bAKEHOUSE Residencies at KXT

IN THE KXT VAULT

Previous developments that have come through the bAKEHOUSE Residency program include: Hubris & Humiliation by Lewis Treston led by Rily Spadaro and Pheobe Pilcher; The Italians by Danny Ball led by Danny Ball, Thomas D’Angelis and Emma O’Sullivan; Symphonie Fantastique by the Little Eggs Collective led by Mathew Lee and Julia Robertson; The Monologue Collective led by Laneikka Denne; U.B.U. by Tooth and Sinew led by Richard Hilliar; Feminazi written & developed by Laneikka Denne; Porpoise Pool by Jojo Zhou; dog by Shayne; DIWA by Jordan Shea; Mercury Poisoning by Madeleine Stedman

IN PROGRESS || 2024

MELTED LINES TO MAMA | Mina Asfour

Nathan is a queer man in his 20s of Jordanian descent. Growing up in Australia, his culture and his way of life is very Westernised, with a family that’s still set in its traditional Arabic ways, which makes it hard to connect with his parents. Melted Lines To Mama is a story about family, domestic violence, trauma, culture, bigotry, mental health, sexual identity and how they can all melt together to form a messy existence.

meet | Annie Finsterer

meet is a one woman show in its early stages of development. The work focuses on a woman, our unreliable disordered Narrator, on an app known as ‘meet’ as she traverses the new frightening, challenging and unpredictable world of online dating.

THE WAVES | Patricio Ibarra

explores deep into the personal and collective stories of individuals trapped within a modern-day cult in London. Each member is seeking to "fix" something they believe is broken within themselves, while Gabriel, the central figure, wrestles with his memories and fears of becoming a whistle-blower. The Waves is more than a story of self-discovery; it serves as a political commentary on modern cults and the dangerous magnetism of belonging

SEXT ME I’M BORED | Tor-Lee Featon

addresses the pressures on women to conform to conflicting societal roles and examines how the mass distribution of porn has diminished the appreciation of the female body as an art form, with the aim to challenge the notion that "sex sells" and encourage women to reclaim their sexual agency and identities

DID YOU MEAN TO FALL LIKE THAT | Patrick Kennedy & Luke Visenten

a comedy exploring male bisexuality and masculinity.

DON’T SAVE ME | Lead Artist Karina Young

Working with Mehhma Malhi Unable to face the death of Jade, his terminally ill wife, Pat has been recording their conversations in secret, so that he can bring her back to life using AI after she has died. Provokes a whole range of new questions about consent and the ethics of using AI, and ultimately asks the question – do people retain the right to their identities after death

THESE YOUTHS Be Protesting | Lead Artist Izabella Louk

A comedy about climate change "These Youths" Be Protesting (working title) centers on young people and how they engage with climate activism. A finalist in the 2024 Martin Lysicrates Prize, "These Youths" Be Protesting was then further developed through the Shellharbour Council Incubator Artist Residency.

CREATURES | Lead Artist Gemma Hudson

In the not too distant future, office worker Alice has a medical episode at work. When she returns to her job, she is shocked by the sudden apparition of Creature, a weird, teeth covered thing that, along with being very chatty, is attached to Alice’s body. Physically. an Alice in Wonderland meets Kafka’s Metamorphosis inspired body horror about capitalism and disability

CRUSH COMBAT | Lead Artist Chloe Lethlean-Higson

a play about a 17 year old professional gamer, Peta, as she competes in the world grand final of computer game Crush Combat IV against her four-year rival, 23 year old Georgina. set over the course of one day and explores themes around the meaning of failure, the line between gaming as a joy vs a job, and sexism in the gaming industry

meet | Lead Artist Anni Finsterer

a one woman show in its early stages of development, focuses on a woman, our unreliable disordered Narrator, on an app known as ‘meet’ as she traverses the new frightening, challenging and unpredictable world of online dating.

KILTER | Lead Artist Bek Parsons

working with: Jordy Fulcher, Jess Ramsay, Jo Bradley, Rachel Seeto, Lucy Locke, Alyssa Peters, Mark Barry, Finn Stannard. investigates the grey areas around consent – what happens when we don’t say yes, but we don’t say no either. What happens when the words get stuck in our throat, what happens when we’re not ready to register what happened as trauma. It’s a story of queerness, temporary relationships turned permanent and trying to reclaim your voice.

