PLWA Producer Lab to support 15 self-producing artists and emerging producers

This week, Performing Lines WA launched their Producer Lab series on Zoom, a five-week online course led by Producer Jen Leys to strengthen the sector by upskilling and increasing the pool of independent producers in Western Australia.

This is the last initiative of our Lotterywest funded Creative Hub. We had an overwhelming response to our EOI, receiving 40 applications. In the end, 15 mid-career self-producing artists and emerging producers from across the State were selected, bringing together a very interesting cohort.

Over the next five weeks, participants will learn the nuts and bolts of producing by focusing on a specific project idea. Drawing on Performing Lines’ 35 years experience in developing, producing and touring new Australian works, the participants will learn the fundamentals of planning, budgeting, marketing, community engagement and performance presentation.

Each participant will be paid $1,000 and receive one-on-one mentorship with one of our partner organisations, including CircuitWest, Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company and The Blue Room Theatre.

Meet the participants and find out more about their individual project.

SAADIA AHMED
Metro

Saadia is a digital journalist, bilingual writer, vlogger, storyteller, voice-over artist and a mad chef from Pakistan, now based in Perth. She has worked with Centre For Stories as a storyteller and has also recently completed their Inner City Writers Residency program.

Currently, she is working on a new podcast series interviewing women from marginalised communities whose stories are often neglected. These include indigenous communities, refugees, migrants, and people of colour. Although the issues faced by both men and women are no fewer, women generally have to go through more struggle when it comes to settling and establishing themselves in Australia, and Saadia is hoping her project will inspire more women from these communities to break barriers and boundaries.

ADRIANO CAPPELLETTA
Metro

Adriano is a self-producing artist who has already produced two of his own shows and toured them at various Arts festivals in Australia and the UK. In 2016, Adriano was co-awarded the Philip Parsons Playwriting Fellowship for Ruby’s Wish (Belvoir St, Sydney Opera House, Arts Centre Melbourne, Parramatta Riverside, Awesome Arts Festival).

His latest work, Never Let Me Go is a new play about the onset of AIDS in Sydney and the radical approach by the gay community and politicians that saved more than 25,000 lives, placing Australia as one of the fastest and most successful countries to respond to the AIDS virus in the world. Inspired by interviews and extensive research, it details the fear, the solidarity and the determination to fight, party and love bravely, all set to an 80’s pop soundtrack arranged for a choir.

GEORGIA DEGUARA
Regional (Broome)

Georgia began training at Theatre Kimberley’s Sandfly Circus at the age of 11, and hasn’t stopped since. Director of all-female acrobatic group YUCK Circus and 2018 graduate of NICA, Georgia is an all-rounder working onstage, behind the tech desk, in a creative or managing role; YUCK ensemble comes from regional, remote, and isolated towns from all corners of Australia and are passionate about sharing their work and strengthening communities.

The project she’s looking to produce is the second show of YUCK Circus reflecting on current social-political issues. It’ll be predominantly a circus show, hybridised with dance, spoken word, and physical comedy. Currently in a developmental writing phase, the impetus is Future Mermaids coupled with Dad’s BBQ Rock. Think along the lines of Led Zeppelin and ACDC accompanying acrobatics, Vegan Mary, and a very Sexy Bee.

ANDREA GIBBS
Metro

Andrea is the co-founder and creative producer of Barefaced Stories. She is also an actor, audio mixer and the presenter of ABC radio’s Weekends program. In 2003 she won Triple J’s Raw Comedy State Final and is a core member of Perth’s premiere improv-comedy ensemble The Big HOO-HAA! She has been a guest speaker at TEDxPerth and Marieke Hardy’s Women of Letters. Recent works include Barefaced Stories, Is This Thing On? by Zoe Coombs-Marr and 8 Gigabytes of Hardcore Pornography by Declan Green.

Since 2010, Barefaced Stories has been collecting true stories for the stage, building a unique picture of Australian lives today. Last year, Andrea built a mobile recording studio — The Chin Wagon — and is hoping to hit the road in 2021 launching their first cross-state tour to capture the nation in conversation.

