, I am the threads in words that spell out the birth of Nubian Queen”.

Art is the Medium is being developed as part of The Mill’s Centre Stage Residency, in collaboration with Adelaide Fringe, and will be presented as part of The Mill’s 2025 Adelaide Fringe program.

The showing will be followed by a short Q&A with Praise, hosted by The Mill CEO / Artistic Director Katrina Lazaroff. Audiences will have the opportunity to ask questions about the development and provide feedback about the performance.

About the artist:

  • 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. 

Photo: Kyahm Ross.

 
 

centre stage residency, public program

Centre Stage Residency: Poppy Mee, PSYCHOPOMP

chloe metcalfe ·

Photos: Jamie Hornsby.

Showing and Q&A

When: Thursday, November 28, 6-7pm

Cost: $10 (+ booking fee)

Note: Please arrive 15 minutes early to grab a drink. This event will be 1 hour (including a Q&A). 

  • This showing and Q&A will be held in The Mill Breakout. Please come to The Mill at 154 Angas Street, the bar will be open to grab a drink before we take you through to The Breakout.

    Please arrive at 5:45pm arrival for a 6pm sharp start.

    This event will be 1 hour (including the Q&A).

    Accessibility

    Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, access the pedestrian ramp on the corner of Gunson St to get to our front door, which will be open.

    The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.

    Read more in-depth information on our accessibility web page.

    If you have questions or would like to talk to one of The Mill team contact info@themilladelaide.com

PSYCHOPOMP depicts a titular character, a temperamental god who inhabits the interstitial space between life and death, and ferries human souls across the breach.

Poppy will seek to explore various new methods of audience participation and emotional and physical intimacies between performer and audience. Poppy invites audiences to join her in a playful exploration that will involve participatory games, dancing and moving in the space, and a post-showing conversation about intimacy and physical touch in a theatrical/performance environment. 

PSYCHOPOMP is being developed as part of The Mill’s Centre Stage Residency, in collaboration with Adelaide Fringe, and will be presented as part of The Mill’s 2025 Adelaide Fringe program.

The showing will be followed by a short Q&A with Poppy, hosted by The Mill CEO / Artistic Director Katrina Lazaroff. Audiences will have the opportunity to ask questions about the development and provide feedback about the performance.

About the artists:

  • 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.

 
 

centre stage residency, public program

Adelaide Fringe 2024: Alix Kuijpers, 'Grim Grinning Ghosts'

chloe metcalfe ·

Photographer: Daniel Marks.

Adelaide Fringe 2024

When: March 6-8 and March 13-15, 4pm and 6pm

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

Cost: From $18-26

Duration: 60 minutes

  • Grim Grinning Ghosts will be held in The Breakout at The Mill. Please come to the Exhibition Space at 154 Angas Street, the bar will be open to grab a drink before we take you through to The Breakout.

    Accessibility

    Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, access the pedestrian ramp on the corner of Gunson St to get to our front door, which will be open.

    The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.

    Read more in-depth information on our accessibility web page.

    If you have questions or would like to talk to one of The Mill team contact info@themilladelaide.com

On a day after grief, one lonely artist is left to wade through the belongings of some dead relatives, only to find they have walked into an otherworldly intervention. In a one-of-a-kind choreographic séance, the audience will be guided into the afterlife of those living, and deceased. Horrific? Yes! Sad? Absolutely! This solo work is one that will stay with you; it might even follow you home…

Created and performed by Alix Kuijpers, winner of the 2023 Adelaide Fringe Emerging Artist Award.

“It is exciting to witness emerging artists who are both talented and perceptive: Kuijpers is obviously a deep thinker and definitely a person of many talents.” Stage Whispers

“The hour is jam-packed with intense, varied, and embodied emotion conveyed through divergent and fragmentary scenes. Alix oscillates between grief, terror, and joy in jarring yet curated ways through an expert command of voice and body. There are also sensual, tender moments which are undoubtedly my favourite points of the performance, perhaps for their slow honey-like contrast to staccato bursts of pain. Flashes of true comedy also surface like guiding lights in a fearful fog… This is a performance for those who know love and loss. This is an important, exploratory work which shouldn’t be missed.” Marina Deller

“Grim Grinning Ghosts is more than a contemporary dance work, its an experience.”
★★★★.5 The Adelaide Show Podcast

This show was developed under The Mill x Adelaide Fringe Centre Stage Residency, and produced by The Mill and Alchemy Collective.