A TRAGEDY OF LOVE; A SONNET OF WOE | Lead Artist Emily Cassar

inspired by the writings of Edgar Allan Poe (The Raven, Lenore, The Bells and other works) and explores themes of Love and Grief. A work in progress

THE INCORRIGIBLES/Mná Dosmachtaithe | Lead Artist Melita Rowston

Set in 1831 at the Parramatta Female Factory, the play is centred on an infamous riot where the women rebelled against the de-humanising practice of head shaving. After intensive research and script writing in 2023 and early 2024, the play is ready for its next stage of development: to be voiced and embodied by actors. With Martelle Hammer, Susan Prior, Amie McKenna, Micaela Ellis, Brittany Santariga, Leah Donovan

THE COLOUR OF RUST | Lead Artists Samuel Webster with Julia Robertson

a one-act play based on the true story of Ursula Galli, a 25-year-old Italian visiting Australia for the first time in 1991. The script has undergone multiple drafts and is now ready for development with actors. The Residency provides the opportunity for intensive table reads, actor-driven development sessions, and dramaturgical feedback processes.

HEAVEN | Lead Artist Domenic Anthony

If you pray to f*ck your high school bully, would you still get into Heaven?

An exploration of male friendship and the Catholic imagination. This new work turns the tale of ‘high school bully is actually gay’ on its head - and instead shows us how trauma, grief and prayer can collide to disastrous (and horny) effects

MONSTROUS | Lead Artist Lu Bradshaw

It's a show about the worst person you know. And they're trans.

Drawing on Susan Stryker’s scholarly writing on the ‘Monstrous Trans Person,’ MONSTROUS is a new theatre work which seeks to platform the most heinous trans person you can think of in an effort to liberate trans representation from the sanitised confines of the scarce trans canon; rejecting Good Trans Rep in favour of the messy, gross characters cishet people are permitted to indulge in.

DON’T SAVE ME | Lead Artists Karina Young and Mehhma Mahli

a modern and complicated relationship with a slow burn where the drama percolates in the background, and then the twist hits hard — and what a twist! Developed as Karina’s major work for the Masters of Fine Arts in Writing for Performance at NIDA, the Residency was an opportunity to workshop the script with actors and a director to get it to a performance-ready stage.

DIWA | LEAD ARTISTS Jordan Shea & kwento

Over 2 years playwright Jordan Shea has been working and transcribing with four Filipino community leaders from across Australian to create their stories into a narrative that caputres just a slice of the Filipino experience in this country. Developed with support from Create NSW, commissioned by Performing Lines and Australian Plays Transform

*April 2024 a showcase reading in the Nielson Family Gallery at STC: dir Kenneth Morelada with Teresa Tate Britten, Tamara Bailey, Nova Raboy, John Goodway, Andrea Magpulong. Development imagery: Samuel Webster

THIS IS NOT A PLAY ABOUT VALERIE JEAN SOLANAS || LEAD ARTISTS Laneikka Denne & Ziggy Resnick

Valerie Jean Solanas shot Andy Warhol. This is the final and only time this will be mentioned. Valarie said she wasn’t a lesbian, a feminist or even a woman - she was a writer. This is not a feminist play about Valerie Jean Solanas, who said all men are a biological accident. This is not a manifesto. This is not a memoir to a woman who died alone. This is an interdisciplinary act of justice to give artistic merit where it’s due

This play had a showcase season as part of the BRAND X Flying Nun program

THE SCREAM by Justin Fleming || LEAD ARTISTS bAKEHOUSE Theatre Co

The latest work in the hugely successful creative partnership between playwright Justin Fleming and director Suzanne Millar: Dresden at KXT; His Mother’s Voice at ATYP; Coup d'état at Riverside & NIDA; A Land Beyond the River & Junction for Tamarama Rock Surfers; her holiness at Seymour Centre

bAKEHOUSE Residencies at KXT || 2023

DOG || LEAD ARTIST Shayne de Groot

Dog, Spelt OCD went through its first round of development (working title – Shadow of Dog / DOG) as part of Panimo Pandemonium at KXT in 2022. “I would just really really really love for a work about OCD to exist outside of my brain because it is so misunderstood and incredibly isolating and also… super interesting to anyone who has never lived alongside it.” Further development of an existing script

