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.