TOXICITY
About the Project
Assembly of Elephants (AoE) and debase are multi-generational networks of skilled creatives with a portfolio and pre-existing record of impactful work in education and theatre contexts. For the double bill TOXICITY these two independent theatre companies have joined forces to create a new performance work in live theatre, secondary schools and digital capture, that responds to the needs of our communities and sees performance and storytelling as keys to empowering questions, reflection and change.
After creative development with professional artists in 2024-25, TOXICITY, its accompanying digital resources, and its in-schools program, will be available for production and regional touring in late 2025 and across 2026.
Find out more
- About TOXICITY
- Project Timeline
- Company Biographies
- TOXICITY Team Biographies
- About the Production
- How to See the Show
- Project Videos
TOXICITY
- raises awareness of the generational impacts of gender violence, bullying and aggression, and the widespread assumptions underlying it;
- employs artists in ongoing work that leaves an imprint on our world; and
- actively engages with and listens to the voices of young people on issues central to their generation, encouraging personal agency while enhancing drama skills.
TOXICITY will be performed professionally, and toured regionally, with an accompanying multi-week schools-initiated program to engage youth and communities in each regional centre to which it tours. The digital capture of both works will enable greater access to its early intervention strategies to explore and address issues surrounding gender violence. TOXICITY is more than just a performance; it provides crucial opportunities for education, engaging with youth at a formative point in their lives.
Project Timeline
August 2024
Stage 2 | Rowan’s Story
Creative Development
Creative development with professional artists, and an industry showcase at Yeronga State High School.
– Digital Program
– Program (.pdf)
– Video
Company Biographies
Assembly of Elephants (AoE)
AoE creates new performance work in live theatre, digital capture and audio. We seek out ideas that demand an audience, make the work live, and capture it on our digital platform along with comprehensive learning support material. With this pilot youth program, AoE takes another step toward building a performance ecosystem: developing theatre that is both artist-created and student-created.
debase productions
Working in Brisbane and Melbourne, touring nationally and internationally, debase has been creating new shows since 1998. Pursuing a vision to enact social change through comic performance, debase creates and programs work with and for specific audiences, employing a highly physical, playful, and collaborative approach to telling Australian stories and challenging our audiences to question stereotypes, history and identity.
TOXICITY Team Biographies
Elaine Acworth
Artistic Director, Assembly of Elephants, Playwright
Co-founder of Assembly of Elephants, Elaine creates award-winning plays and mentors emerging playwrights. She has been commissioned by both State and independent theatre companies in Australia and produced at London’s Hackney Empire, Edinburgh Festival and Comédie Française. She works in live performance, audio and video, and teaches specialist workshops in class environments at secondary and tertiary levels.
Bridget Boyle
Artistic Director, debase productions, Director
Co-founder of Debase Productions, Bridget is an Australian director focusing on comedy and gender. She has directed for Brisbane Festival, Queensland Theatre, and State Theatre Company of South Australia, and holds a doctorate in Drama.
Linda Hassall | Dramaturg
Linda has over 30 years experience as a director, playwright and dramaturg. Published plays include Motel Chronicles, Salvation, A Contemporary Hymn and Post Office Rose. She recently published Theatre of Dust: Climate Gothic analysis of contemporary Australian plays which dedicates a chapter to Elaine Acworth’s Water Wars. She has directed work at Metro Arts and La Boite. Awards Field of Study include: Matilda Award for Best New Play, and top 10 finalist Queensland Premiers Drama Award. She is the Theatre Coordinator a Deputy Program Director at Griffith University.
Morgan Francis | Sound Design
Morgan is a composer, sound designer and Matilda Award nominated actor. A QUT Fine Arts (Acting) graduate, his credits include Lysa and the Freeborn Dames (La Boite), Boy, Lost. (Belloo Creative) and numerous creative developments at Queensland Theatre and Dead Puppet Society. As a composer, Morgan worked on critically acclaimed The Norman Mailer Anecdote (Queensland Theatre) and with Wesley Enoch on Dan Evans’ JOAN MUST DIE. Morgan is also lead singer/songwriter in Lost Goat Found, a Brisbane rock four-piece with multiple singles and a studio EP.
Teegan Kranenburg | Lighting Design
Teegan is a lighting designer and production manager based in Brisbane/Meanjin. They hold a Bachelor of Arts (Contemporary and Applied Theatre) from Griffith University and have collaborated with companies such as Counterpilot, Flipside Circus, and Brisbane Festival. Teegan is currently the Production Manager at La Boite Theatre. Recent projects include lighting design for Matriarchs and [gameboy] at Metro Arts’ DANCE24, The Norman Mailer Anecdote at Queensland Theatre, and She with Indelability Arts.
Simona Cosentini | Set and Costume Design
Simona is a set and costume designer from Naples, Italy. After studying Fine Arts in Scenography in Bologna, she honed her skills with theatre companies in Italy. Since moving to Cairns, she has collaborated with major theatre companies across QLD and the Northern Territory. Her work spans traditional and contemporary mediums, focusing on sustainability and VR in set design. Recently, she expanded her skills as a co-writer, cultural consultant, and producer on Lucky and the Flight of the Sky Puppies.
