Courtney Stewart put her own distinctive stamp on the program from her first days in the job.

“The fact that I landed the job and have moved at this particular time feels really special on the eve of the company turning one hundred in 2025,” Stewart said.

“I feel incredibly honoured and it’s an incredible opportunity to shepherd the company into the second century of operation.

“New work is tough. I’ve heard it described as being a blood bath, and I don’t like that term and I want to change that term.

“It’s hard. It never feels like there’s enough resources to do it, but we have to, we must, in order to thrive towards a collective understanding of what contemporary Australian identity is.

“We need to arm our Australian writers with the ability to test their ideas out, to really figure out what is our voice going to be into the future, how are we going to do this? Something that can include everyone, something that spotlights all different versions of it and celebrate the fact that we all do have different opinions.”

She’s hoping her courageous programming will challenge people to rethink what the Australian canon of work can look like.

“La Boite is really the place where I fell in love with new Australian writing,” she said.

“I just felt really inspired by the types of artists that would find themselves at La Boite and knew that I just would love to be a part of making more opportunities, people that have hadn’t had opportunities elsewhere.

“I think going forward, I don’t know necessarily that La Boite will be an exclusively new work company but I think really trying to find the most exciting writing and throwing resources and support behind writers both in Queensland and interstate who need audiences in Queensland, it feels very exciting and will be a priority for as long as I am in the role.”

Stewart debuted as an actor with the company in 2017 in the smash hit Single Asian Female, and has since gone on to train with some of Australia’s best directors and largest companies, bringing those contacts back to where it all began by initiating co-productions to take La Boite into new innovative directions.

Such as the stage adaptation of Wong See Ping’s pioneering novella The Poison of Polygamy, a co-production with Sydney Theatre Company which sheds light on the Chinese-Australia experience from May 8.

“The first show Poison of Polygamy was a project that I came across in my role as directing associate at Sydney Theatre Company,” she said.

“La Boite and Sydney Theatre Company used to co-pro plays together quite a lot but haven’t it done for many, many years. It feels wonderful to be able to reignite that relationship from me working at both those companies.

“I think it makes sense for me because as I said, I love new writing – it’s a page to stage adaptation of the very first Chinese Australian novel and I think that obviously being my heritage, I feel like it makes sense that I would shepherd a story about that told by the Australian Chinese diaspora of now.

“So I feel so excited about that epic that I’ll be directing.”

The three other world premieres in the program came from Stewart investigating which of the backlog of new works that were waiting in the wings after covid cancellations over the past few years were ready for their big debut.

“I did a deep dive into who’d been developing what play at La Boite over the last couple of years, what stages were they at, what ones resonated the most with the mission of the company and the vision, which is to be the country’s most diverse theatre company through profiling voices that have been historically marginalised,” she said.

What emerged from that process is Capricorn, a razor-sharp rom-com by emerging Queensland writer and Butchulla and Kabi Kabi man Aidan Rowlingson, telling the story of a fractured First Nations couple from July 24.

Followed by the new comedy Cut Chilli from playwright and journalist Chenturan Aran from September 14, and in November the new comedy IRL from Brisbane playwright Lewis Preston, who was the creative force behind La Boite’s hit season of An Ideal Husband.

“These three really quickly rose to the top,” she said.

“I think what’s really exciting is that look, when La Boite first started in 1925 it was an amateur repertory society. So it’s now completely different.

“It’s just transformed itself time and time again. And I think that’s because it’s not afraid – the company isn’t afraid to regenerate, change the course, try different things.

“The company spent the last two years without an artistic director and has instead had an artist company. It’s tried different types of leadership models, it’s tried lots of different things to figure out what it needs to be for the community that it serves.

“It’s been through so much and most recently covid along with the rest of the theatre companies, but I think the fact that it’s had an unbroken line of theatrical activity since its inception in 1925 all the way up until now, means that it has to be the most resilient theatre company we have in the country.”

La Boite will also host a special event of the provocative YES YES YES by New Zealand duo Karin McCracken and Eleanor Bishop from September 4 to 6.

Part confession, part documentary and part open conversation, YES YES YES is s a work created for – and with input from – teenagers, that explores healthy and respectful relationships, consent and sex. Stewart said its vital that theatre provides the safe space to have these difficult conversations.

“It’s awkward to be really vulnerable,” she said.

“But theatre and sharing stories or listening to someone else’s story is the best place to do that because you’re already in a more empathetic space and your guard is down because you’re seeing someone in front of you be vulnerable.

“So it invites you to be more vulnerable and it’s a great opportunity to have those big tough discussions.”

She’s excited to launch the 2023 program, and realise how her career has come full circle, back to where it began.

“I remember being backstage before one of our very first performances of Single Asian Female. And I remember being back there and hearing the audience and I think I said it out loud to my fellow cast members, `I’d love to run this company one day’,” she recalled.

“Not knowing at all what that meant or if I would ever have the skills or aptitude. I just knew that I loved the company and that I loved the types of productions it was finding to put on stage and the people that those productions then attracted to the building. “