{"id":547542,"date":"2026-03-18T03:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T03:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/547542\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T03:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T03:29:11","slug":"teenage-supernatural-theatre-work-monsteen-to-premiere-at-rising-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/547542\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenage supernatural theatre work Monsteen to premiere at RISING 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ACMVampires, werewolves and witches will come to life in an immersive supernatural participatory theatre work Monsteen<\/a>\u00a0making its premiere presentation as part of\u00a0RISING\u00a0from\u00a06 \u2013 14 June 2026.<\/p>\n

Transforming the\u00a0City of Melbourne\u2019s\u00a0dedicated youth space,\u00a0SIGNAL into a fictional supernatural high school, participants aged 13 \u2013 17 years-old are guided to create their own monstrous teenaged characters who make allies, break hearts or unleash havoc.<\/p>\n

Created by contemporary performance company Infinity,\u00a0Monsteen\u00a0was developed as part of\u00a0Arts Centre Melbourne\u2019s\u00a0PLAY<\/a>\u00a0program, where rehearsals, play tests and creative developments took place at creative learning hub\u00a0The Channel<\/a> in 2024 and early 2025. Young audiences helped to test gameplay and provided feedback for story arcs.<\/p>\n

Monsteen is inspired by youth culture \u2013 cosplay, gaming and live action roleplaying (LARPing), to provide an alternative to a risk-averse parenting styles and screen time. It provides an opportunity for young people to take social risks amongst their peers in a playful, dynamic and safe environment.<\/p>\n

A group of up to 20 participants, with no prior acting experience are led through different scenarios, navigating class politics, meetups at secret hangouts, boring dinner with parents and choosing sides in ugly friendship battles. As the game progresses, players must try and come to terms with their monstrous side.<\/p>\n

Throughout Monsteen, players are introduced to spells and magic that can influence pathways throughout the game. Infinity cast members such as\u00a0Zara Nawaz (15) act as guides throughout the game. They function as custodians of the work and make sure players understand the mechanics of the game to keep them engaged.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy seeing [other] young people have fun and immerse themselves in the experience. Monsteen gives them a chance to be whoever they want to be in a supernatural world, a chance that many people haven\u2019t experienced before,\u201d says Zara.<\/p>\n

Arts Centre Melbourne\u2019s Head of Creative Engagement Cynthia Nolan Myers said seeing the work make its debut was exciting. \u201cWatching Monsteen grow from its early development to a premiere presentation with the City of Melbourne\u2019s SIGNAL team at Melbourne\u2019s premiere arts festival, RISING is a proud moment for Arts Centre Melbourne and a powerful reminder of how the early investment in creativity can launch extraordinary artistic journeys,\u201d said Cynthia.<\/p>\n

Based out of Naarm\/Melbourne and Djilang\/Geelong, Infinity is led by Artistic Director Jackson Castiglione who is passionate about the process of working with young people and creating work that\u2019s meaningful to them. Their work is centred around youth culture, and is driven by the perspectives and interests of its core team \u2013 five young leaders who co-devise, perform and provide guidance to other young artists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really interested in championing young people\u2019s ideas, voice and agency. I believe if you\u2019re making an artwork for a particular age, it\u2019s important to have representation from that demographic\u00a0I think the way young people consume \u2026 view and participate in art is very different to previous generations. Monsteen speaks to young people\u2019s interests at this moment in time,\u201d said Jackson.<\/p>\n

Arts Centre Melbourne\u2019s PLAY program was critical to the success of\u00a0Monsteen, providing Infinity with end-to-end support to engage young people Jackson said. \u201cThe Channel has built up this enormous public trust over the years with young people and their families. I can\u2019t think of many other programs in Melbourne that allow performances to be developed in such a way that\u2019s so in tune with young people,\u201d said Jackson.<\/p>\n

Monsteen
SIGNAL \u2013 Northbank, Flinders Walk, Melbourne
Season: 6 \u2013 14 June 2026
Information and Bookings: www.artscentremelbourne.com.au<\/a><\/p>\n

Image: Monsteen \u2013 photo by Jason Lau<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vampires, werewolves and witches will come to life in an immersive supernatural participatory theatre work Monsteen\u00a0making its premiere…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,4100,163850,40037,4094,163851,4101,647,163849,4093,163853,4092,4099,4090,4105,105,163852,4089,4104],"class_list":["post-547542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-belvoir","tag-book-of-mormom","tag-destination-nsw","tag-fortyfivedownstairs","tag-kooza","tag-la-boite-theatre","tag-melbourne","tag-meow-meow","tag-midsumma","tag-muck-rack","tag-ngv","tag-opera-australia","tag-publication-media","tag-rocky-horror","tag-technology","tag-the-lion-king","tag-theatre","tag-todd-mckenney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}