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Show artwork for Meet the Artistic Associates

Meet the Artistic Associates

Meet our Artistic Associate advisory council representing a broad range of practices, experience levels and backgrounds from across the Australian performing arts industry.

Artwork for Amy Sole

Amy Sole

Amy Sole is a proud Wiradjuri/Worimi person. Amy is a playwright, director, actor, dramaturg, producer and advocate. They are Creative Associate at Ilbijerri Theatre Company and a recent graduate of MFA (Directing) at NIDA and hold a Master of Theatre (Playwriting) from VCA. Recent works for theatre include Benched (director, Darlinghurst Theatre Company); Burning (writer/director, NIDA); Nan's Place (writer, Ilbijerri Theatre Company); Doing (writer/director, Kings Cross Theatre). Amy regularly directs developments of new works, most recently Phoebe Grainer’s Sugarcane for the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award and Dylan Ven Den Berg’s way back when at Darlinghurst Theatre Company. They have worked as assistant director on God's Country, Metamorphoses (NIDA); and RENT (Sydney Opera House). They are also Creative Director of Big Blak Bang, a festival of First Nations storytelling and Artist-in-Residence at Darlinghurst Theatre Company, Co-Founder of Puddle or Pond Theatre Company, and a sitting Co-Chair of the Equity Diversity Committee.

Artwork for Corey Saylor-Brunskill

Corey Saylor-Brunskill

Corey Saylor-Brunskill (Meriam man/Torres Straits) is a dynamic voice of his generation, actively engaged in expressing his social truths through stand-up, spoken word and lyrics. He participated in Melbourne Theatre Company's First Peoples Young Artists’ Program and is a member of the Ilbijerri Theatre. In addition to his work with Ilbijerri, Corey has performed on the stages of Melbourne Theatre Company, Meat Market and Arts Centre Melbourne. Corey has been directed by the iconic Rachel Maza in Conversations with the Dead and Maryanne Sam in Coconut Woman and has toured 7 Stages of Grieving alongside Leonie Whyman for Complete Theatre Works. Corey's blend of unapologetic truths and undercurrent of vulnerability fuels his penchant for playing the anti-hero. Corey can be seen on screen in the upcoming Viral (2022) directed by Maryanne Sam.

Artwork for Kate Hood

Kate Hood

Kate Hood worked as an able-bodied actor and writer for many years, performing in everything from classics to musicals. Some credits include Prisoner (Grundy’s); Big River (Gordon Frost Productions); Diving for Pearls (Melbourne Theatre Company) and Marat Sade (State Theatre Company Adelaide). She became a wheelchair user fifteen years ago and reinvented herself as a disabled actor and theatre maker, reigniting her mainstream career. Kate formed her disability-led theatre company Raspberry Ripple Productions, as a response to the invisibility of disabled actors, writers and theatre makers across our stages and screens. Raspberry Ripple’s remit is to make accessible theatre from the point of view of disability, to tell stories of disabled and non-disabled people living in the world together. Some recent credits include That’s Why the Lady Needs a Ramp (Footscray Arts Centre, writer, actor); Takeover! (Arts Centre Melbourne, writer, actor); Risky Business (Malthouse Theatre, director); Contest (Darebin Speakeasy, actor); The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man (Malthouse Theatre, Besen Directing Placement); ADIC International Arts and Disability Conference (Keynote Speaker); Neighbours (actor) and Jenny Sealey Residency – Aesthetics of Access (writer, performer). Kate is a founding member of Actors Equity’s Diversity Committee, and was its Deputy Chair, is Co-Chair of the Performers with Disabilities committee, and believes passionately that the best way to advocate for disabled performers is to create work which depends on them for its impact.

