DIRECTORS NOTES

Human Activity is the final puzzle piece in the work that I began in Kamathipura 10 years ago. It’s been a glorious and challenging project, mostly rewarding: the young girls that live in the laneways of Asia’s oldest and largest red light district now have an arts program run by Clowns Without Borders and the Brett Lee Music Centre. Girls have traveled - on a plane! - to international children’s theatre festivals. We’ve supported a program to train women in hair salons, to provide them with an opportunity to change their lives. We’ve seen a night shelter established for the most vulnerable tots and toddlers from the local brothels. On the way we worked alongside, partnered with and were inspired by some titans of Indian theatre. We’ve established an arts exchange, hosting 4 Mumbai artists in Sydney and sending 4 from Sydney to Mumbai.

Sometimes the big wild ideas take off. Human Activity is a companion piece to Jatinga, a play inspired by the stories of the girls I met in Kamathipura, commissioned by bAKEHOUSE and written and developed by playwright Purva Naresh, Aarambh theatre and a team of actors at bAKEHOUSE. In 2017 we put India on a tiny stage in KX and played a sold out and acclaimed season. 

In 2017 I wrote this about Jatinga: “It’s just a play. And it’s not going to change the world in any big way. But the work of building it, and the context of its development, and the stories it tells, has changed the world for a few girls”. Human Activity is an Australian response to the big ideas of Jatinga: that at the point where our lives intersect there is an opportunity for love and compassion: that a little play can say a big thing; that theatre and art can both reflect and transcend life; that new and different is good - in theatre, in life.

Katie’s play is a uniquely Australian response to that season. Determinedly Australian yet somehow touched by Indian playmaking, universal in its story and themes, it begins with the idea that our lives intersect and our experiences are shared. We’ve put together a cast that looks like no other you’ll see in Sydney this year, with 21 year olds working on their first production alongside veterans in their 70s. You may have seen some on stages for Belvoir, Riverside, Monkey Baa and KXT. There are those who have lived in Sydney their whole lives, others who have been here for only a few years. Most have traveled to rehearsals from the outer edges of Sydney, (and will be pleased when we transfer to Riverside theatres in October!)

It’s the final piece of a complex 10 year puzzle, driven by compassion, and generosity, and deep care for those who find themselves alone. It is a strange lovely hybrid thing: heavily influenced by the poetry and storytelling of its origins in Indian theatre making, written for and speaking to an Australian audience, locked deep in recent culture and events. Thank you for giving it your time.

REVIEWS

THEATRE THOUGHTS AUSTRALIA / NATANIA MCLEOD

★★★★.5

An honest painting of society today without pretence, 'Human Activity' is a representation of compassion on a large scale

STAGE NOISE / DI SIMMONDS

★★★★

At just 85 minutes, the play packs many punches in its portrait of a temporarily beleaguered city. And, of course, it is only temporary: life goes on no matter what. Vivid images remain, however, especially Karina Bracken’s impudent cockatoo and, as the beaten but not broken Jana, Katherine Shearer’s heart-wrenching revelations of why she’s on the street in – of all destinations – Angel Place. Recommended.

TIME OUT SYDNEY / ALANNAH LECROSS

★★★★

Cynical, abrupt, heart wrenching and hopeful all at once – this is a deeply human work of theatre.

THEATRE RED / PAUL GILCHRIST

Theatrical playfulness in combination with concerns of vital importance is what makes this a thrilling example of new Australian work…much humour and gloriously understated poetry.

STAGE WHISPERS / CAROL WIMMER

There is human warmth, truth and understanding in this production. It comes originally from Pollock’s compassion and empathy, and her deft creation of each character, but it is intensified by Suzanne Millar’s sensitive, perceptive direction and the collaborative approach she brings to all her work.

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD / CASSIE TONGUE

ambitious, occasionally poetic…burrows into its elements of physical theatre, dance, tableaux and vignette to capture a restless, uneasy city

SYDNEY ARTS GUIDE / CAROL DANCE

This collaboration between the two theatre companies is to be applauded.  More productions should be available to both sides of the city.

​worth seeing for its innovative stagecraft, fine acting, and the thoroughly engaging theatre space.

PULP / SANDRA KALLARAKKAL

There’s a heavy weight here. Human Activity bears it exceptionally well.

THEATRE TRAVELS / NOLA BARTOLO

left me with questions and reflections that I am still pondering. A very clear sign that the playwright, producers, director and actors have all done a very good job of bringing to life this complexity.

