Where do you go to perform when you don’t have a home? Easy … anywhere that will have you. That’s the message from Soapbox Theatre Productions on Queensland’s Gold Coast, one of the newest indies on the scene. If it’s on the steps of a chapel on a Golf Course … fine; a night-club in the heart of Surfers’ Paradise … fine. “You have to embrace the culture here – work with the Coast, not against it. It’s a strip; there’s no hub,” says Sarah McLeod, General Manger. She and Artistic Director Jessica Westhead are talking about their passion and engagement with a company fiercely committed to ensemble work. Their artistic vision goes like this:
Soapbox Theatre Productions encourages its artists to fully flex their creative muscles within a collaborative framework, without the traditional term of a ‘director’, and within all aspects of production. As a group of united artists, the members of Soapbox create their own work in fields of acting, physical theatre, technical operations, design, visual art, dramaturgy, dance and music and hope to inspire more artists to do so. Soapbox Theatre Productions not only strives to collaborate fully with its artists … but also work within site specific and new unexplored performances spaces. We aim to bring the highest possible entertainment to our audience as well as creating innovative performance opportunities to the Gold Coast.
I’m curious about their approach, especially their rejection of the traditional role of ‘director’ so I press them a little. Continue reading “Soapbox Theatre: “… work with the Coast culture, not against it” (Interview 5)”