HEADWAY 2023
Milk Crate Theatre's Developing Artist Program is for our Collaborative Artists who have been engaged in our programs for some time and are seeking a new level of challenge.
Across February and March in 2023, we brought back our Milk Crate Theatre Developing Artist Program, HEADWAY! This is an incredibly unique program, offering people with lived experience of homelessness, mental health challenged and disability, rightful access to skills development as makers.
We cover dreaming, planning, budgeting, actioning and organisation - tools that so many of us learn on the floor. But all artists deserve access to this training, especially our Collaborative Artists for whom there is no other specialised and bespoke program available.
We are so proud of our Class of '23! Because even though realising a vision is hard, believing we are deserving of it is another challenge altogether.
OWEN GILL
PHONG LUU
IAN MCSORLEY
Owen is an Actor, Writer, Poet, Lyricst, Musician, Guitar Player, Composer and would-be Director based in Waterloo, Sydney. As an Artist, Owen is interested in issues-based material such as socioeconomic hardship, addiction, mental illness, multicultural wellbeing and generic Universal Informative Upliftment.
Owen trained as an Actor with Peter Snow at The Drama Studio, Newtown from 1989-1990 and received a scholarship from NIDA to study Acting for Camera in 2016. For more than 30 years Owen has played many roles with Darlinghurst Theatre and Milk Crate Theatre (MCT), including MCT's Fearless (2012) for which he also wrote the lyrical poem Hell Room. His most recent role was in MCT's devised production of Natural Order (2019).
As a writer, Owen completed MCT's Headway program in 2019 under the mentorship of Platon Theodoris, during which time he wrote the 15 minute film Surely Shirley.
Owen has played guitar and bass guitar for 50 years in various bands and as a solo street performer. He plays diverse styles from rock, blues, punk and folk, and composes his own songs as well as ambient and incident music.
Owen continues to deepen his creative practice and creates his own work through his ongoing commitment to MCT's Developing Artist Program.
Phong Luu is a visual artist and collaborator as part of Milk Crate Theatre's Waterloo community programs. Phong has worked as a dancer and performer both on film and in live performance. He is passionate about sustainability and re-purposes recycled cardboard and paper materials into 3D sculptural art pieces. He also plays with acrylic flow paint to create unique abstract art.
Phong has been developing his artistic practice with Milk Crate Theatre since 2020 and continues to nurture his creative skills with the goal of inspiring more community-engaged practices. Phong is excited to co-create new projects with other collaborative and emerging artists whilst continuing his creative development through Milk Crate Theatre's Headway program, led by Artistic Director Margot Politis.
Ian McSorley is a stage and screen character actor and singer. He has a passion for Shakespeare, poetry, writing, physical movement and dance aesthetics. Ian works from his experience and imagination to deliver naturalistic performances and currently studies Auslan (Australian Sign Language).
His stage work includes Reasons to be Pretty directed by Winston Cooper (2017), Hamlet (2021) directed by Sean O'Riodan, and The Seagull (2022) directed by Anthony Skuse. Short films include Flickerfest nominated Boy/Beast and Love It's a Circus, both directed by Andrew Shaw.
Most recently, Ian has curated and performed his one-man live theatre piece Bilateral, directed by Paul Capsis exploring ableism and identity. His poems were also published in the West Word's anthology Silence Transformed in celebration of World Pride 2023. Ian continues to deepen his creative practice through Milk Crate Theatre's Developing Artist Program and has just completed the Headway program, led by Artistic Director Margot Politis.
FELIX MORGAN
KAMINI SINGH
Kamini Singh is a performer, visual artist, singer-songwriter and major line-dancing enthusiast. Born in Canada, Kamini moved to Australia in 1978 and completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Western Sydney, majoring in creative writing, with a particular interest for poetry and writing for children.
Kamini has exhibited her painting and photography works at various galleries and received a scholarship from Deutschbank and Art Square to exhibit at Point Light Gallery. As a singer-songwriter, she has created several EP's of original songs, backing herself on guitar.
Kamini has been a Collaborative Artist with Milk Crate Theatre since 2018 and has devised and performed in productions of That's the Spirit and DUST, which played at Sydney Theatre Company. Kamini is currently studying law and teaching at TAFE and is a recent graduate of Milk Crate Theatre's Headway program from which she aspires to make her first Docuseries about the history and joy of line dancing a reality.