Adrift

Counterpilot is an award-winning collective of interdisciplinary artists based in Brisbane, Australia. Together, we create interactive performance works – activating audiences with new technology, rich design, and transmedia storytelling. Counterpilot seeks to transform the familiar, juxtaposing rich fictional worlds against a backdrop of the everyday.

By subverting real social circumstances, we co-opt our participants as authentic performers. In this way we are harnessing what we believe to be the most exciting thing about theatre – the live audience. Our works enable participants to observe themselves responding in real ways to hyper-real situations. We seek to provoke change through acts of trouble, mischief and low-key chaos. We play in the space between people, and we poke at the tensions that bind us.

Counterpilot is directed by Nathan Sibthorpe. Our core team includes Christine Felmingham, Mike Willmett, & Sarah Winter. For our work Crunch Time (2018), we received the Lord Mayor’s Award for Best New Australian Work at the 2018 Matilda Awards. In its premiere presentation, Truthmachine (2019) received three awards at the 2019 Adelaide Fringe, including Best Interactive or Digital Work
and the Hong Kong Tour Ready Award. According to the Age, “nobody else is making work quite like this” (Cameron Woodhead on Truthmachine, 2019). Counterpilot has produced works in collaboration with UQ institute of Molecular Bioscience, Brisbane Festival, Optikal Bloc, Metro Arts, La Boite Theatre Company, Brisbane Airport Corporation, QPAC, Brisbane Powerhouse, Next Wave Festival and Darwin Festival.

Nathan Sibthorpe is a contemporary performance-maker and video designer based in Brisbane, Australia. He is best known as the director of Counterpilot, the award-winning collective of transmedia performance artists responsible for Avoidable Perils (Brisbane Festival & Darwin Festival, 2020), Truthmachine (Sydney Festival, Brisbane Festival & others, 2019-22), Statum (Brisbane Powerhouse & Flipside Circus, 2019), Crunch Time (Next Wave Festival & Metro Arts, 2018), and Spectate (Metro Arts, 2017).

Counterpilot received four awards at the 2019 Adelaide Fringe. Their signature work, Crunch Time, received the Lord Mayor’s Award for Best New Australian Work at the 2018 Matilda Awards. Nathan has been nominated for a further eight Matilda Awards, receiving the award for Best AV Design for Blue Bones in 2017. In the same year, he was also the recipient of the Dr. Don Batchelor Award for Drama Research at QUT. In 2022, Nathan received a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Production for Young People for I’ve Been Meaning to Ask You.

Nathan’s other credits as a performance-maker include One Bottle Later (The Good Room & Brisbane Festival, 2020), I’ve Been Meaning to Ask You (The Good Room & Brisbane Festival, 2018-22), Tyrone & Lesley in a Spot (Queensland Cabaret Festival, 2015-19), and Some Dumb Play (Metro Arts, 2012). As an AV Designer, notable credits include Horizon (Playlab, 2021), The Holidays (Queensland Theatre, 2020), To Kill a Cassowary (JUTE, 2020), Leotard (DeBASE & Metro Arts, 2020), Blue Bones (Playlab, 2017-22), Wireless (JWCoCA, 2017), Locked In (Shock Therapy Productions, 2015-21), and He Dreamed a Train (Brisbane Powerhouse, 2014).

Nathan was previously Queensland Theatre Company’s Geek In-Residence from 2012-14, the Festival Director of Short+Sweet Queensland from 2013-16, an Australia Council JUMP artist in 2012, and the Creative Director for Markwell Presents Cinematic Theatre Company from 2016-18. Nathan sometimes teaches performance studies at QUT, where he holds a Master’s Degree in Contemporary Performance.

For more projects, reviews, and information, visit www.nathansibthorpe.com

Christine Felmingham is a Brisbane-based lighting designer who has worked in theatre, dance, and live performance. As part of the core Counterpilot team, she serves as both a lighting designer and production/technical manager. Her contributions include creating Avoidable Perils (Brisbane Festival & Darwin Festival, 2020); Truthmachine (Sydney Festival, Brisbane Festival, and others, 2019-2022); Statum (Brisbane Powerhouse & Flipside Circus, 2019); Crunch Time (Next Wave Festival & Metro Arts, 2018); and Spectate (Metro Arts, 2017).

