Miss Peony
牡丹小姐

Michelle Law

Michelle Law is a writer with experience in journalism, screenwriting and playwriting.

She wrote the highly acclaimed play Single Asian Female – commissioned by La Boite Theatre Company – which earned 5-star reviews before transferring to a sold-out season at Belvoir St Theatre in 2018. The show returned to La Boite with Michelle performing in it, and toured to Melbourne. In 2021, Auckland Theatre Company staged an original production of the work.

Michelle co-created, co-wrote and starred in the series Homecoming Queens, the first web series commissioned by SBS On Demand. The series won Best Web Series at the Australian Writers Guild awards, Best Screenplay at Melbourne Web Fest, and Best Performance in a Comedy series at the Equity Ensemble Awards. It was also nominated for Best Online Video or Series at the AACTA Awards.

As a screenwriter, Michelle has worked on shows for television networks such as the ABC, SBS, Fox8, Network 10, and The Nine Network. Some of her television credits include Get Krack!n (ABC), The Bureau of Magical Things (Network 10) and Rosehaven (ABC).

Michelle is also an advocate for social causes and has presented a TEDx talk, as well as being a prolific speaker about issues concerning intersectional feminism, cultural identity and race, and youth issues. She wrote the short documentary Suicide and Me (ABC2) which aimed to create more conversations about suicide prevention in Australia.

Beyond performance writing, Michelle is a successfully published author. In 2016, she won the Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award. She has written for many magazines, journals, and broadsheet newspapers including frankie magazine, The Griffith Review, and The Saturday Paper. Her stories and essays have been anthologised in books such as After Australia, Best Australian Comedy Writing, Destroying the Joint, Women of Letters, Growing up Asian in Australia, and more. In 2014, she co-wrote a comedy book called Sh*t Asian Mothers Say with her brother Benjamin Law.

Michelle is currently working on several theatre commissions, as well as feature and television projects. Her first book will be published in late 2021.

Courtney Stewart

Courtney Stewart is a Director, Dramaturg, Actor and Teaching Artist. She has worked on a number of productions and developments of new Australian work such as Eat Me for NIDA and STC, Playing Beatie Bow and Hamlet – Prince of Skidmark, Australian Graffiti for STC, Neon Tiger by Julia-Rose Lewis and Single Asian Female by Michelle Law for La Boite and Belvoir St Theatre, A Ghost in My Suitcase by Vanessa Bates, Siti Rubiyah by Katrina Irawati Graham, Barbaric Truth by Jordan Shea, Orange Thrower by Kirsty Marillier and White Pearl by Anchuli Felicia King. Courtney is the current Richard Wherrett Fellow at STC.

Courtney was the Assistant Performance Director for the City of Sydney 2016 Chinese New Year Lunar Lantern Festival. She was also a participant in the Directors Initiative in partnership with Contemporary Asian Australian Performance and STC.

As a dedicated Teaching Artist, Courtney has worked with Sydney Theatre Company, NIDA, ATYP and the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, specializing in producing and facilitating creative, EdTech and special access workshops in the areas of drama, film-making & editing, music, coding, Virtual and Augmented reality, robots for space exploration and physical computing.

Courtney was previously Chair of the Equity Diversity Committee and a delegate to the National Performer’s Committee. She is also a board member for Contemporary Asian Australian Performance.

Gabrielle Chan

Gabrielle was born in Vietnam and migrated to Australia in 1982. She can speak Cantonese, Mandarin,
Vietnamese, and English.

Gabrielle attributes her acting education to Chinese Opera performances, a form of traditional Chinese
drama and musical theatre. In the past 20 years, she has been trained by the highly respected Beijing Opera
teacher Duan Qiu Xia and has performed in theatres in Australia, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Auckland.
Theatre productions include most recently Half Time (Hayes Theatre), I’m With Her (Darlinghurst Theatre
Co), Golden Shield (MTC), Australian Graffitti and Chimerica (STC), The Quiet Brother (Belvoir) and Silence
(Hungry Ghost/La Mama).

Gabrielle has appeared in numerous screen productions including feature films Here out West (to be
released 2021), Jasper Jones (Rachel Perkins) and The Home Song Stories (Tony Ayres) and short films The
Egg (Jane Cho), The Last Chip (Heng Teng) and Mother, Child (Tin Pang). She has also featured in Australian
television productions Doctor Doctor (Nine Network), The Secrets She Keeps (Network Ten), The Commons
(Stan), Hungry Ghosts (SBS), Rake (ABC), Here Come the Habibs (Nine Network), City Homicide (Seven),
Maximum Choppage (ABC2) and Kick (SBS).

