Spotlight Residency: The CRAM Collective, 'The Future is YOU'

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Photo: Verity Lo.

Showing and Q&A

When: Friday, August 25, 6-7pm

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). 

• Getting to the showing

  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).

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From first grade, we’re told you can be anything you want to be. In high school, we’re told the world is your oyster. In our twenties, we’re told the future is yours – seize it. In a capitalist world, the future is an investment. But what does this mean for young people inheriting a planet facing a climate crisis, filled with injustice and the consequences of generations gone? 

The idea for this show came from a moment of nihilism. We felt like the future of our dreams was impossible. We started reflecting on the climate crisis, the impossibility of ever owning our own homes, the reliance our generation has to our screens. From this a strange anger came towards previous generations and a guilt for those to come.

We started asking questions like do we make an active effort to improve the future or dance while the world is burning? Should we be ambitious and focus on our own futures or consider the state in which we want to leave the planet? What will future generations think of the mistakes we’re making? Is it possible to be both ambitious and conscious of others? 

The showing will be followed by a short Q&A with CRAM artists, 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:

The CRAM Collective features Connor Reidy, Henry Cooper, Elvy-Lee Quici, Praise Mangena, Jennifer Stefanidis, Kate Burgess, Alix Kuijpers, James Starbuck, Ren Williams and Melissa Pullinger.

• Artist Biographies

  Connor Reidy is a South Australian director and theatre maker. He graduated with first class Honours in Directing at the Flinders University Drama Centre. His directing credits include pool (no water), BC, Control, Iphigenia in Orem, The Seagull, and Lungs (Flinders DC).

  In 2016, Connor underwent a playwriting mentorship with Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP). In 2021, Connor co-founded The CRAM Collective, a South Australian independent theatre company. His credits for CRAM include NEW WORLD COMING and Anna Barnes’ Something Big. CRAM is the proud recipient of the 2022 Helpmann Academy Creative Innovator seed funding.

  Connor’s professional assistant directing credits include Lines and The Bleeding Tree (Theatre Republic), Oleanna (Flying Penguin Productions), and The Normal Heart, Prima Facie and Hibernation (STCSA). Connor recently directed Emily Steel’s The Worst as part of Theatre Republic’s Future:Present 2.0 and Proud for Famous Last Words.

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  Henry Cooper is a South Australian actor who has recently graduated from the Flinders Drama Centre. During his time at the Drama Centre, Henry had the opportunity to portray a diverse range of characters. These include: Peer Gynt in Gynt: After Henrik Ibsen (Dir. Nescha Jelk), Demetrius, Starveling and Peaseblossom in William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Nights Dream (Dir. Tom Healey), Joseph in Rita Kalnejais’ B.C (Dir. Connor Reidy), Hamlet (Dir. James Wardlaw), Roland in Nick Payne’s Constellations (Dir. Tom Healey), Kulygin in Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters (Dir. James Healey) and Dionysus in Euripides’ Bacchae (Dir. James Wardlaw). Through his time studying, Henry also developed a keen interest in devised theatre and hopes to further pursue this area.

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  Elvy-Lee recently graduated from the Flinders University Drama Centre in 2022 with a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Honours). Elvy-Lee’s professional theatre debut was as Mei in Single Asian Female for the State Theatre Company of South Australia. She also starred in Elena Carapetis’ short film Blame the Rabbit ahead of pursuing her acting career in theatre, film and television. Elvy-Lee is eager to create passionate, socially and politically charged work, and further her artistry delving into diverse and inclusive projects.

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  Praise Mangena is an up and coming full time artist trained in event organization, sketching, dance, creative writing, poetry and modeling. Praise has organized multiple successful social events with Adverse Reign (2022-) and has worked with SANAA Festival and FESHENE, curating music. She specializes in contemporary afro-fusion dance influenced by South-East African traditional movement and most notably to date, has performed at WOMADelaide (2022), SANAA Festival (2022/23) and at TheFinestFilth during the 2023 Fringe Festival. Praise has also been actively involved as co-director, producer and writer in the development of ‘Unheard’- a multidisciplinary collective that showcased stories of intersectionality in 2022 for the Adelaide Festival Centre In-Space Development Program. Currently, Praise is working on her writing and recently had the opportunity to showcase her work at the open-mic event Soul Lounge as a feature where she incorporated dance with poetry.

