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ActNow Theatre is a
theatre company Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
based in
Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
,
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
. Founded in 2007, it is a community-based company whose work focuses on
social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...
issues and techniques. From 2007 until 2020, the artistic director was
Edwin Kemp Attrill Edwin Kemp Attrill is a theatre artist and activist from Adelaide, South Australia, who has received several awards for his contribution to community arts and cultural development. Themes His work is focused on interactive techniques and social ...
. ActNow Theatre worked with Very Theatre in Taiwan over three years to develop a work called "Virtual Intimacy". Another notable project was undertaken during the
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first confirmed case in Australia was identified on 25 Januar ...
in 2020, called "Decameron 2.0". This comprised a series of
monologue In theatre, a monologue (from el, μονόλογος, from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes a ...
s delivered online, written and performed in conjunction with the
State Theatre Company of South Australia The State Theatre Company of South Australia (STCSA), branded State Theatre Company South Australia, formerly the South Australian Theatre Company (SATC), is South Australia's leading professional theatre company, and a statutory corporation. It ...
.


History

The company was founded in 2007 by three high school friends, including former artistic director Edwin Kemp Attrill. The company initially created
street theatre Street theatre is a form of theatrical performance and presentation in outdoor public spaces without a specific paying audience. These spaces can be anywhere, including shopping centres, car parks, recreational reserves, college or university c ...
performances, on political issues such as the incarceration of Adelaide-born Guantanamo Bay detainee
David Hicks David Matthew Hicks (born 7 August 1975) is an Australian who attended al-Qaeda's Al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan, and met with Osama bin Laden during 2001. He was then detained by the United States in Guantanamo Bay detention camp ...
. Initial ensemble members were drawn from the Adelaide branch of
Amnesty International Australia Amnesty International Australia is a section of the Amnesty International network, and is part of the global movement promoting and defending human rights and dignity. Concerns and campaigns Human rights in the Asia-Pacific region is a key con ...
and local youth theatre company Urban Myth Theatre of Youth. Initially the company was located in co-working spaces in UrText Studios and Format Collective.. The company was then supported by
Carclew Carclew House, one of Britain's lost houses, was a large Palladian country house near Mylor in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It was situated at approximately three miles north of Falmouth. Carclew House was for some generations owne ...
through a base at Fifth Quarter, a co-working space in Brompton, an inner-western suburb of Adelaide. In 2018 the company established a city-based rehearsal studio, office and small arts venue called MakeSpace. In September 2022 ActNow was awarded a grant of $40,000 in
Arts South Australia Arts South Australia (previously Arts SA) was responsible for managing the South Australian Government's funding for the arts and cultural heritage from about 1996 until late 2018, when it was progressively dismantled, a process complete by early ...
's July 2022 grants round, to fund its 2023 Cultural Leaders Program. The program will develop the cultural leadership skills of a diverse group of ten emerging artists and arts workers.


Description

ActNow is a community-based theatre company. The company is controlled by a Board of Management and is registered as a charity with
Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) is the regulatory authority for charities and not-for-profit organisations within Australia. The Commission was established in December 2012 as part of the ''Australian Charities ...
. The company creates “devised, interactive and issue-based” theatre projects focused on social justice using techniques such as Augusto Boal's
Forum Theatre Forum theatre is a type of theatre created by Brazilian theatre director Augusto Boal. It is one of the techniques under the umbrella term of Theatre of the Oppressed (TO). This relates to the engagement of spectators influencing and engaging with ...
and principles of
Community Arts Community art, also known as social art, community-engaged art, community-based art, and, rarely, dialogical art, is the practice of art based in and generated in a community setting. It is closely related to social practice and social turn. Work ...
and Community Cultural Development. It has been described as "one of the most innovative, inclusive and dynamic companies in Australia" and as one of "a number of extraordinary companies
hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...
are continuing the work hat AugustoBoal began". The company's projects focus on communities of
LGBTIQ+ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...
, First Nations Australians, and culturally and linguistically diverse communities, including a number of programs in schools or for young people. It has been compared to former theatre companies such as
Melbourne Workers Theatre Melbourne Workers Theatre (MWT) was an Australian theatre company based in Melbourne, Australia. The company was founded in 1987 by Patricia Cornelius, Steve Payne and Michael White. It specialised in producing work from a left-wing stance, se ...
and Junction Theatre Company as an arts organisations working across multiple communities.


