Meet the Artistic Team

Anne-Louise Sarks

Artistic Director & Co-CEO

Anne-Louise is the Artistic Director and Co-CEO of Melbourne Theatre Company. Her work has premiered in Sydney, Melbourne, London, Mexico City, New York, Auckland, Warsaw, Istanbul, Mannheim, Perth, Mumbai, and Basel.

Anne-Louise launched her first season as Artistic Director in 2023, directing the double bill Escaped Alone / What If, If Only and Bernhardt/Hamlet. In 2024, she directed two productions with Melbourne Theatre Company, a new musical adaptation of My Brilliant Career and the Tennessee Williams classic A Streetcar Named Desire. Anne-Louise has also worked with Opera Australia in 2024 to present a semi-staged production of Breaking The Waves, Missy Mazzoli’s new opera based on Lars von Trier’s 1996 film.

Prior to her appointment at Melbourne Theatre Company, Anne-Louise directed Stop Girl for Belvoir St Theatre in 2021. In 2019, she directed Avalanche, a new work by Julia Leigh produced by the Barbican London and later presented by the Sydney Theatre Company. In 2018 her production of Blasted at Malthouse Theatre was nominated for four Green Room Awards. 

She was Artistic Director of The Hayloft Project from 2009-2014.

Martina Murray

Executive Producer & Deputy CEO

Martina Murray is a producer and arts leader with twenty years’ experience across the not-for-profit and commercial arts sectors.

Currently the Executive Producer and Deputy CEO at Melbourne Theatre Company, Martina works closely with the Co-CEOs, and leads the logistical side of programming and the Producing team responsible for productions and artistic initiatives, along with overseeing the Production, Casting and Education & Families Departments, playing a pivotal role in the realization and delivery of the artistic vision.

During her time at the Company, she has held various positions in production, producing and operations. She has founded industry-first initiatives, such as the Women in Theatre Program and NEON, MTC's award-winning independent theatre festival. She has logistically overseen the programming of more than 110 productions, numerous tours and buy-ins of internationally acclaimed works, and implemented new positions and processes to best support the Company’s operations and ambitions.

A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Martina began her career in Stage Management for leading organisations and festivals around the country, and as Assistant to the Director, Simon Phillips, worked on several commercial musicals, locally and internationally. She has produced independently and was the Executive Producer of acclaimed independent theatre company The Hayloft Project.

A 2023 Williamson Fellow and Alumni of the Australia Council's Emerging Leader Development Program, Martina is a regular mentor for early career people in the arts, has sat on several assessment panels for funding bodies and programming organisations and has been involved with Boards and Committees, most recently for one of Australia's leading experimental theatre companies, THE RABBLE.

Tasnim Hossain

Associate Artist

Tasnim Hossain is Resident Director at Melbourne Theatre Company and has worked as a director, playwright and dramaturg.

Her production of Yellow Face (Dinosaurus Productions/KXT) was nominated for four Sydney Theatre Awards in 2022, winning Best Direction of an Independent Production. Other directing credits include How I Learned to Drive (NIDA), Sweat (VCA) and Rough Draft #49 – Garage Sale (STC). She co-directed and dramaturged Lost in Shanghai (CAAP/OzAsia Festival) and was assistant director on Banging Denmark (STC). As a writer, she was co-recipient of the inaugural NSW Musical Theatre Fellowship (CreateNSW/Hayes Theatre Company) and her script, Bombay Takeaway, was shortlisted for the 2022 Griffin Award.

Tasnim has been ATYP’s Resident Playwright, Griffin Theatre Studio Artist, CAAP-Sydney Theatre Company Directors’ Initiative participant and Artistic Associate at NIDA. She is an alumna of the Australia Council for the Arts Future Leaders program, as well as Melbourne Theatre Company’s Women in Theatre program.

Jennifer Medway

Head of New Work

Jennifer Medway is the Head of New Work at Melbourne Theatre Company.

A dramaturg with over a decade of professional experience in the development of new Australian work, she was Melbourne Theatre Company’s Literary Associate from 2017-2021 and Acting Literary Manager of Melbourne Theatre Company 2021-2022. Prior to this she was Resident Dramaturg at the Australian Theatre for Young People, Studio Artist at Griffin Theatre Company, Associate Artist-Dramatugy at Belvoir, Literary Assistant also at Belvoir, and a regular script assessor and dramaturg for Playwriting Australia.

