The office is largely hidden from public view, tucked neatly into a laneway in Geelong CBD.
In a rabbit-warren of hallways and doors in the old courthouse of this regional city, a theatre company writes and rehearses their work.
Given the humble setting, you might assume it's amateur theatre bound for local audiences, but you'd be wrong.
It's the home of Back to Back Theatre, a company that usually spends six months a year performing everywhere from Japan to Vienna, New York to London.
The core ensemble of five professional actors is neurodiverse and the members work with each other and collaborators to build their shows.
"The work is contemporary, avant-garde theatre," Back To Back's artistic director Bruce Gladwin said.
While critics have praised the company's groundbreaking productions for decades, the international spotlight is about to burn a whole lot brighter. Back To Back has just been awarded what many dub the Nobel Prize of theatre: the Ibsen Award.
The biennial award, given by the Norwegian Government, honours artists who have brought new dimensions to the world of drama or theatre and comes with a $300,000 cash prize.
'Proudest achievement of my career'
Ensemble member Scott Price has been with the company for 15 years.
He's only been back in Geelong for a week, having flown to Texas for the premiere of the film version of one of their productions at South By Southwest Film Festival — a lockdown project that marks the company's first foray onto the screen.
Despite his success, Mr Price is the first to admit he never aspired to be an actor.
"It was my first job, I had no work experience and I didn't really want the job at first because I didn't want to be a public figure," he said.
"I actually wanted to work in IT, but connecting with people, performing on stage, I can't get enough of it now."
Mr Price said it was hard growing up with autism and being bullied for it in school, but he now uses the platform of theatre to advocate for other people living with disabilities.
"That's really important to me … some people have attitudes towards people with disabilities that are just blatantly stupid and we can't allow that to continue," he said.
Having built so much social commentary and activism into the company's work, Mr Price said he was "absolutely honoured" to find out Back to Back had become the first Australian company to be given the Ibsen Award.
'Most dynamic and interesting theatre company in Australia'
Mr Gladwin first encountered the company as an audience member in the late 1980s.
"I just watched and I thought this has got to be the most dynamic and interesting theatre company in Australia," he said.
He's been the artistic director for 22 years and feels passionately about ensuring the actor's perspectives are front and centre in the work.
"We work hard to make it a transformational experience for the audience, as there's a lot of provocation in the work, and I often feel like the work is a dialogue with the audience," he said.
"The actors have very unique vantage points as social commentators.
"To some degree, I think the actors sit outside of the social institutions we're all a part of like education, marriage, employment."
Mr Price said their work is varied, but always "in your face and no-holds-barred".
Their 2005 production Small Metal Objects was performed in a train station, with the actors among the commuters, while the controversial Ganesh vs The Third Reich explored cultural appropriation and myth.
Mr Gladwin says he was "shocked" to hear the company's work had been judged by an international jury to be worthy of the Ibsen Award.
"The award has been described as the Nobel Prize of theatre by others, so we're really happy to accept that."
'My own little community'
Once a year, the company runs a weekend of community workshops from their office for people from any walk of life, disabled or able-bodied, artist or amateur.
Ensemble member Sarah Mainwaring enjoys helping run the workshops, even after doing it for 16 years.
Ms Mainwaring, who has cerebral palsy from an acquired brain injury, said she was "ecstatic" to find out they had won the Ibsen Award.
"I knew it was such a fantastic award and to be seen in that hierarchy of companies is just so amazing," she said.
"I love the opportunities and freedoms I get [from] Back To Back, the doors it's opened, it's like my own little community."
The Back To Back team will travel to Norway in September to formally accept the award and perform two of their shows: Ganesh vs The Third Reich and The Shadow Whose Prey The Hunter Becomes.
