Pictured: Lally Katz & Brian Lipson. Photo: Lachlan Woods

Propelling the ongoing work of Malthouse Theatre is the Engine Room — our annual commitment to the development of new work.

Malthouse Theatre’s Engine Room provides a time and place for creative possibilities. Marion and the Artistic Associates together with independent artists in all genres are quarantining two months of their year for the development of new work to build a future repertoire.

In the Engine Room, we start working on a project from its conception — a writer has an idea, a designer sees an image, a director has a hunch. From seeds like these, an incalculable number of possibilities can grow.

And the Engine Room provides an opportunity to investigate the best of these, using the skills, instincts and insights of our senior artists together with the finest collaborators.

2012′s production of Blood Wedding came from this process and some subscribers were present at our test of the idea in 2011.

The results may not be seen immediately and that is half the joy — the slow simmering of ideas can elicit richer, deeper understandings and outcomes.