The Annual Paradise Psychic Expo
Author Identifier (ORCID)
Research Statement
Research Background
Design-led performance research has tended to position scenography as service to text. Within trans and gender-diverse scholarship, Rachel Hann’s Beyond Scenography (Routledge, 2019) proposes scenography as a primary site of meaning-making. Working alongside M’ck McKeague (Lead Artist) and Meri Leeworthy (Co-creator), the team asked: can a body of design material (images, soundscapes, costume renderings, fictional documents, scale models, narrative timelines) function in place of a traditional script for an immersive performance, and what dramaturgies of queer, trans, and regional belonging emerge when ensemble devising is woven into that design?
Research Contribution
Paradise advances design-led making by replacing the script with a generative design portfolio. Under the direction of Park Younghee and myself, the ensemble devised performance material in response to the design rather than the reverse. The work models a scalable modular format for non-traditional regional venues. The 2024 creative developments include story development and dramaturgy by Nayuka Gorrie, integrating First Nations perspectives into the conceptual frame of a queer climate-crisis work.
Research Significance
The team was awarded two independent national competitive peer-assessed selections in the same cycle: Creative Australia Theatre panel grant G-24-390494, $25,608.46 (December 2023), and Metro Arts 2024 Creative Development Program, 1 of 2 projects selected from a highly competitive peer-assessed field. Metro Arts contributed combined support to the value of $20,655. The project builds on M’ck McKeague’s competitive presentation of his Trans/Nonbinary Scenographics practice at Prague Quadrennial 2023. International scholarly mentorship across the project by Dr Rachel Hann (Northumbria), whose own peer-reviewed work cites M’ck McKeague’s nonbinary scenography practice.
Keywords
scenography, design-led performance, immersive theatre, performance design, queer performance, transgender studies, non-binary identities, devised performance, dramaturgy, creative practice research, collaborative theatre, ensemble devising, regional performance, site-responsive performance, climate crisis, climate storytelling, trans dramaturgy, queer dramaturgy, visual storytelling, theatre design, performance studies, interdisciplinary arts, contemporary theatre, scenographic practice, First Nations perspectives, experimental theatre, narrative design, creative development
Non-Traditional Research Output
Live Performance
Document Type
Non-Traditional Research Output
Date of Publication
2024
Publisher
Company Bad. Metro Arts
School
Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts
RAS ID
100036
Event Venue
CD1 Rockhampton residency. CD2 Mt Mee residency & Brisbane development, Metro Arts.
Additional Information
Design portfolio (images, soundscapes, costume renderings, props, fictional documents, scale models, narrative timelines) functioning in place of a traditional script.
Recommended Citation
McKeague, M., Leeworthy, M., Stoneham, N., Neideck, J., Park, Y., Gorrie, N., Sara, P., Raveneau, T., Dos Santos, E., Dunne, E., & Jones, D. (2024). The Annual Paradise Psychic Expo [Commissioning presenter]. https://doi.org/10.25958/nptt-gc07
Documentation Statement
This record presents a documented representation of the research output, including the research statement and associated contextual metadata. The creative work itself is not included. Where available, external links are provided to representations of the work.
Content Type
Documentation only
DOI Statement
The DOI refers to the repository metadata record only and serves as a documentation identifier.