Festival Lab

Nathan is an emerging Boorloo-based performance maker, sound designer, and actor who works across theatre, installation art and music composition. Nathan is driven by a desire to decentralise text within theatre, preferring to convey meaning and feeling through an integration of visual art and music.  

In 2022, Nathan graduated from WAAPA with first-class Honours in Performance Making. Within this, he researched how techniques within theatre, visual art and music composition can integrate within a theatre-devising practice. Combining these approaches through a series of performance-research workshops, Nathan devised and directed Constellations (2022), a visually complex development work. In 2023, Nathan was the sound designer and co-deviser of Everything Flickers, presented at The Blue Room Theatre. 

Nathan wishes to continue exploring the interdisciplinary potential of contemporary theatre through collaboration with musicians, dancers, video designers and visual artists for his future works. 

Bronte is a passionate, political creative with an emerging multi-disciplinary practice based in Boorloo. Graduating from WAAPA's Bachelor of Performing Arts (Performance Making) in 2023. Bronte was the director/designer/devisor of How to: Break a Chair in the Blue Room's 2023 Tilt season, winning the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA) award; and subsequently undertaking a residency at PICA in November/December 2024.  

Bronte is developing a unique scenographic practice, working as a Design Assistant for Company Bad’s Sail Boat Home at the 2024 Awesome Festival. They also create ecological paintings and sculptural pieces. Bronte performed in The State at the Blue Room (2024). Bronte makes from a place of duality, hope and humanity that engages with the political potential of space. Believing in a socially engaged practice, Bronte draws from their volunteer work with youth mental health organization, Burn Bright.  

Shelby McKenzie (She/They) is a performer, director, and movement artist. She graduated with first class honours from WAAPA in 2022 focusing on embodiment in live theatrical performance. Their thesis Moments in Performance; developing an aid for articulation and reflection has been published through the Edith Cowan University library. 

Shelby is a bilingual artist studying Auslan and intends to incorporate the language into her practice. She aims to inspire more performers to engage with theatre-making through inclusive practices. 

Most recently Shelby has performed in Perfect Animals, The House of Bernarda Alba, and Melon as well as multiple film roles. In 2025, Shelby will produce, direct, and facilitate a six-month residency at Midland Junction Art Centre, leading a group of artists in the creation of a multidisciplinary work centring the model’s experience in life drawing. 

Ken is an emerging artist who explores the boundaries between subjective and objective reality. As primarily a digital artist, his practice aims to merge the digital and physical worlds through immersive experiences as a response to the internal and external experiences we encounter. He believes there is a deep connection between spirit and science – both seeking to understand fundamental aspects of our existence. Drawing on the latest advancements in science and philosophical musings about consciousness, he seeks to express a common language that invites viewers to explore the convergence of the tangible and abstract. His latest works delve into understanding his own conscious experience through metaphors of external phenomena. 

Born in Lübeck, Germany to a Japanese mother and German father, Ken migrated to Australia in 1997. His diverse background gave him challenges as he navigated childhood but now is a source of pride and inspiration. 

Alya majored in BA(Hons) Fine Arts at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) - University of the Arts London. Her practice centres on female identity within the Malay-Muslim community, interrogating the entanglements of cultural, religion, and supernatural concerns through speculative histories and narrative forms. 

Alya has curated exhibitions including TerraIncognita: The Alt Show, Downsizing: The Universe on a String and The Wounded Land Rumbles the Same Ballad. Alya’s work has been featured in Straits Times Life and FEMALE Magazine. Recipient of a 2022-2023 Tan Chin Tuan Scholarship and The Woon Brothers’ Foundation Awards, she was also a recipient of Anugerah Mendaki and Anugerah Cemerlang Mendaki. Her collaborative film Bawang Merah & Bawang Merah was awarded the Student Impact Film Festival (USA) quarter-finalist award. She recently graduated as valedictorian and her work Pancung Kepalanya! (Off with His Head!) was awarded the Lim Ai Fang Art prize as well as the Best Graduate and Make an Impact awards from NAFA. 

Javan Reid (aka Deco) has over 15 over years’ experience in Jamaican traditional and modern dance. Deco hails from St. Thomas, Jamaica where he honed his craft before relocating to Australia in 2019. Since then, he has become a prominent figure in the Australian dance scene performing at numerous industry, community, and cultural events.

He has taught Jamaican dance, including contemporary styles such as Dancehall, Reggae & Ska and traditional folk styles including Kumina and DinkiMini at various schools and studios nationwide. Reid is a dedicated member of the Perth Caribbean Association with a passion for preserving culture to ensure younger Caribbean diaspora generations have access to their roots and traditions. Additionally, he strives to share the rich culture and history of Jamaican dance with the broader community. 

Naoko is a Japanese-Australian saxophonist, whose sound and performance practice has been largely fostered by improvising music organisations in Boorloo — Outcome Unknown, Tone List, and Sound Exploration Fremantle — as well as mentorship programs with The Blue Room Theatre, pvi collective, the Australian Art Orchestra (VIC) and Ensemble Offspring (NSW). She finds meaning in the communities of care and curiosity created by exploratory art practices.  

Her projects are guided by ongoing thoughts around playfulness, liveness in electronic music, and the role of place to inform listening. This thinking has extended into her involvement in programming work for KickstART Festival, as Creative Coordinator at Propel Youth Arts WA and the Walyalup Weekend of Improvised Music (WWIM).  

Each year, the Festival Lab cohort is facilitated by an established artist. This Navigator acts as a mentor and guide, aiding Lab participants in critical enquiry, discussions and engagement with the Festival program and visiting artists.  

We are glad to be drawing from the creative talent of our wider region to join the Connect program to our international neighbours. The Lab Navigator for Perth Festival 2025, Natalie Hennedige, will be bringing her expertise from the arts industry in Singapore to engage with Lab participants. 

Natalie is Festival Director of SIFA, Singapore International Festival of Arts (2022 – 25) Singapore’s pinnacle performing arts festival, and founder and Artistic Director of CAKE (since 2005), a contemporary performance company based in Singapore.  

SIFA presents captivating works across theatre, music, dance, film and visual arts, championing the creation and presentation of Singaporean and international works. CAKE is committed to seeding and engineering works and excursions that embody the experience of performance and art. Presenting progressive new works at the intersection of performance and other disciplines, CAKE continues to build a community of artists interested in contemporary modalities of process and transmitting information and ideas. With CAKE Natalie developed the Decimal Points and Running with Strippers platform, an exploratory space driven by engagement and dialogue with other artists.  

As a performance director and writer, Natalie explores contemporary issues through highly constructed worlds with collaborators from diverse artistic disciplines and cultural backgrounds. Her work has been presented in national and international venues. She is a recipient of the National Arts Council Young Artist Award (2007) and JCCI Singapore Foundation Culture Award (2010).