Ballet for Boys
Date
9th June- 13th June, 2026
Location
La Mama Courthouse, La Mama Explorations
Team
Writer, Choreographer - Francesco Mandarino
Director - Tessie Yu
Producer - Iva Lilly
Lighting Designer - Holland Brooks
Set & Costume Designer - David Wotherspoon
Sound Designer - Thomas Coombes
Intimacy Director - Josh Richardson
Performers:
Justin - Jude Paddon-Row
Pierre - Jermaine Ferguson
Rudy - Abe Geyer
Sky - Kaelan Green
Vanessa - Rosie Russell
Role
Lighting Designer
All it takes to be a man is blood, sweat and tutus.
Step inside the Senior Boys’ dressing room and dab your sweat alongside these four best friends, who are rehearsing “Swan Lake” under the stern eye of their mysterious new female teacher.
It’s their final term at the school, and the boys need to decide – like, now! – if they want to make a career out of ballet. Entrenched in a world of traditions and binaries, they grapple with conflicting pressures to be both manly and dainty. (Real men wear tights, right??)
Desires, fears, and tensions are explored through dance and heightened movement, set to thrilling arrangements of some of Tchaikovsky’s most cherished ballet compositions. After all, there’s nothing straightforward about the transition from boys, to swans, to men.




