EBKM
EBKM are an award winning partnership of theatre makers from Aotearoa-New Zealand who make socially minded, formally innovative, contemporary performance
What we do
Eleanor and Karin have been working together since 2017 when they toured Jane Doe, a theatre show that examined rape culture in our communities, throughout New Zealand and internationally, including a successful run at Edinburgh Fringe 2017 and Sydney Fringe 2018. Jane Doe was the recipient of the Auckland Fringe 2017 Social Impact Award, Sydney Fringe Critics Choice Award, Sydney Fringe Melbourne Tour-Ready Award, and Wellington Theatre Award for Most Original Production in 2018.
In 2017 Eleanor and Karin created Body Double alongside Julia Croft for the STAB commission at BATS Theatre, a show that looked at desire and sex from a femme perspective. Body Double was the recipient of Production of the Year at the Wellington Theatre Awards 2017, and was subsequently co-presented by Auckland Arts Festival and Silo Theatre in 2018.
In 2019 they were commissioned by Auckland Live to create Yes Yes Yes, a funny, generous and innovative piece of contemporary performance about consent for 14-22 year olds. This work has toured extensively in New Zealand everywhere from arts festivals to high schools and was awarded Excellence in Theatre for Social Change and Outstanding Performance (Karin McCracken) at the Wellington Theatre Awards and Excellence for Overall Production at the Auckland Theatre Awards in 2019. Internationally, Yes Yes Yes has been presented in Australia, Canada and Serbia.
In 2022 they were announced as the winners of the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award, the first time in the award’s 40-year history that it has been given to a creative partnership. In 2023 they premiered a new work Heartbreak Hotel about the phenomenon of heartbreak.
Meet the Team
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Co-Artistic DirectorKarin McCracken is a writer and performer based in Pōneke. She is one half of EBKM, and the co-creator of Gravity & Grace, Heartbreak Hotel, Yes Yes Yes, Body Double and Jane Doe. Her other work includes Standard Acts (Melbourne Tour-Ready Award, NZ Fringe 2021, Best Production Design, Best Live Art: Auckland Fringe 2021), and It’s A Trial! (Most Original Production: WTA 2016). She works regularly with theatre company Binge Culture, co-creating and performing in Big Data, Spy Game and Werewolf , which toured nationally in 2022. Karin previously practised as a lawyer, and is a specialist sexual violence prevention educator.
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Co-Artistic DirectorEleanor Bishop is a director and writer working across theatre, film & opera. She is one half of EBKM, and the co-creator of Gravity & Grace, Heartbreak Hotel, Yes Yes Yes, Body Double and Jane Doe. She was a Friedlander Foundation Associate Artist for NZ Opera and a member of Jane Campion’s pop up film intensive “A Wave in the Ocean”. She holds an MFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh , PA, USA where she studied as a John Wells Fellow and a Fulbright Scholar. She is a former associate director for New York based multimedia theatre company The Builders Association/Marianne Weems.