Pongjit and Richard first collaborated in 1995 as part of the Asian touring theatre project Big Wind. Pongjit had already been working with the Makhampom Theatre Group in Thailand for 6 years and Richard with the Melbourne-based physical theatre and percussion ensemble, Gonghouse. After stints living and working together in Thailand and Australia, they established the Makhampom Art Space in northern Thailand in 2004, as a theatre community and hub for applied theatre and social enterprise initiatives. Some of the significant programs over the following 12 years included:

• designing the Makhampom Art Space as the base for one of Thailand's first social enterprise initiatives;

• the partnership with the Pang Daeng Nok stateless dara'ang community in Chiang Dao spanning youth theatre, social enterprise, ethical tourism, community organising, social circus, non-formal education, and national campaigning on ethnic rights;

• the Makhampom Study Tour, a 3-4-week long intensive immersive training in community and transformative theatre in Chiang Dao for international participants, numbering over 300 spanning the 20-years of the program, and marked by a partnership with Charles Sturt University's Theatre Media course;

• the Art of Peace project encompassing transformative theatre workshops in conflict situations (Myanmar, refugee camps, southern Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Pacifica communities), touring performances, and a training manual;

• the Dialogue Theatre project, involving the devising of the methodology with the Makhampom ensemble, national and international Dialogue Theatre performances,  

​

Dialogue Theatre works in Thailand addressing political conflict and military repression led to a crackdown by the Thai regime on Makhampom's practice, fast-tracking Pongjit and Richard's return to Australia in 2015. Free Theatre was formed to share this knowledge from Thailand and the Asia-Pacific, with a focus on transferring the Dialogue Theatre practice into marginalised community contexts in Melbourne and beyond. 

 

​

​