Belloo Creative is an all-female, award-winning Australian theatre company that produces original contemporary works for stage and film.
Caroline Dunphy. Photo by Barbara Lowing.
CAROLINE DUNPHY
Co-Artistic Director, Director & Performer
Caroline is an actor, director, theatre maker and trainer/educator, and the co-founder and co-artistic director of Belloo Creative. She holds a repertoire of original theatre works dedicated to interdisciplinary and transcultural performance, and new Australian stories with both independent and major performing arts organisations.
Caroline graduated from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Bachelor of Arts Drama, Acting followed by a professional career on mainstages in Queensland whilst working and becoming a senior company member over 15 years in avant-garde theatre training and performing both in Japan and Australia with Frank Theatre (OzFrank) until 2010. Her specialised area is predominately in the Suzuki-inspired method Frank Suzuki Performance Aesthetics (FSPA) based on rigorous theatrical discipline, as a western variant and translation of the classic Suzuki Actor Training Method (SATM). Her regular visits in Japan saw her train under the supervision of Tadashi Suzuki and lead actor/ trainer Ellen Lauren (SITI Theatre, NY) as well as perform and attend many festivals under the artistic direction of Tadashi Suzuki alongside his company Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT)and Shizuoka Performing Arts Centre (SPAC).
Caroline has appeared on Australian and British television and performs with a range of theatre companies nationally. She was a board member with Queensland Theatre from 2003 to 2006 and taught at universities and institutes nationally, including the QUT Acting Program.
Since co-founding Belloo Creative in 2013, Caroline has creatively produced and mentored emerging theatre makers as well having directed several original / award-winning productions including Belloo’s Motherland (Qld Theatre + national tour), Hanako (Brisbane Festival), House in the Dunes (Tokyo Performing Arts Meet, 2020), Rovers (Brisbane Festival + national tour, digital content, online streaming), Akiruno (Tokyo Tokyo Festival, 2021) and Boy, Lost (Queensland Theatre, 2022).
As theatre company-in-residence (2019-2020) with Queensland Theatre, Caroline was part of the advisory team, taking on dramaturgical and directing duties. Internationally, in 2019, she returned for the Theatre Olympics in Toga, Japan, 20 years since her first Theatre Olympics visit in 1999 under the Artistic Director of Tadashi Suzuki. In 2022, she was sponsored to attend the Toga Summer Theatre Festival (SCOT, Suzuki Company of Toga) and recently in August 2024, was accepted to participate in their International Summer Training Intensive as part of the Summer Theatre Festival.
In 2023, Caroline performed in the Sydney Festival production of Holding Achilles, a co-production with Dead Puppets Society (Bris, Qld) and Legs On The Wall (Syd, NSW) and in 2024, co-created and directed Belloo Creative’s production of SAND in collaboration with Taikoz (Syd) and Good Company Arts (NZ) presented by RPAC (Redlands Performing Arts Centre).