  • Alix Kuijpers is an emerging freelance choreographer and sound designer whose queer based work has garnered a strong reputation for creating contemporary dance in South Australia. Kuijpers’ notable achievements include becoming the first dance honours student at a South Australian institution, receiving first-class honours from Flinders University for his solo work IMMATERIAL.

    Alix recently spent time in the USA and Europe participating in major dance festivals such as B12 and Orsolina 28 and working with practitioners such as Jacob Jonas the Company and Thar Be Dragons. His most notable sonic commissions include creating the sound score for Motus Collective’s work The Leftovers in 2022 and again in 2023, he also created the score for METTLE by Circus SA and for Ceremonial by Amelia Watson, which premiered at the ResiDanza di Primavera in Italy.

    In 2023, Kuijpers was awarded a Best Dance weekly award for his Adelaide Fringe debut ‘i know the end’ and later in the season received the coveted Emerging Artist Award for Fringe 2023.

    Alix is passionate about representing as a South Australian artist and champions the emerging artist voice through his roles and initiatives as Dance Hub SA's 2023 Associate Artist and as one of Carclew’s 2023 Sharehouse Residents.

 
 

centre stage residency, breakout showing, public program

Centre Stage Residency: Alix Kuijpers, 'Grim Grinning Ghosts'

chloe metcalfe ·

Photo: Courtesy of the artist.

Showing and Q&A

When: Thursday, November 23, 6pm

Cost: $10 (+ booking fee)

Note: Please arrive at 5:45pm arrival for a 6pm sharp start. This event will be 1 hour (including the Q&A). 

  • This showing and Q&A will be held in The Mill Breakout. Please come to the Exhibition Space at 154 Angas Street, the bar will be open to grab a drink before we take you through to The Breakout.

    Please arrive at 5:45pm arrival for a 6pm sharp start.

    This event will be 1 hour (including the Q&A).

    Accessibility

    Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, access the pedestrian ramp on the corner of Gunson St to get to our front door, which will be open.

    The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.

    Read more in-depth information on our accessibility web page.

    If you have questions or would like to talk to one of The Mill team contact info@themilladelaide.com

Grim Grinning Ghosts is looking to experiment with different combinations of Alix Kuijpers' performance practices to create a unique lived experience. In a one-of-a-kind choreographic séance, the audience will be guided into the afterlife of those living, and deceased.

Alix's queer based cross disciplinary exploration of interactive theatrical elements, sound design and choreographic exploration are the core pillars of this new work. This solo work is asking audiences to come and experience a full spectrum of emotion derived from campy theme park attractions, personal loss and missed connections.

Alix will also be bringing this development to life with the assistance of the talented Alchemy Collective.

The showing will be followed by a short Q&A with Alix, hosted by The Mill CEO / Artistic Director Katrina Lazaroff. Audiences will have the opportunity to ask questions about the development and provide feedback about the performance.

  • Alix Kuijpers is an emerging freelance choreographer and sound designer whose queer based work has garnered a strong reputation for creating contemporary dance in South Australia. Kuijpers’ notable achievements include becoming the first dance honours student at a South Australian institution, receiving first-class honours from Flinders University for his solo work IMMATERIAL.

    Alix recently spent time in the USA and Europe participating in major dance festivals such as B12 and Orsolina 28 and working with practitioners such as Jacob Jonas the Company and Thar Be Dragons. His most notable sonic commissions include creating the sound score for Motus Collective’s work The Leftovers in 2022 and again in 2023, he also created the score for METTLE by Circus SA and for Ceremonial by Amelia Watson, which premiered at the ResiDanza di Primavera in Italy.

    In 2023, Kuijpers was awarded a Best Dance weekly award for his Adelaide Fringe debut ‘i know the end’ and later in the season received the coveted Emerging Artist Award for Fringe 2023.

    Alix is passionate about representing as a South Australian artist and champions the emerging artist voice through his roles and initiatives as Dance Hub SA's 2023 Associate Artist and as one of Carclew’s 2023 Sharehouse Residents.

