Other Supported Artists

A range of artists will be working in our venues throughout 2023. Take a glimpse into the exciting projects they are working on across dance, theatre, music and more.

Bonnie Curtis

Bonnie is a multi-faceted artist driven by a curious imagination and a desire to discover. Subverting typical dance conventions, Curtis blends art forms to explore themes of women’s rights, disability, gender, sexism, body image, celebrity culture and social norms. GIRLS GONE WILD (working title) is a dark satire, ensemble dance theatre work dissecting sources of women’s anger through a post #MeToo lens.

The Corinthian Food Store

Public Access is a play about the role of public spaces in our ever-privatised society. It looks at the shifting harbours of knowledge and power, and the places we go to be seen and heard. It’s also about the right to take a shit in public... Written to be performed in libraries across Australia, Public Access is a fusion of movement, puppetry, music, clowning and text. The team includes writers Amy Fairall and Desmond Edwards, director Duncan Ragg and actor Anna Phillips, produced by The Corinthian Food Store.

Emma Saunders

Emma Saunders is a formidable Australian dance artist. WE ARE HERE - Gong is a new performance ensemble and professional development platform making hi-fi work in lo-fi ways. Led by Emma Saunders, works are made in collaboration with the performers.

Josh Hinton

Josh is an aspiring Wollongong-based actor, singer/songwriter and theatre maker. He is the coordinator and head tutor of Merrigong’s Creativity Camp. The Sultan’s Kitchen is a theatre work of vivid memory, cultural identity, music, and food that charts a journey of self-discovery which is uniquely personal, but universal too.

Vaguely Adjacent

Vaguely Adjacent is a new performance-based collective led by Nick Vagne, Sophie Florence Ward, Luke Standish, Lana Filies and Flynn Mapplebeck. Squatch Watch: LIVE is a comedy inviting the audience into the world of podcasters united by their obsessive fascination of sasquatch legends. The show pierces through the tongue-in-cheek, dubiously authentic world of the podcasters with a sincere excitement for the fantastical, the unknown, the niche and the weird.

Lucy Heffernan

Lucy is an actor, singer songwriter, playwright and theatre maker who graduated from UOW. Credits include Teen Angst (Shopfront Arts Co-Op), Single Asian Female (Belvoir St / La Boite Theatre Company), PARTY GIRL (MERRIGONGX) and more. A story for anyone whose had a pup, Dog People is a new play with music, examining the nature of love between man and man’s best friend... dogs are the best kind of people, right?

Kirli is a proud Gunai Woman, award-winning international writer, teacher, consultant, artist and a 2022 OAM Recipient. Going Home weaves fiction with truth, poetry with prose, language with land, and celebrates the strength, survival and warmth of First Nations communities.

Ali Gordon is a Wollongong based artist, clown, theatre-maker and director who creates theatre that has the power to transform her audience’s experience of the world. Art In a Box is a collaboration with a props maker to build a free-standing theatre where she becomes a piece of live, public performance art. This project extends theatre practice into the public realm to spread joy, surprise, fun and human connection.

Catherine McKinnon is an award-winning writer of novels and plays. Storyland (co-written with Aunty Barb) explores the deep and abiding need humans have to find connection with each other and the land we live on. Aunty Barbara Nicholson is a senior Wadi Wadi woman from the Illawarra. While primarily a poet, she has also published academic writing. Barbara is active across the spectrum of Aboriginal disadvantage: education, criminal justice, land rights and the Stolen Generation. She was awarded a Doctor of the Laws (Honoris Causa) from UOW in 2014.

Rose

The Cardinal Rules, a reckoning with her Catholic upbringing, is Rose Maher’s debut solo work. This show is a collision of two unlikely forms, storytelling and bouffon clowning. It interrogates generations of familial obedience to sacraments, rituals and cannon law. Rose Maher is an actor, clown, puppeteer and performance maker. She has lived, worked and played on Dharawal country for over 10 years.