Artwork for Margot Morales

Margot Morales

Margot is a writer, performer, director and comedian. With Melbourne Theatre Company, they were the Associate Director for Torch The Place, Assistant Director on The Truth, and presented their own play at Cybec Electric in 2021. They recently directed Club Nite at Miscellania and And She Would Stand Like This with Antipodes Theatre Company for Midsumma 2022. Their show psyche404error, a queer digital adaptation of Eros and Psyche, won Best Work in Festival at Melbourne Fringe 2021 and was nominated for a Green Room Award in Experimental Practice. Recently they also received a $20K grant through the Melbourne Fringe Fund to create their new experimental cabaret for the upcoming festival. Their solo show Vanity Fair Enough played at The Coopers Malthouse and was nominated for the Golden Gibbo at Melbourne International Comedy Festival 2019. They are currently part of Theatre Works’ She Writes Collective.

Artwork for Patricia Cornelius

Patricia Cornelius

Patricia Cornelius a founding member of Melbourne Workers Theatre. She’s a playwright, novelist and film writer. She’s the recipient of the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize and the 2019 Green Room Award for Life Achievement. She’s been awarded the Vic., NSW and Qld Premier Prizes, the Patrick White Fellowship and Mona Brand Award for playwrighting as well as numerous AWGIE awards. She has written over 35 plays including Runt, Shit, Big Heart, Savages, Do not go gentle…, Slut, Love and The Call. Patricia’s novel, My Sister Jill (Random House) was published in 2002. She’s currently developing a feature film, Stolen, with director and co-writer, Catriona McKenzie.

 

Artwork for Paul Jackson

Paul Jackson

Paul Jackson APDG is a multi-award-winning lighting and set designer, dramaturg and theatre maker whose practice encompasses theatre, opera, dance, music theatre, concerts and live events. He is a graduate of the University of Melbourne and RMIT University. Paul has designed lighting, sets and performance environments for a wide range of leading companies and organisations. A key creative on several seminal Australian theatre pieces, his work has featured in festivals and programs in the United States, Asia, Europe and the United Kingdom. Listed in The Bulletin’s Smart 100, he was the Gilbert Spottiswood Churchill Fellow for 2007 and was an Artistic Associate at Malthouse Theatre from 2007–2013. In 2017, he received an Australia Council of the Arts fellowship. Paul has won a Helpmann Award, two Sydney Theatre Awards, seven Green Room Awards, a Critics' Award for Theatre in Scotland, and four Australian Production Design Guild Awards. He has also received a further four Helpmann Award nominations and thirty-two Green Room Award nominations. Paul is accredited with the Australian Production Design Guild. Paul has lectured in design at the University of Melbourne, NMIT, RMIT University and Victorian College of the Arts. He was a founding member of not yet it's difficult performance group, was a member of Melbourne Workers' Theatre Artistic Advisory Group and has been on the Board of St Martin's Youth Arts Centre.

Artwork for Roshelle Fong  

Roshelle Fong  

Roshelle is a Hong Kong Australian multidisciplinary artist who created Melbourne Fringe award-winning immersive show nomnomnom in 2018, adapted in East Iceland, Shanghai and Sydney as part of Kings Cross Hotel’s Vivid program. She created and performed in the live-streamed interactive 2020 show Thirsty! for Griffin Theatre’s Griffin Lock-in and Google Creative Lab’s Theatre, made for the internet, and her interactive 2021 theatre show Poona, co-created with Keziah Warner for Next Wave, was nominated for a Green Room Award for Best Ensemble. In 2022 Roshelle was Assistant Director and co-AV Composer for Melbourne Theatre Company’s Laurinda and a writer for Cybec Scenes, and participated in Australia Council for the Arts and Creative New Zealand‘s Digital Fellowship Program and RISING’s Headroom Award mentorship. She is an alumni of Melbourne Theatre Company’s Women in Theatre Program 2019 and First Stage 2021, and currently studying Writing for Performance at the Victorian College of the Arts. 

