CAKE – In Development
Salt Lake City, UtahPresents
This is the perennial appeal of dopplegangers: the idea that two strangers can be indistinguishable from each other taps into the precariousness at the core of identity— the painful truth that no matter how deliberately we tend to our personal lives and our public personas, the person we think we are is fundamentally vulnerable to forces outside of our control. - Naomi Klein, Doppleganger
ABOUT
In the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop versus Colorado Civil Rights Commission, Christian baker Jack Phillips cited his religious beliefs in refusing to create a wedding cake for a gay couple. Gay rights groups feared the ruling would set a precedent. CAKE originates during an intense pressure point (the same-sex marriage debacle) when the rights and roles of LGBTIQ+ diverse communities were being debated in Australia and America.
It’s 2014 and our ‘leader’ Australia Prime Minster Tony Abbott has God on his side. Mr Opus Dei will not allow Gays to marry. He is sure it will impact on his religious freedom.
It’s during this pressure point in the same sex marriage ‘debate’ that I ‘wed’ my long-term partner, in a big Queer ceremony as a public protest. Shortly afterwards, my Twitter became jammed with vitriolic personal abuse attacking my ‘disgusting’ homophobic stance, opposing same- sex marriage. Confused? So was I.
Why would an artist known for his work within Australia’s Queer community suddenly get trolled for being homophobic? I discovered an unbelievable coincidence: I have a double, a Utah-based Mormon named Trestin Meacham. Trestin was undertaking an internationally publicised hunger strike, protesting the US Supreme Court’s ruling legalising same sex marriage – he was the intended target of my online abuse.
Nothing prepares you for the obsession that follows finding your Doppelganger. Trestin and I are both middle aged, white men who grew up in conservative military families. We are both driven by our personal convictions about the Government getting a say in who we love. We are tethered by this intractable difference. Should we have to find a common ground?
This extraordinary coincidence, has fuelled a deep dive not just into these terrifying binaries, but into the moral, spiritual and philosophical grey areas that sit adjacent to them.
DEVELOPMENTS
Throughout January 2026, ATQM AD Tristan Meecham and writer/ director Willoh Weiland travelled to Salt Lake City for a research and creative development on their new theatrical collaboration CAKE, hosted by UtahPresents.
For this development, Tristan and Willoh collaborated with American artists Lotic, Cody Potter and A. Raheim White. Further developments continue in 2026 with showings planned in Australia and internationally, leading to presentation in 2027.
In April 2027, a dedicated residency in Sydney – Rex Cramphorn Studio, University of Sydney provided concentrated time for the creative team to reflect on the discoveries made during the international development in Utah. This research deepened the project’s authenticity and complexity, ensuring the work moves beyond satire towards empathy and nuance
ARTISTS
Tristan Meecham – Co-creator, Writer and Director
Tristan Meecham (he/him) is an Queer Artist and Performer who facilitates creative frameworks that enable social transformation; connecting community, audience and artists together in events that transcend the everyday. Together with Bec Reid, he is the Director of All The Queens Men.
Tristan has become a leading creative voice within the LGBTIQ+ community nationally and internationally, specifically for championing the rights of LGBTIQ+ older people. Through a relational engagement practice, Tristan co-designs creative projects that enable communities improved access, not only to the arts experiences, but broader community health and social services. His commitment to equity, connection, and social justice frequently finds expression through projects such as the multi award-winning The Coming Back Out Ball, LGBTIQ+ Elders Dance Club and Digital Dance Club.
Tristan was Artistic Director of Give it up for Margaret: A month of philanthropic inspiration, a month long festival inspiring innovative arts philanthropy. GIUFM was created in partnership with Victorian College of the Arts, Margaret Lawrence Bequest and over 20 subsidiary organisations. Tristan was the creative lead for Going Nowhere, a sustainable international arts exchange at Arts House (2015 Green Room Award for Curatorial Contribution to Contemporary Performance). From 2010-2014, Tristan was an Artistic Associate and the Philanthropic Manager of Aphids.
Tristan is the 2023 Australia Council Fellowship recipient. Previously, he was awarded the VCA George Fairfax Memorial Award, British Council Fellowship and inaugural Richard Pratt Scholarship. He was the Chair of Green Room Award’s Contemporary and Experimental Performance Panel (2013-2017). Tristan has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Arts) from QUT and Bachelor of Dramatic Arts (Acting) from VCA.
Willoh Weiland – Co-creator, Writer and Director
Current and previous lives include roles as the Creative Director Special Events at the Museum of Old and New Art working on events of scale with the killer curatorial team; being an Honorary Fellow at the Centre for AI and Digital Ethics at the University of Melbourne; working on a tech/ jewellery racket with Melbourne brand Black Finch; writing a TV series with some serious babes funded by Screen Australia; being the Artistic Director/ CEO of the artist-led experimental arts organisation Aphids, leading a program of nationally and internationally acclaimed work; directing the night-time programming for the Mona Foma Festival with my crime partner James Brennan; being commissioned by the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Museum of Contemporary Art; being a recipient of the Australia Council Experimental Arts Fellowship and winner of the International Prize for Live Art from the Anti-Festival and the Saastamoinen Foundation Finland.
