Split Focus
Split Focus is a Melbourne/Naarm collective, crafting performances and collaborating with artists since 2019.
Named for a penchant for simultaneity on stage, Split Focus is aptly named for not focusing on one area of live performance. Helmed by Samuel Boyd, Split Focus has worked on a variety of projects ranging from producing, directing, creating, sound design and performing.
About Samuel
Samuel Boyd is a freelance artist with an extensive background in performing, arts marketing, and producing. With an arts career spanning a decade, Samuel has worked with La Boite Theatre Company, Circa Contemporary Circus, Circus Oz, Melbourne Youth Orchestra and the Australian Performing Arts Market.
As a producer, Samuel has produced works for Melbourne Fringe Festival, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Backbone 2high Festival, and Adelaide Fringe Festival. Under Split Focus' brand, he has produced a variety of circus and theatre with the projects Attempts on Her Life, a scary thing happened by the CAMPFIRE, On Then and Now, and Myopia. Samuel has also been Associate Producer with the National Institute of Circus Arts, and a project producer with Circus Oz.
As an artist, Samuel has worked as a sound designer and performer, with works at La Boite Theatre Company, Metro Arts, Adelaide Fringe Festival, Festival of Voices, Queensland Music Festival, and Brisbane Festival. Additional highlights performing with QSO with The Trillion Souls (2015), and 2001: A Space Odyssey at the World Science Fair (2017). Samuel composed additional music and performed in Everyday Requiem (2018) by Natalie Weir, presented by Expressions Dance Company, and also co-conceived Boombox, which had a national tour in 2015, and performed off-Broadway at The Lounge in New York.
Samuel holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drama) from Queensland University of Technology, and a Masters in Directing for Performance at Victorian College of the Arts.
Complete Credits
2024
• Co-Director, Co-Producer & Sound Designer (Melbourne Fringe Festival) a scary thing happened by the CAMPFIRE | Gasworks Arts Park (8 - 12 October)
2023
• Sound Designer (Emily Carr) Beauty Queen | Trades Hall, Melbourne Fringe Festival (October 2023)
2022
• Director, Producer & Sound Designer (Split Focus) Attempts on her Life | Meat Market Melbourne (August 2022), Geelong Regional Tour (September 2022)
• Producer & Sound Designer (Sons of Stratford & Alex Hines) Juniper Rising | Melbourne Fringe Festival (October 2022 + October 2023), Melbourne International Comedy Festival (April 2023), MELT Festival (November 2024)
• Producer & Sound Designer (Sons of Stratford & Alex Hines) To Schappelle and Back | The Butterfly Club (April & July 2022), Melbourne Fringe Festival (October 2023), Brisbane Comedy Festival (April 2023)
2021
• Director & Sound Designer (Gasworks Circus Showcase) Myopia | Gasworks Arts Park (3 April)
2020
• Creative Development (Premiere at Gasworks) Cataclysm | Gasworks Arts Park
• Creative Development (Victorian College of the Arts) Tender Napalm | Martyn Myer Arena
2019
• Sound Designer (Backbone Youth Arts) Again, You Have Trusted Me | Creative Development
• Director & Sound Designer (Victorian College of the Arts) Do I Look Like I Care? | Martyn Myer Arena (4 October)
• Assistant Director (National Institute of Circus Arts) Dispersion | National Circus Centre (18 - 22 June)
2018
• Performer & Additional Composition (Australian Dance Collective) Everyday Requiem | Queensland Performing Arts Centre (12 – 20 October)
2017
Nothing oop!
2016
• Performer (Woodword Folk Festival) Annual Fire Closing Ceremony – The Last Tree | Woodford Folk Festival Fire Ground (January 2, 2015)
2015
• Director & Co-Devisor & Performer (The Australian Voices) Boombox
Melbourne International Singers Festival (June 2015) | Hobart Festival of Voices (July 2015) | Off-Broadway (September 2015) | Brisbane Powerhouse (November 2015) | Adelaide Fringe Festival (March 2016)
• Creative Development (La Boite Theatre Company) Medea
• Performer (Queensland Symphony Orchestra/The Australian Voices) Heavenly Handel
Queensland Performing Arts Centre (Season Gala Opening - September 10, 2015)
• Performer (Queensland Symphony Orchestra/The Australian Voices) The Trillion Souls – World Premiere | Queensland Performing Arts Centre (Season Gala Opening - September 10, 2015)
• Producer & Sound Designer (Adelaide Fringe Festival) The Fifth Horseman | Tuxedo Cat (February 2015)
2014
• Sound Designer (MetroArts) Fewer Emergencies | Sue Benner Theatre (November, 2014)
• Director & Movement (Underground Productions) Adding Machine – Australian Premiere | Schonell Theatre (8 June – 8 July, 2014)
• Performer & Choreography (Queensland Symphony Orchestra) Ghosts in the Orchestra – World Premiere (September 2014)
• Co-Sound Designer (La Boite Theatre Company) Pale Blue Dot – World Premiere
La Boite Roundhouse Theatre (8 June – 8 July, 2014)
• Sound Designer (La Boite Theatre Company) Cosi | La Boite Roundhouse Theatre (8 February – 8 March, 2014)
• Performer (The Australian Voices) Pub Choir
2013
• Assistant to Sound Designer (La Boite Theatre Company) The Glass Menagerie La Boite Roundhouse Theatre (3 – 31 August, 2013)
• Production Manager & Sound Designer (Festival of Australian Student Theatre)
Anita Elizabeth Jenson La Boite Roundhouse Theatre (1 July, 2013)
• Performer (Festival of Australian Student Theatre) The Catalogue Life | La Boite Roundhouse Theatre (1 July 2013)
• Performer & Music Arranger – Can Cellos Be Guitars?! | Room 60
2012
• Sound Designer and Stage Manager (La Boite Indie/Monsters Appear) A Tribute of Sorts
La Boite Roundhouse Theatre (25 October - 10 November, 2012)
• Production Manager & Sound Designer (2high Festival/Poor Paw) Propagation | Brisbane Powerhouse Turbine Studio (10 November, 2012)
• Production Assistant (La Boite Indie/Sarah Winter) a dinner with gravity | La Boite Rehearsal Room (27 June - 7 July, 2012)
• Composer & Sound Designer (Vena Cava Productions/Dead Puppet Society) Of Little Matter | QUT Studio Theatre (26 -31 March, 2012)
• Composer & Sound Designer (Vena Cava Productions) Iphigenia 2.0 | QUT Woodward Theatre (27 July - 4 August, 2012)
• Performer (Ignatians Musical Society) Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street | Schonell Theatre (22 March - 14 April, 2012)
• Composer & Performer (Vena Cava Productions) Copstitues! Professional Lovers! Amateur Detectives! QUT Studio Theatre (25 May, 2012 - as part of short + sweet festival)
2011
• Sound Designer (Brisbane Cabaret Festival) Jo Loth's Mind Games | MetroArts (15 - 22 October, 2011)
• Sound Designer (Markwell Presents)