2020 Winter Development Retreat
17 - 28 June
ATC’s inaugural Winter Development Retreat featured eight projects ranging from one-person shows and clown acts to immersive works and musical theatre. In addition to online meetings and rehearsals for individual projects, the forty-two artists participated in a variety of workshops, panel discussions, and presentations as part of the retreat including:
MEET & GREET
WORKSHOP: Career Wellbeing, with Will Centurion
PANEL DISCUSSION: “The State of the Arts in Australia” with Laura Milke-Garner and Megan Upton
PANEL DISCUSSION: “Accessibility and Inclusion in the Arts,” with Dean Drieberg, Daniel Graham, Tariro Mavondo and Sarah Louise Younger
OPEN SESSIONS
RETROSPECTIVE
By The Grace Of
by Max Brown
A stage play with multimedia components, By The Grace Of tells the story of a Chinese-Singaporean immigrant as she struggles to integrate into Australian society. A poignant reminder of the humanity of our Chinese-Australian community and new Australians in general, this semi-biographical piece is a deeply personal and character driven story.
Max Brown
Max's previous stage credits include Torch The Place, Young Tycoons, The Entrée Was Death and Waiting for Gotterson. His television credits include the recurring role of David Goldman in the award- winning series Glitch, as well as roles in Hungry Ghosts, Bad Mothers, Secret City, Neighbours, Home and Away and his latest role as Oscar Wolfe in the Stan Originals series The Gloaming. Max’s film credits include We’re Not Here to F*ck Spiders, Waiting for Angel, Small Packages and The Opposite of Solitude. As a writer, Max contributed to the award winning Dirtgirlworld and wrote an educational children’s series for XYZ Entertainment.
By The Grace Of COLLABORATORS
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Breathing
By Hayley Lawson-Smith
Ruby might very well have been the first little girl in Australia to spend time in an iron lung, after falling dangerously ill with polio at the age of six. Almost ninety years and many homes later, Ruby has finally decided to live in an aged care facility in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and so - nearing the end of her life - she once more finds herself in virtual isolation. In this one-woman performance piece, Lawson-Smith uses photographs, letters, heirlooms, and artworks by relatives to trace her family's feminine evolution across generations and continents.
Hayley Lawson-Smith
Hayley holds a Masters of Writing for Performance from the Victorian College of the Arts. She has completed internships with Ranters, Creative VaQi, and Tashmadada Theatre Companies. In 2017/2018, Hayley was a participant in Melbourne Theatre Company's and Frankston Arts Centre's NEON Hatch Masterclass and Stage 2 Programs. In 2019, Hayley attended the UNESCO Short Play Festival at the University of Otago, and was the Wheeler Centre and Just Pretending Theatre Group Hot Desk Playwright Fellow. This year, Hayley was awarded a City of Melbourne Quick Response Arts Grant in order to develop her full-length play, Dox.
Breathing COLLABORATORS
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Orlando
By Rachel Lewindon and Willow Sizer
“How many people are there not - heaven help us - all having lodgement in the human spirit? Some say two thousand and fifty two…”
Based on the novel Orlando by Virginia Woolf, this blend of contemporary music, musical theatre and abstract movement unpacks themes of self, time and bucking societal norms.
rachel lewindon
Rachel is a composer, pianist, sound designer based in Melbourne, Australia. Graduating from the VCA with a BFA and BMus (Hons) in Interactive Composition, her sound has developed from her classical piano background with contemporary influences of voice and electronic synthesis. Her work has been premiered nationally at the Melbourne Fringe Festival, Melbourne Cabaret Festival, FortyFive Downstairs and many local gig venues; and internationally at Wuzhen Theatre Festival - China, Hollywood International Moving Pictures Festival and the Cook Islands. She was awarded the Marion Thomas Award for Excellence in 2017 and was nominated for two Green Room Awards in 2020.
willow sizer
Willow is a writer, creative and music theatre performer. A graduate of Victorian College of the Arts, credits include Where the Story Begins (Indonesian Institute of the Arts), Put the Blame on Mame (Upcoming Artist Grant, Melb Cab Fest), a sold-out season of Death of a Demi Diva and a musical web series Cowboys and Taxes (commissioned by Victorian College of the Arts). Theatrical credits: Dance Hall (Finucane and Smith, Luna Park and Canberra Theatre Centre), Ghost Quartet (Antipodes Theatre Company), The Rapture (fortyfivedownstairs), RENT the Musical and Legally Blonde (James Terry Collective). Willow received four 2020 Green Room Award nominations.
