Krystalla Pearce, the new artistic director and CEO of St Kilda institution Theatre Works, had her stage awakening at around five years old.
‘I’m not a big Gilbert and Sullivan fan, but my dad took me to see The Mikado,’ she recalls. ‘The Mikado looked at me and gave me a wink, and I felt electricity going through my body. That was my first memorable taste of the power of live performance, and how that can impact audiences and artists.’
While Pearce played around with writing her own plays as a kid and was involved in amateur dramatics at school, her route to Theatre Works wasn’t a straight line.
Krystalla Pearce on Theatre Works – quick links
Her path to theatre
‘When I was in my final year of high school, I won an award, which meant I got to have dinner with the actor Caroline Craig, who is a very dear friend of mine now,’ Pearce recalls. ‘Back then, she was 27, and I was 17. She said, “Go and do something generic first, then come back to this if you really want to.” I didn’t hold on to it consciously, but that’s exactly what I did.’
Studying Italian literature, social theory and Islamic studies at Melbourne University, Pearce was heavily involved in the student theatre scene, including as a curator at MUDfest. But her graduate role was a wild swing.
‘I worked in government, at the Department of Defence in Canberra, because I was terrified I wouldn’t have a regular income through theatre,’ Pearce says.
She wound up at the UN in New York, working for the Australian government. ‘Which I hated,’ Pearce says. ‘I was really disillusioned. I think that peacekeeping is more feasible, actually, through art than that body. But I fell in love with the city, and it was the driver to return to theatre as a career.’
All of New York’s a stage
Pearce embraced that destiny via a Masters of Performance Studies at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
‘It was thrilling, being around academics who had basically started this department through working with their mates who were making crazy work in New York in the 80s and 90s,’ Pearce says.
The real education happened in the evenings. ‘I was going to see a lot of theatre, from performance artists doing really weird queer dance pieces in the depths of Bushwick, to Cate Blanchett in Uncle Vanya on Broadway with a ticket I found on Craigslist for 50 bucks.’
Co-founding experimental, feminist theatre company Rat King Theatre with dancer Tessa Allen, much of their work was influenced by their research into the effects of drugs and alcohol on the creative process.
‘Our initial work together was all excerpts from Chekhov, which we turned into a play we performed in a park while we consumed 20 shots of vodka each,’ Pearce says, chuckling. ‘The biggest show we did had a full working kitchen on stage, and we fed the audience.’
New motherhood was no imposition. ‘I pitched a show to a few downtown theatre companies, about two women who didn’t realise they were the same person, having a conversation 10 years apart,’ Pearce says. ‘One had just ended what they thought was their lifelong partnership, and the other was an older version about to have her first child.’
Ants Go Marching debuted at the Wild Project when Pearce was eight months pregnant. ‘Then Dixon Place, another downtown theatre space, offered us a slot three months later, so we ended up reworking it to be about a new mother, with my daughter on stage.’
Melbourne calling
Returning to Melbourne in 2018, Pearce had forged an indelible artistic partnership with fellow homecoming NYC implant, director and dramaturg Bridget Balodis.
‘Bridget directed all my work in New York, and we co-directed She is Vigilante, which I’m very proud of, together at Theatre Works in 2019,’ Pearce says. ‘Ultimately, that paved the way to the She Writes [emerging writers development] program.’
Pearce says Balodis will always be on the end of the phone for her, and helped connect her to Red Stitch via a producer’s role.
‘When I applied, I called up [Red Stitch artistic director] Ella [Caldwell] and told her I was reticent, wanting to stay as an artist, but I wondered if the position description could change a bit, so that I could have more creative input,’ Pearce recalls.
That’s exactly what happened. Pearce championed their education partnership with schools and was also a driving force behind the celebrated run of Ray Lawler’s Doll Trilogy.
‘My two-and-a-bit years at Red Stitch were incredibly positive, because I got that training in the business side of things, the fundraising and budgeting background, which I had a bit of from my role prior, as a programmer at the Jewish Museum of Australia and contact work at [Melbourne Theatre Company],’ Pearce says.
‘I also helped with the Ink Writers’ Program, and directed a show, On the Ropes, which was written by Dan Giovannoni, who I’d wanted to collaborate with for a long time. Working on the Doll was incredible, learning how to tour shows, which I’d never done before. It’s been a huge learning experience for me.’
Pearce swears this education led to the new gig. ‘If it wasn’t for that job, I wouldn’t have been successful in applying for Theatre Works or feel equipped to be both an artistic director and CEO. I’m an artist that can get shit done, basically.’
Securing the future
Guiding the future of Theatre Works during troubling times for the performing arts is no easy ask.
‘It’s a huge job, and I’m nervous about how I’m going to fulfil it, but I feel very privileged to be stepping into the role,’ Pearce says. ‘We’ve got a funding gap of two years that we’re optimistic about filling, but that’s something I have to take into consideration.’
Pearce has clear ideas about what she wants to hold onto and elevate, and where tweaks can be made. ‘I’m definitely interested in scaling back the program, so we won’t be doing 60 shows a year,’ she says. ‘What that number is, I still need to figure out, leaning on the staff with institutional knowledge that I don’t yet have.’
She won’t be going it alone. ‘I’m appointing a panel of four artists, industry professionals connected in other spaces with different practices, who will help me dream and provide input into what we program.’
The intention is to give the streamlined program more artistic direction. ‘So while I won’t be directing any shows immediately, the dramaturgical support I can provide artists throughout the process is going to be a bit more hands-on.’
Directing will follow, eventually. ‘And I won’t say no to performing, but that’s at least a couple of years away,’ Pearce says. ‘I’ve got a lot to get my head around, and I’m aware of the strain it puts on a company when there’s such a lean team and the AD steps away, creatively. Everything has to align before I step into that.’
Dreaming big
For now, Pearce is taking a quick break to visit friends and family in New York. ‘I’m meeting with a lot of independent theatre companies of a similar size, doing some big-sky dreaming.’
Pearce is grateful for outgoing executive director Diane Toulson’s eight-year tenure. ‘Di’s fierceness in supporting independent artists has set a really strong foundation,’ Pearce says. ‘She’s also producing some upcoming shows, so I’m very fortunate to have her support.’
Securing the future of Theatre Works is vital work, Pearce insists. ‘Artists can come here without having to front up fees. It’s a highly accessible, great-sized space for emerging and mid-career artists before they make the mainstage, and also for later-career creatives who can come back and do really weird and risky stuff.’