NJ Price | Fight/Intimacy Coordinator
NJ trained in Acting and Music Theatre at Mountview Academy in London, developing a passion for stage combat. She is a teacher with the British Academy of Dramatic Combat and The Society of Australian Fight Directors. NJ is a regular fight choreographer with Queensland Theatre, QUT, Griffith Conservatorium and many independent theatre companies. NJ integrates psychology into her work, including trauma therapy and how childhood experiences affect adult behaviour. NJ’s other creative work is writing and performing as lead vocalist for Brisbane-based heavy rock band Burst By Sun.
Erica Fryberg | Executive Producer
Erica brings extensive experience as an Editorial Manager, Artist Manager and Creative Producer, from arts organisations nationally including Opera Australia, Sydney Symphony, Sydney Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre Company, Musica Viva and Opera Queensland. Her mentorship oversees Assembly of Elephants’ Associate Producer.
Lauren Harvey | Associate Producer
Lauren is an actor, writer, and producer currently completing her Arts Queensland industry placement. A recent graduate of QUT Acting, her performance credits include David Williamson’s Aria (Noosa Arts Theatre), JOAN MUST DIE* (Gardens Theatre) and The Haptic Visions (Metro Arts). In 2024 she was awarded the Adelaide Fringe Fund for her play Call Girls. The show’s web series adaptation received official selection at Melbourne Web Fest.
Stephen Rowan | Stage Manager
Stephen has had a career spanning over thirty years in the theatre industry as an actor, singer, writer, director, stage manager, production manager, tour manager and producer of new work by emerging writers. In the tertiary sector, Stephen lectured in stage management and production management within Griffith University’s Contemporary and Applied Theatre degree.
About the Production
TOXICITY is a theatre presentation that pairs Assembly of Elephants’ new play, Rowan’s Story by Elaine Acworth, with debase production’s existing work, Popping Lead Balloons, in a double bill for youth audiences:
ROWAN’S STORY
A visceral, heartfelt examination of a 16-year-old’s life as he explores his gender and sexuality, discovers the intricacies of emotional relationships, and uncovers his family’s violence
Rowan’s Story is a 45-minute play tackling crucial questions on gender equity in an Australia carved by partner violence. Rowan’s Story is inspired by student-generated work and performance, resulting in a nuanced, touching, gut-clenching ride through the lives of young Australians, as they see it.
POPPING LEAD BALLOONS
A high-energy comic drama for teens and anyone who has survived adolescence
Join Mel as she takes a walk down the not so sweet memory lane of high school years – when bitching became an art form. In a wickedly funny stand up routine, interspersed with scenes depicting school life (and social death), Popping Lead Balloons explores the nature of contemporary girl culture, with its complicated status games and high-tech bullying. Popping Lead Balloons toured Queensland in 2009 and 2011, and regional Victoria in 2011. The play has been substantially revised and refreshed with student input, for this production.
TOXICITY brings together artists, mental health and violence prevention organisations, drama educators, and local school students into an ecosystem with performance at its heart.
CAST AND CREW
- Touring Party: Maximum 5 (anticipated)
- Rowan’s Story Playwright: Elaine Acworth
- Popping Lead Balloons Playwrights: Robert Kronk, Liz Skitch, Bridget Boyle
- Director (both): Bridget Boyle
- Executive Producer (AoE): Erica Fryberg
- Set Designer: Simona Cosentini
- LX, Sound Designer: TBC
- Cast of 4 actors: TBC
DURATION
- Approximately 2 hours excluding interval.
- Prelude: 15 mins Schools Presentation (optional)
- Act 1: 45 mins Popping Lead Balloons
- Interval: 20 mins
- Act 2: 45 mins Rowan’s Story
- Q&A: 15 mins With Local School Representatives, Cast & Crew
VENUE & TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
- Suitable for proscenium arch venues, arena/ in-the-round, theatre (black box/ flat floor), town halls and cultural facilities, but not for outdoors.
- Technical requirements tbd early 2025. AoE and debase are interested in liaising with venues and presenters to create the kind of shows their venues best support.
IN-SCHOOLS ENGAGEMENT PROGRAM
TOXICITY tackles one of the most significant issues of today: the place of violence, physical and psychological, in forming this nation’s identity. It offers multiple entry points and outcomes for young people: through an in-schools program, digital resources, and live performance outcome:
- up to 8 weeks contact in the school term prior to the production touring date/s;
- suitable for drama/ English/ Health & PE/ wellbeing classes, or extra-curricular programs; best suited to Years 9-12;
- option of workshop/s attached to the performance date/s in each regional centre, providing collaborative opportunities between students and professional artists;
- Both performances will be available in digital capture and accompanied by digital support material;
- possible Q&A post-show.
PRESENTER FEE
$5,000 (contingent on securing Government funding for tour and extra elements required).
MORE INFORMATION
Expression of Interest – Schools
If you are a school or teacher interested in your school participating in one of Assembly of Elephants in-school workshops for Rowan’s Story, please complete this School Expression of Interest form.
Expression of Interest – Venues
If you are a venue interested in presenting the TOXICITY double-bill of Rowen’s Story and Popping Lead Balloons, please complete this Venue Expression of Interest form.
SUPPORTERS
The Rowan‘s Story Project is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland
