Made From Scratch – June is packed with talented artists! Made From Scratch is a multi-artform performance night offering artists space and support to test new ideas in front of a live audience.
The beauty is you get to experience a little bit of everything. These events will show case new works from local artists across performance, film, stand-up comedy, poetry, music, cabaret, circus and anything in between.
The opportunity is open to independent artist and collectives working across theatre, dance, video/digital art, interdisciplinary performance, stand-up, poetry, music, cabaret and circus.
Got an idea for an act? Submit your EOI here!
Line-up
Kay Proudlove – Music
Emotional and witty, Kay is a Wollongong raised indie-folk singer-songwriter with a remarkably agile, engaging, honest, soul-bearing voice and a wry, dry-ice sense of humour. With a live performance style that is much like being invited into her lounge room, her songs are truly stories set to melody, by turns relatable, humorous and heartbreaking. Creating an intimacy between audience and performer through vulnerability, Kay’s live show is likely to leave you wondering whether all of her songs are about you. Kay is a MERRIGONGX alumni, with her smash-hit Dear Diary that has toured nationally.
Kay will be sharing new original songs.
Alexandria Walker – theatre
Alexandria Walker is an actress and up and coming playwright currently completing her degree of performance and theatre at the university of Wollongong. She has worked on Maryland by Lucy Kirkwood with director Mark Rogers and hyena a student devised piece with Lisa McDonell whilst at university. She was also involved in a student written play put on by Ashworks at the Phoenix theatre. Most recently she participated in the New Colombo plan that meant honing her craft alongside other students in Vietnam. Her preferred style of acting is naturalist or scripted work, and her writing style is poetic narratives.
Alexandria will perform a piece of theatre that was written about taking in the positive aspects of life. It is a stream of consciousness style of work that uses poetic and emotive language to engage the audience to test their boundaries of thought and attention to details.
Ali Jane Smith – poetry
Ali Jane Smith is a MERRIGONGX alumni, co-writer of the Merrigong Theatre co-production The Sirens Return, and her new poetry collection The Strange Matter, was published by Life Before Man in 2025. Her poem ‘Life in Brown’, commissioned by South Coast Writers Centre, was selected for Australian Poetry’s anthology Best of Australian Poems 2024. She is an experienced performer of her own work, having given readings at She’ll Be Right at The Servo in Port Kembla, That Poetry Thing at Smiths in Canberra, and The Sydney Poetry Lounge and Sappho Books in Sydney.
Ali will read new poems, inspired by Lake Illawarra with a focus on the history and ongoing practices of colonial and capitalist extraction associated with the Lake and surrounds.
April Samson-Kelly – Dance
April is a multi-instrumentalist, dancer, composer and ethnomusicologist. She revels in the ethereal art of shadow play. Samantha is an Australian who is originally from the U.S. She is a passionate singer/dancer with performance experience in both countries. Rachel thrives on helping to interpret the artistic vision, in particular overseeing practical elements of the stage lighting as the cornerstone of this work.
Together they present GLOAMING. The work portrays a rehearsal between 3 female artists. They dance, sing, drum and strum as they experiment with the lighting to amplify their movements. This forms a dynamic collage of shadows.
Chelsea George – Theatre
Chelsea is a Wollongong-based theatre maker with a background in acting and writing. She holds a Bachelor of Performance and Theatre and a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Honours – Class I) from the University of Wollongong. Her recent work includes performances with ATYP, MERRIGONGX, and PACT, as well as her original monodrama Body Language. Her latest play, Mandatory Hospitality Training, will premiere in Plays by Her Rules later this year.
Chelsea will perform an excerpt from Body Language, a one-woman monodrama that questions how female sexuality is portrayed in Australia and thus the effects of fatphobia on a fat woman.
Christian Tagliaferro and Jordan Bowater – Music
Christian and Jordan are actors, musicians and members of The Strangeways Ensemble.
Together they will perform an original song, “Love Like the World is Going to End”.
Jai Sahota – Theatre
Jai is a Sydney-based performer and a recent graduate of the University of Wollongong’s Bachelor of Performance and Theatre (Acting). He is currently training at Screenwise in the Showreel Course. Jai has been involved in both community and professional theatre and is now exploring creating his own work.
He will perform A Fairy Odd Dream, a modern take on Bottom’s monologue from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, inspired by Aussie identity and Gen Z language.
Nicci Ru – Music
Nicci Ru is an indie folk singer-songwriter hailing from Bulli. She enjoys the connection created with an audience through storytelling and likes to explore concepts that strike an emotional chord. Outside of music she has a background in Conservation Biology and is currently exploring bringing music and conservation together to spread messages of environmental awareness and inspiration.
Nicci’s performance combines storytelling, science communication, and songwriting to highlight the endangered greater glider. Inspired by a fieldwork trip, it shares insights into gliders through narrative, visuals, and song. The piece concludes with an original song celebrating these unique creatures.
Nick Vagne – MC
Nick Vagne (They/Them) is a Sydney Based queer nonbinary Playwright, Theatre-Maker and Dramaturg from regional New South Wales. A founding member of the performance collective Vaguely Adjacent, Nick’s body of work consists proudly of new work either recently devised or written. Vaguely Adjacent’s debut work ‘Squatch Watch Live:’ will be opening in September 2025 as a part of the MERRIGONGX 2025 program with Merrigong Theatre Company.
Pay What You Feel
We want to make it easier to experience new works. So for this event there is no set ticket price. Instead, you simply reserve a spot, show up, then pay what you feel the performance is worth afterwards.
1. Reserve your spot for free.
Register and reserve your spot online.
If this is your first time, you will need to sign up. All you need is an email address and a credit or debit card (note – no money is charged to your card.)
2. See the show.
You know this bit…
3. Pay what you feel.
After the show, we’ll send you an email asking how much you want to contribute. You choose the amount based on your experience and your circumstances. There is no minimum or maximum amount.
IMPORTANT: Late cancellations within 4 hours of the event or non-attendance will incur a standard $20 ‘no-show’ fee per seat reserved. A non-refundable authorisation charge of 1 cent will be charged if this item is added into your shopping cart. If you do not attend the event, your card will be charged the no-show fee.
About MERRIGONGX
MERRIGONGX is our annual artists’ program. It focuses on supporting artists to take creative risks.
MERRIGONGX places artists and their practice at the centre of our community. From in-house creative developments to full-blown public presentations of new work, and everything in between, MERRIGONGX provides independent artists with financial, technical, marketing and artistic resources.
See all MERRIGONGX events.
