The Wooden Leg


Founders: Andrew Dodds, Wallis Murphy-Munn, Keith Gow and Haley Lawson-Smith

Current Artistic Directors: Keith Gow & Wallis Murphy-Munn

The Wooden Leg was founded in a rush in 2011, when the four founding members were thrust together to put on a show with four weeks' notice at the Owl and Pussycat.

They produced three short plays - two by Keith & one by Hayley - at three spaces in the venue as it was then: in the gallery, in the bar and in the old upstairs theatre, The Runcible Spoon.

With such a quick turnaround, the team didn't have time to think about ideals or an aesthetic - but what they learned about that season informed the kind of shows they committed to making in the future.

The Wooden Leg has chosen to focus on producing plays in non-traditional venues or to make work in traditional spaces feel more immersive and inclusive.

In 2012, the team produced Painting with Words & Fire by Keith Gow - a series of monologues for women, along with a devised piece tying these three unique women together. This was staged at Revolt Performance Space in Kensington in their loading dock.




In late 2012, the Wooden Leg produced Keith Gow's Eight Minutes as part of the Short & Sweet Festival in Melbourne. The play opened act two of the festival and the actors (Sean Scanlon, Anna Burgess) interacted with the audience in the foyer of Chapel Off Chapel before telling the story of the last eight minutes of planet Earth.



While Andrew and Hayley have moved onto other projects, Keith and Wallis have been considering several projects for the re-launch of The Wooden Leg in 2015 and beyond.

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