Joel Bray Dance
Homo Pentecostus
23–26 October 2024
In the late 19th century, John Stuart Mill coined the term Homo Economicus to describe the perfectly rational and self-interested individual who makes decisions solely to maximise their economic benefit. At the same time, the seeds of Pentecostalism were being laid by the industrious Wesleyans who believed that one does not need to wait for heaven to be perfect; rather, one can attain spiritual sanctification here on Earth. Pentecostalism distinguishes itself from other Christian faiths by emphasising the Holy Spirit’s position in the Holy Trinity. Their world is viewed through a spiritual lens, where angelic and demonic forces engage in an epic and ongoing battle.
Since its inception, Pentecostalism has grown alongside capitalism, sharing values of prosperity, individualism and expansion, with the two fusing to form the phenomenon of the ‘megachurch’ – Australia’s Hillsong being a prime example.
The Pentecostal Church is also profoundly homophobic, with many young queer people subjected to ‘faith healing’ (conversion therapy in spiritual camouflage), and I was one of them. In fact, I was a passionate ‘Hillsonger’. Until I suddenly wasn’t. I left the Church, closed that book and never looked back – until now.
Making this work has been revelatory and healing. One of the many surprises has been how much Pentecostal aesthetics and ways of being, moving and communicating are coded into my very DNA. I am, in so many ways, a Homo Pentecostus.
I’ve had two extraordinary fellow pilgrims on this ‘road to Damascus’: co-director Emma Valente and co-performer Peter Paltos. Peter has been unerringly generous in sharing his personal and family stories and spirituality, resulting in a greater sensitivity to how the material was handled in the room. The work is far more nuanced thanks to him. He’s also hilarious and the process has been a very queer delight.
Emma is one of my absolute favourite theatre makers, and it’s been a joy to witness her brilliance up close. Her capacity to hold vast amounts of information and continually nudge our tangle of materials into a clear (almost)narrative has been breathtaking to witness. It has allowed me to be my full, chaotic self and head down creative tangents, safe in the knowledge that she is grabbing anything useful.
The three of us wrote Homo Pentecostus by interviewing each other, recording and re-learning. The resulting work is a conversation between two queer men discovering each other, their shared experiences of religion and culture and, just as importantly, their differences. While the work draws heavily from our autobiographies, it remains fictionalised and incomplete.
I want to thank my mother and siblings for unknowingly inspiring a career’s worth of contemporary performance when they were raising (and being raised alongside) me. Peter and I also want to thank and honour our parents and siblings for their patience, love and generosity in allowing these stories to be shared – warts and all.
Homo Pentecostus has been made by a village. Thank you to Kate Davis, Marco Cher-Gibbard, Jess Keepence and Katie Sfetkidis who have all brought not just their own unique skill sets but have been co-theatre makers in the room. I am profoundly grateful to you all for this strange and beautiful world we have crafted together.
I also want to thank all the artists and queer folk who shared their stories with me in the early days of researching this work, in particular Rachel Coulson and Andrew Trelour. Thanks to Jacinta Anderson and Alice Darling. A big Mandaang Guwu (thank you) to my chosen family up in Wagga-Wagga: to Juanita Hemmings for the kangaroo-skin kilt and to Aunties Cheryl Penrith and Jacky Ingram for the cultural care and oversight.
Thank you to Matt Lutton and the entire team at Malthouse Theatre for letting this nutty, blackfella choreographer take one of your stages, saying ‘Just go for it’ and then for supporting me and the team throughout the premiere season of this work. Thank you to Hannah and Ariane at PICA for coming on board so early to support the realisation of this new work. And a huge thank you to Veronica Bolzon, the second half of Joel Bray Dance. You’re my partner in crime and I couldn’t do any of this without you.
Finally, thank you to Chris Cheers – I love you, baby.
Cast/Creatives
Co-Creator/Writer/Co-Director/Performer: Joel Bray
Co-Creator/Co-Director: Emma Valente
Co-Creator/Performer: Peter Paltos
Set and Costume Designer: Kate Davis
Lighting Designer: Katie Sfetkidis
Composter and Sound Designer: Marco Cher Gibard
Associate Lighting Designer: Spencer Herd
Associate Sound Designer: Justin Gardem
Producer: Veronica Bolzon
Artist Biographies
Joel Bray lives on Kulin country (Melbourne) and is a proud Wiradjuri man. Bray’s practice includes making dance, experimental performance and works for screen. His methodology is rooted in traditional Wiradjuri ways of making, namely durational, site-specific and cross-genre processes. His works are intimate encounters in which audience-members are ‘invited in’ as co-storytellers and co-performers. Bray trained at NAISDA and Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). His works Biladurang, Dharawungara, Daddy Considerable Sexual License, Garabari and Giraru Galing Ganhagirri – have toured to major arts festivals in Australia and overseas. Joel has made works for Artshouse, CHUNKY MOVE, Malthouse Theatre, Sydney Dance Company, the National Gallery of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria.
