Barking Gecko Theatre announces two new associate artists
Barking Gecko welcomes two Associate Artists to the company in 2023, Adriano Cappelletta and Grace Chow. Barking Gecko audiences will already recognise Adriano and Grace from past productions, but they will now both be working alongside Artistic Director Luke Kerridge to develop a suite of new programs and productions that will make up future seasons.
Grace Chow (she/her)
Grace is an award-winning Asian-Australian theatre-maker, playwright and actor who trained in the Bachelor of Performing Arts at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (2020). Her work primarily takes place on Whadjuk Noongar Boodja. Grace has worked with various Australian theatre companies such as the Black Swan State Theatre Company, WA Youth Theatre Company (WAYTCo), Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP), Barking Gecko Theatre Company, Squid Vicious, Yirra Yaakin, The WA Opera and Public Service Announcement. Her recent performance and performance-making highlights include Panawathi Girl (Yirra Yaakin’s 2022 Perth Festival show), The Cherry Orchard (Black Swan State Theatre Company’s 2021 Perth Festival show) and her solo work, The Noodle Shop on the Corner of Fifth Street (2020). In 2020, she took part in the National Studio’s writer’s residency and subsequently had her work Dance Ourselves to Death published with Currency Press.
This year, Grace looks forward to debuting in her first major Australian tv series, as well as touring in The Great Un-Wondering of Wilbur Whittaker with Barking Gecko Theatre Company and performing in OIL for Black Swan State Theatre Company’s 2022 season.
Adriano Cappelletta (he/him)
Adriano holds a BA from Murdoch University (Theatre and Drama Studies) and NIDA (Acting). He was a recipient of The Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship and The Mike Walsh Fellowship and in 2008 traveled to Paris to study with master clown, Philippe Gaulier. In 2016 he was co-awarded the Philip Parsons Playwriting Fellowship for a theatre work for families, Ruby’s Wish (Belvoir, Sydney Opera House, Arts Centre Melbourne, Parramatta Riverside, Awesome Arts WA)
His debut solo cabaret, This Boy’s in Love was nominated for Best Cabaret at both Adelaide Fringe and Fringe World WA and was presented at The Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Provocaré Festival Melbourne, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and Edinburgh Fringe. His other original theatre works include Cubbyhouse (The Public Theatre: New York), Connie Chang’s Cabaret Roadshow (Melbourne Comedy Festival, Sydney Comedy Festival) Shane and Eddie: Picking up the Pieces (Edinburgh Fringe) and Never Let Me Go (Griffin Theatre: Batch Festival 2019)
As an actor, he has worked extensively in presenting work for families and recently appeared as Wilbur in Barking Gecko’s The Great Un-Wondering of Wilbur Whitaker. With Kim Carpenter’s Theatre of Image: Little Beauty, as Pigsy in Monkey: Journey to the West, and as Pinocchio in Go Pinocchio!, Ensemble Theatre: The Good Doctor, Face to Face, Proof, Happiness, The Gingerbread Lady, Four Flat Whites in Italy, Death of a Salesman, The Drawer Boy and A View from the Bridge. For Perth Festival: Dennis Cleveland: A Pop Opera, The Mule's Foal (Perth Theatre Company)
Adriano is the creator, co-writer and executive producer of the upcoming TV musical drama series In Our Blood (Hoodlum/ABC/Fremantle) about Australia’s response to the AIDS crisis in the early 1980’s. He was a co-creator and co-lead of the comedy web series Ultimate Fanj which premiered on ABCiview for Fresh Blood.
As a tutor he has taught devising for children’s theatre at WAAPA, Acting and Improvisation at NIDA, The Actor’s Centre, Australian Theatre for Young People, The HUB Studio and facilitated clowning workshops for The Starlight Children’s Foundation in his role as a Captain Starlight for ten years.