Ali Jane Smith is a writer with a strong practice in poetry and critical writing. She was co-writer of The Sirens’ Return, produced by Merrigong Theatre Company and The Society of Histrionic Happenings in February 2022. Ali participated in the online MERRIGONGX Digital Residency in 2020. Oh My Goddess is a one-woman show about a goddess who faces a decision that will change everything.

Bobby

Bobby Aazami is an Iranian-American photographer, advocate, writer, and storyteller. He is the founder of Will Not Rest, which has the aim of raising awareness towards child sexual abuse prevention and empowering survivors. The Six Million Dollar Kid is an autobiographical traumedy that depicts one man’s 30-year attempt to find the superhero inside.

Karen Cummings & Benjamin Cauduro

Dr Karen Cummings is a broadcast and recording artist, new music specialist and composer who received her PHD in Microphone and the Voice in 2019. Benjamin Cauduro, known professionally as Benjamino, is an artist, producer, educator, and multi-instrumentalist. Singing Hidden Histories: Voices in the Abandoned Mine is a collaborative musical work that delves into soundscapes and pieces of local history that have been forgotten, or hidden.

Lily Hayman & Joshua Lobb

Lily Hayman is an emerging writer, director and performer who studied at the University of Wollongong. Her work Fledgling was presented in MERRIGONGX 2020. Joshua Lobb is an author and Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Wollongong. Preparing for the Inevitable is based on Joshua’s short story of the same name. The story explores five moments of mortality, as people wait, poised, bracing for death.

Malika Reese

As a speaker, writer, musician and storyteller, Malika has been performing for over 20 years. She is Artist in Residence and celebrant at Tender Funerals, and co-director of Cocoa & Butter Productions. Her project A Gentle Talk About Death for Little Ones is a conversation about that which we cannot avoid, aimed for the young but resilient among us.

Susan Kennedy

Susan Kennedy has been a theatre maker since the 1970s. Her project Allusions uses dance / theatre / physical theatre to explore the disruptive influence of quixotic art forger, William Blundell.

Tegan Ware

Tegan Ware is an aspiring filmmaker, theatre director and writer based in the Illawarra. The stories that she captures are inspired by the heart and soul of people; their struggles and triumphs in life. Cicada is a gothic, non-linear theatrical piece that chronicles the rise and fall of a young artist.

The night where all creative endeavours take the stage! Made From Scratch is a multi-art form performance night offering artists space and support to test new ideas in front of a live audience. Here, experimentation is key and you get to experience a little bit of everything.

Wed 15 Mar, 7.30pm I Wed 28 Jun, 7.30pm I Wed 27 Sep, 7.30pm The Music Lounge, Wollongong Town Hall

Reserve Your Spot at merrigong.com.au/merrigongx

Two artists on what Made From Scratch meant to their creative work:

“Not only did I get to show my work to an audience who are invested in the joy of new ideas, I also felt incredibly inspired by the variety of art forms and genres showcased. After performing in this space I felt energised to take my idea further, developing my show with MERRIGONGX and then performing a season of Dear Diary in May 2022. Made From Scratch was the start of that and I can’t quite believe what came out of it.”

- Kay Proudlove, Singer/Songwriter

“Presenting stuff that’s in progress is such a scary, but vital part of creating a new work. Made From Scratch gives you a stage, a plethora of accompanying artists and fantastic audience to test this content out. This great program provides a fun, safe and exciting platform to present your art and possibly lead to further developments down the line”.

- Nick Vagne (Vaguely Adjacent)

93 Crown will offer MERRIGONGX artists performance and rehearsal space to hone their craft, and develop new works of theatre that reflect the amazing stories and communities we know and love. Got an idea for an act? Contact artistic@merrigong.com.au

“In great news for local independent artists, thanks to Wollongong City Council, in 2023 they’ll have a dedicated space in the centre of town to meet, rehearse and perform. It’s temporary for now, but who knows…”

- Simon Hinton, Artistic Director / CEO Merrigong Theatre Company