Artwork for Sonya Suares

Sonya Suares

Sonya Suares is a multidisciplinary performer, dramaturg, director, producer and arts activist whose work has spanned film, television and theatre since her screen debut at 16. Sonya founded acclaimed Sondheim repertory company Watch This, realising a body of work that has accrued a total of 27 Green Room Award nominations and 4 wins. She's also been nominated for her work as an actor in Melbourne Theatre Company's Melbourne Talam and Polyglot Theatre & Papermoon Puppet Theatre's immersive sensation, Cerita Anak. She shares a nomination for Best Direction of a Musical with Dean Drieberg for Sunday in the Park with George (2019) and for the digital documentary series, The Art of Making Art (2020). Recently, she co-directed Into the Woods with Melanie Hillman for Watch This (6 Green Room Award nominations including Production of the Year and 2 wins); the 2022 Cybec Electric play readings with Isabella Vadiveloo for Melbourne Theatre Company; and wrote/ produced a pilot of the fantasy adventure screen project, The Quest - a collaboration with her son, Daniel. She is currently working with composer/lyricist Vidya Makan and Hayes Theatre Co on The Lucky Country and with Essential Theatre to realise the Australian premiere of Morgan Lloyd Malcolm's Emilia.

Artwork for Stephen Nicolazzo

Stephen Nicolazzo

Stephen is a Melbourne based theatre maker, director and co-founder of celebrated independent queer theatre company, Little Ones Theatre. He is currently co-artistic director of Western Edge with Chanella Macri and John Marc Desegnano. Recent Credits include Looking for Alibrandi (Malthouse Theatre, Belvoir); Loaded (Malthouse Theatre); Judith Lucy and Denise Scott’s Still Here (Token Entertainment National Tour); Considerable Sexual License (Joel Bray Dance); Merciless Gods (Arts Centre Melbourne, Griffin Theatre Company) and Abigail’s Party (Melbourne Theatre Company). Stephen has also directed Ash Flanders’ End Of (Griffin Theatre Company, Darebin Arts Speakeasy); The Happy Prince (Griffin Theatre Company); The Moors and Suddenly Last Summer (Red Stitch Actors' Theatre); Daddy (Joel Bray Dance, Arts House, Arts Centre Melbourne, Brisbane Festival, Perth Festival, Darwin Festival, Liveworks) and Meme Girls (Malthouse Theatre). Early works include Dangerous Liaisons (Melbourne Theatre Company Neon Festival); Salome (Malthouse Theatre Helium); Psycho Beach Party (Theatre Works, Brisbane Festival); Dracula (Theatre Works) and sex.violence.blood.gore (MKA). He is a Green Room Award winner for Best Director (The Happy Prince). His productions have received 13 Green Room Award wins and a Sydney Theatre Award. Stephen was also the recipient of the Besen Family Artist Program Placement in 2009 (Malthouse Theatre) and was a member of the 2019 Lincoln Centre Theatre’s Directors Lab. He is also a teaching artist for the Victorian College of the Arts, COLLARTS, Monash University and Melbourne Theatre Company Education.

Artwork for Tony Briggs

Tony Briggs

Tony Briggs is a Yorta Yorta/Wurundjeri (Woiwurrung) theatre and film practitioner (actor, writer, director and producer) and the creator and writer of feature film The Sapphires which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival 2012. He received two AWGIE awards and the film won 11 of 12 categories at AACTA 2013. He previously wrote The Sapphires play, which had sell-out seasons at Melbourne Theatre Company and Belvoir, winning two Helpmann Awards. Tony is co-originator, executive producer and writer of the eight part TV series The Warriors. As an actor of over 20 years he holds many credits to his name including feature roles in Cleverman (2015), Broken Shore (2013), Redfern Now (2012) and The Slap (2010). Tony recently made his directorial debut with the short film Elders, which premiered at the Sydney Film Festival and screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival, iaginative and Cinefest Oz. Tony is also the Artistic Director of Birrarangga Film Festival, showcasing Indigenous Films from across the globe to Melbourne Audiences biannually.