Company activity

Examples of projects include school safety program "Expect Respect" with the Legal Services Commission of
South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
, the anti-racism education program "Responding to Racism" with Reconciliation South Australia, Queer Youth Theatre workshops, the Game Makers program for kids and dads, and workshop program for culturally diverse artists, the Theatre of the Global Majority (2018-2019). The projects involve participatory theatre techniques, which empower audiences to change aspects of the performances and be active contributors and commentators to broader
social movement A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of group action and may ...
s.
"ActNow creates participatory theatre, not just to engage our audience but also to empower them to be agents of social change within a project and in their own lives. We don’t want our audience to sit quietly in the dark. We want them active as contributors and commentators. Our work finds new ways to engage with our audiences, through technology and a deep relationship between artists and audiences. The simple act of storytelling can engage audiences and create positive social change. As such, our aesthetic is typically paired back and raw, using everyday environments and technologies to create life changing experiences." - Former Artistic Director Edwin Kemp Attrill
Artists involved in the company include former Artistic Director Edwin Kemp Attrill, singer/songwriter Nathan May, poet/writer/performer Manal Younus and Associate Director Yasmin Gurreeboo. Kemp Attrill left the company as Artistic Director/CEO in December 2020. In January 2021, Associate Director Yasmin Gureeboo was announced as the new Artistic Director and co-CEO.


Notable Projects


Virtual Intimacy (虛擬親密)

Over three years, ActNow Theatre worked with Very Theatre in Taiwan to develop a new work called Virtual Intimacy, commissioned by
Arts Centre Melbourne Arts Centre Melbourne, originally known as the Victorian Arts Centre and briefly called the Arts Centre, is a performing arts centre consisting of a complex of theatres and concert halls in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, located in the central M ...
's Asia TOPA Festival and National Theatre of Taiwan. The project explored how people’s relationships with technology are changing the relationships between people. The project was developed through collaboration with queer communities and artists in Taipei, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. The basis of the production was the difference between the two Co-Directors, Tung-Yen Chou and Attrill:
Edwin and Yen come from distinctly different backgrounds and experiences. Yen, based in Taiwan and coming from a background of film and theatre, is creating highly visual and technical work. Edwin, based in Adelaide, is creating community-based and participatory storytelling projects with a focus on social justice.
The performance explored themes such as queer hook-up culture, identities of gay men and their relationship with technology. Community members were integral to the performances, sharing their own experiences alongside the professional actors in the work. The work also involved direct communication with the audience during the show, asking them to anonymously answer questions on their phones such as “when did you last have sex?”, “when do you get lost online?” and “what’s the best thing about being single?”.
''“The performance asks the audience to use their phones to answer questions anonymously, in that way we have made a representation of the internet within the theatre, where everyone is able to comment and contribute to the show. It keeps the audience active, but it also asks them to reflect on their own experiences, even if they haven’t used dating or hook-up apps before, they’re still able to reflect on the way that the online world has affected their lives.”'' - Co-director Edwin Kemp Attrill
Virtual Intimacy was the last performance of Arts Centre Melbourne before the COVID lockdown during the
COVID-19 pandemic in Australia The COVID-19 pandemic in Australia is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first confirmed case in Australia was identified on 25 Januar ...
.