ELLA HETHERINGTON
Metro

Ella is a theatre-maker and performer working extensively in the performing arts sector for 15 years. As an actor, Ella has worked with all the major Western Australian theatre companies and is a regular collaborator and devisor on the independent scene. She recently took on the role of Co-Director for Maxima.

Ella’s latest work-in-development, 52 Darley Street is a circus-theatre work for families about the beautiful mystery of everyday life, and yet how we might feel quite isolated in our own communities. A celebration of curiosity that finds the joy in the ‘other’, the beauty in the mundane and the surprises in the boring, the work takes place on a single, house-lined street and offers a series of insights into the secret lives of its inhabitants, glimpses into their private worlds and the interactions between them all.

MICHELLE JENKINS
Regional (Bunbury)

Trained in gymnastics from age 4, Michelle has extensive performing and production experience from the worlds of circus, theatre, street, film and tv, working as an aerial stunt artist for several Hollywood movies and developing a reputation as a go-to professional for aerial productions.

Her most recent project, The Bird Sisters and The Fabric of Life, that she investigated during the 2019 Artist Residency at Donnelly River is a circus rig show combining local stories form the region with native bird characters. The project would be set in tourist tree areas with forestry/artist/environmental workshops leading up to the show in each venue as part of a small scale regional tour.

BROOKE LEDER
Metro

Brooke Leeder graduated from Victorian College of the Arts and was a founding member of Trike, performing with Stephanie Lake and Luke George and touring Australia with Phillip Adams’ Balletlab. Her first full length work Mechanic was presented by PSAS in 2015 and was awarded the WA Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography. Brooke choreographed new works for Co3 Australia and WAAPA and toured her work, The Resistance, to Taiwan for the Kangdu Arts Festival. Her work, Structural Dependency, was nominated for four WA Performing Arts Awards, including Best New Work and Best Production for 2018.

Her current project, Nocturnal in collaboration with Bryan Woltjen, Louis Frere-Harvey and Nemo Gandossini-Poirier is a large scale work presented in an outdoor setting.

RUBY LIDDELOW
Regional (Peel Region)

Ruby is an emerging multidisciplinary artist from Mandurah. As the Co-Artistic Director of Riptide, she has written, devised, directed and performed with Riptide and other Peel companies over the last 18 months.

She is currently working with the Riptide ensemble to remount ‘Midsummer Dreaming’ Shakespeare adaptation, hoping to market it to Perth Metro and Peel schools. She hopes to upskill members of the group in producing and share their passion for Shakespeare to other young people in a relatable way.

ERIN LOCKYER
Metro

Erin is an independent producer for theatre-makers. Some of her recent projects include The Inconsequential Lives of Little Fish, Penthouse, 2018 (Lazy Yarns); Playthings, 2019 (Second Chance Theatre) and I Feel Fine, 2019 (public service announcement). Erin also works closely with Lazy Yarns as their resident producer and collaborator.

Her latest project, Pot Plants, written by Zachary Sheridan and Karla Livingston-Pardy is a new performance work about the lives of pot plants. Born from the strange socio-political moment and the increasing and omnipresent environmental crises, Pot Plants is an absurd comedy about connection and interdependence, and how we are slowly accepting the world we live in is far less definitive than we may have been lead to believe. And, much more delicate.

SIOBHAN MAIDEN
Regional (Bunbury)

Siobhan is a storyteller who creates works for screen, stage, radio and the classroom. Her delights in building rapport with people and sharing their stories was well utilised at ABC Radio where she presented live radio for 12 years. Siobhan has written, directed and edited hundreds of documentaries and was the host of Schools’ TV news. She has performed with independent theatre companies in Melbourne, Tokyo, Berlin, Hobart and Bunbury.

In her recent work, This Is Where, a site-specific verbatim theatre production, Siobhan seeks to celebrate the micro-stories of people’s relationship to everyday places in Bunbury. The final vignettes will reveal a taste of life in Bunbury over different epochs, from a range of perspectives, offering an insight into hidden stories of the place we call home.