dog by Shanye is playing at KXT on Broadway 24 May - 08 June 2024

THE SEASON

MERCURY POISONING by Madeleine Stedman || LEAD ARTIST Kim Hardwick

First developed as part of the bAKEHOUSE Residency program in 2020. “We have recently facilitated a Read of the current draft, which has illuminated some issues that we’d like to work through with the thought that the Residency would allow space and time to expedite a final draft. Specifically we’ll be looking at the role of the Narrator, the graphing of Drew Archer character, the sequence of events leading to end of Act 1 and the clarity of story” Further development of an existing script

This play was staged in March at KXT on Broadway ★★★★ Stage Noise wildly, crazily ambitious as the space race itself, and that it’s Stedman’s debut play heralds the arrival of a major talent…a remarkable debut. Recommended without hesitation Di Simmonds

READ MORE HERE

THE BRIDGE || LEAD ARTISTS Clare Hennessy, Sunny Grace, Richie Black

A doomed music festival. A jaded rockstar and an up and coming star meet in a porta-loo. A storm looms, and time repeats itself. Bonds forged through a song that bridges gender, time, generations and class, The Bridge is a new play with music that combines the words of three playwrights and original music. An unexpected work about finding hope and bridging connection amidst the storm. When a protected 80’s gem “Running up that Hill” can become a tik-tok sensation, you know the music industry sits on an interesting precipice. Why are Gen Z’s obsessed with a sense of nostalgia for a time they have no experience of? Why are Gen X’s so angry about their music being discovered by others? And in a time of increasing generational tension, what is enduring about music that means it connects people of every walk of life?

OPEN THE DOOR || A RESIDENCY SHOWCASE in January 2024 THE BRIDGE by Clare Hennessy & Sunny Grace & Richie Black had a showcase reading in KXT on Broadway. With Zoe Carides; Ayeesha Ash; Ezekiel Simat; Julian Ramundi; Kieran Clancy-Lowe; Clare Hennessy

THE MIDDLE || LEAD ARTIST Jacob Sgourous

A fast-paced, energetic two-hander that dissects the breakdown of a relationship. Just two performers, two mic-stands, and a whole lot of love lost. Our time at KXT would include; improvising scenes to create content; playing with the ordering of scenes and moments within the characters’ relationship; and drafting up a rough copy of a full script to present in a reading on the final day of development. We aim to consolidate the major turning points of the story and structure the classic relationship arc in a new and exciting way for our audience. Early development

Jacob Sgouros is the recipient of the 2024 Lysicrates Award

PEAKED || LEAD ARTISTS Emily Buxton and Charlie Vaux

the story of two young women whose High-School years were their best years, and find that since graduating life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Due to some self-destructive spiralling, they find themselves in each others lives, and through forced co-habitation, have no choice but to help each other get a handle on adulthood. Are their best years behind them?

Working with Renae Valastro and Josephine Gazard. Early development

The SOLDier MENtality || LEAD ARTIST Gianni Fenech

THE SOLDier MENtality is a working draft for a multimedia movement performance piece. Time in the KXT Vault is an opportunity to develop and workshop the piece with other key creatives. Exploration of new work

FOR REAL || LEAD ARTIST Clare Hennessy with Sunny Grace

An other worldy dramedy celebrating the power of imagination, queerness,, identity and the line between adaptive and maladaptive escapism in the internet age. After discovering the online community of 'Shifters' on TikTok, Clare wrote the first few drafts of For Real quite quickly- it's like that, when an idea really grabs you! What it needs now is some tweaking so the work can find its ideal home. Further development of an existing script

ANIMAL || LEAD ARTIST Cassie Hamilton with Dir Flynn Hall

to facilitate an environment of experimentation and open discussion, taking a step away from the textual side of the work and focusing more on the limits of the role improvisation can play in the work. Following on from the KXT2022 season of Cassie Hamilton’s debut play Daddy Developed A Pill. Further development of an existing script

Animal was a finalist in the 2023 Griffin Award.

