FRIDAY 2ND APRIL - 7:30PM 

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Written: Micharne Cloughley

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Directed: Zachary Bolton 

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Starring: Ngoc Phan, Ling Cooper Tang, Shari Indriani,

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43 STAGES OF GRIEVING tells the story of a robot who is pregnant, and dying. Robots are not supposed to be able to get pregnant. And yet, our robot, Taya, is pregnant. As she tries to find someone / something to look after the one / thing she is pregnant with, she will move in with a human, who is also dying. Together, they do in fact move through 43 stages of grieving.

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A comedy until it is not a comedy, this play is about the complicated future of death, but it is also about hope. Hope that robots will be nice, humans will be rational, and that no matter how far away we get from being ‘natural’, nature will find us all in the end

ZACHARY BOLTON

Zachary Boulton is a proud Brisbane based Actor, Director, Playwright and Teacher. Zachary also completed an Advanced Diploma of Acting at University of Canberra and a Bachelor of Applied Theatre at Griffith University. Zac’s most recent and significant credits include Man in BrisAsia Fest2021, Megafauna Performer for Dead Puppet Society in Brisfest2020, Director of David Burton’s Wisdom for the Youth Ensemble for Queensland Theatre’s Scene Project (In house showing 2020), Bill in Creative Development of My Fathers Wars by Elaine Akworth (2020), Soldier in Comfort Development by Anna Loren QPDA Reading (2020), Ensemble in Woman in House in the Dunes by Belloo Creative (2020), Hooker in Feature Film The Brighton Miracle Directed by Max Mannix (2020), Lead role Clyde in Feature Film Brisbane by Stewart Tyrrell (2019/21), Artist in Residence Writer/Director of Sleep...Over for Fusion Project & Boys Show Project at James Nash State High (2019-21), Co-Director of Love Means Nothing in Tennis by White Rabbit Theatre Ensemble (2019), Teacher Artist for La Boite Riot Program (2019), Dweezil and Phil in cartoon Space Chickens in Space (2018), Veles in Xbox game Hand of Fate 2 (2018), Earl in Agnus and Earl - Commonwealth Games (2018), Participant of PlayLab Incubator program (2017), Guest Artist Teacher at Yeronga State High (2016-21), Seasonal QUT Acting Tutor (2016-20), DJ in Hanako and Performer in Sand by Belloo Creative (2016-2019), Zac in one-man show The Fever (2015).

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NGOC PHAN
Ngoc is an actor and playwright. Her theatre performances include A Streetcar Named Desire, The Mathematics of Longing and The Village (La Boite Theatre), What I’m Here For, The Motion of Light in Water and After All This (Elbow Room), Dolores (Anywhere Festival), Splendour (Now Look Here), That’s what she said (The Good Room) and Hedonism’s Second Album (La Boite indie) She was also the voice of Ava in Throttle (The Farm) and is set to perform in Playlab’s Horizon.

Her screen performances include Kidnapped (Steve Jaggi/Sepia), Tidelands (2Netflix Australia/Hoodlum), Freudian Slip Web series (Broken Head Productions), NRMA (TV Commercial), QLD Government Road Safety Speeding Commercial (Two little Indians), Australia Day (Hoodlum/Foxtel), Pawno (Toothless pictures); Schapelle (Fremantle Media); At World’s End (New Holland Pictures); Sea Patrol (Nine Network); Terra Nova (Terra Nova Production), Secrets and Lies (Network Ten) and the AFI award-winning film The Black Balloon.

As a playwright, she was one of the participants in the Lotus Program supported by Playwriting Australia (PWA) and Contemporary Asian Australian Performance (CAAP).  She was an Artist-in-residence at La Boite Theatre Company where she worked on her play My Father who slept in a Zoo, her writing was featured in their production of The Village and was also a creative assistant in it’s companion piece, The Neighbourhood. Ngoc was also one of the writers for the web-series Un-Australian (Essential Media).

Ngoc Phan is also a tutor for the NIDA Open program and has been a teaching artist for La Boite and Queensland Theatre’s Youth Ensemble.

SHARI INDRIANI
Shari Indriani is an Australian artist with Indonesian-New Zealand heritage, whose practice spans writing, performing, and directing for the stage. Her credits include: as Director: Shadow in a Dress (HWY Festival, La Boite Theatre Company), (Sparks First Nations Playwrights Readings (Clancestry, QPAC), Bi Empat (HWY Festival, La Boite Theatre Company); as Assistant Director: City of Gold (Queensland Theatre/Griffith Theatre Company); as Writer/Director: The Bone People (QUT Virtual Production), Recipe (QUT Collab Works); as Writer: Doors (Backbone Youth Arts); Squint Witch (CAAP/Playwriting Australia); and as Actor: My Father Who Slept in a Zoo (HWY Festival, La Boite Theatre Company), Welcome to Sameville (Shock Therapy Productions, Festival 2018).  Shari undertook a Directorial Observation with Queensland Theatre for Nearer the Gods; was a participant of the CAAP’s Directors Initiative 2018-19; was Program Manager at La Boite Theatre Company 2009-2011, and is currently Queensland Theatre’s Producer of New Work.

LING COOPER TANG

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Ling graduated from the Queensland University of Technology Acting Program in 1995 and has been a regular on Australian television screens since. She was well known for her work on popular drama All Saints and was also a lead cast member of Breakers, Children’s Hospital and Spin Doctors. More recently, main roles in A Sunburnt Christmas, Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake- China Girl and Doctor Blake’s Murder Mysteries have inspired a new following. Other recent television work includes Harrow, The Other Guy, Seachange Reimagined, The Gloaming, The Secret She Keeps, The End and Miss Fisher’s Modern Mysteries.

 MICHARNE CLOUGHLEY

Micharne Cloughley is a writer for TV and theatre. 43 Stages of Grieving has been developed at The Tank and Judson Memorial Church in New York City. Cloughley is currently a staff writer for the historic 22nd season of Law & Order: SVU. Other plays include A Dream Panel of Real Women from the Oral Histories of Hazel de Berg, which was developed through the Creative Arts Fellowship at the National Library of Australia. With the theatre company The Civilians, she wrote The Way They Live and co-wrote The End and the Beginning, both performed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Further plays have been developed or presented in the US and Australia by Animus Theatre, Australian Made Entertainment, Holden Street Theatres, Rock Surfers Theatre, Spark Youth Theatre, and the Q Theatre.