THE DPS LAB, an evening of theatrical exploration on Tuesday 24th October at The Princess Theatre featuring new visual theatre works from Dead Puppet Society’s 2023 DPS Academy artists.
With three bite-sized showcases of original works from local emerging and independent artists on the bill, and The Princess Theatre’s outdoor bar open with a DJ serving some fresh beats, this one-night-only event promises a fun-filled night experiencing the unexpected and experimental.
Presented with DPS Academy’s new partner, The Princess Theatre, with support from The Jelley Family Foundation and Arts Queensland, each work featured in THE DPS LAB is created as part of DPS Academy, Dead Puppet Society’s flagship artist training program and incubator for new design-led work.
With a manifold of themes being explored by this year’s DPS Academy artists, including the delving into the surreal, trust, manipulation, horror and absurdist joy – audiences can expect a compelling, curious experience.
Dead Puppet Society’s Associate Creative Director, Matt Seery, explains that THE DPS LAB is a chance to shine a spotlight on some of the most exciting new talent Brisbane has to offer.
“Here are three new ideas from talented artists already making waves that are unexpected, sophisticated, and completely original. More than that, they are boldly ambitious – in a way that will demand each artist bring the best of their work to date, then push their limits further still.”
With striking projection and physical theatre, performance artist and actor Emmy Moore’s new work Bucket Boy Takes Flight is a one-person show that delves into the surreal as a means of rising against all odds, even gravity.
“This work hits close to home for me, and I am thrilled to be working with Dead Puppet Society to deepen my performance skills and widen my connections within the wider Brisbane arts community,” comments Moore.
Esther Dougherty, a playwright, artist and force behind art and event production house Curtain World, will explore themes of trust, manipulation and forgiveness, and sites of the self and transformation in Fitzgerald Sunbeam, a queer comedy for anyone who has felt like running away and starting their life from scratch.
“I am so excited to be making this show – I have a lot of big dreams for it,” says Dougherty. “Having Dead Puppet Society alongside this early development to offer guidance and support is a big boost, and I hope everyone likes how it all turns out.”
Jordon Riley and Blake Hohenhaus from Lunch Friend, a newly-founded theatre-making artist collective, will be joined by multidisciplinary artists Jiordie Lobwein, Grace Lofting and Alex Riley for their piece. Exploring the effects that modern consumerism has on Earth and the homes we inhabit, The Hearth will blend physical theatre, abstracted poetic storytelling and gothic domestic horror to tell a story of Home vs Owners.
“We are absolutely thrilled to be working with Dead Puppet Society to bring The Hearth to life,” says Hohenhaus from Lunch Friend. “Working with Dead Puppet Society is going to inject so many valuable skills and resources into our talented team of creatives.”
Now in its sixth year, the 2023 DPS Academy program is a creative development program that engages local artists to develop innovative original works under the mentorship of Dead Puppet Society’s team.
With one of their biggest box office hits, The Wider Earth by David Morton, being originally developed at St. Ann’s Puppet Lab at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn in 2014, Dead Puppet Society’s Executive Producer Nicholas Paine explains their passion for providing similar pathways and opportunities that were made available to them as emerging theatre practitioners.
“As an established Queensland-based company, we want to provide the same kind of safe and supportive environment to experiment and take risks, which we valued so highly when we were starting out,” comments Mr Paine.
“By providing hands-on mentorship and a structured, creative development process through DPS Academy and THE DPS LAB, we aim to offer a unique bridging opportunity between tertiary training and other development programs.”
This year’s Academy includes a revamped masterclass series, with sessions focusing on vision, devising for visual theatre, story mapping, design conceit and creative producing, marketing and publicity, production design and prototyping, fabrication and preparing for production. DPS Academy is designed to equip artists with the experience, resources and connections needed to continue developing, or to stage their full works independently after completing the program.
Having The Princess Theatre as a new partner in 2023 marks a new chapter for DPS Academy. Artists will have unprecedented access to the beautifully-restored contemporary performance space to develop and present their work, with Dead Puppet Society’s HQ and Fabrication Workshop just a few steps away.
“The Princess Theatre is thrilled to be partnering with Dead Puppet Society on their Academy program and THE DPS LAB, bringing the venue back to its roots as a host to local theatre and performance makers,” comments Creative Director Dave Sleswick.
“We are incredibly lucky to have this internationally renowned ensemble based in the city, building the cultural fabric of Brisbane, and providing opportunities for local and emerging artists to inhabit our heritage venue.”
Matt Seery, Dead Puppet Society’s Associate Creative Director comments, “With our partner The Princess Theatre, we’re serving up an evening of back-to-back sneak peek performances on Thursday 24th October. The DPS LAB is a night for theatre-makers and theatre-lovers to get together and watch, in real time, intriguing early ideas that will hopefully evolve into exciting full-scale productions.”