 
 

centre stage residency

Centre Stage Residency: Announcing the successful 2023 recipient

chloe metcalfe ·

The Centre Stage Residency at The Mill will progress a new work presented by Alix Kuijpers to its next stage of development, including a work-in-progress public showing and culminating in a season at The Mill as part of Adelaide Fringe 2024.

  • Alix Kuijpers is an emerging freelance choreographer and sound designer whose queer based work has garnered a strong reputation for creating contemporary dance in South Australia.

    Kuijpers’ notable achievements include becoming the first dance honours student at a South Australian institution, receiving first-class honours from Flinders University for his solo work IMMATERIAL. Alix recently spent time in the USA and Europe participating in major dance festivals such as B12 and Orsolina 28 and working with practitioners such as Jacob Jonas the Company and Thar Be Dragons. His most notable sonic commissions include creating the sound score for Motus Collectives’ work The Leftovers in 2022 and again in 2023, he also created the score for METTLE by Circus SA and for Ceremonial by Amelia Watson, which premiered at the ResiDanza di Primavera in Italy.

    In 2023, Kuijpers was awarded a Best Dance weekly award for his Adelaide Fringe debut ‘i know the end’ and later in the season received the coveted Emerging Artist Award for Fringe 2023.

    Alix is passionate about representing as a South Australian artist and champions the emerging artist voice through his roles and initiatives as Dance Hub SA's 2023 Associate Artist and as one of Carclew’s 2023 Sharehouse Residents.

Photo: Lilla Berry.

 
 

breakout showing, public program, centre stage residency

Breakout Residencies: Emma Beech showing, 'Here We Are'

chloe metcalfe ·

Photo: Daniel Marks

Public showing

When: Friday, December 2, 5-6pm (4:45pm arrival for 5pm sharp start)

Where: The Mill, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (enter via The Exhibition Space)

Cost: $10 (+ booking fee)

Duration: 1 hour (including casual Q&A)

  • Grim Grinning Ghosts will be held in The Breakout at The Mill. Please come to the Exhibition Space at 154 Angas Street, the bar will be open to grab a drink before we take you through to The Breakout.

    Accessibility

    Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, access the pedestrian ramp on the corner of Gunson St to get to our front door, which will be open.

    The Mill has concrete flooring throughout with no internal steps and a disability toilet on site.

    Read more in-depth information on our accessibility web page.

    If you have questions or would like to talk to one of The Mill team contact info@themilladelaide.com

The Mill’s Centre Stage Residency will progress a new work presented by Emma Beech to its next stage of development, including a work-in-progress public showing and culminating in a season at The Mill as part of Adelaide Fringe 2023.

Here We Are crosses forms between stand-up comedy, improvisational theatre, performance lecture and traditional theatre. Embracing simplicity in form, a low carbon footprint in all areas of design, as well as a focus on the here and now, by creating improvised story performances.

“No rehearsals, no story set list, no set design, just me, the craft I have so finely tuned, my stories from the wonderful story life I have lived and sought out, and the relationship I build with the audience over the course of a show.”

About the artist:

Emma Beech graduated from Flinders Drama Centre 2002, has worked in theatre and screen plus developed a practice making theatre shows from intimate conversations with strangers. Emma has made theatre across a broad range of genres with rigorous makers from Adelaide, to Melbourne, to Spain to Denmark, for over 15 years and has been commissioned by Carte Blanche, Vitalstatistix, Country Arts SA, Arts House, DreamBIG and recently the Adelaide Festival.

Collaborator:

Here We Are is directed by Tim Overton.

 

The Mill Centre Stage Residency is presented in collaboration with Adelaide Fringe Artist Fund.

 

breakout showing, centre stage residency, public program

Breakout Residencies: Paper Mouth Theatre showing, 'YOU’RE ALL INVITED TO MY SON SAMUEL’S FOURTH BIRTHDAY PARTY'

chloe metcalfe ·

Caitlin holds a birthday cake and wears a party hat, they sit beside Yoz.

Public showing

When: Friday, November 19, 3.45pm sharp for a 4pm start

Where: The Mill, 154 Angas St, Kaurna Yarta (enter via The Exhibition Space)

Cost: Free

Duration: 1 hour

Accessibility: Disability access is available via our Angas St entrance, there is a ramp into The Breakout and no internal steps. There is also a disability toilet. View our accessibility information page.