In 2016, Gabrielle won the Outstanding Performance Award at the 25th Sydney Film School Festival for her
role in ‘Kijo’ and in 2021 Gabrielle was a recipient of the MEAA Screen Awards for Best TV Drama Ensemble
Cast for Hungry Ghosts.

Alongside Daphne Low Kelly, Gabrielle founded Australasian Art and Stageworks (AASI), an organisation that
aims to educate and entertain the Australian community through the dramatic arts. Since 2012, AASI has
staged numerous productions including theatre shows (The Quiet Brother at Belvoir, Life’s A Stage at
Zenith), Chinese Opera make-up tutorials, and film festivals for City of Sydney, Willoughby Council and Young
Shire Council.

Jing-Xuan Chan

Jing-Xuan Chan graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2006. During her studies she received the Irene Mitchell Award for outstanding performance, the Orloff Family Charitable Trust Scholarship for outstanding commitment to training, and the Friends of the VCA New Emerging Talent Award. She has since worked for various theatre companies including Melbourne Theatre Company (Hungry Ghosts, Golden Shield), Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre (Oil, Incognito), La Boite (Single Asian Female), Malthouse Theatre (Criminology) and at 45 Downstairs (Wit, Fallen, The Merry Wives of Windsor – Green Room Award nominated for Best Ensemble). Jing-Xuan was nominated for Green Room Awards for her work in the productions Golden Shield and Wit. Her television and film credits include City Homicide, Glitch, The Family Law, Dirt Game, Winners & Losers, Harrow, Frayed and The Letdown. Jing-Xuan has also attained her A.T.C.L Associate Diploma in Speech and Drama and aside from acting, enjoys lending her voice to narrating audio books and audio plays.

Kaeng Chan

Mabel Li

Mabel Li is a 2019 graduate from NIDA’s BFA Acting course.

Their theatre credits include Miss Peony (Belvoir Mainstage), Never Closer (Downstairs Belvoir), The Seagull (Sydney Theatre Company), Delilah by the Hour (Brand X), Goldilocks (NIDA), Pool (no water) (NIDA), Ah, Tuzenbach: A Melancholic Cabaret (NIDA), and D.N.A (Seymour Theatre).

Mabel made her television debut in the 2021 AACTA award winning SBS series, The Tailings (dir. Stevie Cruz-Martin). Since then she has starred in Kindling Picture’s Safe Home, and most recently appeared in Lingo Pictures’ Erotic Stories. She was also nominated for a Silver Logie for Most Outstanding Supporting Actress and won an Asian Academy award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Goalpost Pictures’ New Gold Mountain, (dir. Corrie Chen) for SBS. Their work in film also includes art installation Trechikoff’s Chinese Girl.

Mabel is also the recipient of the 2019/2020 BBM Youth Award Scholarship for Drama and was a 2021 Finalist for the Heath Ledger Scholarship. Mabel was also a recipient of the CGA Rising Star Award for 2022. She will be seen later this at Melbourne Theatre Company in Cost of Living.

Christy Tran

Charles Wu

Charles Wu is one of Australia’s most exciting actors of stage and screen. Charles graduated from NIDA in 2014 and is well known for his work on popular series Doctor Doctor. Charles’ other television credits include Summer Love, The Letdown, Harrow, Here Come the Habibs, and Secret City. He was also seen in feature film Australia Day, and web series Liberty Street.

Charles’s theatre credits include The Cherry Orchard alongside Pamela Rabe, An Enemy of the People, Jasper Jones, Samson, The Overcoat: A Musical (Belvoir), The Lifespan of a Fact, Mosquitoes, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Three Sisters, Chimerica (Sydney Theatre Company), The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Darlinghurst Theatre), Golden Blood (Griffin Theatre), and Torch the Place for which he won a Green Room award for Best Actor(Melbourne Theatre Company). Charles was most recently seen on stage in Bernhardt/Hamlet as ‘Edmond Rostand’ for the Melbourne Theatre Company.

