Theatre for Change

Jo Stone and Paulo Castro formed Stone/Castro in 2002 in Europe. They have since been commissioned to write, direct and perform works for Festivals and Venues worldwide. Individually and together they have run workshops for Tertiary Institutions and Schools, as well as worked for Disability Arts Companies, independent theatres and initiatives for specific community groups.

PAULO CASTRO

Paulo Castro is a Portuguese theatre director, performer living in Australia since 2006. As Associate Director / Actor for the Portuguese National Theatre, he directed “Red Black and Ignorant” (Bond), “Chaos is near god” and “Licence to Kill” (Noren), and performed “Giants of Mountains” (Pirandello), “Lessons” (Inonesco), “The Hour We Knew Nothing” (Handke), “Endgame” (Beckett). Other directions include: “Happy Days” (Beckett), “Catogory 3.1” (Noren)/European Capital of Culture Portugal, “Blackout” and “The Country” (Crimp) /Adelaide Festival 14 / 16, “Wake Up Hate” (Fabre), “Cada Sopro”(Benedict Andrews), “Mission and Mauser” (Muller) (Awarded best director in Portugal), “B-File”(Levy) (nominated Best Direction Green Room 07), “Motortown” (Stephens), “Crime of the 21st Century”(Bond), “Hamletmachine” (Muller), “Phaedra’s Love” (Kane), “Roberto Zucco” (Koltes) and “La La Luna” (Castro). Recently he directed “Hello my name is” (Bond) for OzAsia Festival which toured Portugal National theatres. Paulo’s Australian performances include: Chunky Move’s “Black Marrow” Melbourne Festival 2009, “I only Came to use the Phone”/Netta Yaschin. Film and TV include: Double Happiness (Cole Larson), The Strangest Alien on Earth (Anthoney Fith), Plonk:Series 2 Ch:9.

JO STONE

Jo Stone graduated from Flinders Drama Centre, and works in Theatre, Film, TV and dance theatre as an actor, director and choreographer. She formed Stone/Castro with Paulo Castro in 2002.

Theatre credits include; ‘Welcome the Bright World’ (Sewell)/Charles Sanders/ STCSA), ‘The Country’ (Crimp)/Stone/Castro and ‘Blackout’ (Stone/Castro) Adelaide Festival 14/ 16, ‘White Rabbit, Red Rabbit’ (Soleimanpour), ‘Information for Foreigners’/ Benedict Andrews, ‘B-File’/Castro (nominated Best performer Green room awards 07), ‘Superheroes’ (Stone/Castro), ‘MiWi 3027’ (Glenn Shea)/ STCSA/ Country Arts SA/ Julian Meyrick. Directions include; ‘Dis-integration’ (DanceNorth), ‘Untitled’, ‘Birds’, and ‘Fragments of Faith’ /ACArts Dance), ‘Private Lives’ (Feast Festival), ‘Fury’(Murray Smith)/ ACArts Acting).

Dance theatre /Opera performances include; ‘9x9’ and ‘Foi’ (Sidi Larbi Cherokaui) / Co les Ballet C de la B), ’‘Blue Love’/co-directed/performed with Shaun Parker, ‘Big in Bombay’ and ‘Back to the Present’ (Constanza Macras), ‘Writing to Vermeer’ (Peter Greenaway), ‘Madam Butterfly’ (Oxenbould/-Barclay) State Opera SA. Film and TV credits include; “The Big Nothing’ (Sharptooth Pictures) (nominated Best Actress FirstGlance Hollywood), ‘Grounded (Luke Wissell), Going for Gold (Glen Pictures) and ‘Double Happiness Uranium’ (Cole Larson). Children’s TV series “Music Shop” (Ch:9 Series 1, 2), ‘Changed Forever’, ‘Plonk’ Series 2, ‘Anzac Girls’ and ‘Pine Gap’.

HOW IT ORIGINATED:

‘Theatre For Change’ began as a discussion between State Theatre Company South Australia and The Road Home and in 2019 received funding from The Office for Ageing Well to run a pilot program. Jo Stone and Paulo Castro were approached by State Theatre Company South Australia to put in a workshop proposal for the program with an anticipated start date of September 2019.

OUR EXPERIENCE:

The original proposal was designed to be responsive to the pathways taken by the participants and has developed into a space for creating a collaborative new script. It became clear the participants have an incredible ability to write. We have seen a huge evolution and commitment and are constantly surprised by the beautiful offerings of writing and material. It has been a humbling journey for both myself and Paulo with these amazing people and I believe nutritious and fruitful work for all of us. We are very excited and honored to help guide the beginning drafts of a new work.

MENTAL HEALTH AND ART:

Global Conference for PTSD: As a part of this journey, Jo was fortunate enough to attend the Global Conference for PTSD an afternoon and sat in on the key note speakers and panels on the role Sport and Art play in healing trauma. David Wiseman spoke about the ‘narrative’ of the ‘changed’ as opposed to the ‘broken’, and how emotive stories are the most published as they are effective for fundraising and entertainment. He spoke about the importance of not treating VETS as a resource or commodity that belongs to a brand ie: Recovery Narrative. Paulo and I are very clear that the work we are doing is not therapy driven. We don’t want these sessions to be focused on recovery of trauma, but a space to share stories, reflect and create whatever participants are interested in. By default, theatre practice allows space for stories to be told, shared, feelings to be utilized and it is celebrated and at the heart of the practice.