Business student Zayne Woodley Lake is taking theory to the theatre with at an LA-bound show at Brisbane’s Metro Arts.

Billed ‘Part Art Exhibition, Part Performance, Part Experiment’ RAW will pose some uncomfortable questions about a culture of conformity and changing up conversations to generate dialogue that borders on the controversial.

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The hybrid physical theatre performance, which runs for two nights on Friday and Saturday (Aug 18-19), features the voices of 10 young artists from around the world and has been curated by Brisbane-born, Los Angeles-based Zed Hopkins of Hara Productions.

Griffith double degree student, Zayne Lake, is its producer.

Serious production

“Producing this project is a great fit for me,” Zayne (20) says. “I’m putting theory from the event management classroom on a Friday afternoon directly into practice with a serious production in Brisbane CBD.

“I still see this piece of physical theatre through creative eyes, but now through my studies I’m also seeing it through more objective eyes in terms of risk management for example and the business concepts behind managing an event like this in a major city like Brisbane.”

Zayne, who is studying a double degree in International Tourism and Hotel Management and Business (majoring in Event Management), has a strong relationship with the world of theatre and arts. Along with playing trombone and drums on the musical front, he has also performed in a number of stage plays since first studying drama at Corinda State High School.

“In recent times I’ve tended towards a more behind-the-scenes role,” the third-year student at Griffith’s Nathan campus says. “I’ve noticed a need for more effective producers at grassroots level, so theatre like RAW is also a great opportunity to gain great experience in that space.”

Challenging conversations

Zayne believes the upcoming production of RAW is very timely and on-topic with lives around the world.

“Too many conversations nowadays happen at surface level and I believe there is an ever-increasing need for us to press pause on our digital-centric lives and actually plunge into the depths of challenging conversations around the kinds of uncomfortable topics that RAW will bring to the fore.

“These conversations are uncomfortable and confronting but are also so very important and inherent to our wellbeing. So we also want this work to be a spark for creating engaging dialogue and conversation beyond the space and performance itself through a notion of ‘what is next’.”

RAW will be performed at Metro Arts, 109 Edwards Street, on Friday, August 18 and Saturday, August 19, starting at 7pm. Zed Hopkins will next take RAW to Los Angeles for the third part of a three-city tour which started in Melbourne.