Orlando COLLABORATORS
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The Ancestress
By Mama Alto
A magical realist journey of epic poetry, The Ancestress is a hybrid cabaret-theatre work exploring ideas of ancestry, lineage, legacy, family trees, bloodlines, history, myth, and heritage for trans women of colour in the performing arts.
mama alto
Mama Alto is a jazz singer, cabaret artiste & gender transcendent diva. She is a transgender & queer person of colour whose writing has been featured at MTC's Cyber Electric, Melbourne Writers Festival, Queerstories, Emerging Writers Festival, Word In Hand, The Age, Archer Magazine, Querelle 2018, TheMusic, and Melbourne Recital Centre's Soundescapes. She contributed to Queerstories (ed. Maeve Marsden, Hachette Australia 2018) and Living & Loving in Diversity (ed. Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, Wakefield Press & AGMC 2019). As part of her 2019 Creative Victoria Creators Fund fellowship and her 2020 Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship, she has begun work on her forthcoming book exploring the concept of 'the diva.'
Photo credit: Torrey Atkin
The Ancestress COLLABORATORS
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The Moon, The Sea, You & Me
By Brooke Murray
Moon Girl is curious about Earth, and Sea Boy is always looking up. When their lives collide and begin to wreak havoc on the world around them, they must unite their communities to save the solar system. Intended for audiences aged nine and up, this piece draws on Transgender stories of strength to inspire audiences with its themes of resilience, tolerance and the power of many.
brooke murray
Brooke is a playwright and producer. In 2019, they were selected for the First Stage emerging playwright’s program, and a reading of their short play Chariot was performed at Melbourne Theatre Company. Brooke attended the 2018 ATYP National Studio, and their short play, Pink Soap was performed as part of ATYP’s “Intersection: Arrival” and published by Currency Press. In 2019 Brooke produced No Return, a collection of solo performances by Transgender and Non-binary emerging artists. Brooke currently works as an inclusion support artist at St Martins Youth Arts, using this learning about diversity and empowerment to inform their practice.
The Moon, The Sea, You & Me COLLABORATORS
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The Life Cycle of Blanco
By Vonne Patiag
This solo semi-autobiographical piece explores the exhaustion caused by institutional racism and class privilege, especially within the Arts in Australia. Shining a light on the mounting pressures concerning ethnic minorities in the pursuits of their artistic endeavours in Western Sydney and beyond, this work is a symbolic take-down of the institutional structures that promote prejudice. If creating art is survival, than POC creatives are born survivors.
Vonne Patiag
Vonne is a writer, director, producer and actor working across stage and screen, based in Western Sydney. His credits include Tomgirl (SBS), Halal Gurls (ABC), and The Unusual Suspects (SBS). His first full-length play Obviously!, a queer sitcom performed live, opened to a sold out season at the Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre in 2018. He has completed residencies with Q Theatre, Performance Space, and was part of the inaugural Sydney Theatre Company x CAAP Director's Workshop. He is currently developing his main stage debut in collaboration with Belvoir Theatre.
The Life Cycle of Blanco COLLABORATORS
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The Thesis
By Ciara Thorburn
An exploration of the peculiar endeavours an eccentric navigates whilst working on their thesis. Driven by physical comedy and mime, The Thesis embraces the mundane and brings it to the forefront of human connection. Drawing upon her experience and training in mime, Thorburn will collaborate with an Auslan practitioner to explore the relationship between mime and sign language, how they interrelate, and where comedy through physicality fits within these parameters.
Ciara Thorburn
Ciara is a circus artist, variety performer, children’s entertainer, clown, MC, cabaret luminary and human being. She is a passionate, progressive and creative circus artist based in Melbourne, Australia. An avid art critic in her past life, Ciara has combined her passion for conceptual art with entertainment in an inimitable fusion of variety skill with clowning. Ciara defies expectations, using everyday objects in extraordinary ways, and has a knack for turning the mundane into the astonishing with her unique character work.
The Thesis COLLABORATORS
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Revelation Bar
By Chloe Towan and Nathan Fernandez
The world has ended and a small group of survivors convene at the mysterious Revelation Bar to come to terms with their new normal. Exploring themes of purpose, trauma, sexuality, faith and forgiveness, this immersive musical theatre piece set to an eclectic soundtrack of songs from the past sixty years will result in a “choose your own adventure” live experience for audiences.
chloe towan
Chloe is a Melbourne-based actor and writer. Chloe originally studied Musical Theatre at APO Arts Academy. Since graduating in 2015, Chloe has performed in a wide array of productions including Twelfth Night (Melbourne Shakespeare Company), Mad World (David Butler Studio) and The Amazing Superhero Show (Wordsworth Productions). Chloe is an avid writer and is currently in the process of staging her first play, a new comedy titled Scary Goats Tour. Chloe is thrilled to be able to explore her next show through the Antipodes Winter Development Retreat.
nathan fernandez
Nathan is a Melbourne-based actor and writer. Nathan’s recent stage credits include Bright Star (Pursued by Bear), Rent (James Terry Collective) and Spring Awakening (StageArt). Nathan is in the process of making his directorial debut with Scary Goats Tour, a new comedy play which he has co-written with Chloe Towan. Nathan is very excited to be working on this piece because he believes that theatre is a beautiful way to connect with an audience on multiple levels. He is passionate about crafting stories with deep meanings and emotional integrity.
Revelation Bar COLLABORATORS
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