Artistic team

Key artists: Michele Lee (writer/project concept and development), Tanya Dickson (director and concept development), Alan Nguyen (sound designer and concept development) and Clare McCracken (visual designer and concept development). With Ash Blakeney sound designing ‘Travellers’.

Performers: Keith Brockett, Roddy Cairns, Matt Crosby, Tom Dent, Jing-Xuan Chan, Kane Felsinger, Fanny Hanusin, Ferdinand Hoang, Nicole Lee, Elizabeth Nabben, Mark Tregonning, Sarah Walker and Janine Watson

Additional arrangement and composition: Roddy Cairns

Sound engineers: Ash Blakeney and Simon Cotter

September 2011 showing: Brendan O’Connell (direction of the text)

Mentors: Gorkem Acaroglu (development), Roslyn Oades (presentation)

For the two new tracks in the Darwin Festival, Russell Goldsmith is the sound designer and performers Tom Considine, Piper Huynh and Amanda Ma join us.

Biographies – key artists

Writer/Project concept and development: Michele Lee is an Asian-Australian playwright. She has received grants to develop new works, been in various emerging writers’ programs and in 2009 received an Asialink residency to Laos. She is Platform Youth Theatre’s commissioned writer for 2012.

Director/Concept development: Tanya Dickson is currently the director in residence for MKA Theatre of New Writing. Her most recent directing credits include Truck Stop by Lachlan Philpott, Triangle by Glyn Roberts for National Play Festival, Malthouse, April Albert’s Die Knef, The Butterfly Club, and J.A.T.O by Vedrana Klepica, MKA Theatre of New Writing (Shortlisted for an ArtsHub Achievement award).

Sound designer/Concept development: Alan Nguyen is a sound-artist, composer, film director, writer and animator. In 2011, he was sound designer on Thrashing Without Looking, an experiential work combining live theatre and live cinema, and Festival Director for Nexus: Festival of Animation, Comics, Graphic Novels and Moving Image, held at NMIT.

Visual designer/Concept development: Artist Clare McCracken creates site-specific, interactive works within the public realm that encourage communities to develop a relationship with their local milieu. Her work is generally ephemeral, however she has permanent works installed at the Post Office Hotel Swan Street, Richmond, and in Oakwood Park, Noble Park.

Biographies – performers

Performer: Tom Considine graduated from Flinders University Drama Centre in 1975. Since then he has appeared with many companies including The Melbourne Theatre Company, Playbox, The Sydney Theatre Company, The State Theatre of S.A., Anthill, The Mill Theatre, Eureka!, La Mama, The Eleventh Hour and Not Yet Its Difficult. He was a founding member of The Mill Theatre Company and The Five Dollar Theatre Company and has also performed with The Astra Choir and The Early Music Festival. He has worked as an assessor for the Australia Council and as an actor for the Playwrights Conference, and has been a member of the Artistic Directorate for Hothouse Theatre. He has also taught at the National Theatre Drama School. His film and television credits include Deeper than Blue, Blue Heelers, Stingers, Corelli, Man from Snowy River and The Heroes.

Performer: Tom Dent, originally from Adelaide, grew up playing AFL rather than on a stage. After a stint in the U.K. working in the music industry Tom returned to Australia to complete his Bachelor of Arts in Dramatic Performance at the VCA. He now lives in Melbourne working as an actor and theatre-maker.

Performer: Kane Felsinger is VCA graduate who recently completed working with Melbourne Theatre Company as the lead male in the Sydney Theatre Company’s winner of the Patrick White (2011) director’s development of Beached. A performance bringing together, animation, theatre, live and pre recorded media to the story of a super obese teen. Currently Kane is filming his first feature film with Chris Pahlow in Playing it Safe, and rehearsing a new writers work, Surfacing, with The Alias Project. Later in the year, Kane will be performing with the Bell Shakespeare Company. In 2011, Kane was the recipient of VCA’s Lionel Gell Scholarship.

Performer: Fanny Hanusin is an Indonesian born actor singer. She received 2003 Green Room Award as Best Female Performer. Her upcoming production is Happy Ending with Melbourne Theatre Company. Fanny is also a stand up comic and has performed in 2011 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Some of her television credits include Bogan Pride, Offspring and The Slap.

Performer: Ferdinand Hoang is an experienced and versatile Australia-based actor. His recent feature film credits include appearances in Mao’ s Last Dance, The Quiet American, Little Fish, and The Home Song Stories. Ferdinand has also appeared in acclaimed short films, mini-series and various plays like See how the leaf people run and the international cult TV drama We can be heroes.

Performer: Piper Huynh is currently studying a Bachelor of Performing Arts at Monash University. She has worked extensively with Western Edge Youth Arts as an actor, facilitator, designer, and social networker. She is a member of Playback West and took on lead roles for Western Edge’s 3 year project, ‘Chronicles: Searching for Songlines’ and ‘Beagle Bay Chronicles’ which toured in the Kimberley. Recently, she has performed for Dance Massive in WeTube Live and assisted in art direction for some short films. She is currently working on a collaborative project with Western Edge and Arts Access as an artist, facilitator and film-maker.

Performer: Nicole Lee graduated from the VCA with a Bachelor of Dramatic Art (Acting) in 2011. Since then she has worked for ABC Radio and will be working with Michele again on her new play development Moths. Her short opera for which she wrote the libretto will have its workshop premiere with the Victorian Opera/Chambermade Opera in September. http://www.nicolelee.me/

Performer: Amanda Ma graduated VCA 1980 with shows long-forgotten : ‘Lost Islands’, ‘Sullivans’, Cop shop’, ‘Young Doctors’, ‘Skyways’. Recent favourites : ‘Betterman’ SBS Drama 2013, ‘Perception’ Best Short Film Dendy Awards 2013, ‘Taxi’ Site-Specific Ensemble & winner 2 Green Room Awards 2012, ‘Bed of Roses’ ABC Three Seasons with Kerry Armstrong, ‘The Jammed’ Best Feature film IF Awards & 5 AFI Nominations.

Performer: Elizabeth Nabben graduated from the VCA in 2010. Since then she has played Annabella in the Malthouse Theatre’s Tis Pity She’s a Whore directed by Marion Potts. In 2011 she also appeared in Neighboursand Winners and Losers, David Rosetsky’s ACCA film How to Feel as well as voicing a character in the American cartoon SheZow.

Performer: Mark Tregonning is a graduate of Theatre & Film at the Victorian University of Wellington and Acting at Victorian College of the Arts.   Theatre work includes internationally toured physical performance show Gilgamesh (Uncle Semolina & Friends).  Currently he can be seen as Davo on the internet web series Queer as Fuck.  This is the latest of several projects with Michele Lee for theatre, film and radio.

Performer: Sarah Walker is a Melbourne actor, photographer, videographer and designer. She is a founding member and key creative for independent theatre company AtticErratic, designer-in-residence for Quiet Little Fox, and photographer-in-residence for AtticErratic, MKA, Black Apple Theatre and Barking Spider Visual Theatre. Recent performance credits have included Tell Them That it Rained Too Hard for AtticErratic and MKA’s critically acclaimed The Economist.