HONI SOIT / KATARINA BUTLER

Human Activity takes one of the darkest moments in Sydney’s recent history and creates something beautiful.

SUZY GOES SEE / SUZY WRONG

a palpable tenderness that demonstrates respect and love for those we live amongst

LIMELIGHT MAGAZINE / JASON BLAKE

Multi-stranded pieces like this can sometimes fail to be more than the sum of their parts. Not so Human Activity, which engages our collective memories and experiences of life in this city very effectively.

MORE TO COME …

Andrew McMartin is co-founder of KXT, former production manager of bAKEHOUSE, current bAKEHOUSE Board member and all round excellent human being. He’s jumped in to stage manage this beast of a show and we are thrilled to have him back in the room!

“I'm not sure how to describe Human Activity.

It's a beautiful play yet it shows us the ugly, and often hidden side, of some of the many types of abuse and struggles countless women go through.

It's complex in some ways yet pleasantly simple in other ways.

Its grounded and real, with characters that you can easily recognise as people you would know. While also being fantastical and allowing your mind to marvel at the simple wonders that are around us.

Its unique new Australian writing, while being based on universal themes as well as many stories coming from places as far as Mumbai India and as close as other local Sydney-siders.

This play has been created by an amazing team, involving many strong and resilient women and I am proud to be doing my small part, as Stage Manager, to help bring it to life.

HUMAN ACTIVITY by Katie Pollock at KXT on Broadway is only on for a short time. I urge everyone who likes to see good quality theatre to come along before it’s gone forever”

~ Andrew McMartin

ABOUT

Commissioned by bAKEHOUSE as a companion piece to Jatinga, and written following the playwright's residency in Mumbai to connect with the work Suzanne was doing in Kamathipura, HUMAN ACTIVITY is the first bAKEHOUSE season in their new home at KXT on Broadway. With a cast of 10 that includes 4 actors from the 2017 season of Purva Naresh’s Jatinga, and crew and designers across both shows delivering shadows and mirrors of the Mumbai story, Katie Pollock’s play reveals the intersection of our lives and highlights the premise of Suzanne’s work: that art can bring beauty to a sometimes ugly world.


HUMAN ACTIVITY BUILDING MARTIN PLACE

HUMAN ACTIVITY THE SCRIPT

FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT … Human Activity is about a young woman who needs to fix her present, an old couple who need to fix their past, and a city that needs to fix its future.

We’re in Sydney, in the narrow city laneway of Angel Place, just before dawn on 16 December 2014.

It’s the day after the Lindt Cafe siege and the city is filling with people in shock and grief. Birds swirl above and flowers proliferate at their feet.

As a group of characters travel through this altered space, each connected to a violent trauma in their own lives, they connect in unexpected but essential ways. 

This is a story that places the individual at the locus of world events to examine the ripple effects of acts of terrorism - political and domestic.  

The play has had a very long gestation. Suzanne and I first started talking about ideas in 2014 - before the events at the Lindt Cafe even happened!

It was a baby play then that hadn’t yet found it’s feet. But like a mature wine or a stinky cheese, some things take longer than others. Life happened. Then Covid happened. But we’re here now.  

I’m grateful to Suzanne and John for their continued investment in the work and these characters who’ve been hanging around so long now they’re beginning to feel like family members who just won’t take the hint. I’m thrilled to see it finally come to the stage.

KATIE POLLOCK

bAKEHOUSE offers a broad program of Artist Support, focusing on opportunities for Artists of Colour, emerging artists, new writers and women-led teams. The following program is currently delivered via our theatre at KXT

The Laboratory: a weekly program supporting a small group of selected Sydney writers to develop and deliver a play for performance. Run in partnership with Montague Basement and led by Saro Lusty-Cavallari

Step Up: the KXT mentoring program offering meet ups, panels and career guidance. Incl the Step Up festival 

bAKEHOUSE Residencies: full week of development to launch and investigate early projects. 