Emma Valente is the Co-Artistic Director and Co-CEO of feminist theatre company THE RABBLE. She is also a freelance Director Lighting Designer, Dramaturg and video designer. As a lighting and video designer, Emma has worked for major theatre companies including Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre, Malthouse Theatre, Fraught Outfit, Sisters Grimm, Belvoir, La Mama and many more. She is an advocate for gender parity for lighting and sound designers across the sector. Emma also teaches dramaturgy, performance making and design at Monash University. She is a Sidney Myer Fellow, and the recipient of Creative Victoria’s Creators Fund initiative.
Peter Paltos is a Naarm-based actor and contributing artist to the development of new works. He is represented by BGM. Theatre credits include: Shhhh (Red Stitch Theatre); 8/8/8: WORK (Rising Festival); Home, I’m Darling (Melbourne Theatre Company); Gloria (Melbourne Theatre Company); Minnie & Liraz (Melbourne Theatre Company); Lord Willing and the Creek Don’t Rise (Melbourne Theatre Company NEON); The Sovereign Wife (Melbourne Theatre Company NEON); Calpurnia Descending (Sydney Theatre Company & Malthouse Theatre); Salomé (Malthouse HELIUM); The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (TheatreWorks); The Audition (Outer Urban Projects); Merciless Gods (Griffin Theatre); The Economist (Brisbane Powerhouse & Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Film/television includes The Taverna (Rescued Films); Paper Champions (Saliba Pictures/Exile Entertainment); Rebooted (Latenite Films); Holding the Man (Screen Australia); Fake (Paramount+). Paltos is a Greenroom award nominee (Best Supporting Actor – MainStage 2019) and winner (Best Ensemble – Contemporary & Experimental Performance 2023; Best Ensemble – Independent Theatre 2014).
Kate Davis is an award-winning multi-disciplinary artist working as a director, set & exhibition designer, costume designer, visual artist and floral designer. Kate’s passion as an artist is in the creation and interrogation of image and how an image can completely transform the viewer’s perception, and by extension the viewer’s attitudes and ways of seeing the world. She is also the Co-Artistic Director and Co-CEO of the experimental performance collective THE RABBLE. She also experiments with flowers under the name of Neo Violet.
Marco Cher-Gibbard is an artist working with sound. His practice often incorporates software design and live process, which can be seen in his practice as an improviser and in his involvement within performance contexts. He is a diverse and constant collaborator working across a spectrum of projects (performance, installation, composition, improvisation, community and design) who explores the world, context and social relations through the medium of sound.
Cher-Gibbard has performed across Australia and internationally including France, Japan, Indonesia, Korea and Taiwan. 2016 sound designs included Back to Back Theatre’s Lady Eats Apple as part of the Melbourne Festival 2016 and Shian Law’s Epic Theatre, for Sydney Dance Company. Other recent achievements include a greenroom award for composition and sound design with David Chisholm for I am a Miracle (Malthouse Theatre), and sound designs for Chunky Move, Ridiculusmus, Zoe Scoglio and Samara Hersch.
Katie Sfetkidis is an award-winning lighting designer, and contemporary artist, who works across theatre, dance and experimental performance. Katie has designed for: Little Ones Theatre (Merciless Gods; The Happy Prince; Dracula; Dangerous Liaisons; Salomé; Psycho Beach Party); Aphids (The Director; A Singular Phenomenon); Melbourne Theatre Company (Abigail’s Party); Malthouse Theatre (Meme Girls; Calpurnia Descending); Belvoir Theatre (Kill the Messenger); La Boite (Lysa and the Freeborn Dames); Darlinghurst Theatre (An Act of God); Sydney Chamber Opera (Oh Mensch; Exil).
Sfetkidis has also worked with Noongar man Ian Michael on his award-winning show HART, which toured extensively around Australia and New Zealand as well as with Steven Rhall on his solo show titled DEFUNCTIONALISED AUTONOMOUS OBJECTS at the Substation in 2018.
Veronica Bolzon is the Executive Producer at Joel Bray Dance. Her career spans arts leadership, community engagement and programming roles in a broad range of organisations within the independent arts, government, corporate and not-for-profit sectors. Recent roles include Program Producer at Dancehouse, Executive Producer of YIRRAMBOI First Nations Arts Festival, Executive Director, Philip Adams Ballet Lab and Senior Producer for Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival 2019 and 2022. Bolzon is a board member of Dancehouse, Melbourne. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts, Cultural Leadership.
Homo Pentecostus is commissioned by PICA and Malthouse and supported by Creative Victoria through the Creative Ventures Fund and Creative Australia. Thank you to PICA’s Director’s Circle for supportiung this project.
