2025 Programs
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Image: Canberra Theatre Centre – About New Works Video
We’re thrilled to continue supporting Canberra artists to create exciting new works in 2025.
New Works provides creative development residencies through application and curation, providing artist income and access to the Courtyard Studio and CTC team to develop work beyond the initial seed of an idea.
JAMES BATCHELOR
– SUPPORTED DEVELOPMENT –
Artists: James Batchelor
Work: Resonance
Dates: 6 – 12 January 2025
Venue: Courtyard Studio
James is a Choreographer from Ngunnawal Country, with an international dance practice that spans research, performance and teaching. After studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) at the Victorian College of the Arts, James’ career has taken a unique path notably for his participation in an interdisciplinary expedition to the Antarctic. His body of work has toured widely and presented in Berlin, Paris and Vienna. He was part of the prestigious Aero waves program in 2019 with his solo ‘Hyperspace’ and has made commissioned work for companies such as Chunky Move and Norrdans.
Resonance by James Batchelor and Collaborators is a work that explores lineages of contemporary dance history and embodied memory through the lens of three different generations of Australian dancers. It grew out of an invitation by the Tanja Liedtke Foundation to respond to the archive of the late choreographer Tanja Liedtke, and traces how the legacy of her work impacted contemporary dance in Australia.
Resonance is supported by the Tanja Liedtke Foundation, Arts ACT, Creative Australia, The Keir Foundation, Michael Adena and Joanne Daly, Canberra Theatre Centre New Works Program, and QL2 Dance.
EMMA LAVERTY
– FIRST NATIONS ARTIST IN RESIDENCE –
Image credit: Andrew Sikorski
Artist: Emma Laverty with Project Dust
Work: COUNTRY
Dates: 26 & 27 April 2025
Time: 1.30pm
Venue: Courtyard Studio
Emma is a proud Boorooberongal Clanswoman of the Darug Tribe, now living on Ngunnawal country.
With a keen interest in engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth and their carers in Aboriginal contemporary dance, language, and history, Emma delivers cultural engagement workshops and performances across ACT schools. As director of Project Dust, a First Nations contemporary dance and community group, Emma brings together people from many Tribes who live off country to dance, build skills, share stories, and perform, and to embed a strong sense of culture in the younger generations.
The First Nations Artist in Residence program is an artist -led opportunity for an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander artist to work closely with the Canberra Theatre Centre over 10 months, engaging in fortnightly mentoring sessions, and developing a new work for presentation.
COUNTRY is a collaborative work by mentors and participants of Project Dust exploring what Country means to us in our everyday lives, how we grow together with Country, and our connection with Country wherever we tread. Although we come together on Ngunnawal Country, Project Dust’s community come from many different Tribes and this work has given voice and expression to our appreciation of where we live. Through dance, creativity, and connection we have created shared meaning and purpose.
Choreography is inspired by community mentors Emma Laverty (Darug) and Tammi Gissell (Muruwarri-Wiradjuri), with input from Project Dust participants.
COUNTRY is supported by ArtsACT Cultural Arts Fund and the Canberra Theatre Centre through the New Works Program. Project Dust’s rehearsal space is supported by Canberra Dance Collective, Dance Edge School of Performing Arts, West Belconnen Child and Family Centre, and Dark Carnival.
Project Dust also wishes to thank local Ngunnawal Elder, Dr Aunty Caroline Hughes OAM, for her continued support. Artwork “Connection” (2025) by Zoe Stevenson (Darug). Acrylic on Canvas Board. “No matter how far away you are from your roots, you are always connected to Country by the land, the water, the
sky, and the people.”
MICHELLE LEE
– SUPPORTED DEVELOPMENT –
Artist: Michele Lee with Claire Granata
Work: These Other Things
Dates: 3 – 7 February 2025
Venue: Playhouse Reception Room
These Other Things is a new memoir theatre show written and performed by Michele. In 2023 Michele learnt her Dad had cancer while she was premiering a show called ‘How do I let you die?’ about her parents dying one day. An actor played her. When she wrote it, her parents were healthy and she pondered their death speculatively. But in rehearsing and presenting ‘How do I let you die?’, she was suddenly watching her Dad decline.
Intended as a sequel work, These Other Things offers a deep and often humorous reflection into the way life becomes art and of the experiences of death and grief.
Michele is a recipient of a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, Australian Writers’ Guild Award (Stage and Radio), Malcolm Robertson Prize, Betty Burstall Commission, and was a 2022-23 Sidney Myer Creative Fellow. She has been nominated for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, Nick Enright Prize, Griffin Award and Patrick White Award.
