A 'horror' end to the year...

October has been HUGE! Two shows with The Anchor back to back - Pillow Fight at Gasworks Arts Park for the Melbourne Fringe and then Body Horror at La Mama as part of the Explorations program. Pillow Fight was unbelievably well received, winning the New Zealand Touring Award at the Fringe - so the team are off to Wellington in March 2023! Reviewer Lucy Lucas wrote “There just isn’t time to go into all the beautifully constructed details of the show; the exquisitely simple motif of passing the baton (balloon) of control back and forth, the understated but powerful movement sequences, the excellent use of basic rostra and minimal props...let me just say writer Laura Lethlean and director Katie Cawthorne are a powerhouse duo and all elements of this production are masterfully executed.”.

Two weeks later Katie and Laura were back in the rehearsal room with two new actors - both gutsy and provocative - Mia Tuco and Bonnie Roberts. After spending 3 days experimenting on the floor, the team presented Body Horror over 3 nights, an exploration of beauty and how it holds the worth of a woman and what lengths women will go to to ensure their validity. This work stimulated rambunctious foyer talk as audiences sought to understand their own relationship to beauty and their worth.

Earlier in the year Katie facilitated the development and production of The National Theatre Drama School’s DREDGE, a physical theatre work performed by eight graduating actors. It interrogated the systems we live within and the grotesque and sycophantic ways in which we participate. It looked towards finding a way out in a world that seeks to control. The students worked unbelievably hard and their commitment to this work has resulted in continuing discussion amongst those who saw it today.

Busy end! Start?

Once Melbourne began to emerge from its sixth lockdown in October 2021, Katie was able to get moving on three back to back shows! She and Laura Lethlean created Honey in collaboration with the graduating acting students at the National Theatre Drama School. A work about “living” life rather than being”alive” in life, it was a perfect way to emerge from our cocoons and appreciate what we have and our ability to truly experience everything around us. Audiences responded so warmly to this piece, with many commenting that they felt it spoke to their experience of the last two years. It was so beautiful to watch the students receive these responses and come alive as they were reminded of their purpose as actors.

Katie was then super fortunate to move straight onto MTC’s production of Touching the Void, as Assistant Director to Petra Kalive. A spectacular production visually that spoke to audiences so clearly about the capabilities we have as humans, that many of us had forgotten about throughout the pandemic. The true story of Joe Simpson, a mountain climber who navigated a horrific number of falls and then extreme weather and geographical conditions to make his way alone, down a mountain in the Andes - and survived. Again, it was so heartening to see audiences in Melbourne recall the importance of our industry in this city, as they were deeply affected by this play.

The third production Katie has been privileged to be part of was Sempiternal at NICA. Devised with the !st year Bachelor of Circus Arts students, this work was first scheduled for 2020, then 2021 and we were finally able to realise it in February 2022. We’ve been creating since December 2020, in person, over zoom, with varying cast members as some dropped away and new ones moved in. All of this was so well worth it though and the experience has been one of the best in Katie’s career. Sempiternal was a conceptual work, observing the life cycle from cell, to birth to development into a fully grown adult to experience the vastness of life, love and then death, before returning to the beginning, as a cell. It was a truly beautiful way to end such a busy time, seeing 25 circus students find their individual voices as performers and affect so many around them through their honest and highly skilled story-telling.

Sempiternal 2022. Photography Rob Blackburn.

Rescheduling!

In June 2021, in between lockdowns, Cactus, written by Madelaine Nunn, was presented at La Mama. Katie directed this work in person and over zoom, after it was rescheduled from 2020 and the team were so excited and felt very privileged to be able to actually present the work in a theatre in between the two major lockdowns in Melbourne this year. It was beautifully received, selling out the season and being programmed for a regional tour for 2021.

The Anchor were programmed to present ROPE BURN, the full length version of their 2015 work Little Bitch, at Gasworks Arts Park for the Melbourne Fringe Festival in October. After a full week of rehearsals in August Melbourne went back into into lockdown for the sixth time, and after holding our breath for many more weeks, had to cancel this year’s production. The team are so excited to still be premiering this new work at Gasworks in 2022 and can’t wait to get back on the floor together.

Katie is currently directing the major performance work for the 1st year students at the National Institute of Circus Arts. This piece was scheduled to be presented this year in November, however it has now been rescheduled to early 2022.

Honey is a new work being created by Katie and the 3rd year students at the National Theatre Drama School, written in collaboration with Laura Lethlean. This piece is a true ensemble work, with the students also taking on production roles and presenting the piece in November.

Back in the rehearsal room!

After a challenging 2020 for the performing arts industry, Katie began 2021 with The Anchor fulfilling a residency at Gasworks Arts Park. The company spent a couple of weeks in January finalising the new shape of their 2014 production Little Bitch, settling on a new title - ROPE BURN. This work will be co-produced by Gasworks and The Anchor in October this year.

Katie has just completed 3 weeks of rehearsals, remounting the 2018 production of Hell’s Canyon written by Emily Sheehan. Although this is a remount, two new actors have brought fresh life to the work in a slight reimagining, which has been incredibly satisfying for the whole creative and production team. As part of the remount, the team spent 3 days in a studio filming the work to be developed into a digital production which will be shared at a later stage! Regional towns and secondary schools around Victoria will experience Hell’s Canyon in May and it’s been so exciting to continue the journey of this beautiful text by Emily Sheehan.