THE LONELY MILESTONE CLUB || LEAD ARTIST Zoe Hogan

For every birthday, wedding and baby shower happening this weekend, there will also be thousands of lonely milestones. A lonely milestone is anything that is worthy of celebration, that tends to be overlooked, forgotten or set aside. Inspired by rituals and informal celebrations, The Lonely Milestone Club is a project that sets out to discover what milestones we’re missing, and how we can acknowledge and celebrate them together. The Lonely Milestone Club is a process-driven project led by community artist Zoe Hogan, envisioned to become a live performance, complemented with immersive installations with recorded audio, and participatory rituals. Early development

YAMA || LEAD ARTISTS co-created by Emma Whitehead and Atharv Kolhatkar

Yama explores what we know, or rather, what we don’t know about death. In modern, secular, and especially atheist society, death has become hidden, unexplained, unobserved, to the point where it has become the newest taboo.

Using mime, puppetry, movement and dance from multiple cultures, Lost Thought will ask: why don’t we witness death anymore and what are the repercussions? Early development

FICTION AMENDED || LEAD ARTISTS Sarah Greenwood

Are you happy? The question clangs in Phoebes ears. Hurled at her from across a quiet pub the night before her wedding. Nic is wrestling with anger and fear. Bert is bored and cynical. Alison just wants to make a friend. The play occurs within 24 hours. The characters interrupt each others lives and pivot them toward their own autonomy.

Working with Rikiah Lizarraga, Natalie Baghoumian, Martelle Hammer. Further development of an existing script

OUT OF OFFICE || LEAD ARTISTS Lachlan Parry & Ryan Whitworth

a 60 minute, one person show. Spencer wants more than anything to direct films and it helps that he just landed a job assisting Australia’s biggest film director, Reggie O’Kelly. Everything is going just as it should until Reggie has several sexual misconduct allegations made against him. As public pressure mounts to have Reggie held to account, Reggie begins to rely on Spencer more than ever. However, Spencer is struggling with coming to terms with his own history of having been sexually assaulted. First development

MACARONI AND THE DEAD THINGS || LEAD ARTISTS Miranda Michalowski

Miranda Michalowski (she/her) is a writer and performer living on Gadigal land, with a passion for female-driven and queer stories - particularly comedies. She wrote and assistant directed Young Bodies/Somebody's (Flight Path Theatre) in 2022 and her second play, Saturday Girls, was shortlisted for the Rodney Seaborn Playwright's Award and will debut at Belvoir Downstairs in August.

Working with Emmanuelle Mattana + Lotte Beckett. Early development of an existing script

JIM JUNKIE || LEAD ARTIST Becks Blake

Traditionally drag has been performed as 5–10-minute pieces however this is a stretch as a creative to present a solo work for 60 minutes in drag that connects with the audience whilst staying true to the artform of drag. The second stage of this development will be used to explore new storylines and refine the script.

The plan is to work with a choreographer and bring in industry peers for small sessions of feedback and collaboration in between working on the storyline and character. Working with Danica Lani – Danica is a Drag King Coach, Choreographer, and performer. She leads the Kings of Joy program as part of the Queers of Joy performance night

Jim Junkie received additional development and a showcase season at BRAND X

bAKEHOUSE Residencies at KXT || 2022

DUMB KIDS || by Jacob Parker

This distinctly queer text by one of Sydney’s hottest young writers focuses on the nature of interpersonal relationships, using a polyphonic writing style to provide a breadth of unique and resonant queer voices.

Dumb Kids was staged as part of KXT2023. Nominated for Sydney Theatre Awards Best Production | smart playwriting … lit up by excellent direction Jason Blake, Limelight ★★★★★ Haven’t seen theatre like this EVER Spot On Sydney

bAKEHOUSE Residencies at KXT || 2021

“Thousands of teenagers perform a HSC monologue every year, written by an older writer reminiscing on what being a teenager felt like. The Monologue Collective puts teenagers at the forefront of telling their own stories.”

~ Laneikka Denne, creator of The Monologue Project.

