Meet Dan Gough and Emma Churchland, the imaginative forces steering immersive theater company IMRSE.
As a Company in Residence at Metro Arts for 2024, Dan and Emma are set to present the satirical spectacle CAKE. Join Marie Antoinette’s Royal Court and witness her scandalous cascade through debauchery on the road to her inevitable beheading. Find out more about Dan and Emma’s creative partnership and how their creative ideas come to life…
USE THREE WORDS TO DESCRIBE THE SHOW…
Both: Camp. Hilarious. Satirical.
WHAT CAN AUDIENCES EXPECT?
Both: Audiences can expect a silly and energetic performance, which is cut through with a keen satirical edge. It is a cheeky manipulation of history that pulls you in, makes you laugh, and makes you think. You can expect dancing, laughter, lots of pink, splatters of frosting, and a rather suggestive cow costume.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOURSELF AS A PERFORMER/CREATIVE?
Both: We have always believed that we can build something bigger than ourselves – we’ve followed our hearts into this because it is our instinct, our impulse, a physical necessity.
As creative partners, we have held each other accountable for taking big leaps of faith, experimenting with new ideas, and trying things we’ve never done before. As a result, we understand the value of failure in our practice. We are constantly throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks, no matter how silly.
We thrive on new experiences – we are experience junkies – we’re kinaesthetic people who need to put our hands on it to understand what it does and how it works. We love to play. We love to talk. We love to dream.
WHO INSPIRES YOU AND WHY?
Both: It’s hard to say who inspires us because we find that we are inspired by the conversations we have every day. The way people interact with each other and with us is a big part of the reason that we want to make immersive theatre. We do believe in creating spaces where people can ‘connect and play’ because we feel most inspired when we are connecting and playing with our community.
HOW DID YOU DISCOVER YOUR LOVE FOR PERFORMING ARTS?
Emma Churchland: Growing up in Townsville, I became obsessed with local artists – actors and musicians – who had a certain glow and excitement for life. I always found live performance exciting and engaging so I wanted to know how I could make that part of my daily life.
Studying Drama in high school, I knew I wanted to make theatre in some way, shape, or form and was inspired by my drama school, La Luna Youth Arts, an incredible youth arts organisation to take the leap of faith and study a Bachelor of Fine Arts Drama at QUT.
Dan Gough: When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up to be a vampire. I was bizarrely obsessed with wearing the plastic fangs, putting on the cape, and painting my face white to romp around like Dracula. I think a lot of that impulse to play dress-ups has never left me and the drama and play of costume have led me to love storytelling. I want us all to put on costumes and pretend to be fabulous creatures from imagined worlds.
Catch CAKE at Metro Arts’ 6 – 16 November, at New Benner Theatre, West Village, West End.
Click here for more details.