Christine has designed lighting for a diverse range of companies and festivals, including Dead Puppet Society (ISHMAEL, 2021); La Boite Theatre Company (Caesar, 2021); Playlab (Rising, 2021; The Dead Devils of Cockle Creek, 2018); Debase Productions (Boyle and Waters in LEOTARD, 2020-2022); Expressions Dance Company (Echo, 2019); Understudy Productions (Sweet Charity, 2019); Vulcana Circus (As If No-One is Watching, 2018); Belloo Creative (Rovers, 2018-2021); and Now Look Here Theatre Company (Sound of a Finished Kiss, 2018; Splendour, 2017; Slight Ache & The Lover, 2016).

Recent credits include Anatomy of a Suicide (BC Productions, 2021); Weathering Well (Woodward Productions, 2021-2022); The Hive Collective (Elektra/Orestes, 2021; Conviction, 2021; The Bull, the Moon, and the Coronet of Stars, 2021); The Good Room (Dirty Laundry, 2020); and Pink Matter Entertainment (The Type, 2020). In 2019, Christine received the inaugural Emerging Female Leader Award at the Matilda Awards Ceremony.

While her passion lies in lighting design, Christine is equally comfortable in technical roles, having worked as a touring production manager, board operator, and lighting technician. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Technical Production) (QUT 2015) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drama) from the same institution.

For more projects, reviews, and information, visit [christinefelmingham.com](http://www.christinefelmingham.com).

Mike Willmett is an Australian sound designer, composer, and key creative for dance and theatre productions. As a key member of the award-winning tech-troublemaking collective Counterpilot (Institute of Light, 2021; Avoidable Perils, 2020; Truthmachine, 2019; Statum, 2019; Crunch Time, 2018; Spectate, 2017), his work often explores the relationship between sound and space. He focuses on manipulating sound to invite, distort, and transport the audience’s perspective in immersive, lush environments.

Mike’s sound design and composition have been praised as “of the highest order, extremely clever and genuinely exciting…a feast for the ears” (Crunch Time), “amazing” and “unnerving” sounds that “sit in the peripherals of your hearing, building the tension while not distracting” (Squad Goals), “evocative… immersive… inclusive” (The Stance), and a “beautiful cacophony” (Room #328).

Recent credits include March of the Reef (Dead Puppet Society, Milbi Festival 2021); Summer Play Factor (Flipside Circus, Brisbane Festival & HOTA 2021); Let’s Be Friends Furever (The Good Room & Little Red Company, Brisbane Festival 2021); Awesome: A State of Wonder & Fear (Liesel Zink, World Science Festival 2021); Dirty Laundry (The Good Room, Metro Arts 2020); and The Stance (Liesel Zink 2015-2019).

Mike was also part of the independent band My Fiction from 2008 to 2015, co-writing and releasing two albums and an EP, with tracks featured on internationally recognized TV shows such as Gossip Girl and Extant. He has also been commissioned as a composer for online content advertising, including work for GOMA, Clemenger BBDO, and QUT.

Academically, Mike holds a Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice (QUT 2016), a Master of Music (QUT 2009), and a Bachelor of Creative Industries (Visual Art) with distinction (QUT 2007). He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and received a QUT Vice-Chancellor’s Award in 2017 for excellence in exceptional sustained performance, outstanding achievement in learning and teaching, innovative and creative practice, and influence on work culture or climate.

For more projects, reviews, and information, visit [meeksounds.com](http://www.meeksounds.com).

Elizabeth Hunt is a theatre, festival, and events producer based in Brisbane, with a broad range of experience both locally and beyond. Her roles on the festival circuit include Associate Producer for the Brisbane Festival (In-Theatre program), Event Coordinator and Project Manager for the Sydney Festival (Sydney’s Symphony Under the Stars & Call to-Series), and Production Coordinator for Dark Mofo (MAC2 venue).

Elizabeth’s expertise spans a wide variety of events and performances, from new original theatre works and orchestral concerts to raves, live music, roving performances, and site-specific activations. Her festival credits include the Adelaide Fringe, Adelaide Festival (The Plastic Bag Store; The Cage Project), and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

As an independent producer and collaborator, Elizabeth’s credits include Let’s Be Friends Furever (The Good Room and The Little Red Company, 2021); Backbone Festival 2019 – Fake News/Dumb Views, Plus One (Backbone Youth Arts, 2019); Sincerely X (Metro Arts & Vena Cava, 2019); Within A Fleeting Moment (Interim Theatre, 2019); Contact (Anywhere Festival 2019); The Call (Interim Theatre, FAST 2018); and If Thy Tongue Can Speak (Interim Theatre, FAST 2017). In 2019, she received two of three Judge’s Pick awards for best works in the Anywhere Festival for Within A Fleeting Moment and Contact.

Elizabeth holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drama) with a Minor in Entertainment from QUT, graduating with distinction.