Create SpaceArtist Residency Program
A place for new work, new ideas and new collaborations.
The Create Space Artist Residency Program fosters an evolving community of practice, in partnership with leading Sydney-based arts organisations. Championing experimental and interdisciplinary practice, the program invites artists into the Sydney Opera House, providing a physical space to further develop practice across multi-artforms.
Inspired by the architecture of the House itself, Create Space artist residency provides a platform for pioneering artists and makers to test new ground, challenge conventions and expand the boundaries of what is possible.
Create Space works alongside artists with lived experience of disability, those from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds, and those from the Lesbian Gay Bi Trans Queer Intersex + (LGBTQI+) community to come together to develop new work.
Upcoming Residencies
July 2025 Residency
The July 2025 Create Space Residency partners with Milk Crate Theatre (MCT) — a leading company working with artists who have experienced homelessness, mental health challenges, and disability. For over 25 years, Milk Crate has championed these voices through bold performance, artist development, and community engagement, challenging perceptions and affirming creative excellence.
This residency supports Kamini Singh, Owen Gill, Kerry Bashford and Tejas Lorenco — four Milk Crate Theatre Collaborative Artists who, with the guidance of individual mentors, are creating and presenting their new works for the first time.
COLLECTIVE is an intimate showing of these works-in-progress:
- Kamini Singh, mentored by Natalie Rose, presents a woman’s journey through love, loss and line dancing.
- Owen Gill, with mentor Hayden Wright, shares sketch comedy scenes paired with live music.
- Kerry Bashford, mentored by James Brown, performs a queer country-inspired musical sermon.
- Tejas Lorenco, guided by Charles Wu, explores layered character narratives.
The project is directed by MCT Artistic Director Margot Politis, supported by Assistant Director Bethany Simons, and produced by MCT Creative Producer Jessica Saras.
Image credit: Lucy Parakhina, “Hello, Are You Still There?” co-production with Shopfront Arts Co-op and Milk Crate Theatre (2024)
About the artists and mentors
Natalie Rose (she/her) is one third of the performance collective POST, Creative Director/CEO at Shopfront Arts Co-op, and has been involved in Australia’s Contemporary Arts scene for the past 24 years. Her work has been seen nationally and internationally at Sydney Festival, Belvoir, Sydney Theatre Company, and Cambridge Junction (UK). Most recently with POST, Oedipus Schmoedipus has toured to Santiago Chile, West Kowloon Cultural Precinct Authority in Hong Kong and in 2020 was to be showcased as a part of AsiaTOPA at Arts Centre Melbourne. Their 2017 Sydney Festival work Ich Nibber Dibber was remounted at Sydney Opera House and Malthouse Theatre. Nat has facilitated workshops for the past 24 years for Young People and emerging artists with and without disability. Nat has a Bachelor of Arts (Theatre-making) from the University of Western Sydney, Nepean and has previously trained at PACT and Urban Theatre Projects as a member of their ensembles. In 2022/23, Nat began developing My First and Last Solo Show supported by Performing Lines and Creative Australia. She was selected by Creative Australia as a 2022 Arts Leader recipient, spending time abroad exchanging with artists in Indonesia. Most recently, she devised The Lies We Were Told with an ensemble of Young People. This production was awarded the 2023 Sydney Theatre Award for Best Production for Young People. In 2024, Nat has embarked on a new project Si’ Malamalama La’ititi (This little light), with fellow Arts Leader recipients, Grace Vanilau and Bethany Ashley-Ward exploring the intersection between motherhood, community and the arts. Nat will also continue developing My First and Last Solo Show, a further investigation of her creative practice and motherhood. She is on the Board of Directors for Voices of Women and a Board Member on Create NSW’s Community Arts and Cultural Development Panel.
Kamini Singh is a performer, visual artist, singer-songwriter and major line-dancing enthusiast. Kamini’s first show with Milk Crate Theatre was 2016 forum show the LINK Housing Project, and she was then devisor/performer for That’s the Spirit in 2017. In 2022 she orginated the key role of Elixir in Milk Crate Theatre’s major show DUST, performed at The Richard Wherrett Studio, Sydney Theatre Company.
She has a background in painting and photography, has exhibited artworks at Deutsche Bank and Australia Square, and received a scholarship at Point Light Gallery for photography. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from UWS, majoring in mass media and creative writing, with a minor in Australian history.
