Dana
McMillan
About Me
I am a performer and theatre maker currently based in London working with the experiemental performance company ClusterFlux (clusterflux.co.uk). My solo performance practice uses devised processes to combine original, poetic text with physical performance to examine how a queer feminine gaze operates in theatrical spaces.
Originally from Naarm (Melbourne), Australia, I was Co-Artistic Director of The DIG Collective, an Australian experimental performance collective dedicated to making performances through devised, slow dramaturgical processes and non-linear storytelling and have seen works performed at Melbourne Fringe Festival, White Night and various other events and festivals.
I frequently perform and facilitate across a variety of mediums as well as running workshops for physical and devised theatre, improvisation and Shakespearean language.
I am a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) BFA Honours (Theatre Practice) (2019) and Royal Central School of Speech and Drama MFA Advanced Theatre Practice (2022).
I have previously been supported by the Ian Potter Cultural Trust (2020) and the Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Fellowship (Theatre) (2021).
Solo Projects
Current Work:
objects in the mirror are (not) what they appear. Sprint Festival, Camden People’s Theatre, 2023 (Performer and Devisor)
"Today, we’re looking at looking. Today, at me specifically. So, welcome... If you want to come in, we’ll get started."
Dana has spent a lot of time looking into reflections over the last couple years, in screens, mirrors, pools of water. She’s strangely fascinated and she can’t look away, but she’s also been having a hard time reconciling the person looking back at her as herself. So, she's gone away and hit the books, done the research and enlisted the assistance of an Ancient Greek, Narcissus, who’s already been there to help her unravel what it means to really look at the self.
But the more she looks, the further she sinks into the image and she can’t help but want it to disappear. Dana becomes increasingly drawn to the lovesick nymph following Narcissus, Echo, disappearing from sight and appearing in sound – a dis-appearance. Could the voice that lingers be a more complete reflection of the self?
Part performance lecture, part live streaming nightmare, Dana talks, dances and photographs her way around the self-gaze, dissecting her subjectivity for your viewing (and listening) pleasure.
Created for the MFA in Advanced Theatre Practice at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Past Work:
This is Not About Lee Miller, VCA, Developmental Showing, 2019
This is Not About Lee Miller is a devised solo performance, presented at VCA for my BFA (Honours) in Theatre Practice. The performance uses Dana’s relationship (or obsession) to photographer, model and muse Lee Miller in order to explore the nature of queer feminine desire and the specifics of how this gaze operates in theatre. It seeks to challenge the traditional male gaze by using models of feminist psychoanalysis and feminine aesthetics to create a queer feminine dramaturgy for performance making.
The performance incorporates live streaming with physical performance, verbatim text and poetry to explore the relationship between the self and other in a queer feminine relationship, which not only desires but is also able to see oneself within the object of desire.
Education and Technical Skills
Education and Workshops
I have extensive experience in leading workshops across a range of performance styles including physical theatre, classical performance and even specifically improvised Shakespeare for both High School and University settings.
i currently, regularly facilitate workshops in devised and collaborative performance, through my work with ClusterFlux Collective that continues a history of facilititation I began with my work in performance collective The DIG Collective.
Technical Skills
I have technical experience show operating and QLab design, including mltimedia elements of live streaming and creative captioning for independant theatre. I recently designed the creative captioning for ClusterFlux Collective’s critically acclaimed PLEASE LEAVE (a message) and have also worked with BÉZNĂ Theatre.
If you are interested in finding out more about captioning services or enquiring about a workshop please contact me on: dana.mcmillan@y7mail.com
Contact
dana.mcmillan@y7mail.com
ClusterFlux Collective:
clusterfluxcollective@gmail.com