The Monologue Collective is a one year writing program for teenagers to develop their skills in writing for performance, with the aim of creating an 6-8 minute monologue that will be published as a resource for teenagers to perform for the HSC drama Individual Performance. In November 2021 KXT opens the door to Laneikka Denne (Dead Skin, KXT Assoc Artist), dramaturgs Riley Spadaro (Australian Open, KXT Assoc Artist) and Bernadette Fam (Step Up, The Serpent’s Teeth), and 13 teenage writers for their first in person workshop.

Lead by Laneikka Denne, in partnership with KXT and with the support of PYT Fairfield

Following on from the success of their June season of The Linden Solution, independent company Ratcatch are back at KXT to begin work on their latest project. Queenspiracy working title - - a brand new script to be written by Alexander Lee-Rekers - centred around the popular conspiracy of The Bisley Boy.

It is rumoured that after succumbing to the bubonic plague at aged ten, Elizabeth Tudor is conveniently replaced by an ordinary boy from the quaint town of Bisley, to cover up the scandal and maintain control over the throne. Think The Tudors meets Catch Me if You Can, with a sprinkle of Weekend at Bernies.

This development will focus on building a story steeped in reputations, bloodlines, conspiracy and gender-fuckery. A team of actors and dramaturg led by company artistic directors Camilla Turnbull and Alexander Lee-Rekers

romped. is about purple skinned pleasure. the pain we thrust on our collective queer bodies // the kinetic release when we find beauty in our lived experience

this is a performance art installation on the ways we learn to understand, build comfort in, and celebrate our queer bodies

step into our space, on our terms, and get romped.

Merging theatre and art, Hayden Tonazzi (KXT Associate Artist), Ella Griffin (American Beauty Shop) and Morgan Moroney (Everybody) are heading into KXT to see what they come up with. In development

White Box director Kim Hardwick (Dead Skin, Mercury Fur, the Walworth Farce) joins us in November for a development of a new work by Ron Elisha (Love Field), working alongside Sarah Jane Kelly (Dead Skin).

image Sarah Jane Kelly in Dead Skin / Jasmin Simmons

THE LABORATORY 2021

SARO LUSTY-CAVALARI welcomes back the writers in the 2021 Laboratory, for their first in person workshops since June. The Laboratory is a collaboration between bAKEHOUSE and Montague Basement that aims to foster emerging writers on the cusp of presenting their work on independent stages. Click the link below to learn more and meet the writers, and standby for dates for the next Lab Report

bAKEHOUSE Residencies at KXT || 2020

2020 has been a rough year. The cost of Covid to the arts community is immeasurable and we expect to feel its impact for years to come. At a time when audience numbers were limited meaning producers were unable to manage realistic budgets and pay artists, we decided to open the doors of KXT to our artistic community. thanks to the generous support of our partners at KX Hotel, we’ve been able to spend the past few months developing work, offering peer networking, connecting early career artists with industry mentors and upskilling producers.

WARWICK DODDRELL working with Snatched Theatre Collective // Reimagining Sputnik 1

In 2019 Warwick Doddrell directed If We Got Some More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Love You pres by Green Door Theatre Company at KXT. This year, as theatres closed down, Snatched Theatre Collective were preparing to stage the premiere season of Madeleine Stedman’s play April Marlowe’s Abortion, directed by Hannah Goodwin for the Belvoir 25a season.

"Nonna hated this place when she arrived. She thought this was a godforsaken country. She had the classic 60s housewife thing, where she'd have a drink when no one was noticing ... she'd, she'd - yeah, so I noticed her doing stuff like that, sneaking in extra drinks, always like 'where's the wine? where's the brandy' ... And then of course the Joan Crawford moment, and the top of the stairs with the dressing gown..."

Danny Ball, Jeremi Campese, Thomas De'Angelis and Emma O'Sullivan are co-creating and writing a new Australian play exploring the Italian-Australian experience across generations.

Danny Ball has been in the middle of some of KXTs most audacious work: from seasons of Mercury Fur and The Serpent’s Teeth, the 2017 development of LADS, to launching and co-producing the first seasons of play read programs KXTeethcutting and Storytellers. Jeremy Campesi is back at KXT after Rosaline (2019), Yen (2018), and DNA (2018). Emma O’Sullivan has worked at KXT in the bAKEHOUSE production of Coram Boy and with JackRabbit Theatre for the HiJacked Rabbit season, and Thomas De’Angelis is one part of Bontom productions, co-presenting Disparate Scenes for Millenial Dreams with Periscope Productions.

