Meet the Artistic Team

Anne-Louise Sarks

Artistic Director & Co-CEO

Anne-Louise is Artistic Director & Co-CEO of Melbourne Theatre Company.

An internationally acclaimed director, writer and dramaturg, Anne-Louise has directed over 30 productions with her work seen in Melbourne, Sydney, London, Helsinki, Mexico City, New York, Warsaw, Dublin, Auckland, Mumbai, Perth and Basel. Recent credits include Avalanche at the Barbican in London, and Our Town and Medea at Theater Basel. Most recently, she directed Stop Girl at Belvoir in Sydney. In 2018 her production of Blasted at Malthouse Theatre was nominated for four Green Room Awards.

Anne-Louise was previously Artistic Director of the Lyric Ensemble at the Lyric Hammersmith in London and of the leading Melbourne independent theatre company The Hayloft Project. She has been both Resident Director and an Associate Artist at Belvoir, Director in Residence at Malthouse Theatre, and in 2010 she was Emerging Resident Director at Melbourne Theatre Company.

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

Resident Director

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.

Matt Edgerton

Head of New Work (Maternity Cover)

Matt is currently the Head of New Work at Melbourne Theatre Company, covering the role for Jennifer Medway while she is on maternity leave.

Matt is an Australian theatre director, dramaturg and actor working with contemporary and classical texts across a range of forms, styles and scales, cross-cultural collaborations and projects promoting social development in communities.

Matt has directed shows for Black Swan, Barking Gecko, Bell Shakespeare, Belvoir St Theatre, Monkey Baa, Performing Lines, Poetry In Action, Shaman Productions, Sport For Jove, The Last Great Hunt, and WAAPA, touring widely to major festivals in Australia and overseas, winning PAWA, AWGIE, Glug and Helpmann awards.

As an actor Matt has a twenty-year career performing classical and contemporary work around the country on stage, screen and radio. Matt has written plays for Poetry In Action and Bell Shakespeare, seen by over a million young people.

Matt spent four years as Artistic Director at Barking Gecko and three years as a Resident Artist at Bell Shakespeare. He trained as an actor at WAAPA and is a Winston Churchill Fellow.

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. 

Bryan Andy

First Nations Dramaturg

Bryan Andy is a Yorta Yorta man from Cummeragunja (NSW). He is the First Nations Dramaturg at Melbourne Theatre Company. Bryan has been a writer, radio broadcaster and theatre maker for over 20 years. He has been published by Lonely Planet, Guardian, Meanjin, ABC, Witness Performance and Artlink. Bryan has performed as an actor in Andrea James’s Yanagai! Yanagai! (2003) and Ilbijerri Theatre’s The Dirty Mile (2014). He served as the Aboriginal Cultural Dramaturg on Anthem (2019) by Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius, Melissa Reeves, Christos Tsiolkas and sound composer Irine Vela. In 2023, Bryan was the Dramaturg for the Griffin Theatre/Blakdance development of swim by Ellen Van Neerven. Bryan holds a Master of Theatre (Writing) at Victorian College of the Arts and is currently undertaking a Master of Fine Arts Research (Theatre) at the Victorian College of the Arts.

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, 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.

Rhys Velasquez

Casting Associate

Rhys (they/them) has built a diverse career in the arts since graduating from the Arts Academy, Ballarat in 2013. They started their career as a performer and choreographer working in both commercial and independent musicals and theatre around the globe with credits including Shrek the Musical (GFO), Once On This Island (Altitude) and many more.

Passionate for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion within the Arts sector, Rhys shifted their focus to Casting and Programming, using their lived experience to help expand the sector to become more inclusive for often marginalised communities. In 2021, they launched Evolution Casting specialising in Casting Direction, Consultancy and Design and have become a celebrated industry shaker with casting credits with Belvoir, National Theatre of Parramatta, Darlinghurst Theatre Company, Joshua Robson Productions and Antipodes Theatre Company to name just a few.

Rhys is delighted to be continuing their casting journey with Melbourne Theatre Company.

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. Stephen is a member of the volunteer Executive Committee for the Victorian Actors’ Benevolent Trust (VABT).

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.

Lachlan Steel

Deputy Company Manager

Lachy Steel is an established company manager and producer across the subsidised, commercial and independent sectors in Theatre and Dance.

A graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (Bachelor of Fine Arts: Technical Theatre and Stage Management), Lachy began his career in stage management across the independent and not-for-profit sector before joining Belvoir in 2020 as Production Coordinator. He developed a passion for sustainability through consulting on ARUP’s sustainability and emissions calculator tool – Circulate.

In 2021, he joined Bangarra Dance Theatre as Company Manager. In addition to the touring and logistical responsibilities, Lachy developed Bangarra’s Mental Health program to respond to the company’s touring program. He played a key role in the company’s programming through tour development and planning, alongside his continued work on sustainability with Arts on Tour and ARUP.

Independently, Lachy has produced work for Sydney Fringe Festival, and production managed Maureen: Harbinger of Death for Soft Tread Enterprises, presented by Sydney Festival (2021) and RISING (2022). In 2023, Lachy was appointed as a non-executive director on the board of Midnight Feast – a Sydney-based integrated arts company for artists with disabilities.

Karin Farrell

Programs Producer

Joining Melbourne Theatre Company in 2014 as Community Outreach Manager, Karin has gone on to develop and oversee a range of participatory programs for emerging and mid-career artists such as the First Peoples Young Artists Program and Cybec Electric. 

Previously the Producer: Education & Development Programs, Tour and Company Manager at Melbourne International Comedy Festival, after over a decade in the education sector, Karin is a strong advocate for meaningful engagement opportunities that influence and bring about real change in the creative industries. 

Jean Tong

Playwriting Fellow

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.