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  Evyenia “Jennifer” Stefanidis is a multidisciplinary Greek-Australian artist working on Kaurna Country, South Australia. An alum of the Flinders University Drama Centre, she continued her collaborative, ensemble-based practice as a member of Slingsby’s Flying Squad. In 2022, Jennifer undertook a directorial secondment with State Theatre Company South Australia on Antigone, for which she performed various offstage roles before stepping in as an understudy. Evyenia finalised her work with Slingsby Theatre in The River That Ran Uphill, as part of the 2023 Adelaide Festival and Slingsby’s By Request program, touring metropolitan, rural and regional South Australia. She is enthusiastic to join Patch Theatre’s Spark program as a Glow & Tell creator and performer, as well as for her collaboration with The CRAM Collective on THE FUTURE IS YOU. Her recent credits include The River That Ran Uphill, This Tree is a Story (Slingsby Theatre), The Seagull (Dir. Connor Reidy) and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. (Dir. Anthony Nicola).

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  Kate Burgess is an Adelaide College of the Arts Graduate, completing her Honours of Creative Arts (Dance) in 2022 and Bachelor of Creative Arts (Dance) in 2021. Kate has studied a range of multidisciplinary subjects, however found a strong interest in Euro crash tumbling, dance on film, capoeira-inspired movement, classical ballet technique and contemporary dance technique. She is drawn to inspiration from a variety of different art forms including visual art, film and physical theatre; to create original, hybridised works. Her Honours choreographic work “THAT’S AMORE.” 2022 was a combination of dance theatre and five short films.

  Since graduating Kate has hit the ground running, being one of three Co-founders of Adelaide's newest Collective "ALCHEMY DANCE COLLECTIVE '' alongside Caroline De Wan and Hanna Instrell-Walker. Bringing Alchemy's debut performance to Adelaide Fringe in 2023, "SOUL & DEJA VU" as both performer in Soul By Hanna Instrell-Walker and Director of Deja Vu. Alchemy was also accepted into the Helpmann class of 2023 for the Creative Innovator, and is co-curator for “TRILOGY FILM FEST” supported by Goodwood Theatre and Sponsored by Bacardi.

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  Alix Kuijpers is a multidisciplinary dance based artist with a passion for queer centered performance work, sound design and experimental dance theatre. The award winning choreographer has been celebrated for their multiple choreographic works including i know the end, IMMATERIAL and Cowl and is currently a sharehouse resident at Carclew. Kuijpers most recently has completed time overseas performing in Jacob Jonas's Mind Cry at Orsolina 28 and Annamari Keskinen & Ryan Mason's Particle Accelerator at B12 research or die.

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  Since graduating from Drama Centre and entering the industry, James Starbuck has dived into a wide variety of projects. From acting in short films, physical theatre and motion capture to writing and developing upcoming projects with artists overseas, James is making a name for himself as a versatile performer for all mediums of storytelling.

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  2020 Honours Graduate from the Flinders University Drama Centre; Ren Williams (she/her) is an Actor, Writer, Director and Film-maker and co-founder of CRAM Collective, creating work on Kaurna Yerta.


  Through her writing, Ren recently won the 2021 Award for State Theatre Company SA’s Young Playwrights Competition for her play ‘Modified’, after her play ‘Touch’ won a merit in the competition in 2020. In August 2021, Ren worked with Under the Microscope with their interactive theatre development of ‘Guthrak’; and with Kinetik Collective’s development of ‘Kill Climate Deniers’ by David Finnigan, which will be part of STCSA’s StateSide program in 2022. 


  Making her Stage Directing debut in November 2021, Ren was thrilled to have directed Deadset Theatre Company’s production of Lachlan Philpott’s ‘Truck Stop’.

  Ren’s film-making has won multiple awards over the last four years at the Adelaide 48 Hour Film Project; her 2018 film ‘Andii’ winning Best Film, taking it to Filmapalooza in Orlando Florida. This has led to Ren co-founding her new film company ‘Error Squared Productions’ which has recently released their 2021 film ‘INGÉNUE’, winning her the title of this years Best Actress.