YOLANDA LOWATTA
– CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT –
Image credit: Gupi de Zavalia
Artists: Yolanda Lowatta with Aba Bero and Harlisha Newie Joe
Work: Karbai
Dates: 4 – 8 March 2025
Venue: Courtyard Studio
Yolanda is a Geidei woman from Lama, ZENADTH KES (Torres Strait Islands) and is also of Papua New Guinea & Fijian heritage. She graduated from the Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts in 2013. As a dancer she has performed with Ochre Contemporary Dance Company, Bangarra Dance Theatre, YT Dingo, Jannawi Dance Clan, Australian Dance Party, and Melanie Lane. In 2016, Yolanda was awarded a Helpmann Award for Best Female Dancer in a Dance or Physical Theatre performance. During her four years with Bangarra Dance Theatre, Yolanda danced nationally & internationally. Yolanda has taught in various schools across Sydney & Canberra and is now venturing into choreography.
During this development Yolanda is choreographing a new work for three ZENADTH KES performers called Karbai, as a celebration of her totem, her culture, and her people. With a multidisciplinary approach drawing from physical theatre, ZENADTH KES, drama, comedy, dance and soul, Karbai is a collection of stories from her childhood experiences of culture, as well as an exploration of the experience of being a mainland ZENADTH KES (Torres Strait Islander).
This creative development is presented in partnership with Ausdance ACT.
MARY RACHEL BROWN
– CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT –
Artist: Mary Rachel Brown
Dates: 26 – 30 May
Venue: Playhouse Reception Room
Now retired from a life of mime, Canberra’s most prominent self-described ‘child mime’ recounts a storied career: from falling out of a tree at age seven, to miming through an electrical storm, to unnerving the late great Marcel Marceau… and the day the wheels came off and it all went to sh*t.
Mary will be spending the week at CTC, writing and researching, and engaging with mentor collaborators Queenie van de Zandt and Phil Spencer.
Mary is the recipient of the The Lysicrates Prize, The Rodney Seaborn Award, The Max Affords Award, The Griffin Award, The Suzie Miller Fellowship and an Australian Writers Guild Award. Her most recent works include Rosieville for (Canberra Youth Theatre), Betty Blokk Buster Reimagined (Redline/Sydney Festival), Dead Cat Bounce (Griffin Theatre). Her play The Dapto Chaser has toured nationally, has had a cinematic release with Dendy, and was broadcast on ABC TV.
LUCIANA HARRISON
– CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT –
Image credit: Adam Thomas
Artist: Luciana Harrison with Emma Mc Manus, Sia Ahmad, Tara Bromham, and Nic Menser Hearn
Work: Silver Spinning (working title)
Dates: 7 – 11 July 2025
Venue: Courtyard Studio
Luciana Harrison is a Canberra-based singer-songwriter and performer. After many years fronting bands (Pocket Fox, Oranges) and performing across a variety of genres, this new work is an adaptation of an original song-cycle exploring her recent journey into queer parenthood. The challenges faced during the journey – loss, health issues, homophobia, cycle-breaking, othering and erasure – transform over the song cycle into newfound hope, self-knowledge and pride.
Silver Spinning is a stage adaptation of this song cycle of the same name to include visual and theatrical elements, integrating both hi-fi and lo-fi sounds and images. The creative development brings together a diverse team of all-queer artists including Luciana as performer, theatre maker and director Emma McManus, music producer and mentor Sia Ahmad, film maker and visual artist Nic Menser Hearn, and textiles artist Tara Bromham.
GABRIEL SINCLAIR
– SUPPORTED DEVELOPMENT –
Image credit: Jeff Busby
Artist: Gabriel Sinclair with Jazmyn Carter
Work: Superposition
Dates: 14 – 18 July 2025
Venue: Courtyard Studio
Superposition is a new contemporary dance work with a cybernetic-led soundscape. In between a choreographic duel and a pas de deux, the work locks the performers in a state of simultaneous attraction and repulsion. Revealing the possibilities for sensitivity between human nature and technology, the work invites the audience to engage with this intricate relationship in a thought-provoking performance that bridges the gap between science and art.
Gabriel is a Canberra based dance artist, working both in live and mediated forms. Superposition has been in development throughout 2024, with its most recent iteration being a performance season at Dancehouse as part of the 2024 Melbourne Fringe Festival, where it received award nominations for Best Dance and Physical Theatre and Best Emerging Artist.
This development is supported by artsACT project funding and the ANU School of Cybernetics. Project funding is auspiced by Ausdance ACT.
