Everything I Was Told Not To Be is a large scale, community driven theatre work currently in development, in collaboration with community partners The Gathered Sound and Northern Sound System. 

The work explores breaking cycles, transformation, belonging, and resistance within young adult (18-35) Global Majority artists and communities.

What begins as a spoken word night in a local community space expands and fractures into a bold, ensemble-driven performance blending spoken word, music, movement, and protest. Throughout the work, we shift between different spaces as personal and collective stories of identity, belonging, and transformation come to life. 

Everything I Was Told Not To Be is developed with, by, and for communities that have expressed a deep resonance with its central questions of belonging, resistance, and self‐discovery.

2025 - 2026 Community Co-Design workshops

The first ‘Everything I Was Told Not To Be’ community co-design workshops took place to begin developing the characters and structure of the work, October 2025 - February 2026.

27 young adult Global Majority community members participated across the 11 workshops.

The workshops were facilitated by Yasmin Gurreeboo and Kultar Ahluwalia, with additional support from lead artists Alexis West and Valerie Berry, workshop assistants Arantza Garcia, Nita Kaye, Chris Best, Salemah Abdalaal and Delia Olam and musicians Sam Lau and Steph Teh.

Two teenagers from Northern Sound System’s ‘In Focus’ program were mentored by photographer Alexander Robertson across the development. Some of their work can be seen below.

These workshops were supported by Create SA, and were presented in collaboration with community partners Northern Sound System and The Gathered Sound. Venue support was provided by City of Adelaide, City of Playford and The National Trust.

Lead Artists

Yasmin Gurreeboo is the CEO & Artistic Director of ActNow Theatre, bringing over two decades of experience in the performing arts as a director, producer, and Community Arts and Cultural Development (CACD) practitioner. Yasmin’s international career includes leadership positions at prestigious institutions including West Wing Arts Centre (UK), Harrow Arts Centre (UK), and the Barbican Centre (London).
A graduate of the University of Exeter with First Class Honours in Drama, Yasmin further honed her craft at the renowned Jacques Lecoq International Theatre School in Paris.
Her recent directorial achievements include the world premiere of ‘Here and There’ (DreamBig Festival/ActNow Theatre) and ‘Every Brilliant Thing’ (State Theatre Company of South Australia). Notable career highlights include the award-winning ‘That Boy’  (Holden Street Theatre/Adelaide Fringe), the innovative digital-theatre hybrid ‘Decameron 2.0’ (ActNow Theatre/State Theatre Company of South Australia), ‘An Ode To My Sisters’ (UK Tour), and the award-nominated ‘And No More Shall We Part’ (Bakehouse Theatre, SA).
Throughout her career, Yasmin has championed new works by South Australian artists, collaborating with early career playwrights like Manal Younus, Lur Alghurabi, Holly Brindley, Martha Lott, and Julian Janesch. 
Yasmin remains deeply committed to amplifying historically underrepresented voices and fostering diversity in all its forms on stage.

Alexis West, a Birra Gubba, Wakka Wakka, South Sea Islander and Caucasian woman. A mother, writer, director, collaborator and performer in life, film, theatre, poetry, dance, weirdness and events. Written, collaborated, performed and directed works with No Strings Attached Theatre of Disability, Karrikarinya Theatre Collective, Kurruru Youth Arts, State Theatre Company South Australia, Yirra Yaakin Theatre, Act Now Theatre Company, Vital Statistix, Jute Theatre, Illbijerri Theatre, Slingsby Theatre Company, Theatre Republic, Hit Productions, Australian Dance Theatre, Tjaratjura Dance Theatre and A Daylight Connection.

Alexis has written and directed short documentaries for SBS-NITV. She has also written and directed several short films.

She has been published in ‘Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia’, ‘Mindshare’, ‘Ora Nui’, ‘Our Mob’, ‘Spirit Festival Catalogues’ and translated into Polish for ‘Poetiks’, ‘The Rock Remains’ First Nations SA Anthology.