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  Melissa Pullinger is an actor, deviser and creative, and is a 2020 Honours graduate of Flinders University Drama Centre. Growing up in England, Melissa appeared in the Andrew Lloyd Webber production of The Sound of Music (2008) at the London Palladium, where she played Brigitta Von Trapp for six months. Upon emigrating to Adelaide, Melissa performed in Border Project’s Disappearance (2008) and then Windmill Theatre and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s Granpa (2008), whilst being extensively involved in an array of theatre groups.

  Melissa has starred in and been on the production team of various award-winning short films. She is a founding member of the 48hr Film Project team, The Dee Cees, later rebranded as Error Squared Productions, who have won multiple awards, including Best Film in the Adelaide competition with their film ANDII (2018). With this film, they went on to win a further award at Orlando’s international Filmapalooza. Melissa was Production Manager, co-created and starred in the feature film, The Garden (Dir. Aarod Vawser).

  Since graduating, Melissa has toured with Perform! Education in their Book Week Tours in 2021 and 2022. In 2021, Melissa co-founded The CRAM Collective and has produced and starred in NEW WORLD COMING (2021) and the world premiere of Anna Barnes’ Something Big (2022). In 2022, Melissa travelled to England after being selected to be part of Frantic Assembly’s International Summer School. In the 2022 and 2023 Adelaide Fringe season, Melissa was the Schools Program Coordinator, and she also teaches at True North Youth Theatre Ensemble and True Ability. Melissa is a proud member of MEAA and RUMPUS. Melissa was recently part of Illuminate Adelaide, puppeteering a crab with Slingsby and Blanck Canvas, and has now joined the American tour of Bluey’s Big Play for the next six months, where she will be puppeteering Bingo.

• 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

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Breakout Residencies 2023: Announcing the successful recipients

Spotlight Residency: CRAM Collective

Photo: Verity Lo.

About the artist:

CRAM is a South Australian independent theatre collective. By cramming the most passionate and daring creatives into a room, creating opportunities for independent artists, we make work that excites and strengthens the Adelaide art scene. Since CRAM’s launch in November of 2021, we have presented two sold out, world-premiere seasons of work – first a devised piece, titled NEW WORLD COMING, which was created in just 5 days through a collaboration with 11 artists, and the second show, award-winning playwright Anna Barnes’, Something Big.

CRAM have collaborated with Renew Adelaide to open the CRAM Hub on Pirie Street, running an Artist in Residence Program, and monthly CRAM Scrams, our scratch night program. We were also part of the Helpmann Creative Innovator Program for six months, being awarded the seed funding upon completion. 

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Free-range Residency: Astrid Pill

Photo: Supplied by Astrid Pill.

About the artist:

Astrid Pill is a performer/theatre maker who has worked with numerous companies and collaborators since 1996. She worked with Restless Dance Theatre and Patch Theatre Company, both over 10 year periods and has a 20-year collaborative relationship with Ingrid Voorendt and Zoe Barry, with whom she is creating the new work – Widow Weirdo. She has worked with Brand X, Yashchin Ensemble, The Border Project, Sarah Neville, Maude Davey and Vitalstatistix, Ingrid Voorendt, Ladykillers, Daisy Brown/Cabaret Festival, Windmill and State Theatre SA/Brink.

She sang for The New Pollutants re-score of Metropolis, which toured to major venues and film festivals including The Sydney Opera House and Fed Square. Astrid has won many awards including an Adelaide Critics Circle Award for Cake, which she wrote, toured and adapted for ABC’s airplay and an Arts SA Emerging Artist Award, which enabled her to study voice and physical theatre in France and Poland. 

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Free-range Residency: Taylor Nobes

Photo: Jamie Hornsby.

About the artist:

Taylor Nobes is a professionally trained actor, singer and theatre maker based in South Australia and a 2019 graduate from Adelaide College of the Arts. Taylor has a passion for creating innovative art with elements of music, dark comedy and physical theatre, with a strong focus on mental health awareness.

Taylor has worked and collaborated with BRINK Productions on The Bridge of San Luis Rey (2021) and performed in FRANK Theatres’ Chameleon (2020) and then again as part of the SALT Festival in 2021.

Taylor’s original work “Does It Please You?” debuted as part of the Adelaide Fringe 2021 and was the recipient of the week 4 Best Emerging Artist Award and was the winner of The Holden Street Theatres Award for 2021. The remounted version of "Does it Please You?" played its latest season as part of the Adelaide Fringe 2022 at Holden Street Theatres.