Katie is now beginning work on another beautifully current work - Cactus written by Madelaine Nunn. This piece has previously been shortlisted for the Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award, telling a story of young female friendship in a world that can change at any moment. Melbourne audiences will be able to see this at La Mama in June and July this year.

Residencies and Festivals 2020

Katie and Laura (directors of The Anchor) received a residency at the Bluestone Church Arts Space during February and March to develop their 2014 work Little Bitch into a full length piece. This was incredibly productive and resulted in a clear new direction for this piece along with a second performance art work called Circuit. This was a solo performance developed specifically for the Art Not aPart Festival in Canberra.

Katie also worked on the development of Unicorn Girl, a new play for young people, by playwright Madelaine Nunn at Arena Theatre Company in Bendigo during March and looks forward to the production of this piece in the near future. Katie will be directing another of Madelaine Nunn’s plays, Cactus at La Mama theatre in June

2020

Katie has spent the second half of 2019 planning and developing a number of projects for 2020, stay tuned to find out more about them in the new year!

The Three Graces 2019

Katie directed The Anchor’s second production of 2019 at Theatre Works in May receiving outstanding responses from reviewers and audience members. Katie co-founded The Anchor theatre company in 2015 with Jessica Arthur and Laura Lethlean. The Three Graces was the sixth production she has partnered with Laura Lethlean on and the two continue to go from strength to strength in their artistic collaboration.

“…the staging and movements of the trio are satisfyingly beautiful and creative. Katie Cawthorne’s direction is superb.” Lucinda Naughton, Theatre Travels

“Laura Lethlean’s text is epic, ambitiously rich in ideas and images… She has found a brave and inventive collaborator in Katie Cawthorne energetic and frequently physical direction. They have developed an intimacy between the text and the action that is consistently revelatory” Darby Turnbull, Theatrepeople

“Each part of The Three Graces comes together in glorious fashion, creating a sensational production. Led by an exceptional team, it’s a show not to be missed. I look forward to what the Anchor Theatre Company produces next.” Irene Bell, Theatrepress

The Walls That Talk 2019

In April Katie was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery of Australia to devise a physical theatre piece to be performed in the temporary galleries before the institution closes for four months of renovations. Working with actors Jett Chudleigh, Christopher Samuel-Carroll and Ross Walker, as well as musician Jonah Myers, the team developed the work over two weeks and performed over three days, garnering fantastic responses.

“The Walls That Talk is an ingenious performance piece…..Director Katie Cawthorne is the Svengali of physical theatre, painting her images in physical form, stretching the imagination and encouraging her audience to travel through the space, viewing the work from different perspectives, imagining different characters and different stories and letting the walls talk in the silence of their space. Her three actors are skilfully complicit in the moving gallery of images. Expressive and flexible, their bodies morph into a moment that sparks the imagination, makes us think and possibly provides the answers to the questions that persist as we are drawn into the artist’s world.” Peter Wilkins, Canberra Critics Circle

Two Hearts - The Anchor

Katie has just finished directing Two Hearts for The Butterfly Club’s 1 Act Play Festival. This was the third iteration of this work for The Anchor and the first presentation of the company’s work in Melbourne, where both Katie and Laura reside.

“The Anchor theatre company has provided new and insightful theatrical challenges that are dramatically absorbing and daring in style and technique. “ Flora Georgiou, Stage Whispers

Fading

‘Canberra Youth Theatre’s talented ensemble, under the imaginative and energetic direction of Katie Cawthorne, once again have created a work that epitomizes with integrity and skill the role of youth theatre in reflecting through the theatre arts the aspirations, dreams, hopes and fears of young people.’ Peter Wilkins, Canberra Critics Circle

‘Cawthorne creates a theatre of physical impulse setting up  a chain reaction as the cast traverse the stage, gather in tight groups, and echo repetitive calls of the group.  The staging is dynamic in its propulsion, offering strength in unity and assertive commitment to Lethlean’s text and Cawthorne’s direction.’ Peter Wilkins, Canberra Critics Circle

Hell's Canyon

Katie has just finished directing Rodney Seaborn Award winning play Hell's Canyon, written by Emily Sheehan. After a highly successful season at Old 505 Theatre in Sydney in August, it will open in Melbourne at La Mama in September.

·       “If this is an example of 505 Theatre’s ‘warm, strange, exceptional theatre’, then bring it on” (Stage Whispers)

·       “[Isabelle Ford and Conor Leach] Together, under the taut direction of Katie Cawthorne, form a strong team” (Stage Whispers)

·       There is an enjoyable intensity and vigour to director Katie Cawthorne’s work” (Suzy Goes See)

·       Sheehan creates a vivid and authentic world in the lives of these teens, so it comes as no surprise that her writing has already won and been shortlisted for several awards. Director Katie Cawthorne has teased out the complexities of Caitlin and Oscar and their story with great sensitivity and humour, even during the most challenging struggles.” (The Buzz From Sydney)