Shirong Wu

Shirong Wu is pleased to perform as Joy for the world premiere of Miss Peony. She is lucky to have worked on the Belvoir stage previously, playing Marie in the Australian premiere performance of Cursed. She was Xiao Chen for Sydney Theatre Company and Riverside Parramatta’s co-production of White Pearl by Anchuli Felicia King. On several Melbourne stages, she has appeared as Anne in Between the Buildings Theatre Company’s What Every Girl Should Know, and Annie Wong in Dirty Pennies Theatre Project’s Flagman. On screen she can be found in short films such as What We’re Owed and Mothertongue; in television as Rachel Chen on Neighbours, and as Ying in award winning director Matthew Victor Pastor’s upcoming film, Pencil to the Jugular which made its debut at the Moscow International Film Festival.Shirong is proud to have received the Best Supporting Actress award for playing the Cockroach in I, Cockroach for the Monash One Act Play Festival and Best Ensemble at the Sydney Theatre Awards as part of the White Pearl cast.

Jonathan Hindmarsh

Jonathan Hindmarsh is an award winning Australian production designer. He graduated from NIDA’s Bachelor of Dramatic Arts in 2015 and is the recipient of the 2018 Green Room Award for Design and the 2018 Sydney Theatre Award for Best Costume Design.

Jonathan’s recent design work includes Lady Tabouli, programmed for Sydney Festival 2020 with the National Theatre of Parramatta, A View from the Bridge (Ensemble 2019), Pomona (Red Stitch 2019), Trevor (KXT 2019), The Astral Plane (Belvoir 25A 2019), Grounded (National Theatre of Parramatta 2019), costumes for West Australian Ballet’s Reincarnation choreographed by Garry Stewart (2019), set for Brisbane Festival’s I’ve Been Meaning to Ask You (The Good Room 2018), set and costumes for the Australian premiere of The Humans at The Old Fitz (2018), The Girl/The Woman (National Theatre of Parramatta 2018), the Green Room Award winning Apokalypsis (Next Wave Festival 2018), Kill Climate Deniers (Griffin 2018) and Metamorphoses (Apocalypse Theatre 2018). For the Old Fitz Theatre in 2017 Jonathan designed Doubt: A Parable, Crimes of the Heart and The Judas Kiss. His work also includes designs for Look Back in Anger (2016), Low Level Panic (2016), Sport For Jove’s Away (2016) and Belleville (2016).

In 2020 Jonathan was a Production Design Assistant on Marvel Studio’s Shang Chi & the Legend of the Ten Rings, and most recently was a Costume Assistant on the Netflix series Pieces of Her.

Trent Suidgeest

Trent Suidgeest’s lighting design highlights include: Muriel’s Wedding The Musical (Global Creatures/Sydney Theatre Company); The Rabbits, The Eighth Wonder, Carmen (Opera Australia); Appropriate, Accidental Death Of An Anarchist, Hay Fever, Talk (Sydney Theatre Company); RENT (Sugary Rum/LPD/Opera House); Betty Blokk-Buster Reimagined (Redline Productions); Young Frankenstein, Calamity Jane [National Tour], Gypsy, The View Upstairs (Hayes Theatre); First Love Is The Revolution, Prima Facie, Kill Climate Deniers, The Homosexuals Or ‘Faggots’ (Griffin); I Am Eora (Sydney Festival); Black Cockatoo, Folk (Ensemble Theatre); The Sapphires (Belvoir / BSSTC); Dusty, The Boy From Oz, Jesus Christ Superstar (The Production Company)

Trent assisted Jan Versweyveld and Ivo van Hove on their Shakespearian epic Kings Of War (Toneelgroep Amsterdam / Wiener Festwochen)

Website: www.trentsuidgeest.com

Dr Nicholas Ng

Dr Nicholas Ng is a composer, performer and Research Fellow at the Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture (Western Sydney University). A former Lecturer (Australian National University) and Research Fellow (Queensland Conservatorium), he has been teaching erhu (2-stringed Chinese fiddle) and theory at Sydney Conservatorium since 2016.

Nicholas’ upbringing in Old Rite church music combined with his world music interests has led to a unique style in his compositions for The Song Company, The Australian Voices, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and other ensembles. He collaborates with William Yang and appeared with Benjamin Law in Annette Shun Wah’s Double Delicious (2020), produced by Contemporary Asian Australian Performance.