Taylor’s most recent work MUSIC & YOU premiered in 2022 and received many accolades, its developed version (MUSIC & YOU - Cabaret’s Not Really My Thing) will be showing as part of the Adelaide Fringe 2023 at the Adelaide Migration Museum.

Taylor will be collaborating with local creatives Jamie Hornsby, Felicity Boyd and Max Garcia-Underwood for this residency.

Brand X Residency: Olenka Toroshenko showing, 'i am root'

Photo: Lauren Connelly (LALA Photography)

Public showing

When: Friday, September 2, and Saturday, September 3, 8pm

Where: The Flying Nun by Brand X, 34-40 Burton St, Darlinghurst

Cost: $25

Accessibility: If you have access requirements for attending the show, please tick the access requirements box during the booking process. This includes booking companion card tickets. A Brand X team member will then be in touch to ensure we understand your requirements.

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As part of the Spotlight / Brand X Residency, 2022 recipient Olenka Toroshenko flew to Sydney to further develop and perform her work i am root as part of Brand X’s Flying Nun Program.

The aim of this residency is to develop national pathways for artists to further develop and present their work interstate along with networking opportunities provided in partnership with Brand X in Sydney.

The residency began at The Mill for 2 weeks earlier in the year, followed by a 1-week residency and performance season at Brand X’s The Flying Nun program. Olenka’s performances will occur on September 2 and 3.

We look forward to reporting on the outcomes from this wonderful development presentation and touring opportunity that is built to empower and support South Australian makers!

• About the artist

  Olenka Natalia 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.

  Olenka currently resides in South Australia.

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Breakout Residencies: Olenka Toroshenko showing, 'I am Root'

Photo: Lauren Connelly (LALA Photography).

Public showing

When: Friday, June 10, 6pm

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

Duration: 1 hour (including casual Q&A)

Cost: $10 (+ booking fee)

• Accessibility

  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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You are invited to the work-in-progress showing of I am Root, a ritual performance piece by Olenka Toroshenko.

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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?

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

Told from the perspective of a Ukrainian Canadian living in Australia, this ritual performance piece wonders 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, 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.

We are future roots.

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

• About the artist

  Olenka Natalia 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.

  Olenka currently resides in South Australia.

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This residency is presented in partnership with Brand X, Sydney, 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.

Breakout Residencies: Bureau d’Exchange public showing

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Public showing

When:
Wednesday, August 4, & Thursday, August 5, 2021: 12-2pm
Friday, August 6, 2021: 4-7pm
Saturday, August 7, 2021: 12-2pm

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

Cost: Free

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Bureau d’Exchange presents a participatory performance work that reflects upon the meaning and value of objects and the unique stories embedded within them.

Please bring a personal item you feel ready to let go of, to exchange for an item of equal emotional value from the Bureau’s ever-evolving stock of ‘merchandise’.

Bureau ‘staff’ (award-winning artist Cynthia Schwertsik and performer Emma Beech) will guide you through the discreet process of valuing your item and adding its story to the Bureau’s poignant emporium of memories and desires.

Bookings are available for individuals or small groups (<5 people), there are two bookings available per 15 minute session.

PLEASE NOTE: Mask wearing is required throughout your attendance at The Mill unless you are an exempt person under the current SA Health guidelines.

We encourage attendees to also book for our Bureau d'Exchange Artist Talk on Friday, August 13 at 5pm.

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.

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.

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.

Valerie Berry is an actor, performance maker and emerging director. Throughout her practice, she has focused on collaborative and interdisciplinary processes.

See results of the public showing

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Breakout Residencies: Thomas Fonua, MAMA

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Private showing

When: Wednesday, June 23, 2021, 5.45pm sharp for a 6pm start.

Where: The Mill, 154 Angas St, Adelaide (enter via the Gallery on Angas St)

Duration: 1 hour

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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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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.

Spotlight Residency: Adrianne Semmens and Jennifer Eadie showing, 'Unravel'

Unravel is a first stage development of multi-disciplinary work exploring identity and connection to place that is enabled through embodied movement and text. 