Emily Buxton will be taking over the KXT space to workshop UK playwright Glenn Waldron’s play Natives - all about the generation of “digital natives” that are growing up with the internet. She’s excited to work with a team of incredible young actors to explore a bold work that champions young voices and experiences.

Emily was a member of the KXT2019 Step Up team

image: from the 2017 UK production

TOOTH AND SINEW have been regular visitors to KXT with successful seasons going right back to the start of 2016’s Year of the Family. Also Osama the Hero and the groundbreaking U.B.U. featured in 2019s inaugural Popupstairs season. They’re back in the theatre with a development season, led by Artistic Directors Richard Hilliar and Nicole Wineberg

Taking its inspiration from Euripides' The Bacchae, Agave is an exploration of misogyny and what options are available to women who want to destroy it.

Tooth and Sinew has grown passionate about creating brand new work for the stage and developing these pieces through exploration, improvisation and discussion. Experimental and consciously theatrical, this development period is essential to distil many ideas into a cohesive whole. We look forward to seeing what kind of messes we can make back in the theatre.

RILEY SPADARO & LEWIS TRESTON Hubris & Humiliation By Lewis Treston

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a bogan mother who has lost her home to a predatory cat fish, must send her only gay son to Sydney to marry rich. Elliott Delaney, mediocre looking, kinda bright, poor as shit, understands that he must meet, woo and marry a member of Sydney’s homosexual aristocracy... but he’s still very much in love with his best friend back home, who is in love with someone else. In Sydney, is it better to be bold or will hubris only lead to humiliation?

From the pen of Patrick White Award winning playwright Lewis Treston and directed by self-proclaimed prince of camp Riley Spadaro comes Hubris & Humiliation, a Jane Austen inspired, raucous rom-com.

Workshop cast included: Toby Blome, Gerard Carroll, Roman Delo, Shannon Dooley, Patrick Jhanur, Emma Kew and Elle Mickel. A full house enjoyed a public reading of Hubris & Humiliation at KXT on 2 Dec. Hubris & Humiliation enjoyed a rough draft reading at STC in 2021. As winner of the 2021 Australian Theatre Festival NYC 2021 New Play Award Hubris & Humiliation will be staged in New York in 2022.

BITE PRODUCTIONS PORPOISE POOL by Jojo Zhou

Bite Productions spends time developing emerging playwright Jojo Zhou’s Porpoise Pool ~ a one-woman show about gratification, expectation and our complicated relationship with technology. Participating artists: Jojo Zhou (writer); Eve Beck (director); Kasia Vickery (Dramaturg); Madelaine Osborne (producer); and actors Sophie Strykowski; Ariadne Sgouros; Ryan Brown; James Thomasson; Chemon Theys

EYE CONTACT THEATRE

THE PARK by Simon Thomson (Storytellers Festival)

in development with Emma Wright (Blue Christmas) and Jess Davis. Shortlisted for the 2020 Silver Gull Award In 2021 The Park was programmed at New Theatre

Sunshine in Paddington

chronicling three Sydney residents trying to make it; one’s an artist, the other a Chemist, and the new roommate? Wants to change the world…As we follow the events and stories of these characters, we get a glimpse into the counter-cultural movements of the last 30 years, from Ohms Not Bombs to today.

Led by KXT Production Assistant Charlie Vaux

with Jasper Lee-Lindsay, Alice Ireland, Mat Lee, Lizzie Sheridan

FIGHTING by Xavier Coy

Director Claudia Barrie With Jay James-Moody, Lloyd Alison-Young and Jude Gibson

“I had to find a way to channel what was happening in my head into the best way I know how, a play. This is the scariest play I’ve ever written – it’s the truest representation of how my brain works. I hope this can be an engaging, funny and moving play to continue to converse about the challenges of mental health.”

Director Claudia Barrie (Dry Land; You Got Older; DNA) gets together with Jay James-Moody (Herringbone), Lloyd Alison-Young (The Rime of the Ancient Mariner; Coram Boy) and the fab Jude Gibson (Straight) to take a look at new writing from one of Sydney’s most exciting young talents.

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