On the erhu, Nicholas has toured to festivals around Australia, New Zealand, North America, Canada and Europe. These include KunstenFESTIVALdesarts (Brussels), Sydney Festival and Auckland Arts Festival. He established the ANU Chinese Classical Music Ensemble (2003).

Nicholas has curated a number of events including ENCOUNTERS: China (2010), Music in the Gardens (2012), BrisAsia Festival (2012-2013) and Shanghai Club at The Famous Spiegeltent (2013). 

Published by Orpheus Music, Nicholas has produced a book and various articles on Australia-China exchange. His artistic career has been documented on SBS Mandarin Radio, ABC Music Show, and in the ABC TV Compass program, Divine Rhythms.

Julian Starr

Julian is an Award-Winning Sound Designer and Composer for theatre, events and media. Julian works in London, Europe and Australia.

His theatre credits include: Zog (West End/UK Tour); Cry Havoc, Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis (Park Theatre); You Only Live Forever (Soho Theatre/ Edinburgh Festival); Othello (The Union Theatre); The Comedy of Errors, Pericles (Czech Republic: 18^th Century Castle Valtice); Sleepwalking (Hampstead Theatre); White Noise, Killing It (Vaults Festival); Scrounger (Off-West End Nomination for Best Sound Design), The Wind of Heaven (Finborough Theatre); Axolotl (London and Lithuania Tour); Hyperdream (Old Fitz Theatre); Elektra/Orestes (Metro Arts Theatre, Brisbane).

Sound Design Associate/ Production Engineer: An Inspectors Call (UK/Ireland Tour); Songs For Nobodies (West End); The Tap Pack (West End); The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo (The Edinburgh Castle).

Media: Late Night Staring At High Res Pixels (Digital Theatre Finborough Theatre); The Fizzy Sherbet Podcast Series, White Tuesday (Sarah Award NYC For Best Audio Fiction). 

Julian is the Sound Design Associate to the Finborough Theatre (London) and a proud member of the Association of Sound Designers.

Kristina Chan

Kristina is a dancer and choreographer based in NSW Australia. Her choreographic work includes; solo work A Faint Existence (Performance Space 2016, Sydney Opera House 2018 & Dance Massive 2019); MOUNTAIN commissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre 2017/18; Summer commissioned by City Contemporary Dance Company Hong Kong 2018; Conform for Sydney Dance Company (Ludwigshafen Germany and Carriageworks 2015); Pacific for Sydney Dance Company PPY 2016 Carriageworks; A commission for Expressions Dance Company/Opera Queensland season Mozart Airborne 2017; commission for Dance North’s Communal Table; short solo works for iOU Dance a choreographic platform for NSW independent choreographers.

Kristina has had an extensive dance career performing throughout Australia, Canada, UK, USA, Asia, Israel and Europe. She has been a key collaborator for the making of many Australian dance choreographies, working with companies and independent artists. Kristina has been awarded a Helpmann Award (2011) and two Australian Dance Awards (2006 & 2009), the Peggy Van Praagh Choreographic Fellowship 2017 and the Regional Fellowship Australia 2020.

Nicole Pingon

Nicole Pingon (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist, theatre maker, and artist facilitator working across live performance, installation and digital mediums. Expanding across and between mediums, Nicole’s practice tends to be collaborative, curiosity-led, and process-driven.

Most recently, Nicole directed Little Eggs Collective’s Moon Rabbit Rising for Belvoir 25A, which won three Sydney Theatre Awards. Other directing credits include: Blush Opera’s new Australian opera, Chop Chef for Riverside Theatres Parramatta (co-directed with Kenneth Moraleda), Shopfront Junior Ensemble’s Mums Tell Dad Jokes Too (co-directed with Tasha O’Brien), and Blush Opera’s forthcoming Songs of the Sirens, an ocean-side operatic experience for Bondi Festival. As assistant director: Opening Night (Belvoir, dir. Carissa Licciardello), Ate Lovia (kwento/Red Line, dir. Kenneth Moraleda), The Lies We Were Told (Shopfront/Monkey Baa, dir. Natalie Rose). Nicole has created audio works for The Wheeler Centre, Constellations and is the sound designer on Bad Taste, an SBS podcast. In 2022, they presented a participatory performance score as part of Temporary Position’s De-Choiring series at Phoenix Central Park. Nicole is a member and collaborator of the Little Eggs Collective and Ninefold Ensemble, and a passionate teaching artist.