KXTeethcutting: a monthly play read program showcasing recent graduate actors and directors. Run in partnership with Legit theatre company and led by Mat Lee

KXT / Kwento Writers Residency: an ongoing program of dramaturgical support targeting emerging writers of colour. Run in partnership with Kwento and led by Jordan Shea

KXT Associate Artists: a group of 10 early / mid-career (not emerging) artists whose pathways have been interrupted due to COVID 

Panimo Networking: a KXT partner company offering networking and engagement for young and very early emerging artists. Run in partnerships with Panimo and led by Jack Walton + Jodi Rabinowitz

Storytellers: the KXT festival showcasing new writing through a program of rehearsed staged reads. Run in partnership with Joanna Erskine 

The Monologue collective: a yearlong program supporting teenage writers to develop work suitable for HSC Drama Performance. Led by KXT Associate Artist Laneikka Denne, with support from PYT Fairfield 

Phone a Friend: a platform of online mentoring connection early career artists with industry professionals both in Aus and internationally. KXTs ground breaking engagement program launched and developed through 2020 and 2021 lockdowns  

This is Totally F*cked: a monthly storytelling event featuring 8 storytellers tell a seven minute, true to life story about a life changing event which turned a bad situation into a story of growth.

KXT Crossroads: where art + community meet. Working with producers bAKEHOUSE supports companies to partner with NFPs and Community orgs

In 2023 bAKEHOUSE will be extending the program to include the City Sessions and to expand By Design, our support of emerging visual artists and designers.

StoryLines @ KXT

KXTs profiling of new writing has evolved from the long-held bakehouse commitment to showcasing new Australian work, with productions over the past 10 years of her holiness, Coup D’etat, a Land Beyond the River, His Mother’s Voice, and Junction all grounded in a focus on the too often untold stories of Australia, and our place in the world. 

Most recently in 2019 at KXT we were proud to partner with @jackrabbittheatre for the world premiere of Megan Wilding’s A Little Piece of Ash; and then went on to stage James Elazzis Omar + Dawn; the restaging of Tabitha Woo’s A Westerner’s Guide to the Opium Wars; and the award-winning @greendoortheatreco of Good Dog. Our Popupstairs program featured the world premiere of Doing by Amy Sole.

In 2016 the first bAKEHOUSE production at KXT was the Australian premiere of Black Jesus by Anders Lustgarten with our StoryLines champion @elijah_williams1 in the title role, and in 2017 we were able to finally bring to the stage The Laden Table and Jatinga, both developed over many years with the latter the result of our ongoing work in the slums of Mumbai. Storylines is the umbrella under which all this bAKEHOUSE work sits.

There’s more - much much more - and we are honoured to have partnered in the work with writers, actors, directors and producers who saw the need for and value of changing the stories on our stages. 

In 2021 we step it up.

We have dedicated time in August / September for a StoryLines season, showcasing the work of artists of colour. We’re making room for up to 3 productions by writers of colour, selected by an open call out and playing alongside a support program of play reads and artist workshops.

The program will be led by our StoryLines Ambassadors Renee Lim, and Elijah Williams. We’ve worked with Renee for 10 years now, at Seymour Centre, NIDA, Riverside, ATYP and now KXT. She has been a cast member on a swathe of bAKEHOUSE productions and has served for a time on our Board. We first worked with Elijah Williams on the very first iteration of StoryLines back in 2009, which featured A Land Beyond the River, a play based in part on his life, and then again in 2012 at NIDA and Tamarama Rock Surfers, and in development in 2013 at CRACK festival and ATYP. Elijah’s professional debut was here at KXT, where he was nominated for Best Newcomer.

Too often we get it wrong. It’s time for us all to change the way we work, and to recognise a changing, growing community of artists.

Due to the 2021 Covid Lockdown:

  • The Marriage Agency will be staged in September 2022

  • Falling has been cancelled until further notice

  • Three Fat Virgins Unattended enjoyed an extended 2 weeks season as part of the KXT2021 reboot program, playing a sold out season and taking home the Sydney Theatre Award for Costume

StoryLines in 2022: partnering with emerging independent company kwento, KXT hosts The Marriage Agency by Saman Shad; One Hour No Oil by Jordan Shea; and facilitates a writing course targeted at marginalised voices to dramatise, create and understand a story that has shaped us and feels so utterly personal to us.

Throughout the year bAKEHOUSE continues development of the Australian response play to Jatinga, planned for a season in 2023. Stay tuned for details

BEHIND THE SCENES

bAKEHOUSE, KXT and the Contemporary Australian Theatre Landscape

in 2009 bAKEHOUSE commissioned Justin Fleming to deliver A Land Beyond The River, a play examining the refugee experience and based in part on the lives of Elijah Williams (Sierra Leone), Alex Jalloh (Sierra Leone) and Kir Deng (South Sudan). A Land Beyond the River was a featured play in the 2012 StoryLines festival, launched at NIDA and continuing as part of the Tamarama Rock Surfers season

