Director

At the age of eighteen, Kris Wier moved to Toowoomba to commence her tertiary studies in a Bachelor of Education/Drama duel degree. Toward the end of her third year, she shifted her focus and commenced study specifically on Theatre through a Bachelor of Creative Arts. During this time, she came to the realisation that directing was her passion and so began working with several directors on multiple productions.

For the Shakespeare in the Park Festival , she was assistant director on the 2008 production of Romeo and Juliet alongside director, Scott Alderdice, and then again performed the same role for the 2009 n production of The Tempest, directed by Andrea Moor. In 2008, she also directed Lazarus Won’t Get Out of Bed by David Burton and in 2009 she directed Berthold Brecht’s Threepenny Opera for USQ Artsworx. Earlier this year, she worked on a short play for the National Playwrights Festival in Brisbane; An Ugly Stillness by Crystal Aarons.

Through her experience of both drama and education she has grown to be interested in using theatre as an educational tool. She believes that children’s theatre is an important device for the facilitation of children’s personal growth and life progress. Due to the state of the ever-changing world, it is increasingly important that children not only develop academically intellectual skills, but are encouraged to develop a sturdy social and emotional intellect to compliment their academic learning.

Kris believes Captain Pathos and His Army of Imaginary Friends is an important pedagogical tool for teaching young children about responsibility and respect. In the play, these ideals are expressed through an emphasis on internal personal battles rather than on the stereotypical ‘evil’ character on whom blame is most often placed. Throughout the play Martin, the protagonist, begins to understand that he is his own nemesis as well as his own hero; it is his own fear and negativity that create his nemesis and his own acts of kindness, respect and responsibility that create his hero.

Kris’s vision for the aesthetic of the play is heavily influenced by German Expressionism with skewed set sizing, the prominent use of angles and utilization of shadow puppets. The bright colours of the set, lighting and costume sit gently between a Gordon Craig-style Symbolism aesthetic and that of German Expressionism. The director’s influence for the action is drawn heavily from Meyerholdian physical body work and Brecht’s presentational style which is manifest most clearly in the characters’ continual acknowledgment of the audience. Kris encourages her actors to deconstruct and interpret their characters intelligently, being ever-aware of the audience for which they are playing to.