Dr Jing Han

Professor Jing Han is currently the Director of Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture at Western Sydney University. Shereceived her PhD in English literature from the University of Sydney in 1995. She joined SBS TV Australia in 1996 and had been the Chief Subtitler and Head of the SBS Subtitling Department since 2006. Over the last 23 years, Jing has subtitled over 300 Chinese films including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Lust, Caution, Hero, Not One Less, I Am Not Madam Bovary etc.  In the last six years, Jing has been the leading subtitler of the most popular Chinese TV show If You Are The One, which has created a cult following in Australian audiences and set the record of the longest showing non-English series in Australian broadcasting history. Jing has subtitled close to 400 episodes of the show as well as other Chinese TV series. She has also subtitled The Handmaid’s Tale into Chinese for Australian audiences. As a leading expert in subtitling and translating Chinese culture, Jing has been invited to speak at conferences and deliver lectures at over 30 universities across the world. In recognition of her outstanding contributions to the cultural exchange between Australia and China, she was included in the 45 Stories published by the Australian government.

Jing joined Western Sydney University in 2006 and has been a key faculty member in its flagship program, Translation & Interpreting BA and MA Programs. She has designed and taught a range of translation and interpreting courses including Audiovisual Translation and Literary Translation for postgraduates. She is also a PhD supervisor, currently supervising five PhD candidates. She has established a high profile nationally and internationally in translation studies and gained recognition as a leading expert in subtitling and intercultural communications through her significant and original contributions to the practice and teaching in the field. Jing is the English translator of a modern Chinese classic Educated Youth by multi-award winning author Ye Xin, published by Giramondo in 2016. She is currently translating  Melissa Lucashenko’s 2019 Miles Franklin award winning novel Too Much Lip into Chinese to be published by China Writers Publishing House.

Sylvia Xu

Sylvia Xu 徐颖 is the Cantonese translator of Miss Peony. She is a native speaker of Cantonese and has near-native proficiency in English. She has done a variety of translations during her fourteen years of working in the international education sector in Australia. She has a BA in Marketing, a Master in Commerce and a Graduate Certificate in Translation and Interpreting.

Nigel Poulton

Nigel is an award-winning movement director, fight and intimacy coordinator, SAG-AFTRA/MEAA stunt performer and actor, with over 25 years of professional experience. Selected theatre credits include: for Belvoir St Theatre, Holding the Man, The Master and Margarita, Miss Peony, Packer and Sons, Things I Know To Be True, Stop Girl, Blessed Union, At What Cost?, The Jungle and the Sea; for Sydney Theatre Company, Oil, On The Beach, Do Not Go Gentle, Fences; for Bell Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth; for Melbourne Theatre Company, Bernhardt/Hamlet; for Ensemble Theatre, Memory of Water, Mr Bailey’s Minder, Suddenly Last Summer. Nigel’s film and television work includes: Deadloch, Nautilus, Poker Face, Thor: Love and Thunder, Spiderhead, Ding Dong I’m Gay, Occupation 2, Pirates of the Caribbean V, Deadline Gallipoli, The Water Diviner, The Bourne Legacy, Vikingdom and Winter’s Tale.

In 2021, Nigel was awarded the status of Fight Master with the Society of American Fight Directors, as one of only two recipients outside the US with this accolade. He has also won a Green Room Award for outstanding contribution to the stage.

Chloë Dallimore

Chloë is internationally trained and accredited as an Intimacy Coordinator by Ita O’Brien of Intimacy on Set (UK). 

She is currently working on “The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart” starring Sigourney Weaver, the Broadway musical “Jagged Little Pill”, as well as productions for Netflix, Warner Bros, Fremantle, Ch9 and Ch10. 

Recent credits include Netflix’s “Pieces of Her” starring Toni Collette, George Miller’s “Three Thousand Years of Longing”, Benjamin Millepied’s “Carmen”, ABC’s “Wakefield” and Ch9’s “Doctor, Doctor”.

With a life-long journey in professional dance, and as an award-winning musical theatre performer, Chloë’s career has seen her work as a Resident/ Associate Choreographer on main-stage productions such as Billy Elliot, Oliver!, and Annie, as well as perform lead roles in productions such as The Producers, Chicago, Thoroughly Modern Millie and The Addams Family. 

Chloë is honoured to work with the Belvoir team.

Lillian Hannah U

Bronte MacInnes