Kamini is a qualified English teacher currently teaching at TAFE and studying Law. Born in Canada, Kamini is a proud dual national. She is a proud mother and auntie, and an ecstatic grandmother and friend. She sees life as precious and each day of life as a gift.
James Peter Brown is known for his highly evocative, original and diverse music scores and sound design.
Having worked professionally across a large range of genres, from mainstage theatre, film, documentary, animation, video games and virtual reality, his process often involves creating music and sound in synchronicity with the development of the project, creating a strong connection between the material and sound.
His collaborations with directors and producers are often explorations of ethereal emotive experiences that become part of the deeper exploration of character and subject storytelling.
He has formed ongoing artistic collaborations with artists and companies such as Sydney Theatre Company (Picnic at Hanging Rock, Stolen, Constellations, Lord of the Flies, Mosquitoes, The Deep Blue Sea, The Real Thing, Home I’m Darling) Bethesda (Fallout 4, Fallout 76, Fallout Shelter) Victoria Hunt (Tango Wai, Copper Promises) ERTH (Duba, Badu, Winter Camp, The Liminial Hour, Prehistoric Aquarium VR) SOIT (The Lee Ellroy Show, Messiah Run, We Was Them, Nomads) POST (Ich Nibber Dibber, Oedipus Schmoedipus) and Kristina Chan (A Faint Existence, Mountain, Brightness)
For 4 years he worked as the composer for the Belgian based performance group SOIT, with Hans Van Den Broeck, and performed works in Belgium, Austria, France, and the United States.
In the world of commercial music, he has composed scores for brands such as Heinz, Bethesda, Atlassian, Dermalogica, Giff Gaff, and Greenpeace.
He holds a visual arts degree from Sydney College of the Arts, where his focus was on composing and sound design for animation, and a Masters Degree in Acoustic Physics from Sydney University, where his thesis was on the physiological effects of low frequency sound on the body and mind.
In 2020 he began a mentorship program for BIPOC composers and sound designers, in order to help deconstruct the power structures that exist in the Australian Screen and Stage industries, which continues in 2021.
He is now based in Sydney, Australia.
Kerry Bashford (he/him) is a writer and performer from Awabakal land, up Newcastle way. He's a semi-retired journalist but these days writes for performance, with a leaning towards creative non-fiction. A regular contributor to Queerstories, his most recent works have featured at the Naughty Noodle Fun Haus and the revival of cLUB bENT as part of the Performance Space retrospective at 2023 Liveworks. He came to Milk Crate Theatre through their queer elders program and found himself at the age of 60, taking to the stage professionally for the first time in SOLACE (2023), and again with Milk Crate Theatre in co-production with Shopfront Arts Co-op, Hello, Are You Still There? (2024)
Charles Wu is an award-winning actor, musician, and writer. He graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 2014 and is well known for his work on the popular series Doctor Doctor. Charles’ other television credits include Summer Love, The Letdown, Harrow, Here Come the Habibs, and Secret City. Charles can also be seen in the feature film Australia Day alongside Bryan Brown, and the web series Liberty Street.
Charles’ theatre credits include The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui alongside Hugo Weaving, The Lifespan of a Fact, The Importance of Being Earnest, Mosquitoes, Three Sisters, Chimerica (Sydney Theatre Company), The Cherry Orchard alongside Pamela Rabe, An Enemy of the People, Jasper Jones, Scenes from the Climate Era, Ms. Peony, Samson, The Overcoat: A Musical (Belvoir), Golden Blood (Griffin Theatre), The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Darlinghurst Theatre), The Questions (State Theatre Company South Australia), Bernhardt/Hamlet and Torch the Place for which he won a Green Room award for Best Actor (Melbourne Theatre Company).
He was a finalist for the Heath Ledger Scholarship in 2024.
Charles is the lead singer/songwriter of Sydney indie rock band Earthquake Magnificent. He is currently co-writing his debut feature film.
Tejas has done various bits of acting work since high school, with most of his experience on screen. More recently he has expanded his skill set, working with a variety of different art forms. He has been involved with companies such as The Genesian Theatre, Shopfront Arts Co-op and Milk Crate Theatre. He is very excited to take to the stage in the 2024 productions Hello, Are You Still There? with Shopfront Arts Co-op and Milk Crate Theatre and Shopfront’s Young Company.
