Built from a tapestry of intersecting stories of the queer disabled experience, New Balance celebrates the intimacy and surprising universality of the experience growing up queer and disabled. In doing so, Bryant and Palackic interrogate and constellate the moments that formed and hurt us in equal measure.
How would you describe your show to someone who knows very little about it?
New Balance is a contemporary performance about the intersection of queerness and disability: about navigating the world as a queer person with disability, about being a marginalised queer person who experiences further marginalisation through disability. Its script is woven together from intersecting anecdotes from the queer-disabled community about the universality of growing up deemed ‘different’.
What makes it stand out and why should people see it?
It’s weird, it’s heartfelt, it’s queer and disabled – and it’s also funny. People should see it because it’s not a diatribe – we made this show to explore our ideas, experiences, and memories, and to create a space where audiences can explore their own ideas, experiences and memories.
How long was the process from idea to writing to stage? Any challenges along the way?
I work in a more traditional playwriting space, usually, but this process was quite different – relational scenes and stories around a theme rather than a continued narrative. It began with Emma (the show’s co-creator and director) and I telling each other stories from our respective childhoods – beginning with both of us realising we first discovered queerness through late night SBS movies in our young teens, and moving out from there. The first season of New Balance was the biggest challenge, probably – in early 2020, about a month before the country locked down, made on our hopes and dreams (but no budget to speak of). In a way, the return season in 2023 feels like the real “first season” – with time, budget, and much less stress, we were able to make the work clearer, more specific, and hopefully more enjoyable!
What attracts you to fringe?
I’ve done many shows in the Melbourne Fringe across the years – as writer, director, actor, and operator! I think it’s a wonderful melting pot of ideas, forms, stories – and audiences are generally more “up for” something that sits outside the confines of naturalistic theatre.
How would you describe your relationship with the audience and what do you love the most about live performance?
I’m not trained as a performer (and I don’t really care to be) – but across a decade of touring this show, and our previous show, I’ve developed a real sense of comfort in front of an audience. The shows Emma and I make don’t have a fourth wall, and I love the intimacy of that – of getting to make eye contact with audiences and share some stories with them, and of having them share things with me after the show. It’s a level of trust and generosity I don’t take lightly.
Who would you say have been your biggest inspirations?
Nicola Gunn, Emma Hall, Joel Bray, John Waters, Jack Halberstam, to name a few.
What are three things that would surprise people to learn about you?
– I’m adopted. (This might be more a fun fact, but might be surprising if you don’t know me personally?)
– I have many tattoos. (More than 30, less than 50, I think).
– I’m 21 years old this year, can you believe it? I can’t wait to finally hire a car.
What do you love most about performing at Melbourne Fringe?The sense of artistic community and the chance to see heaps of shows I wouldn’t have otherwise known about.
What comes after the Fringe Festival for you?
Sleep! It’s been a hectic year. But we’re hoping to keep touring New Balance, so… watch this space. (Or watch a space).
From the inaugural winners of the Melbourne Fringe & Midsumma Queer Development award (Intoxication, 2017), New Balance moves beyond trauma to imagine a brightly queer, brightly accessible new future.
October 14 – 18
melbournefringe.com.au
