In October of 2026, I worked with performers Lola Borroni and Hannah Vella to create the lighting design for their Melbourne Fringe 2026 show We wanna have a lot of forks in a backpack. This show was performed in the Sylvia Staehli Theatre at Dancehouse.
“We wanna have a lot of forks in a backpack explores digestion as metaphor: a chain reaction of selection, breakdown, and transformation. Beginning with the fork as an extension of the hand, the work examines choice; what we take in, what we reject, and how every action produces consequence..” (Melbourne Fringe, 2026)
This dense and exciting dance show was set in a blank theatre to create a feeling of organised mess. The lighting rig was adjusted to include 4 boom poles on each diagonal of the stage to create a dynamic, diagonal lighting state that could be used to emphasise the performer’s dynamic feeling and movement throughout the piece.
For We wanna have a lot of forks in a backpack, I fulfilled the roles of Lighting Designer and Programmer.
This show was programmed on ETC Nomad in a 100-seat blackbox theatre.
Minimalistic and warm to neutral lighting was used to alternate between a small and focused lighting design that dramatically emphasised the performer’s bodies and a large, theatre-wide lighting state to highlight the performer’s interaction with the theatre itself.
Photography credit to Izabella Procaccino.