At this year’s Aspire Awards Evening, Queensland Academies Creative Industries proudly honoured Chris Patrick Hansen (Class of 2018) as our 2025 Alumnus of the Year. Chris returned to the QACI stage not as a student performer, but as an accomplished theatre-maker, producer and artistic leader whose impact on the Australian performing arts landscape continues to grow at remarkable speed.
Chris has carved out a diverse and influential career since graduating, working across performance, direction, producing and arts management. His catalogue includes touring theatre-in-education productions, festival works, independent theatre, and large-scale creative projects that have earned both critical acclaim and industry attention. His professional journey reflects not only artistic skill, but a deep commitment to community, collaboration and elevating emerging creatives.
One of Chris’s most notable achievements this year is his role as creator and director of Blackpill: Redux, the upcoming Theatre Works season opener for 2026. Following a record-shattering debut earlier this year at Explosives Factory, the work returns bigger and bolder, described by critics as “a dynamic, thoughtful, throbbing contribution to an urgent conversation.” The piece interrogates the radicalisation pathways of online misogynistic communities as a confronting and timely exploration, delivered with nuance, artistry and courage.
In honouring Chris, QACI celebrates not only his impressive artistic output, but the values that underpin it: inquiry, risk-taking, collaboration and community-minded leadership - all intrinsic to the IB philosophy. His trajectory stands as a powerful example of how QACI graduates continue to shape creative industries with integrity and innovation.
Below is Chris’s full reflection on his journey since graduating QACI, the growth of his companies Paracosm and Fruitcake Productions, and the lasting impact of the IB on his artistic practice:
My Journey Beyond the Gaggle
By Chris Patrick Hansen, Class of 2018
After graduating QACI in 2018, I moved to Melbourne to study a Diploma of Musical Theatre, a two-year course, at APO Arts Academy. I continued my performance study under the tutelage of several current industry professionals, and solidified performance no just as a skill to acquire, but as a continuous muscle to train. However, after my first year studying at APO, I was lucky enough to be accepted into the Victorian College of the Arts Bachelor of Fine Arts (Theatre) course. The VCA’s performing arts courses are among the most selective and highest regarded in Australia, choosing a group of only 20 performers from thousands of applicants to enter 3-year full-time training. The VCA BFA Theatre degree is both a performance degree and a devising degree, training its graduating artists to be well-rounded ’theatre practitioners’. I began my study in 2020, graduating at the end of 2022 into an industry just dusting itself off post-covid and trying to restart its pilot light after several years of dark houses.
2023 brought several exciting career opportunities for me as I began work. I began securing plenty of contract work as a Production Manager and Producer, helping others to execute their creative endeavours to a high quality. All the while, I was performing - first in a show called ‘The World According to Dinosaurs’ which was included on the VCE Playlist and toured around Victoria, then as a part of a Theatre in Education show ‘Smashed’ with Gibber Educational, with whom I toured the country for the second half of 2023. My work as a production manager eventually earned me a job offer to become the Australian Producer of Fruitcake Productions, a company that I still co-run to this day. We identify early-career writers who are yet to reach a professional performance season with their work. We partner with them to help them find a first performance outcome for their work and teach them the tools along the way so that they can continue independently in their own performance practice (we like to think we’re deliberately in the business of making ourselves redundant - once you’ve worked with Fruitcake, you shouldn’t need us again!)
In 2024, I signed on to perform in a full-time, year-long touring show with Brainstorm Productions, the largest TIE provider in Australia. I toured in their flagship production ’Sticks and Stones’ which has been touring Australia for 34 years and has been seen by around 3,000,000 (over 1 in 10) Australians. To round out the year, I produced 2 successful shows in the Melbourne Fringe - one as a part of my role at Fruitcake Productions (Fruitcake) and one freelance for my partner (A Figure in the Yellow Wallpaper).