Jennifer is also a regular guest lecturer at the Victorian College of the Arts within their Masters of Directing, Playwriting and Dramaturgy programmes and was on the judging panel for the NSW Premier’s Literary Award’s Book of the Year prize and the Nick Enright Playwriting Prize from 2018-2020.

Zoey Dawson

New Work Associate

Zoey Dawson is a dramaturg, playwright, screenwriter and educator based in Naarm with over 15 years’ experience in script development. She has recently worked as dramaturg with award-winning theatre makers such as Mish Grigor and Marcus McKenzie, as well as facilitating dramaturgy workshops with Arts Centre Melbourne and Theatre Works. For screen, she has worked in scripted development for companies such as Fremantle Media and Matchbox Pictures. She holds both a Master of Screenwriting and a Master of Performance Writing from VCA and has been lecturing and tutoring in Script Writing and Performance Studies at Melbourne University for the past six years. 

As a playwright, her credits include Darkness (New Theatricals), CAESAR (La Boite), Australian Realness (Malthouse Theatre), Conviction (Darebin Arts), Calamity (MTC NEON), Madonna Arms (Next Wave/Artshouse) and I Know There's a Lot of Noise Outside (I'm Trying To Kiss You/LaMama). She received the inaugural Melbourne Festival Discovery Award for The Unspoken Word is Joe (LaMama/Griffin Theatre/ Brisbane Festival) and her work has been nominated for 10 Greenroom awards, including Best New Writing for Conviction. 

Mark Wilson

Associate Artist

Mark Wilson works as a director, devisor, dramaturg, performer and writer. Directing credits include Declan Furber Gillick's Jacky (Melbourne Theatre Company) and Bighouse Dreaming (Melbourne Fringe Festival, Brisbane Festival, Darwin Festival),  Rory Godbold’s Code of Conduct (Midsumma Festival); Emma Hall’s World Problems (Theatre Oostblok, Amsterdam) and Michael Gow’s Sweet Phoebe (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre). As a maker and performer he has collaborated with Brian Lipson on The History of the Damnable Life and Deserved Death of Doctor John Faustus (Melbourne Fringe, Arts Centre Melbourne); Alice Will Caroline on Doors Shut (Melbourne Fringe/Temperance Hall); Triage Live Art Collective; and as dramaturg on Emily Godard’s This is Eden directed by Susie Dee. Before the pandemic, he created and performed three radical Shakespeare adaptations: Unsex Me, Richard II and Anti-Hamlet. He trained at Monash University, Victorian College of the Arts and Ecole Philippe Gaulier and is an International Fellow of Shakespeare’s Globe in London. He teaches regularly at VCA. His shows have won awards at Melbourne Fringe and in the Independent Theatre and Dance categories at the Greenroom Awards.

Janine Snape

Casting Director

Janine has worked for over 20 years in the industry in Australia and internationally. In the UK, Janine worked in freelance casting for theatre, screen and commercial casting, and was a member of the RSC casting team where she worked on large scale theatre productions presented in the UK and internationally. Born in Naarm/Melbourne, Janine returned home to take up the position of Casting Director at Melbourne Theatre Company. Janine’s passion for casting comes from an appreciation and love of character and storytelling and a commitment to increasing representation in the industry by working to identify and reduce barriers to access and inclusion.  She currently holds a BA in Professional Writing and Literature, and Graduate Certificate in Disability and Inclusion. Janine is a member of the Casting Guild of Australia.  

In addition to her extensive Melbourne Theatre Company and RSC casting experience, Janine’s credits include; Australian Casting Director for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Michael Cassel Group) at the Princess Theatre, Melbourne. UK credits as Casting Director include; Julius Caesar, I, Cinna The Poet, King John, Richard III, The Heart of Robin Hood, The Tempest, The Thirteen Midnight Challenges of Angelus Diablo, Days of Significance. Freelance credits include: Tiger Tail (Nuffield Theatre), The Mountaintop (as Casting Advisor/Theatre 503), The Spanish Tragedy, (Arcola), 2000 Feet Away, (Bush Theatre), Faustus (Headlong/tour). Screen includes (as Associate): Black Sails for STARZ, Dracula (NBC/Sky), Reign, The Adventurer: Curse of the Midas Box.