The Mill’s Centre Stage Residency will progress a new work presented by Paper Mouth Theatre to its next stage of development, including a work-in-progress public showing and culminating in a season at The Mill as part of Adelaide Fringe 2022.

Anchored within the suburban sphere of an outer-space-themed-fourth-birthday-party, this work transcends a cycle of time, spanning the Big Bang to the end of an entropying universe.

Narrated by Samuel’s Mother and Father, this work positions the audience as the unseen (but ever-present) birthday boy, SAMUEL.

Amidst melting ice cream cakes, decimated piñatas, a dying planet, and a rocket ship to Mars, SAMUEL is forced to reckon with the ever-present question: “who do I hold accountable?”

This program is presented with support from Adelaide Fringe Artist Fund.

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.

About the artist:

Caitlin Ellen Moore (she/they) will be creatively producing YOU’RE ALL INVITED TO MY SON SAMUEL’S FOURTH BIRTHDAY PARTY alongside writer and lead performer Mary Angley (she/they), and performer, composer and projection designer Dan Thorpe (he/him).

Videography: Sunny Side Uploads

centre stage residency

Centre Stage Residency: Announcing the successful 2021 recipient

chloe metcalfe ·

The Centre Stage Residency at The Mill will progress a new work presented by Paper Mouth Theatre to its next stage of development, including a work-in-progress public showing and culminating in a season at The Mill as part of Adelaide Fringe 2022.

Caitlin Ellen Moore (she/they) will be creatively producing YOU’RE ALL INVITED TO MY SON SAMUEL’S FOURTH BIRTHDAY PARTY alongside writer and lead performer Mary Angley (she/they), and performer, composer and projection designer Dan Thorpe (he/him).

This is a cosmic, multimedia performance about climate change, rugged individualism, and decadence.

YOU’RE ALL INVITED TO MY SON SAMUEL’S FOURTH BIRTHDAY PARTY

Anchored within the suburban sphere of an outer-space-themed-fourth-birthday-party, this work transcends a cycle of time, spanning the Big Bang to the end of an entropying universe.

Narrated by Samuel’s Mother and Father, this work positions the audience as the unseen (but ever-present) birthday boy, SAMUEL.

Amidst melting ice cream cakes, decimated piñatas, a dying planet, and a rocket ship to Mars, SAMUEL is forced to reckon with the ever-present question: “who do I hold accountable?”

 
 

centre stage residency

Centre Stage Residency: Announcing the successful 2020 recipient

chloe metcalfe ·

The Centre Stage Residency at The Mill will progress a new work by Britt Plummer of FRANK Theatre to its next stage of development, including work-in-progress public showings and culminating in a season at The Mill as part of Adelaide Fringe 2021.

Britt will be directing The Baroque with collaborator and performer Oliver Nilsson, Swedish clown (The Latebloomers, Scotland! and The Bakers). The work incorporates physical theatre, clowning and slapstick, and audiences will experience radical vulnerability, rarely exposed by men combined with bursting silliness, physical comedy, dance and music. 

Britt Plummer and Oliver Nilsson stand hand-in-hand. Britt wears a colourful jacket and green pants with a white shirt. Oliver wears a brown jacket with a light blue shirt and orange pants.

The Baroque

The Baroque is running free in hedge mazes and drinking champagne from nude fountains. Bursting with silliness Swedish clown Oliver Nilsson (The Latebloomers, Scotland! and The Bakers) will charm and titillate in this rollercoaster of stupidity, slapstick and the sublime. “The rubber-faced Nilsson - a kind of tall, Nordic Rowan Atkinson.” (The West Australian)

“We are delighted to be partnering with The Adelaide Fringe Artist Fund to launch the inaugural Centre Stage Residency! The successful recipient, Britt Plummer of FRANK Theatre is a worthy artist whose work we have watched grow exponentially over the past two years. One of The Mill’s primary focusses is to support artist's career pathways over a number of years and having supported Britt with a Spotlight Residency in 2019, we see the Centre Stage Residency as the next level of support we can offer in the development of her career as a director,” says The Mill Director, Katrina Lazaroff.