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Artist of the Month

In 2023, we're making it our mission to highlight a new artist from the Australian theatre scene each month.

This individual could be a performer, director, writer, reviewer, sound designer, musician, lighting designer, set designer, stage manager and so on.

If you feel like you'd know someone who would be perfect, contact us or hit us up on our socials @theatrethoughtsaus.

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March - Maeve Hook (she/her)

Maeve Hook is a queer director, writer and actor, and co-founder of TART Theatre Collective. Maeve has a rich performance history in circus and is a BFA Acting graduate from Queensland University of Technology. In the final year of her studies, she received the Jennifer Blocksidge Memorial Award, allowing her to train with Shakespeare and Company (Massachusetts USA) post-graduation. She has several independent performance credits, some of which include the title role in ‘Anna Bella Eema’ (Dir. Anja Homburg), Mercutio in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (Dir. Shaz Mullens, Fresh Theatre) and the lead in Queer historical short film ‘Ballad’ (Dir. Roe Bonnici). Her original show ‘Ladies Write Letters of Lemony Love’ debuted at Digital Melbourne Fringe 2020 and was one of Broadsheet’s top five picks for the fringe. Maeve was a chosen playwright for ATYP’s Emerging Playwrights National Studio (2021) and is currently a part of She Writes at Theatre Works (2022-2023). Her directing work has most recently been seen by national and international audiences with the 2022 tour of ‘POLES: The Science of Magnetic Attraction’.

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My Story

What inspired you to get involved in the theatre industry?

I started out performing in circus, with Circa and Flipside’s youth performance troupes in Brisbane - which was amazing! My family is pretty artsy, so I’ve always been exposed to a lot of theatre, and eventually an injury and my interest in theatrical storytelling led me to move into studying acting. After graduating, there were a few wonderful productions, and a lot of the classic not booking jobs, or not even being able to get in the room. I found the lack of agency very difficult, and brought my varied past experience into play to start creating my own work. I surprised myself by finding a real joy in writing, and rediscovered my interest in directing. Creating my own work finally helped me feel some ownership to not put my life on hold for acting, and to build the kind of life that I actually want to inhabit. I definitely enjoy being multi-hyphenate far more then I ever did being an “Actor”. 

What have been the highs in your career so far?

The absolute high point so far has been the co-founding of my company: TART Theatre Collective, with the incredible Em Tambree last year. We share a deep commitment to creating rooms with integrity, playfulness, joy, respect.. there’s more, but it boils down to building the spaces we want to work in, and being in active conversation with the artists we work with. I am so grateful for Em's presence in my life, they are the best friend and colleague anyone could ask for - as we now know, starting and running a company is a lot and I would not want to do it alone. In that first year as TART we also toured a show that I directed - POLES: The Science of Magnetic Attraction - to Edinburgh Fringe and it sold out! Which was, in the best possible way, a pretty insane experience.

 

Where do you see yourself going in the futre? Is there something particular you want to do? 

Going forward, I am currently writing my next play, and on the hunt for the next directing project. This year TART is the resident theatre company at The Motley Bauhaus in Naarm/Melbourne. Right now we’re casting a brilliant play called Crocodile Fever, and have Expressions of Interest open.. so I’m very excited to see what projects and people we meet through all that! 

 

I’m terrible with the “5 year goals” type thing, but I love to keep learning and hope to remain curious, passionate, and keep working. Right now I’m obsessed with puppets, motion capture and physical theatre.. so we’ll see where that ends up.

Contact

Best ways to get in touch with me:

Instagram 
Maeve Hook @capt.h00k 
or TART: @tarttheatrecollective

Our Artists of the Month Gallery

Who will we highlight this year? Sign up to our Monthly or follow our socials to find out.

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February

Lily Hayman (she/her)

Lily Hayman is a young writer, director and producer who lives and works on unceded Gadigal Land. She is the current Young Leader and Associate Producer at Shopfront Arts Co-Op, and one half of the all-female team behind Purple Tape Productions. Having received a Bachelor of Performance and First Class Honours (Theatre) at the University of Wollongong, Lily has since created and presented two fully realised productions: Fledgling (KXT 2022, MerrigongX 2021) and The Infinity Mirror (Shopfront ArtsLab 2021, BrandX Flying Nun Residency 2022). She has worked as Assistant Director to Margot Politis with Milk Crate Theatre and has been a member of the Harness Ensemble of artists with and without disability since 2021. In 2023 Lily is looking forward to directing Expiration Date and Party Girl as well as developing her own works Preparing for the Inevitable and Perfect Match. 

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