Play Process Experiment (PPE) is PACT’s full-time, two-week lab intensive that will support eight emerging artists-in-residence to develop new performance work. It is an opportunity to explore new performance-making tools and methods in a collaborative environment with peers and industry mentors, with the aim of building your skills in creating your own work and getting it to the next stage. Led by the PACT Artistic Directorate (AD), the two-week lab will culminate in a public showing at PACT, and the opportunity to pitch for a funded residency to develop the work further.
The lab program will be divided into masterclasses on embodied movement, lighting/scenography, dramaturgy, audience connection, supported performance practice and more. These classes will be lead by PACT’s artistic directorate:
Vicki Van Hout
Malcolm Whittaker
Sēini Taumoepeau
Nat Randall
PACT Lab: Play, Process, Experiment 2023 was funded with support from the Wales Family Foundation.
Meet the lab artists:
Aarushi Zarthoshtimanesh
Aarushi Zarthoshtimanesh (she/ her, b. 2000) is a passionate artist, student, writer, and mango lover. She identifies as an Indian-born queer woman, raised in the hustle and bustle of the city of Mumbai, India. But, her great-grandparents originally lived and fled from Iran, attempting to escape the early Mughal invasions, finding themselves displaced on the shores of western India. Aarushi’s practice now thrives on Bidjigal and Gadigal land, where through the poetics of painting, installation, performance and moving image she wishes to materialise and spatialise the felt reality of displacement and re-examine what shapes and forms our social identities – beyond borders and binaries.
Agustin Elaskar
Agustin Elaskar is a queer Northern Rivers based emerging artist whose experimental performance and dance work is centred around the investigation of Queer identity, sex positivity, nostalgia, embodiment and expression using flavour as a novel stimuli. Immigrating from Argentina in 2019, he began his dance training on Gadigal and Bundjalung Country. After engaging in ‘Body/Landscape’ practise, his curiosity for embodied expression was reaffirmed. He is deepening connections with the Lismore LGBTQIA+ dance/ performance community and participated in the flood recovery project, I Will Survive. He recently performed "Afternoon of a Faun " at Bleach Festival with Paul Walker.
Lucy Doherty
Lucy Doherty is a dance artist, choreographer, and filmmaker. Trained in multiple styles of dance, she has made her mark on both stage and screen, captivating audiences with her compelling presence and emotionally charged performances. Lucy's work, shaped by personal experiences, explores themes of grief, mortality, and divinity. Her internationally acclaimed dance films have earned nominations for two Australian Dance Awards for 'Outstanding Achievement in Dance on Film'. Guided by curiosity, her practice centers on the interplay of body, emotion, and spirit, with an interest in cultivating cathartic performance experiences for herself and audiences alike.
Lakatoi
Lakatoi is an acclaimed experimental producer and musician based in Naarm Melbourne. Leading various projects through the years, such as Kandere and FAMILI, he has been hailed as a forward-thinking innovator who weaves his own unique sound into all he touches. His recent solo project samples archival and percussion recordings from the Pacific. The audio is reworked to imagine what an oceanic club environment could be. Lakatoi has performed at several festivals around Australia alongside international acts such as Leonce, Nozinja, Asmara, Lotic, Moor Mother, Elysia Crampton and Gaika.
Sabrina Lee Muszynski
Sabrina is an emerging dance artist interested in contemporary and experimental movement. Hailing from Northern NSW, Sabrina moved to Sydney, attending The McDonald College. After completing a Bachelor of Dance (Academy of Music and Performing Arts), Sabrina performed in ENCOUNTER, directed by Emma Saunders, commissioned and produced by FORM Dance Projects (Four Winds Festival, Sydney Festival, Sydney Opera House, OpenField, Bleach*). As a Scottish Highland dancer, Sabrina has performed in Scotland, Switzerland, the United States, South Africa, and Russia. Using her Scottish heritage to inform her artistic practice, Sabrina is currently examining the intersection between visceral movement and Highland dancing.
Stelly G
A self-proclaimed local Icon & staple of nightlife and queer parties, Stelly G is a Gadigal-based Fijian performance artist with an anti-colonial practise that brings to the forefront the Pacific-diaspora experience.
Stelly has performed as a solo/collaborative artist across many established institutions and galleries including Cement Fondu, Sydney Biennale, MCA, Sydney Opera House, Firstdraft, and Campbelltown Arts Centre, and performed in works with Garden Reflexxx that have shown in local and international film festivals.
Vishnu Arunasalam
Vishnu Arunasalam ( He/ They) is a Sri Lankan ( Eelam) born Australian-raised emerging art-maker who lives, works and plays on Darug country, exploring the traditional dance medium of Bharatanatyam with a developing contemporary dance and multidisciplinary practice. His work explores his Queer South Asian diaspora identity within the contemporary Australian landscape. He is a current practitioner of Bharathanatyam, Carnatic Music (South Indian Classical Music) and Nattuvangam (South Indian Vocal Percussion) and has experience in Art Direction, Costume Design, Production and Administration. Vishnu is also a Clinical Nurse Specialist working in the space of End of Life and Palliative Care who aspires to bring to focus the intersection point of dance, health and wellbeing, making works that speak to the experiences of life, death, grief and the journey of the spirit after death, providing insight into the human experience beyond the realm of medical and clinical diagnosis, using dance a vehicle to finding peace in the transition from this realm to the next.