NEW IDEAS LAB
Dates: 19 – 23 May 2025
Venue: Courtyard Studio and Playhouse Reception Room
ARTISTS
Left to right: Jade Breen, Quinn Goodwin, Nieshanka Nanthakrishnakumar, Eli Narev
Jade Breen
Jade is a proud nonbinary emerging creative practicing on Ngunnawal country. Through their work in theatre and film they aim to interrogate the role of queer storytelling within a contemporary landscape. Jade’s work has an urgent focus on social justice and they dream of a future where young people can see themselves represented in every facet of the arts community. Their new work “The S Word” will explore intimacy through the lived experience of trans youth, and the reality of existing in a skin that will never truly feel like your own.
Quinn Goodwin
Quinn is an emerging playwright and actor who has grown up in Canberra, featuring in shows produced by Budding Theatre and Canberra Youth Theatre from 2016, including Honor Webster-Mannison’s Work, But This Time Like You Mean It and Lucid Theatre Co’s People You May Know, born from Canberra Youth Theatre’s Emerge Company in 2022, which she co-wrote. She is excited to develop her first solo work exploring the breaking apart of relationships as one moves from adolescence into adulthood.
Nieshanka Nanthakrishnakumar
Nieshanka is an Australian – Sri Lankan Tamil writer, dancer and performance poet, currently based in Ngunnawal country. She has performed at the Sydney Writers Festival and the Melbourne Spoken Word Festival, and has been published in the NSW Young Writers Showcase and the Australian Poetry Journal. She is also trained in Bharatanatyam and hip-hop. Nieshanka is working on developing a multi-disciplinary performance that blends poetry and dance to explore the complexities of femininity and queerness in South Asian and Western cultures conveyed through the navarasas—the nine emotions central to performance, founded in Indian aestheticism.
Eli Narev
Eli is an emerging writer and artist with a background in poetry, short fiction and theatre. His work navigates questions of identity, queerness, and the law. His recent play with co-writer Adam Gottschalk, Third Storey, had its first run in May 2024 a ANU. His new work is a two-act play which follows an aged care nurse, her cruel teenage son and an elderly ex-politician intent on ending his own life prematurely. As the audience is invited to collude in the characters’ private plots, the play will explore notions of accountability, justice and the anxieties of a new generation entering the political playing field.
MENTORS
Left to right: Rae Perks, Mary Rachel Brown, Lewis Treston, Christopher Gurusamy
Rae Perks
Rae is a playwright and screenwriter who has won the Malthouse Theatre’s Playwriting Innovation award, the Melbourne Festival Discovery Award and the Dame Joan Sutherland Award, and was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award. They have a long-standing theatre-making partnership with Bridget Balodis under the moniker ‘Double Water Sign’. Together, they have made Moral Panic (Darebin Arts, 2018), Ground Control (Next Wave Festival 2016), and Angry Sexx (Melbourne Fringe 2014). Between them, these works have been nominated for 9 Green Room Awards.
Mary Rachel Brown
Mary is the recipient of the The Lysicrates Prize, The Rodney Seaborn Award, The Max Affords Award, and The Griffin Award. Her most recent works include Rosieville for (Canberra Youth Theatre), contributing writer for Betty Blokk Buster Reimagined (Redline/Sydney Festival), and Dead Cat Bounce (Griffin Theatre). Her play The Dapto Chaser has toured nationally, has had a cinematic release with Dendy and was broadcast on ABC TV. In 2024, Mary won The Suzie Miller Fellowship and an Australian Writers Guild Award. As part of her fellowship, Mary is currently in residence at Griffin Theatre and under commission with the company.
Lewis Treston
Lewis is an award-winning Australian playwright whose work has been produced by leading companies including Sydney Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre, La Boite, Belvoir 25A, and ATYP. His plays include Hubris & Humiliation, Hot Tub, IRL, An Ideal Husband, Meat Eaters, Reagan Kelly, and Follow Me Home. His work has been described as “riotously funny” (TimeOut), “deliciously camp” (The Queer Review), and “like Oscar Wilde in a hyperpop blender” (ArtsHub). Lewis has received multiple awards, including the Patrick White Playwrights Award and Best New Australian Work at the Sydney Theatre Awards.
Christopher Gurusamy
Christopher is a professional Bharatanatyam artiste, based between Sydney and Chennai, India, He is regarded as one of the frontrunners of his generation having performed extensively within India and internationally. He has received the Narasimhachari Dance Award (Narada Gana Sabha, 2022), being named Best Dance of 2017 (New York Times), and was conferred the Kalavahini Fellowship for Choreography by leading dancer Malavika Sarukkai in 2018. His latest work Ananda – Dance of Joy was staged in Sydney and Melbourne for which he was nominated for a Green Room Award – Outstanding Performer.