Antipodes Theatre Company Launches Inaugural Development Retreat

Antipodes Theatre Company (Brandon Pape, Artistic Director) has enlisted over forty artists to participate in their first annual Winter Development Retreat, taking place 17-28 June, 2020. A total of eight projects were selected, ranging from one-person shows and clown acts to immersive works and musical theatre. In addition to online meetings and rehearsals for individual projects, participants will have access to a variety of virtual workshops, panel discussions, presentations and other programming as part of the retreat.

"This retreat represents several milestones for us as a company," says Artistic Director Brandon Pape. "While our Ricochet Free Reading Series features plays that have not yet been seen in Australia, this retreat will allow us the chance to support projects that are still being developed. We're also thrilled to bring together a diverse group of writers, actors, and other creatives - most of whom we haven't worked with previously. Finally, this is a storytelling experiment as we explore the potential of collaboration in an online environment."

Artists who were chosen to develop projects as part of the Winter Development Retreat include: Max Brown, Hayley Lawson-Smith, Rachel Lewindon & Willow Sizer, Mama Alto, Brooke Murray, Vonne Patiag, Ciara Thorburn, and Chloe Towan & Nathan Fernandez. They will be supported by directors, dramaturgs, and actors, including: Marty Alix, Sherri Eden Barber, Chris Bennett, Theresa Borg, Keith Brockett, David Butler, Anthony Craig, James Cutler, Maude Davey, Melissa David, Jennifer Sarah Dean, Jess D'Souza, Bernadette Fam, Bailee-rose Farnham, Mike Finch, Kala Gare, Kristy Griffin, Deborah Leiser-Moore, Kaori Maeda-Judge, Miss Cairo, Terence O'Connell, Shamita Siva, Cameron Steens, Margaret Thanos, Tre Turner, Rhys Velasquez, Susan Ling Young, and Harvey Zielinski.

Additional activities that are planned as part of the retreat include a Career Wellbeing Workshop led by William Centurion, an Accessibility Q&A with Daniel Graham (who is also the Access Consultant for the retreat), and a panel discussion about the state of the Arts in Australia, moderated by Pape.

For more information, visit antipodestheatre.com/retreat.