Breaksea started out in 2017 as an Albany-based vocal performance initiative but has grown to spread the joy of creativity through music, theatre and community stories across WA, championing artists wherever it goes.
Named after Breaksea Island, the non-profit, multi-arts organisation — now with offices in Albany, Denmark and Perth — is led by artistic director Matt Reuben James Ward and director of music Pia Harris, two talents in their own right who met while furthering their studies at the Royal College of Music in London and have been friends ever since.
Using their industry understanding and professional contacts has proven hugely successful for the Breaksea Youth Mentorship program, established in 2020 to mentor gifted regional youth, helping them to realise their full potential.
This year’s Breaksea Youth Mentorship program culminates with contemporary music theatre production Caretaker, produced in partnership with UWA Conservatorium of Music and Aquinas College Schola Cantorum with a cast of more than 50, including the UWA Broadway Choir and Breaksea youth artists Bonnie Staude, Gus Moir and Sabrina Ives.
Also known for her work as a soprano, Harris will conduct Caretaker’s ethereal and evocative score by Breaksea director of composition Jonathan Brain and Sabrina Ives in the show, also featuring Noongar artist Rachael Colmer, NIDA-trained Maree Cole and Stuart Laing, who recently returned to Perth after 14 years of performing in London.
Caretaker was initially developed in the Great Southern over a two-year period in 2020 and 2021, exploring many community stories of migration and performed at Albany Entertainment Centre in 2021.
“It’s important to know that this iteration of Caretaker is very different to the original production,” Mt Pleasant resident Harris says.
“The script and the story has been revised and worked on with our youth. It follows a series of parallel, true, Great Southern stories, still including the theme of migration, but also family and connection and purpose.
“One of the central characters is Indigenous performer Rachael Colmer who actually plays herself, sharing her own powerful story of adoption, uncertainty and strength, family, love and forming connections with her biological family.”
Other stories include a young woman who has endured a difficult journey from Sicily to Albany with her son and a married couple grappling with the challenges of life.
“There’s a lot of heavy themes, but it’s important to know as well that it’s also very uplifting and the message is very hopeful,” Harris adds.
“That’s sort of the basis of Breaksea’s productions as well, is that we might deal with some difficult content, but there’s always hope, a positive outcome and a way through. I think that’s important for us, that’s how we live our lives, and that’s the message that we want to convey.
“The score provides the perfect sound world for the piece and has great musical variety, so at times it’s folky and choral and then classical. We find in any Breaksea show we’ve done, people really resonate with that. It’s quite a universal sort of a way to include everyone, to have open access. We’re not kind of one style and I think that’s why we appeal to many.”
Breaksea’s appeal was also evident on August 12 at the Performing Arts WA Awards, winning Outstanding New Work in a musical or opera for production The Magical Weedy Seadragon.