Daphne Quah

Casting Administrator

Daphne trained at the Academy of Live & Recorded Arts in London (Masters in Performing) and was part of the Monash University Graduate Ensemble under the tutelage of Peter Oyston. While in London she toured the Edinburgh Fringe with London-based Singaporean company Platform65 with their immersive production Rites & Regulations, and was on BBC’s mini television series One Night. She also worked on the James Bond movie Skyfall.

In Singapore she worked with Toy Factory Prouctions in the classic local story Titoudao, played Lady Capulet in the original production of Romeo & Juliet – the Musical, and was the lead in the new work Permanance. She played Maureen in All This Intimacy with Yellow Chair Productions, and was part of the children’s series at the Esplanade – Theatres by the Bay where she held leading roles in Playtime! HelloLing!, Playtime! Out of the Box, The Magic Treetop, and Round & Round the Zoo. She performed and consulted in interactive dinner theatrical experiences by Andsoforth, Singapore’s first immersive dining experience company. She has also acted on screen for numerous Singapore television series and movies.

She was the Production Manager of the Short & Sweet Mandarin 10 Theatre Festival and taught theatre at LaSalle College of the Arts in Singapore for 5 years prior to moving to Australia.

Stephen Moore

Senior Producer

A stage management graduate from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Stephen’s stage management credits span numerous productions for Melbourne Theatre Company, Bell Shakespeare, Kay + McLean Productions and more.

Stephen was Tour Manager for the Australian national tour of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (The National Theatre), Deputy Company Manager at Bell Shakespeare and established the Company Management department at Melbourne Theatre Company. 

Julia Smith

Company Manager

Since graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Production, Julia Smith has worked professionally for almost 15 years in Stage Management.

Working predominantly for Melbourne Theatre Company, Julia has been involved in bringing more than 30 productions to life. Some of these include, August: Osage County, The Cherry Orchard, Elling, Private Lives, The Speech Maker, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Vivid White, Shakespeare in Love, Torch the Place, The Lifespan of a Fact, Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes and Touching the Void. Over the years, Julia has also worked for Bell Shakespeare Company on Julius Caesar (2011 national tour), Phèdre, The Dream (2014 production) and Antony and Cleopatra.  

Julia was fortunate enough to work in Indonesia for a year helping develop the production Bali Agung, which more than ten years on, continues to wow audiences.

In 2022, Julia transitioned to the role of Company Manager to help deliver a productive, welcoming and happy workplace and experience for all artists at Melbourne Theatre Company.

Jean Tong

Associate Artist

Jean Tong is a writer and director. Jean is developing Flat Earthers: The Musical with Lou Wall and James Gales for Griffin Theatre Company. Their previous theatre work includes Hungry Ghosts (Melbourne Theatre Company); hit musical Romeo Is Not The Only Fruit (The Butterfly Club – Best Writing/Best Ensemble nominee, 2018 Green Room Awards) and Caesar (La Boite Theatre). They directed Christopher Chen’s Caught at Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre in 2022. In 2020, Jean was a Philip Parsons Writing Fellow at Belvoir Theatre. Current TV projects include a one-hour episode on Netflix’s Heartbreak High Season 2 and a half-hour episode on SBS’ Erotic Stories. Previous TV projects include Episode 2 on Safe Home (Kindling Pictures for SBS), and two episodes for Season 2 of 100% Wolf for Flying Bark/ABC. They have worked in numerous writers’ rooms, as the Script Coordinator for New Gold Mountain (Goalpost Pictures and SBS), and as the Development Assistant at Goalpost Pictures from 2019 to 2021.

Laura Harris

Producer - Industry & Audience Initiatives

Laura is passionate about producing, amplifying the work of others, and bringing creative vision to life. Her experience developing and delivering projects and programs, traverses the arts, community, government, and social innovation spaces. 

Laura has worked in Creative Producer and Social Impact Producer roles at ILBIJERRI Theatre Company and Big hART on productions including Goodbye Aunty Flo, The Score, Scar Trees, Big Name No Blankets, and Hipbone Sticking Out.  

Laura has expertise in social equity, systems change, community engagement, and gender equality, working for organisations such as Criterion Institute and Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity.  She is an advocate for embedding these principles and practices in the arts sector.

Laura values her career roots and early opportunities in stage management and production roles at Melbourne Festival, Performing Lines, Melbourne Theatre Company, and with a range of independent companies. She currently sits on the board of GUTS, a dance company based in Mparntwe, Central Australia.