Dana
McMillan
About Me
I am a performer and theatre maker from Naarm (Melbourne), Australia. 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.
As a collaborator my practice is based across Naarm and, London where I am an ongoing company member of experiemental performance collective ClusterFlux (clusterflux.co.uk) and presented across Edinbrugh Fringe Festival, Amsterdam Fringe, Sprint Festival (CPT) and more. I was previously Co-Artistic Director of Australian experimental performance collective The DIG Collective with performances at Melbourne Fringe Festival, White Night Melbourne and various other events and festivals.
I also 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
objects in the mirror are (not) what they appear
Melbourne Fringe Festival
Festival Hub: Trades Hall - The Square
Sept 30th-Oct 4th
Wed-Sat: 9:15pm, Sun 8:15pm
Book Now
"Today, we’re looking at looking. Today, at me specifically. So, welcome... If you want to come in and take a seat, we’ll get started."
Dana has spent a lot of time looking into reflections over the last five years, in screens, mirrors and pools of water. She can’t look away. She's fascinated by the sight in front of her...but she’s also having a hard time reconciling the person looking back as herself.
To unravel what it means to look at the self and to find out who this person really is, she's gone away and done the research. She's hit the books and enlisted the assistance of an Ancient Greek, Narcissus, to help figure it out..
The more she looks and the more she digs, the further she seems to sink into the image. Becoming increasingly drawn to the lovesick nymph Echo who follows Narcissus - who disappears from sight and appears in sound - Dana starts to crave a dis-appearance of her own. Perhaps the voice that lingers, might 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.
Previous Seasons:
Sprint Festival, Camden People’s Theatre, 2023
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