Hayden Wright (he/him) is a comedy writer, performer, and producer with training from theatres in New York, Chicago, LA, and all across Australia. He performs regularly in TINYPROV, a two-person improv comedy showcase, and teaches at Improv Theatre Sydney.
Owen Gill is an actor, musician, composer and poet living in Sydney. His theatre credits include: The Glass Menagerie (The Drama Studio), Farndale Avenue’s Macbeth (Darlinghurst Theatre Company), One of Nature’s Gentlemen (New Theatre); and for Milk Crate Theatre:
Natural Order (2019), Surely Shirley (Writer, Director 2018), Wasted (2016), Under Construction (2016), No Place Like (2015), You Are Here (2014), Full Circle (2013) and Fearless (2012). For the latter, Owen was a key lyricist and collaborator on iconic song, ‘The Hell Room’, which is currently published for use in the HSC curriculum.
Owen also appeared as the priest in Looking For Alibrandi (2000). Owen has a great love for music, storytelling, and words, and the power they have to improve the world.
Past residencies
May 2025 Residency
The May 2025 Create Space Residency partners with Performance Space — a leading champion of experimental and interdisciplinary practice in Australia.
Performance Space’s Queer Development Program (QDP) nurtures and amplifies queer creativity by supporting emerging artists to develop new ideas, refine their practice, and build industry connections. The program plays a vital role in strengthening the visibility and impact of queer performance in Australia.
This residency supports Aliyah Knight and Solomon Frank — two artists who have previously participated in the QDP — as they return to further develop their work at Sydney Opera House.
About the artists
Aliyah is a Black and queer film and theatremaker working on unceded Gadigal and Wangal land, drawn to messy, political, and personal stories told through horror and humour.
Their playwriting credits include SNAKEFACE (Belvoir Downstairs, 2025; Runner-Up: Australian Theatre Festival NYC’s New Play Award, 2024), THE DOG HOUSE (Performance Space’s Stephen Cummins Residency, 2024), and Four Legs Good (ATYP’s Intersection Festival, 2024; Currency Press). They were part of ATYP’s Fresh Ink cohort in 2024. Their debut musical A Tiny Doll’s House, co-created with Andy Freeborn, was presented by Hayes Theatre Co. as part of its Festival of New Work.
Aliyah’s short film Consume premiered at the Melbourne Queer Film Festival 2024 and will screen at Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 2025 and AGNSW x Sydney Mardi Gras' Queer Art After Hours. Their film The Swell was a finalist in the Queer Screen Pitch Off and received the 2024 Queer Screen x Screen Australia Gender Matters Taskforce Professional Development Prize. They are also developing a horror feature born out of Sydney Film Festival x For Film’s Sake’s Platform: Lab. Their first video art work doomscrollin debuted at The Bearded Tit in the FIRE, ASH, STARS, I Attend To Survive exhibition.
Aliyah is also a skilled note-taker, collaborating with Roadshow Rough Diamond, Fremantle Australia, EasyTiger, and others. They are currently developing Blood Rush, a supernatural comedy pilot, and are a graduate of AFTRS.
Solomon Frank is an Australian performer and composer living and working on Cammeraygal land, whose inter-disciplinary practice straddles cross-species musical collaboration, vacuum cleaners and time travel. Solomon receives emails from the future including music and musical instructions written by future humans and entities for Frank to perform and carry out in the present.
Solomon’s works and those received from the future have been performed by Ensemble Offspring, Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellows, Kirkos Ensemble (Ireland), double bassist Will Hansen, Willoughby Symphony Orchestra and E-Mex Ensemble (Germany) and at Mona Foma (Tasmania), Liveworks, Canberra International Music Festival and the Museum of Contemporary Art (Syd) . These fictional conceits provide a frame for listening, a way of situating art music and making audiences aware of their cultured ears.
Solomon’s improvisational practice expands upon the clarinet, replacing parts of the clarinet with other objects, homemade aluminum and plastic reeds, hoses, vacuum cleaners, watering cans and water. Solomon thinks of his music as “dystopian nostalgia for the present”; it reflects upon art music’s precarious place in a world dictated by corporate technocrats, TikTok algorithms and celebrity deification. Additionally, Solomon is undertaking a PhD researching animals and music, exploring interspecies musical collaboration with dogs as means to question the human uniqueness of musicality and creativity.
