First, I was a member of Shopfront’s incredible workshop program. In Studios 13 through 15, I made memories with friends who are now my life-long collaborators in the industry. Such as Nicole Pingon, who I will be working with on Werkaholics at Belvoir 25a later this year.

When I was 13, I nearly died and found myself hospitalised. Shopfront sent me this video of my friends.

I hosted Shopfront’s 40th birthday party with my best friend Sophie Ward, who I am so proud of as she steps into the role of young leader and continues her valuable work with Shopfront’s community.

I experienced immense grief with Shopfront when our dear friend and community member, Angus, passed away in 2016. Through this, I learned the value of a community space for young people in times of crisis.

At 16 years old, I created Shopfront’s first ever member’s show, Star-Crossed. As I learned how to create art as an independent artist, I also helped to create the Members Show program as we know it today. Notably, under the mentorship of - now fellow board member - Nick Atkins, I was introduced to the field of dramaturgy for the first time.

As the first ever Playwave creative, I was given an opportunity to enter the inner world of the performance industry. Playwave empowered me to, as an awkward teen, enter highly exclusive spaces reserved for only those who “matter” in the performance sector and to do so with the confidence that I belonged there. This helped me to understand the way our sector functions as a cultural ecosystem and the role that young people play in it.

Throughout my time at Shopfront I was very eager, perhaps unnervingly eager, to help Shopfront become a more sustainable organisation. Currently we have several, paid, advisory panels, but Shopfront used to have a single, unpaid, advisory panel called the Voice of Shopfront. There was a period where I was the only attending member of the Voice of Shopfront. It's bittersweet to reflect on those times that former staff member Alison Richardson and I sat alone in a room together with a few snacks… discussing what could be...

In early 2021, I was invited to step into the shoes of Samantha Crome on Shopfront’s Board. This was shortly after COVID completely redefined the way arts organisations needed to function in Australia, I was truly thrown in the deep end.

Later that year, I reflected on my extensive experience at Shopfront and decided to turn it into something more:

In one of the most defining moments of my life, somehow, in a COVID-lockdown induced mania, I managed to convince the best university in our country that my education at Shopfront was equal to an undergraduate qualification. In an act of support that I will never forget, our CEO Nat Rose, and creative producer Valentina Corona, wrote deeply persuasive letters of recommendation to the university for me.

Consequently, I was admitted to the University of Melbourne’s Master of Theatre (Dramaturgy) course, having never studied in a tertiary institution before. As the youngest student, I graduated in 2023, achieving the highest mark of my cohort.

Earlier this year, alongside co-founder Grace Ellen Macpherson, I launched ORANGUTAN. This bold venture of performance-art-cum-journalism strives to be the authoritative voice of gen Z on the performance sector. It is truly the manifestation of everything I have developed through my childhood and young-adulthood with Shopfront. With Shopfront, I have built my personality, my community, my education, my gusto, my voice, my artistic practice and my… sense of self. That all lives in ORANGUTAN now.

I wanted to end this portion of my resignation letter with a happy memory but… I can’t shake this one:

It was a terrifying day of holding my friends as they cried about Angus… they came to Shopfront one by one to congregate after we all received the news of his passing. I ran away and hid behind the bins and finally, I allowed myself to cry. Someone came up behind me. I don’t remember if they stayed with me or not, I don’t remember what they said, and I don’t remember who they were. But I remember how I felt when they found me there, hiding.