Artwork for Zindzi Okenyo

Zindzi Okenyo

Soon after graduating from NIDA in 2006 Zindzi Okenyo was cast in The Vertical Hour and The Crucible for Sydney Theatre Company and Scorched for Company B Belvoir. From 2009 to 2011 she was a member of the Residents Company at STC. In 2012 Zindzi toured Europe and the US with A History of Everything and began as a presenter on ABC’s Playschool. In 2013 Zindzi won a Best Female Performer Award for her role in State Theatre Company of South Australia’s Random. She has performed in Orange Thrower, Masquerade and The Girl In Tan Boots (Griffin Theatre); Grand Horizons, The Golden Age, Boys Will Be Boys, A History Of Everything, Money Shots, Before/After, Blood Wedding, The Comedy Of Errors, The Oresteia, Vs Macbeth, The Crucible, The Mysteries: Genesis, The Vertical Hour (STC); An Ideal Husband and Disgraced (Melbourne Theatre Company), Prize Fighter, La Traviata and Scorched (Belvoir); Much Ado About Nothing and Antony and Cleopatra (Bell Shakespeare), The Rasputin Affair and Good People (Ensemble), Random (State Theatre Company of South Australia), Gaybies (Darlinghurst); Angels In America (Theatre Ink). Most recently Zindzi was Director of Oranger Thrower at Griffin Theatre, Co-Director on Darlinghurst Theatre/Sydney Festival’s highly acclaimed seven methods of killing kylie jenner and Assistant Director on Death Of A Salesman for Sydney Theatre Company. As well as Playschool Zindzi’s television roles include Wakefield, The Code, Hiding, Janet King, Harrow and Get Krack!N (ABC) and Wonderland and Sisters (Network 10). In feature films she has appeared in Abe Forsythe’s Little Monsters and Dean Murphy’s The Very Excellent Mr Dundee. Zindzi also performs her own music under the name OKENYO.

Artwork for Zoë Coombs Marr

Zoë Coombs Marr

Zoë Coombs Marr is a performer, writer, artist and comedian. She is one-third of the contemporary performance company post, whose work Ich Nibber Dibber played at Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre and the Sydney Opera House in 2018. In 2017, her theatrical collaboration with Ursula Martinez and Adrienne Truscott, Wild Bore, premiered at the Malthouse Theatre and went on to be performed at the Soho Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe and the Skirball Centre at NYU. Zoë has performed stand up comedy extensively. In 2012, her solo theatre/comedy work was awarded the Philip Parsons Young Playwright Award and was nominated for Best Newcomer at the Melbourne Comedy Festival. Zoë’s five-woman ensemble play Is This Thing On? was presented at Belvoir Theatre in 2014. With her 2016 show Trigger Warning, Zoë won the Melbourne Comedy Festival Award as well as the Golden Gibbo, two Green Room Awards and was also nominated for Best Show at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Drama. In 2018 Zoë’s festival offering Bossy Bottom saw Zoë nominated for Best Comedy Performer at the Helpmann Awards and won her a prestigious Herald Angel Award in Edinburgh. In 2020 Bossy Bottom was filmed and internationally released on Amazon Prime Video. Since filming her Amazon special, Zoë has supported Hannah Gadsby in San Francisco and Los Angeles for her Netflix taping, performed Bossy Bottom in LA, debuted a new show Agony! Misery! in Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne, co-hosted Sydney Mardi Gras for SBS twice and created new works for the Stan Comedy Lockdown series and Melbourne Fringe’s VCR Fest. In 2021 she became a contributor to The Weekly with Charlie Pickering, as well as guest appearances on Amazon’s The Moth Effect and ABC's Spicks & Specks. The Opener debuted at the Melbourne Comedy Festival in 2022. Zoë performed The Opener by invitation at this year’s Just For Laughs Montreal in tandem with an appearance at the Hannah Gadsby Gala. 

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