Lotic – Composer
Producing intense, provocative music informed by ballroom culture, noise, R&B, and hip-hop, Lotic (J’Kerian Morgan) is one of the most notable figures associated with the loosely defined experimental club scene. Originally from Texas, the Berlin-based artist released a series of well-received mixtapes during the first half of the 2010s, including 2014’s Damsel in Distress. Following 2015 EPs Heterocetera and Agitations, Lotic released her full-length debut, Power, in 2018, marking a shift toward vocal-based songwriting. On 2021’s Water, she further refined her avant-garde pop sound.
Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Morgan moved to Austin to study electronic music composition and saxophone at the University of Texas. While there, she became immersed in DJ’ing for her college radio station and at clubs, connecting with of the online dance music label , which released Lotic’s debut EP, More Than Friends, in 2011. The following year, Morgan moved to Berlin to find more like-minded artists; meanwhile, her music attracted the attention of the label, who released the Sankofa/Glittering single early in January 2013 and the more complex, melodic Fallout EP that October. Morgan also co-founded the collective, a crew of American expatriates including fellow producer/DJ , and became one of the DJs at their monthly parties at Chesters, a club in Kreuzberg.
Early in 2014, a bad breakup and fewer but more ambitious events gave Morgan more time to focus on Lotic, and she crafted the Damsel in Distress mixtape — which juxtaposed her own dense, wrenching tracks with an otherworldly reworking of ‘s “Drunk in Love” among other songs — in two weeks. Morgan expanded one of the mixtape’s tracks, “Heterocetera,” into her 2015 debut EP for . A digital EP titled Agitations was released by toward the end of the year. Additionally, Lotic remixed songs by , , and . Following a hiatus as well as a period of homelessness, Lotic returned in 2018 with her full-length debut, Power. Incorporating Morgan’s vocals for the first time, the album included empowering lyrics questioning racial and sexual identities. She signed to in 2020 and released the singles “Burn a Print” and “Cocky.” In 2021, she released her second album, Water, a reflection on love, loss, and resilience. ~ Heather Phares & Paul Simpson, Rovi
Cody Potter – Dancer
Cody is a non-binary dance artist currently performing and creating in Los Angeles. They began their dance and performance career in NYC, where they were a dancer and Assistant Director for In-Sight Dance Company, a nonprofit service organization based in Queens. Since moving to Los Angeles, they have had the pleasure of working with many local companies and choreographers in the concert dance world which include Invertigo Dance Theater, WHYTEBERG, Mollie Wolf, Luke Zender, Heidi Duckler, Iris Company, Acts of Matter, FABE, and Rosanna Gamson World Wide.
They have also worked in the commercial dance world with Teresa (Toogie) Barcelo, William Ylvisaker, Ashley (ROBI) Robicheaux, Matty Peacock and Amy O’Neal. They have performed in work for artists like Reggie Watts, Billie Eilish, FYOHNA, Ben De La Creme, Jinx Monsoon and more. Cody’s own creative work explores the boundaries of being wild and delicate, while balancing the honesty of the emotional impetus for each movement. Additionally, Cody is interested in fiber sculpture and are working to incorporate moving fibers sculptures into their work. They have partnered with Fiber Artist Mimi Haddon on many occasions and lead workshops in using fiber sculpture partnered with movement to explore how we can understand ourselves better as emotional beings through the putting on and use of costume.
A. Raheim White – Dancer / Choreographer
A. Raheim White is a multidisciplinary movement artist, choreographer, educator, and embodiment researcher whose work lives at the intersection of dance, ancestral wisdom, and embodied leadership. They currently serve as Assistant Professor and Head of Movement in the Department of Theatre at the University of Utah, where their teaching and creative practice center the body as a site of knowledge, healing, and transformation.
Raheim earned their MFA from New York University Tisch School of the Arts and a BFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, both in Dance with emphases in performance and choreography, and completed formative study at Taipei National University of the Arts. Their work is deeply informed by African diasporic movement practices, Vedic philosophy, and Eastern wisdom traditions, all filtered through a Black queer diasporic lens.
As a choreographer, Raheim’s work has been presented at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, French Institute Alliance Française, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Harlem Stage, Dance Africa Pittsburgh, The Den Theatre, and MAD Dance Festival. Recent choreographic credits include Fun Home, Spring Awakening, The Prince of Egypt, and Legally Blonde, with Legally Blonde becoming a sold-out production at the University of Utah’s Meldrum Theatre—an unprecedented achievement for the department.
Raheim has performed with and been an ensemble member of nationally and internationally touring companies including Seán Curran Company, Lucky Plush Productions, Brother(hood) Dance!, CabinFever, RAREDanceWork, Project44, Trainor Dance, and The Fly Honeys, and has collaborated with a wide range of influential artists across dance, theatre, and interdisciplinary performance.
David Woods
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