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Aki Sato-Johnson

Studio Booster

Studio Booster

In 2026, Performing Lines WA have collaborated with PICA to present the Studio Booster Program, which provides time, space and funds for two artists or groups to ‘boost’ a creative idea or project. 

This year’s project is a contemporary physical theatre adaptation of The Maids by Jean Genet, reimagined through the lens of class and the systemic reliance on migrant labour within contemporary society.

Set within a contemporary Australian household, the work centres on two domestic workers and their employer, the Mistress. The maids engage in repeated rituals of role play, enacting and embodying their Mistress in an attempt to navigate, resist and momentarily inhabit structures of power.  

During this residency at PICA, Aki Sato-Johnson will draw on Suzuki and Viewpoints methodologies to develop a highly physical, image-based performance language. This initial development will establish the work’s structural and physical foundation ahead of a full-scale production planned for 2027. 

About the artist

Aki Sato-Johnson is a Japanese-American performer, theatre maker and teacher whose work fuses the physical precision of a trained dancer with the vocal and emotional expressiveness of an actor. For 17 years she was a core member of the Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT), performing leading roles including Renée in Madame de Sade, Electra in Electra, Andromache in The Trojan Women and the Rabbit in Kachi Kachi Yama. Her portrayal of Renée in the 2022 Tokyo revival of Madame de Sade at Kichijoji Theatre earned her the Teatro Theatre Magazine Award for Exceptional Performance.

An experienced teacher of the Suzuki Method of Actor Training, Aki has led workshops at the Suzuki Toga Camp and taught internationally in Vladivostok, Jakarta, and Bali. She currently serves as a Lecturer in the Acting and Bachelor of Performing Arts programs at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).

Now based in Boorloo (Perth), Aki is expanding her practice into devising, directing and the development of her own physical theatre training method. She has begun creating new devised works in Australia, including Passports and Rhinoceros, in collaboration with director Sam Bruce and is co-artistic director of CENTA co. Physical Theatre. Through CENTA, she facilitates regular physical training for performers in Boorloo and is developing new works that explore the transformative potential of physical theatre. 

Supporters

The Studio Boosters have been made possible through partnership between the PICA and Performing Lines WA as part of the 2026 Kolyang Program of Industry Development Initiatives, supported by the Department of Local Government, Sports and Cultural Industries. Our studio program is supported by PICA’s Art Ambassadors.