Alexis and Elena Carapetis co-written work SISTA GIRL premiered 2017 State Theatre Company South Australia and Yirra Yaakin. It again toured 2024 with Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company. HOUSE ARREST written by Alexis West premiered at Yirramboi 2025. CULTURE SLAP written by Alexis West showcased as a part of 2025 STCSA Australian Bites.

Alexis works with Act Now Theatre as an Associate Artist creating, performing, dramaturgy and working as a facilitator, curator and mentor. She has worked with Daniel Riley at Australian Dance Theatre on A QUIET LANGUAGE as sounding board and CHANT OF JIMMY BLACKSMITH creative development. Passionate about storytelling on any platform, creating with kindred spirits, considering ways to inspire and create pathways and opportunities for others. Alexis’ has been working her acting chops in recent years with Wesley Enoch’s: The Sunshine Club, A Daylight Connections: The Blok and Jacob Boehms: Logan Street with STCSA

Alexis is also currently developing a series of monologues, ramblings, poems, plays, excerpts for you, them, others, us and me… for future publishing.

Kultar Ahluwalia is a multidisciplinary hip hop artist from Southern Adelaide with Punjabi and Irish roots. At a young age coming to terms with his identity, Kultar found wisdom in the empowering words of revolutionary hip hop artists.Kultar has been releasing and performing music over the last two decades. More recently,Kultar began creating works under his birth name.

In 2023, Kultar was selected as one of six artists in the Nexus Arts Interplay Program. During his time in the program, Kultar created a new stage show and accompanying EP “The Mixed- Race Tape”.

In 2024, “The Mixed-Race Tape” premiered at OzAsia Festival across two capacity shows at Nexus Arts to glowing reception.

In 2025 and 2026, Kultar has been touring “The Mixed-Race Tape” for a run of successful showings at Darwin Festival, OzAsia, Riverside Theatres and in schools with more festival appearances to be announced.

Kultar has also been busy in recent months developing new works through residencies at Adelaide Festival Centre (April 2026, InSpace) and Sauerbier House culture exchange (July-August 2026). Outside of his independent arts career, Kultar is an Occupational Therapist with over a decade of experience working with children, youth and families. Kultar combines his arts, community engagement and health experience in his role at Nexus Arts supporting and mentoring the next cohort of Interplay artists and as an independent workshop facilitator for organisations such as City of Onkaparinga, ActNow Theatre and Spoken Word SA.

Valerie Berry is a theatre maker and arts worker. Throughout her practice, she has focused on cross cultural, collaborative and interdisciplinary processes. Recent works include, Future World Hypothesis, with Performosa Theatre, performed at Cloudgate Theatre, Taiwan; Directed Danielle Lim’s Caught In Between, and Van Badham’s play Bang On The Nerve at Goodwood Theatre; Australian Performance Exchange’s (Sydney) development collaboration with Performosa Theatre (Taiwan), The Island Project, 2023; CAAP (Contemporary Asian Australian Performance) as a facilitator: 2021- 2024 Artist Lab SA, and Double Delicious: writer/performer for Sydney Festival and Asia Topa 2020, remount director/performer for OzAsia Festival 2021, and performer/co-director touring regional VIC and NSW 2022; North/Eastern States tour of The Folding Wife (Urban Theatre Projects, toured by Performing Lines); National Theatre of Parramatta (Swallow, 2016-performer) and Directed (Let Me Know When You get Home, 2021). In 2022, Valerie was the Associate Director for State Theatre South Australia’s production of Single Asian Female.

Valerie is an Associate Artist at ActNow Theatre and works as a coordinator, facilitator, mentor and collaborator. She is the Artistic coordinator for their Cultural Leaders program.

Valerie has had an ongoing collaborative partnership with multimedia artists, Anino Shadowplay Collective (Manila, Philippines) and Paschal Daantos Berry, since 2005: The Folding Wife; Within and Without (Performance Space and Blacktown Arts Centre); Arkipelago, and Arkipelago2: Intima-sea (Yogyakarta, Indonesia); and This here.Land, Performance Space: Liveworks Festival, 2017.