CENTA co. is a home for physical theatre, where rigorous training and ensemble practice shape ambitious work of lasting quality.
Through Training and Creation, we work with discipline and care, building a strong foundation for contemporary physical performance. We pursue Quality in everything we do, guided by Generosity, Integrity, and Openness in how we collaborate and create. Based in Boorloo Perth, we are building a sustainable Global Centre for Physical Theatre, making work that connects artists and audiences here and around the world.
Co Artistic Directors
Aki Sato-Johnson is a Japanese-American performer and theatre maker and a former leading actress of the Suzuki Company of Toga, where she performed leading roles internationally for 17 years. She is an experienced teacher of the Suzuki Method of Actor Training, and is expanding her practice into devising, directing, and new physical theatre work.
Sam Bruce is an award-winning director and theatre maker whose practice centres on devised and physical theatre, shaped by extensive training and intercultural collaboration across Australia, Asia, and Europe. He is committed to rigorous performer training and ensemble-led processes exploring the relationship between text, movement, and image. His work investigates poetic, image-based forms that challenge contemporary ideas of everyday existence.
Steph Pick (she/her) is a multidisciplinary performance artist and theatre maker whose practice spans physical theatre, circus, and clowning. With over a decade of experience devising and performing, her work centres on playful, image-led performance and ensemble-based processes. She is particularly interested in inclusive and participatory forms, drawing on embodied practice and storytelling to create work that is generous, rigorous, and human.
MISSION
TRAIN & CREATE
Together, we ground our creative work in rigorous training and develop ambitious physical performance works that deeply engage artists and audiences.
VISION
A GLOBAL CENTRE FOR PHYSICAL THEATRE
To establish a sustainable hub for physical theatre that nurtures artists across cultures and continents, fosters international collaboration, and creates high-quality work for national and global stages.
VALUES
QUALITY
We pursue quality across all aspects of our practice, holding ourselves to high standards in our training, our creative work, and our organisation. Guided by artistic ambition and sustained discipline, we strive to create work of the highest calibre that is considered, challenging, and deeply felt.
INTEGRITY
We work with integrity, valuing honesty, transparency, respect, and accountability. We take responsibility for our process, our relationships, and the standards we uphold, ensuring that how we work is as rigorous and intentional as the work itself.
GENEROSITY
We lead with generosity in how we work together, approaching our practice with warmth, kindness, and empathy. Collaboration, trust, and shared responsibility are central to our work, supported by friendliness and a sense of humour that foster respectful and supportive working environments.
OPENNESS
We embrace openness as a guiding principle in our practice. It cultivates curiosity, experimentation, creativity, and play, while welcoming people of different backgrounds and approaches. We remain responsive and allow difference to shape how we train, create, and connect.