This project builds upon a collaboration between dance practitioner Adrianne Semmens and writer Jennifer Eadie and the publication created together, Unravel, facilitated by The Mill’s Writer in Residence program, and commissioned by Delving into Dance in partnership with Critical Path as part of the 2019/20 Digital Interchange Festival.

The project explores what it means to acknowledge a sense of disconnection-connection to place, exploring through memories, agitations and the calling for deeper connections to ancestral country.

When: Friday, January 15, 2021, 6pm

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

Duration: 1 hour (including Q+A)

Cost: Free

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About the artists:

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

Identity and place continue to be reoccurring themes within Adrianne’s practice, investigated throughout her own choreographic explorations and community based projects to embody place and memory, and interrogate social constructs.

Choreographic highlights include Thread (2020), created for The World’s Smallest Stage, in collaboration with Australian Dance Theatre, and engagement in Dance Epidemic (2018), creating a site specific work on a group of international youth dancers as part Creative Gatherings for Panpapanalya, Joint Dance Congress.                                                              

Adrianne’s professional experience also includes her role as a Dance Presenter for The Australian Ballet’s Dance Education Ensemble, as a performer for Gina Rings, Jo Clancy, Jade Erlandsen, Cathy Adamek and recent performances for Dance Rites, choreographed by Kaine Sultan-Babij. Passionate about dance education and the role of dance in maintaining wellbeing, Adrianne has worked on many youth focused initiatives, including projects for Kurruru Arts and Culture Hub, Carclew, University of South Australia, Department for Education and Ausdance SA.

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Jennifer Eadie is a writer and artist living and working on Kaurna Yerta in South Australia. She is a graduate of UNSW Art & Design. Currently, an academic at UniSA and PhD candidate in the Assemblage Centre for Creative Arts at Flinders University.  Her creative practice is primarily text and installation based: combining word, image, video, and found objects. 

Her writing and art has been published in CORDITE Poetry Review, criticalpath, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Borderlands e-journal, Extempore and Frankie Magazine. 

Spotlight Residency: Adrianne Semmens and Jennifer Eadie, 'Unravel'

Unravel is a first stage development of multi-disciplinary work exploring identity and connection to place that is enabled through embodied movement and text. 

This project builds upon a collaboration between dance practitioner Adrianne Semmens and writer Jennifer Eadie and the publication created together, Unravel,  facilitated by The Mill’s Writer in Residence program, and commissioned by Delving into Dance in partnership with Critical Path as part of the 2019/20 Digital Interchange Festival.

The project explores what it means to acknowledge a sense of disconnection-connection to place, exploring through memories, agitations and the calling for deeper connections to ancestral country.

About the artists:

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

Identity and place continue to be reoccurring themes within Adrianne’s practice, investigated throughout her own choreographic explorations and community based projects to embody place and memory, and interrogate social constructs.

Choreographic highlights include Thread (2020), created for The World’s Smallest Stage, in collaboration with Australian Dance Theatre, and engagement in Dance Epidemic (2018), creating a site specific work on a group of international youth dancers as part Creative Gatherings for Panpapanalya, Joint Dance Congress.                                                              

Adrianne’s professional experience also includes her role as a Dance Presenter for The Australian Ballet’s Dance Education Ensemble, as a performer for Gina Rings, Jo Clancy, Jade Erlandsen, Cathy Adamek and recent performances for Dance Rites, choreographed by Kaine Sultan-Babij. Passionate about dance education and the role of dance in maintaining wellbeing, Adrianne has worked on many youth focused initiatives, including projects for Kurruru Arts and Culture Hub, Carclew, University of South Australia, Department for Education and Ausdance SA.

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Jennifer Eadie is a writer and artist living and working on Kaurna Yerta in South Australia. She is a graduate of UNSW Art & Design. Currently, an academic at UniSA and PhD candidate in the Assemblage Centre for Creative Arts at Flinders University.  Her creative practice is primarily text and installation based: combining word, image, video, and found objects. 

Her writing and art has been published in CORDITE Poetry Review, criticalpath, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Borderlands e-journal, Extempore and Frankie Magazine. 

Her artwork was included in the third Mill Showcase.

Breakout Residencies: Motus Collective Public Showing, 'The Credits'

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Photo: Motus Collective

Public showing

When: Friday, August 21, 2020, 6:30pm start

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

Duration: 1 hour (including audience feedback session after the showing)

Cost: Free

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'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.

