Profile

Penne Thornton is a multidisciplinary creative producer working across performance, exhibitions, public programming, artist development and community engagement.
Penne has a research focus on collaborative, place-based practice and is an advocate for social justice and equity in the arts.






Image by Leiko Manalang-Frequin



Email
pennethornton(at)gmail.com


Select Projects

>A People’s Guide to (North) Geelong
>Duwa
>Anything & Everything
>WiCLA


Platform Arts Projects

Performance
>Death Warmed Up
>Texture of Absence
>Paradise Lots
>Slip
>The Director
>Bodies of Water
>Maps of the Heart
>Pictures and Ghosts

Artist Development >Neighbourhood LAB
>infinity ensemble
>金山 婆 Gold Mountain Wife

 

Publications

> Collective Mothering
> Local Word















A People’s Guide to (North) Geelong

Exhibition

Creative Producer Penne Thornton
Lead Artist Yuhui Ng Rodriguez
New Media Artist Laura Alice

Platform Arts, Djilang/Geelong

Supported by 
City of Greater Geelong, Indie School
The Good Neighbourhood Project

Images by Penne Thornton
2025

Collaborative research and digital arts project



A People’s Guide to (North) Geelong is a community project based in Geelong’s inner north in regional Victoria. Eight young people are engaged as honorary artists and explore place through in-depth conversations and walks with local and senior residents. 

This project is currently in development. 





Duwa (in development)

Performance

Lead Artist Amal Laala
Producer Penne Thornton
Video Artist Jarrah Gurrie

Geelong Arts Centre, Djilang/Geelong

Supported by 
Geelong Arts Centre Ignition Program 

Images by Skye Sobejko
2025
Amal Laala

Duwa is a contemporary ritual — part performance art, part healing dinner party — that invites audiences to slow down, connect, and experience art through all senses. It responds to a growing appetite for works that bring together ceremony, nourishment, and performance in ways that transcend traditional theatre formats




Anything & Everything

Performance

Created and devised by infinity and Jackson Castiglione

Director Jackson Castiglione
Platform Arts infinity members: Poppy Goodman, Zara Nawaz, Harriet McNicol, Eza Bakker-Graham, Saskia Ellis-Gardam and Elm Macpherson

infinity Producer Penne Thornton
Project Producer Xavier O’Shannessy
Dramaturge Tamara Searle
Video and Media Designer Rhian Hinkley
Composition/sound design Robert P. Downie
Audio Operator Connor Ross
Set Design Tyler Hawkins
Costume Design/Stylist Sophie Hayward.
Lighting Designer Niklas Pajanti
Lighting ProgrammerTom Willis
Stage Manager Libby Gilbert


Commissioned by RISING with support from ACMI, Melbourne

Images by Sarah Walker
2022
infinity ensemble

Young people’s lives are dominated by social media: selfies, meme cycles, video filters, "likes" and emojis. This screen culture defines their generation, but it's a world often hidden from the adults in their lives. 

Set in a TV studio, Anything & Everything is a live performance that glimpses into the intimate online and IRL spaces where young people navigate technology, identity, ability, connection and consent. 

Director Jackson Castiglione (The Dispute) works with an ensemble of artists aged between 11 and 21 who've collaborated online for two years. As the performers joke, share and converse live onstage, their peers manipulate cameras, digital filters and video. Together they augment their identities in real-time to explore the thresholds between screen, reality and agency.



WiCLA

Film

Length: 18:30
Produced by Penne Thornton
Directed by Caleb Plumridge 
Assistant Director James Duggan
Director of Photography Aidan Mair


Commissioned by City of Greater Geelong


Images by Penne Thornton, James Duggan
2020
True South Film

This short documentary celebrates the extraordinary contributions of women across the Geelong region. A selection of nominees for the Women in Community Life Awards share their stories, achievements and experiences in their chosen fields including midwifery, law, cultural education, performing arts, community services and science and engineering. This film honours the nominees for the Women in Community Life Awards which are held on International Women’s Day.  





 I acknowledge the life systems of land, river, sea and atmosphere and the Waddawurrung people’s as the First People’s on whose sacred Country I live. This land was never ceded. I give respect to all First Nations people’s, their elders and rising generations