Brooke Aust

Michael Argus - Actor/ Producer/ Co - Founder
Brooke Aust - Producer/ Co- Founder
Mark Diaco - Actor/ Producer
Dan Frederikson -  Director
Sarah Hallam- Actor
Mike Robins - Actor
Matilda Reed - Actor



Our play selection process at Black Water takes time. We are looking for a specific standard of text, which we believe needs to be put on. What we found in 'Killer Joe' was a text that has a myriad of different colours. The text is precise and driven. It open's at a cracking pace leaving the audience's stomach twisting tighter and tighter as the suspense slowly and steadily builds to a breaking point. There is a reason why Tracy Lett's is the resident writer of what is arguably the most successful independent theatre company in the world (Steppenwolf) and why he has a string of awards to his name including the Pulitzer Prize and the acclaimed Tony Award. 

Killer Joe is equally as powerful as Lett's more "well known" work 'August: Osage County' and 'Bug' and well worthy of being heard and appreciated by an Australian audience. When we first read it, we could not put the text down and knew that this is a story that had to be told, and had to be told 'right' and true to the form that it was originally written in. This presented us with some financial barriers which we are determined to overcome, hopefully, with the support of the community as a whole.

There are dozens of ways that we could use your generous donation. They will likely go to supporting one of the following areas:

Perishable props (Props that need to be replaced for each show eg, food items)
Set design / construction
Armourer
Fight choreographer
Publicity
Marketing (online, printing, distribution, etc)
Firearm hire
Venue hire
Lighting
Sound

Tracy Lett's writes about worlds that are as detailed as they are deep. It is highly theatrical work with a naturalistic set. 'Killer Joe', like any script, has it's challenges. Due to having an incredible team on board featuring some of the finest talent in independent theatre, the real challenge for us as a company doesn't lie in the story telling. For us it comes from a production point of view. In order to honour the script we need to have an armourer and fight choreographer. We also need to design and build a set that can be completely destroyed and rebuilt each night. A highly detailed trailer home that durable and versatile. We have to cook a tuna casserole every night and have gluten free fried chicken to be served up and eaten during the show. We are reaching out to a new audience and trying to learn more about effective marketing for future productions, for this we are hiring the services of a publicist. On top of this we have all the normal costs that come along with producing a theatre production. Venue hire, lighting, printing, distribution, costume, general props, etc. When working on the budget for this production it became clear that the biggest challenge with Killer Joe was always going to be a financial one. 



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