The work will be presented by creative team Zoe Gay and Felicity Boyd, of Motus Collective, and collaborator/performer Jacinta Jeffries, as part of The Mill's Spotlight Residency. This residency supports performing artists in developing and presenting new work through exploration.

Please only book if you are committed to attending as we adhere to venue capacity restrictions. All attendees must arrive 10 minutes early for contact tracing purposes.

About the artists:

Motus Collective are Felicity Boyd and Zoe Gay, based in Adelaide facilitating connections between artists from diverse backgrounds and disciplines in a shared rigorous contemporary movement-based practice. 

Breakout Residencies: Post Dining public showing, 'Eating Tomorrow'

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Public showing

When: Friday, July 3, 2020

Where: The Mill Exhibition Space and Breakout Space, 154 Angas St, Adelaide

Sessions: 5:30pm, 5:50pm, 6:10pm and 6:30pm

Duration: 40-50 minutes

Cost: Free

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Have you ever wondered what the future might look like? Feel like? Taste like? Eating Tomorrow is a back-to-the-future time travel experiment, immersing audiences in prospective scenarios of what our food systems, customs and behaviours might become in the next fifty years.

Strap yourselves in as performers lead you through the progressive narrative of Eating Tomorrow: a brand new cross-disciplinary multi-sensory theatre work devised by the Post Dining collective. Expect to be immersed in imaginary worlds, see, smell, touch and taste what we think the future might have in store. This showing will be a work-in-development bite-sized morsel of a production in early development - so we'd love to hear your feedback after the production to tell us what you think was a hit, and what was a miss.

Bookings are essential, please make sure you are at the venue and ready for your designated timeslot.

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Company Biography:

Post Dining are a team of leading edge artists, performers, designers and producers who disrupt and reimagine the relationship between people, food, environment and culture. We pioneer new forms of entertainment and education that challenge and engage all the senses. For the past five years we have cut ourselves a niche in Adelaide through our immersive designs which communicate with audiences through memorable, thought-provoking and interactive performances, exhibitions, workshops and experiences. 

Post Dining explores the artistic merits of using food as a tool to explore socio-political concepts, and to push the boundaries of intimate audience engagement. This involves the collaborative engagement of local artists, musicians and designers, producing work with the Australian String Quartet (ASQ), MOD., Open State Festival and Ernst and Young (among others). Check out Post Dining’s website for more info here

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 - Spotlight Residency 2020

The Mill’s Spotlight Breakout Residency is an open project development platform available to artists working in the performing arts. The aim of the residency is to offer place and space as part of a vibrant arts community, for artists to develop and show new or existing work. 

Successful applicants will receive:

• 2 - 3 weeks use of The Mill’s Breakout space (depending on project needs)

• A $2,000 artist honorarium

• Profiling and support from The Mill

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: March 19, 2020
Close: April 16, 2020
Notification: On or before April 22, 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 - Spotlight Residency 2019

The Mill’s Spotlight Breakout Residency is an open project development platform available to artists working in the performing arts. The aim of the residency is to offer place and space as part of a vibrant arts community, for artists to develop and show new or existing work.

Successful applicants will receive 2 - 3 week’s use of The Mill’s Breakout space, $2000 artist honorarium, profiling and support from The Mill. To apply for this unique opportunity, artists must complete and submit the following online application form.

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

click here to apply

Free Range Breakout Residency Application

Artist Call Out: The Breakout Residencies 2018 - Spotlight Residency

The Mill’s Spotlight Residency is an open project development platform available to artists working in the performing arts. The aim of the residency is to  offer place and space as part of a vibrant arts community, for artists to develop new or existing work. Successful applicants will receive 2 - 4 week’s use of The Mill’s Breakout space (as per the artist’s requirements), plus an honorarium of $2000 provided by The Mill. This residency must result in a 'work in progress' performance outcome. To apply for this unique opportunity, artists must complete and submit the following online application form.

[image credit: Chris Hertzfeld]

Call Out Details

Online Applications Open: 1st May 2018
Applications Close: 15th May, 2018
Notification: 22nd May

Inquiries: The Mill Programming Manager Katrina Lazaroff.

Applications have now closed.