JOSTEN MYBURGH
Metro

Josten is an experimental musician and co-director of Tone List, a Perth-based label for exploratory music. He has performed in festivals such as the Fremantle Biennale, Supersense (Melbourne), Cable#8 (Nantes, France), KLEX (Kuala Lumpur), SENSA (Cape Town), Klangraum (Düsseldorf), and the Totally Huge New Music Festival (Perth). He has been commissioned by artists and organisations including Liquid Architecture, Tura New Music & Catherine Ashley, as well as the WA Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. In 2019 he was awarded the Schenberg Fellowship.

Since 2017, Josten has been producing the annual Audible Edge Festival of Sound that brings together avant-garde hip hop, contemporary classical music, noise, contemporary performance, and sound art installation. For the next edition, Josten is hoping to bring a curated program of live performances alongside the gigs, workshops, artist talks and exhibitions.

JANINE OXENHAM
Regional (Busselton)

Janine is a Malgana Yamatji woman from the Shark Bay area in WA who studied dance at both NAISDA and WAAPA. She has choreographed and performed as a freelance contemporary Indigenous dancer for numerous projects and festivals on Yamatji country, including recent work for Houtman 400 Bullay – Open Your Eyes Festival Geraldton 2019 and the Shark Bay Rendezvous Festival 2018. She was fortunate to work with Yirra Yaakin on their project Hecate in 2019/2020 as the Movement Director.

Through a series of residencies across the Gascoyne area, Janine’s newest work will offer a perspective on country and community shared through dance and movement. The work will be presented as part of Gascoyne in May, an annual circuit of festivals celebrating and sharing local culture.

DAISY SANDERS
Metro

Daisy is a rigorous, playful artist whose practice revolves around embodied exploration of rest and sustainability. Her professional experiences extend across diverse disciplines and contexts including as a Company Artist for Sensorium Theatre (2016 – current), Associate Artist for Teac Damsa (2019-2020 Mám) and Steamworks Arts (2019 Gui Shu, PICA), Assistant Director for Geoff Sobelle’s HOME (2016-19 at Philadelphia, Boston, Wellington, Sydney, Brisbane festivals), a workshop artist with Tone List and FLOCK co-founder/facilitator.

Daisy is currently creating a multidisciplinary outdoor roving performance that moves performers and audience together through the city streets at night – featuring sound installation and site visits along the route.

RYAN SANDILANDS
Metro

Ryan currently works at The Blue Room Theatre as their Marketing & Communications Manager. Outside of work, Ryan freelances in art direction and brand strategy for organisations. Prior to this time, he was the programmer at The Bird, had produced an independent hub at Fringe Festival, and toured international acts to Perth.

His latest piece, The Return of Muscle Man in collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Tim Meakins is a body of work that creates and exploits a faux 1990s televised cartoon called Muscle Man. Similar to that of the popularity of The Simpsons, Rugrats, South Park and more, Muscle Man portrays itself as a must-watch cartoon of the 1990s. Using visual installation, media art, group devising methodology and an interdisciplinary approach, the work seeks to create immersive alternate realities and showcase an ageing generation’s obsession with nostalgia.

MEG SHIELDS
Regional (Peel Region)

Meg is an AWGIE nominated writer and winner of the Bill Warnock Feature Writer’s Award. She works in the development of screen, digital and theatre arts and has lectured in screen and story studies at University. Meg has written and produced awarded short films that have screened at numerous festivals and produced a 17-episode comedy web series. Her feature film projects have been selected for various screen agency development programs and shortlisted for major film funding initiatives in Australia. Meg was a participant in the inaugural BREC Artist Residency in 2019 and is developing site-specific theatre projects.

Her work The Shadow Women is a site-specific theatre project exploring women’s homelessness, one of the most critical issues in Australia with women over 55 now the fastest-growing group of homeless demographic. Presented at night in a shopping centre car park, the work melds traditional drive-in theatre and site-specific staging concepts to create an immersive audience experience.