In 2013 working with a company of 21 artists from 13 nations speaking 11 languages bAKEHOUSE showcased Two Chairs at CRACK! Festival and ATYP

In 2013 bAKEHOUSE staged early developments of The Laden Table at ICE - Information and Cultural Exchange at Parramatta Sydney

In 2014 working with the support of Innovaid bAKEHOUSE partnered with Apne Aap Women’s Collective in Kamathipura, Mumbai to establish an arts program for the victims of sex trafficking, creating an international artistic exchange

In 2014 bAKEHOUSE partnered with FATSthearts, Aramabh and Rage Prods at The Workspace in Pune, India to begin work on the early stages of Jatinga

2014 - now bAKEHOUSE funded and facilitated the following bACE residencies:

  • 2014: Actor and project deviser Jarrod Crellin, 8 weeks / Mumbai

  • 2015: Activist and actor Taryn Brine, 1 week / Mumbai

  • 2015: Writer Katie Pollock, 1 week / Mumbai

  • 2016: Producer John Harrison, 1 week / Mumbai

  • 2016: Writer Purva Naresh, 1 week / Sydney

  • 2017: Actor and activist Sapna Bhavnani, 6 weeks / Sydney

  • 2017: Actor and project deviser Faezeh Jalali, 6 weeks / Sydney

  • 2017: Lighting and Sound designer Yael Crishna, 6 weeks / Sydney

  • The bAKEHOUSE / bACE project is ongoing

In 2015 / 2016 bAKEHOUSE provided partial funding for the NIDA Diversity Survey - an essential, important and sweeping look at the experiences of First Nations and BIPOC students at NIDA. Results pending

In 2015 bAKEHOUSE worked with Loyola College in Mt Druitt to establish a scholarship for tertiary education for the most promising students, unable to attend university due to uncertain citizenship. The partnership delivered start up funds in excess of $50,000

In 2016 bAKEHOUSE partnered with Education and Learning Foundation, LBW and Mumbai-based company Yarambh Theatre to further develop and showcase The Laden Table and Jatinga in a season of sideshows for The Invisible Circus, that included panels, events and workshops.

In 2017 bAKEHOUSE partnered with Don’t Look Away theatre co to support and deliver Phillip Rouse’s debut play Night Slows Down, investigating the politics of climate change

In 2019 bAKEHOUSE co-produced Megan Wilding’s ground breaking play A Little Piece of Ash, partnering with JackRabbit Theatre and investing significantly in the production budget of the sold out season.

In 2020 bAKEHOUSE provided a fully-funded scholarship place for an artist of colour to attend the international Masterclass Pleasure to Play

In 2021 working with company Ambassadors Renee Lim and Elijah Williams, bAKEHOUSE partnered with 3 exciting emerging companies to deliver a season of plays, workshops, reads and developments of work to bring the StoryLines Festival model to the KXT stage: Falling by Nikita Waldron in partnership with GRL PWR productions; The Marriage Agency by Saman Shad in partnership with kwento; 3 Fat Virgins Unassembled by Ovidia Yu in partnership with Slanted Theatre

MORE …

We are committed to telling the stories missing from our stages.

Using a model of community partnership, including cultural representation and community advisors, and close engagement with BIPOC and First Nations artists we are proud to provide a platform for the untold stories of Sydney.

Over the past 10 years bAKEHOUSE has collaborated with the following groups and organisations to build plays, promote social change and support their work:

AAPNE AAP WOMEN'S COLLECTIVE (Mumbai); THE HIVE (Mumbai); INNOVAID (Mumbai); THE REFUGEE ART PROJECT; KINCHELA BOYS HOME ABORIGINAL CORPORATION; SOUTH SUDAN EDUCATES GIRLS; SHALOM GAMARADA; LOYOLA COLLEGE, MT DRUITT; ALL SAINTS AFRICAN CENTRE; ABE'S BABES; INFORMATION AND CULTURAL EXCHANGE (ICE); NAISDA; THE SOUK COLLECTIVE; RAGE THEATRE, (Mumbai); THE COMPANY THEATRE, (Mumbai); AARAMBH THEATRE, (Mumbai); NIDA; RIVERSIDE THEATRES, PARRAMATTA; THE PARK THEATRE, (London UK); RED LEAP THEATRE, (Auckland NZ); FACULTY OF ASIAN STUDIES, SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES, UNSW; MALAYSIAN STUDENTS ASSOCIATION, UNSW + more

click link for more of the bAKEHOUSE portfolio of work, community engagement and artistic programs