Decameron 2.0

In 2020, when the state was under COVID pandemic restrictions, ActNow Theatre partnered with
State Theatre Company of South Australia The State Theatre Company of South Australia (STCSA), branded State Theatre Company South Australia, formerly the South Australian Theatre Company (SATC), is South Australia's leading professional theatre company, and a statutory corporation. It ...
to create Decameron 2.0, a project inspired by 14th-century Italian writer
Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio (, , ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so well known as a writer that he was somet ...
's ''
Decameron ''The Decameron'' (; it, label=Italian, Decameron or ''Decamerone'' ), subtitled ''Prince Galehaut'' (Old it, Prencipe Galeotto, links=no ) and sometimes nicknamed ''l'Umana commedia'' ("the Human comedy", as it was Boccaccio that dubbed Dan ...
''. The original
novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
s encompassed 100 stories told by 10 young people and their servants who fled to the countryside of
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
, Italy, to escape the Plague. In Decameron 2.0, 100 stories of contemporary South Australian characters were commissioned and filmed over 10 weeks in Adelaide. It was possibly the largest new work from theatre-makers globally in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and was described as " a COVID-19 masterpiece which one dares to assert remains unparalleled in the world". The process of creating Decameron 2.0 consisted of a meeting each week between 10 writers, including five core writers: Alexis West, Ben Brooker, Emily Steel, Alex Vickery-Howe, and Sally Hardy; and five guest or community-based writers. In each week's meeting they would be given a theme such as fortune, fate, love and virtue. Each writer had one day to write it, then it was filmed and edited and delivered digitally at the end of that week. The project received significant praise for its involvement of diverse stories and storytellers, including
cultural diversity Cultural diversity is the quality of diverse or different cultures, as opposed to monoculture, the global monoculture, or a homogenization of cultures, akin to cultural evolution. The term "cultural diversity" can also refer to having different cu ...
, sexuality, disability, age and professional status. Of the core writers Alexis West is a
First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...
artist, and was joined by two emerging First Nations writers Kiara Milera and Kyron Weetra, who alternated each week. These monologues by First Nations writers included West’s ''Teahrnah'', played by
Elaine Crombie Elaine Crombie is an Aboriginal Australian actress, known for her work on stage and television. She is also a singer, songwriter, comedian, writer and producer. Early life and education Crombie is a Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara woman from ...
, about a mother being pulled over by the police while driving to the supermarket, making references to the murder of
George Floyd George Perry Floyd Jr. (October 14, 1973 – May 25, 2020) was an African-American man who was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, during an arrest made after a store clerk suspected Floyd may have used a counterfeit twe ...
with the line "
I can't breathe "I can't breathe" is a slogan associated with the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. The phrase originates from the last words of Eric Garner, an unarmed man who was killed in 2014 after being put in a chokehold by a New York C ...
". Other notable artists involved in Decameron 2.0 included
Mitchell Butel Mitchell Patrick Butel (born 10 February 1970) is an Australian actor, singer, director and writer. He is best known for his work in theatre, including musical and opera productions. He has been the artistic director of the State Theatre Compa ...
,
Elena Carapetis Elena Carapetis is an Australian actress and writer, best known for her role as Jackie Kassis in ''Heartbreak High'', as well as numerous other television series and theatre roles. Early life Elena Carapatis graduated from Australia's National ...
, Kate Cheel, Yasmin Gurreeboo, Teddy Hodgeman, Matt Hyde,
Trevor Jamieson Trevor Jamieson (born 7 March 1975) is an Aboriginal Australian stage and film actor, playwright, dancer, singer and didgeridoo player. Early life Trevor Jamieson was born on 7 March 1975 in Subiaco, Western Australia (WA). He grew up in t ...
, Carmel Johnson, Phillip Kavanagh,
Edwin Kemp Attrill Edwin Kemp Attrill is a theatre artist and activist from Adelaide, South Australia, who has received several awards for his contribution to community arts and cultural development. Themes His work is focused on interactive techniques and social ...
, Finegan Kruckenmeyer, Verity Laughton, Martha Lott, Sarah Peters, Jacqy Phillips, Susan Prior, Rory Walker, and Manal Younus.


Awards and recognition

ActNow Theatre received a Governor's Award for
Multiculturalism The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...
in 2014 and again in 2021 as joint award winner. In both 2017 and 2018, ActNow, together with Reconciliation South Australia, was a finalist in the
Australian Human Rights Commission The Australian Human Rights Commission is the national human rights institution of Australia, established in 1986 as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and renamed in 2008. It is a statutory body funded by, but opera ...
's Racism. It Stops With Me Award, for the programs jointly developed for schools. The company has been short-listed for several additional
South Australian Ruby Awards The South Australian Ruby Awards, also known as the Ruby Awards, are annual awards which recognise outstanding achievement in South Australia’s arts and culture sector. They were named in honour of arts champion Dame Ruby Litchfield (1912–2001 ...
, including the prestigious Outstanding Contribution by an Organisation or Group Award. While Artistic Director of the company, Kemp Attrill received the 2013 Channel 9 Young Achievers Proteus Career Leadership Award, the 2015 Arts South Australia Geoff Crowhurt Memorial Award, the 2018
Australia Council The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austra ...
Kirk Robinson Award for Community Arts and Cultural Development, and the 2020 Channel 7 Carclew Creative Achievement Award. '' Decameron 2.0'' was awarded the 2021 Ruby Award for Best Work or Event Outside a Festival. In 2022 the company won an Impact Award from
PAC Australia The performing arts in Australia are an important element of the Arts in Australia and Australian culture. Dance Dance in Australia is diverse, ranging from The Australian Ballet to the Restless Dance Company to the many local dance studios. ...
.


References

{{authority control Theatre companies in Australia Arts in South Australia Performing arts in Adelaide Political theatre LGBT theatre