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.