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 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 some of which have been in co-production with major organisations such as Queensland Theatre, NORPA and Brisbane Festival, independent companies nationally such as The Good Room, The Danger Ensemble, Dead Puppets Society and Legs On The Wall, and toured nationally with Critical Stages Touring. As theatre company-in-residence (2019-2020) with Queensland Theatre, Caroline was part of the advisory team, and taken on dramaturgical and directing duties with the company in this time. She also directed the Queensland Theatre’s Youth Ensemble in the Queensland Young Playwright’s award-winning play. Caroline returned to Japan in 2019 for the Theatre Olympics in Toga, Japan and in 2022 for the 40th anniversary of the Toga Festival, 20 years on since her first Theatre Olympics visit in 1999 under the Artistic Director of Tadashi Suzuki.
Caroline has most recently co-created and directed Belloo Creative’s 2022 award winning play, Boy, Lost and performed at the 2023 Sydney Festival production in Holding Achilles, a co-production with Dead Puppets Society (Bris, Qld) and Legs On The Wall (Syd, NSW) which premiered at the Brisbane Festival in 2022.