In the latest performing arts program from The Mill, three artists are developing new work and presenting it in a variety-show format.

The Mill’s Breakout – a black-box theatre located within the Angus Street arts hub – will play host to three new residents and bring audiences into the development process through an August showcase.

The program, dubbed Breakout Makes, is designed to showcase works in progress and encourage audiences to value the performer’s blood, sweat and tears the artists pour into their out-of-the-box works.

The first three artists to perform in the August showcase are Dalmas Otieno, Poppy Mee, and Jo Zealand. Here’s what to expect.

Dalmas Otieno

Dalmas is a contemporary dance artist and proud amputee.

He’s creating a work called je vous aime aussi about the intimate relationship between persons living with disability, and able-bodied people.

In je vous aime aussi he demystifies the myth that people living with disabilities are incapable physically, which Dalmas says is a prominent misunderstanding.

“That is also stretched in their social life, and most people think it’s hard or not possible for a person with a disability to find genuine, intimate love just like any other person,” he says.

“In this piece, the myth is demystified and a love story between four people with and without disability is beautifully told”.

Jo Zealand

Jo has been an artist for almost 30 years and has worked in physical theatre, clowning and musical performances.

She’s putting together a work titled Just us, which she says is a joyous and humous piece blending elements of dance and stand-up comedy to explore how the two can be merged.

“Being able to develop ideas, I not only wanted to write ideas but to do more, and I live by the eco-awareness vs the ego-awareness standards,” Jo told CityMag.

This philosophy of eco-awareness stems from a place of compassion, meaning Jo’s pieces contribute positively to her audiences.

She says the ego-awareness element involves making sure that her work is seen and felt, with the hope of leaving a mark to those who come across it.

Jo says the Breakout Makes program is “a good opportunity to create ideas and commit to them as well as present them in front of an audience”.

“It’s like having a seed that you want to care for and grow, and I thought it is time to join a space that appreciates artists’ work.”

Poppy Mee

Poppy is a producer and actor evolving her whimsical piece, PSYCHOPOMP.  

PSYCHOPOMP first appeared at the Adelaide Fringe Festival earlier this year and is an emotional piece that narrates the story of the god of the space between life and death. This god inhabits Poppy’s body in the quest to gain knowledge of living beings, having never encountered one before.

She started working on the piece in November 2023, just three months before presenting it at the Fringe’s Chapel in the Migration Museum’s Courtyard of Curiosities.

Poppy Mee says PSYCHOPOMP was drawn from her love of being an artist.

“I wanted to show the audience life’s perspective from an artist’s lens,” she says.

“I like that as an artist I get the ability to comprehend what is going on in life constructively as this is passion that I have nurtured for a long time, I am glad that I get to do it at The Mill as they are a massive advocate for independent artists”.

Tickets are $10 and on sale now for the first Breakout Makes showcase on Friday, August 30 at the Mill.