FROM THE KITCHEN TABLE TO THE STAGE

25 – 26 September 2026

A powerful collaboration brings together State Theatre Company’s Blak State initiative and Adelaide Festival Centre’s OUR WORDS program. Through this partnership, artists Jacob Boehme (Narungga/Kaurna), Natalie Harkin (Narungga) and Tracey Rigney (Ngaririndjeri/Wotjobaluk) explore ways of developing works for stage drawn from personal, family and local histories.

Every family has stories.

Stories told around kitchen tables. Stories shared over cups of tea. Stories whispered, laughed about, carried across generations, or left waiting to be spoken aloud.

This two-day creative workshop invites First Nations participants to explore how personal, family and local histories can become powerful works for the stage.

Led by Jacob Boehme (Narungga/Kaurna), acclaimed theatre maker, writer and director of Logan St and Co-Lead of Blak State, alongside Natalie Harkin (Narungga), poet, researcher and interdisciplinary artist whose work explores Aboriginal archives, memory and justice, and Tracey Rigney (Ngarrindjeri/Wotjobaluk), acclaimed writer and creator of Kumarangk, participants will investigate ways of transforming lived experience into performance.

You do not need to be a playwright.

You do not need previous writing experience.

You might be a visual artist, dancer, musician, actor, filmmaker, community storyteller, Elder, or someone who simply has a story they’ve always wanted to tell.

Bring a yarn.

Bring your curiosity.

Bring your own creative practice, whatever form it takes.

Across two days, participants will take part in practical writing exercises, storytelling provocations, discussions, collaborative feedback and creative development. Together we’ll explore memory, place, family histories, archival research, oral storytelling and the many different ways stories can find their theatrical form.

The workshop will conclude with an informal scratch reading on the afternoon of Day Two, where participants will share excerpts of new work with a small invited audience.

Whether your story becomes a play, a performance, a poem, a dance work or something entirely unexpected, this workshop is about discovering the stories that only you can tell.

WORKSHOP DETAILS

Dates
Friday 25 September and Saturday 26 September 2026

Venue
Drama Centre Rehearsal Room
Enter from Dunstan Playhouse Foyer
Adelaide Festival Centre

Who is it for?
First Nations artists, community members and storytellers from any creative discipline. No previous writing or theatre experience is required.

For all enquiries, please contact: blakstate@statetheatrecompany.com.au

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST

Please complete the expression of interest below. Spaces are limited.