Coming out of 2024, I decided to re-launch my company, Paracosm, which had laid fairly dormant since the beginning of my tertiary study. I applied to Theatre Works, a major independent theatre venue here in Melbourne, for the debut season of my new work BLACKPILL., a large-scale independent production that interrogated the dangers and causes of violent misogynistic extremism online, with a particular focus on the incel subculture. We were given a spot as a part of Theatre Works’ ‘Fresh Works’ stream in April 2025 in their Explosives Factory venue. I wrote, produced and directed the piece under my company Paracosm’s banner. BLACKPILL set, then broke, then obliterated Theatre Works’ venue record for sales in the venue, in competition with some of the biggest and longest established independent theatre companies in Australia. We sold out our full season, oversold 7 of our 9 performances, expanded capacity 3 times in the second week and still had to turn people down at the door. The show was also a universal critical success (you can see some of our lovely review quotes in my email footer). The venue now uses BLACKPILL’s marketing success as its example of what to do for incoming early-career artists. Through BLACKPILL, I also facilitated the work of 17 early-career artists, making a statement to the sector that theatre made on limited means didn’t have to have limited outcomes.
As a result of BLACKPILL’s record-breaking success, Theatre Works offered me a job in Marketing and Producing, where we facilitate the programming, production, marketing and delivery of the 50+ shows across 2 venues in the Theatre Works season. Currently, I am also touring as a performer with Meerkat Productions, getting close to my goal of 500 TIE shows across my 3 tours.
Upcoming Work
2026 marks our biggest year yet for Paracosm. BLACKPILL. Is back - we have secured the highly coveted season-opening slot at Theatre Works Main Stage in 2026. This is historically one of the most competitive and highest performing slots in Melbourne independent theatre, and we begin rehearsals for this bigger, better remount next month. This rendition will now mean my company is facilitating work for 25 artists across disciplines.
We have also secured 2 programming offers for our upcoming work KATZENMUSIK, a play by UK playwright Tom Fowler usually performed by an ensemble of 25-40, but we’re making it happen with seven.
I’m also in the process of developing a show for presentation during the 2026 Melbourne Fringe season, with aspirations of securing funding to tour it around the Australian Fringe circuit.
On behalf of Fruitcake Productions, I have secured a debut season for a new play called Disco is Dead, with playwrights who are recent graduates of the VCA, as a part of Melbourne’s Midsumma festival, coming to the Explosives Factory in February.
We’re also in the process of developing a free audition workshop for artists based on some of the feedback we got from our BLACKPILL open auditions in an effort to demystify the audition process and make work more approachable and accessible for artists.
Paracosm is also in final contention for the Boyd Studio residency, a 6-month development residency in Southbank, VIC run by the City of Melbourne to incubate promising early-career artists.
The IB and Me
My journey since leaving QACI has been less about a single career path and more about a constant application of the core principles I first encountered through the IB program. I've tried to build a career that is creative, collaborative, and deeply connected to my community.
A big part of my journey has been driven by a constant sense of inquiry. I wasn't content with just one aspect of the theatre world. I wanted to understand how a show comes to life from beginning to end—from the script to the stage and everything in between. This curiosity led me to explore producing and management roles, skills that were incredibly useful in navigating a post-COVID industry. It’s an approach that values a holistic understanding and is a constant reminder that there’s always more to learn.
Taking on my own projects also required me to be a risk-taker. Re-launching my company, Paracosm, and staging a new, large-scale work like BLACKPILL. was a massive challenge. It was a leap of faith to tackle a provocative subject with a new team and aim for a well-known venue. But the experience of seeing it all come together, of empowering 17 other early-career artists and then breaking venue records, was proof that a well-calculated risk can lead to extraordinary outcomes.
My companies, Paracosm and Fruitcake Productions, aren't just for me. They're built on the idea of helping other artists get their start. My work with Fruitcake Productions is where I feel I've really embodied the caring and communicator profiles. The company’s whole mission is to help other young artists get their start. We want to empower them to the point where they don't need us anymore, and that feels like a truly meaningful way to give back to the community. It’s about building a stronger artistic ecosystem, not just my own career.
My role at Theatre Works is a direct result of this journey, and it’s where all these attributes come together in a very tangible way. I am now in a position to facilitate the careers of over 50 shows a year across two venues. My work in Marketing and Producing is about being a communicator and facilitator on a grand scale—not just for my own work, but for a diverse range of artists and companies. I get to help them tell their stories, connect with their audiences, and navigate the complex process of bringing a show to the stage. This new role is the ultimate expression of the caring philosophy that I’ve tried to build into my career from the start. It’s about being a positive force in the community, providing a platform for others to shine, and ensuring that independent theatre continues to thrive.
All of us at QACI congratulate Chris on his extraordinary achievements and thank him for continuing to represent our community with creativity, courage and heart. His work reminds us of the power of the arts to interrogate, inspire and connect, and we look forward to witnessing the next chapter of his remarkable journey.