Counting and Cracking

S. Shakthidharan

Shakthi is a western Sydney storyteller with Sri Lankan heritage and Tamil ancestry. He’s a writer, director and producer of theatre and film, and composer of original music. Belvoir: The Jungle and the Sea (Co-written with Eamon Flack) and Counting and Cracking (Associate Writer Eamon Flack). His other theatre credits include Zana Fraillon’s The Bone Sparrow (Pilot Theatre, York UK), 宿Stay (Sydney Festival); and has in development a new play with Belvoir, his first novel, a feature film with Felix Media and a new TV project. His debut play Counting and Cracking received critical, commercial and community acclaim. The script won the Victorian Premier’s Literature Prize and the NSW Premier’s Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting; the production won 7 Helpmann and 3 Sydney Theatre Awards. Shakthi’s most recent play The Jungle and the Sea, again was met with rave reviews and had a profound impact on the Sri Lankan community. It recently won the 2024 Victorian Premier’s Literature Prize and 4 Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Mainstage Production. Shakthi is the Director of Kurinji and previous to this was Founder/Artistic Lead of Co-Curious (2018-2022), sister company to CuriousWorks where he was Founder and Artistic Director (2003-2018). Shakthi was the Carriageworks inaugural Associate Artist and is a recipient of both the Phillip Parson’s and Kirk Robson awards.

Eamon Flack

Eamon Flack is the Artistic Director of Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney. He is a director, writer, dramaturg and script developer for stage and screen.

 Eamon was born in Singapore and grew up in Singapore, Darwin, Cootamundra and Brisbane. He has a BA (English and History) from the University of Queensland, and trained as an actor at WAAPA from 2001 to 2003. He has worked around Australia and internationally, from the Tiwi Islands to Sri Lanka and the UK. He has led Belvoir’s new work development in various guises since 2006, and has commissioned and developed many of the company’s most acclaimed new works over the last 15 years.

His productions of The Glass Menagerie, Angels in America and Counting and Cracking won the Helpmann Awards for Best Play in 2015, 2016, and 2019. 

His key directing credits include: Counting and Cracking (with Associate Director S. Shakthidharan, winner of the Helpmann Award for Best Direction of a Play and nominated for the Sydney Theatre Award Best Direction of the Mainstage Production), The Jungle and the Sea (co-directed with S. Shakthidharan, winner of Best New Work and Best Production at the Sydney Theatre Awards), Angels in America, The Glass Menagerie, Into the Woods, Tommy Murphy’s Packer & Sons, Rita Kalnejais’s Babyteeth, Alana Valentine’s Wayside Bride (co-directed with Hannah Goodwin), Tom Wright’s adaptation of Brecht’s Life of Galileo, Eamon’s own adaptations of Hendrik Ibsen’s Ghosts and Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Ivanov (Sydney Theatre Awards Best Production and Best Director), as well as The Rover, The Blind Giant is Dancing, As You Like It, and Beckett’s The End. His other directing credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bob Presents/B Sharp) and Wulamanayuwi and the Seven Pamanui by Jason de Santis (Darwin Festival).

His writing and adaptation credits include: Associate Writer of S. Shakthidharan’s Counting and Cracking (winner of the Nick Enright Prize for Playwriting at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, the Victorian Literary Prize and the Victorian Premier’s Award for Drama, Helpmann for Best New Work), co-writer with S. Shakthidharan of The Jungle and the Sea (Winner, Best New Work, Sydney Theatre Awards 2022); a stage adaptation of Christina Stead’s The Man Who Loved Children; Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Ivanov, Gorky’s Summerfolk, Sophocles’ Antigone and Ibsen’s Ghosts; co-adapter with Leah Purcell of Ruby Langford Ginibi’s memoir Don’t Take Your Love To Town; and co-deviser of Beautiful One Day with artists from ILBIJERRI, version 1.0, and the community of Palm Island.

For orchestral concert he has adapted and directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream alongside Mendelssohn’s score for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Belvoir St Theatre conducted by Simone Young, and directed and co-created Beethoven and Bridgetower with Anna Goldsworthy, Rita Dove and Richard Tognetti for the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Rodney Afif

Shanaka Amarasinghe

Prakash Belawadi

Prakash is an Indian theater, film, television and media personality, teacher, activist and journalist from Bengaluru, Karnataka. Born into a family of theatre and cinema artistes, Belawadi obtained a degree in mechanical engineering from University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering in 1983, but has devoted the most part of his years to the stage, cinema, journalism and teaching. Belawadi has represented India as a delegate in many seminars, conferences and festivals around the world, including the Beyond Bollywood conference at the Gothenburg International Film Festival, 2010; the Performing Arts Market conference in Seoul, 2011; the 50th Theatertreffen – annual theatre festival meet at Berlin, 2013; and the seminar and exhibition, ‘Nature – A Good Idea’ at Trollhättan, Sweden in 2014. He has been faculty for film courses in Sweden and Istanbul, Turkey and is a mentor at Chanakya University, Bengaluru. He is a motivational speaker at events and Tedx conferences Prakash Belawadi’s debut film Stumble, which he wrote and directed, won the National Award for Best Film in the English language, 2003. The film has now been included in the national telecaster Doordarshan’s Best of Indian Cinema series. Belawadi has acted in many stage plays, web series and over 70 films in five Indian languages and English. He was given the META award for Best Supporting Actor in 2005 and the Helpmann Award, Australia (2019) for Best Actor, Male in the play ‘Counting and Cracking‘, Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney. He was conferred ‘Pratibha Bhushan’ in 2003 by the Government of Karnataka for his contribution to culture; the Karnataka Nataka Academy Award (2011-12) for his contribution to English and Kannada language theatre; and the Government of Karnataka’s ‘Rajytosava Award’ in 2021. He has also been awarded the ‘Pride of Karnataka’ by Bangalore Round Table (2015), ‘Varshada Kannadiga’ (Kannadiga of the Year) (2015) in the field of entertainment, by News 18 Kannada. The serial ‘Garva’, which he wrote and directed in 2001 is still considered a classic among Kannada serials.

Prakash was one of the founding members of Citizens for Bengaluru, an active platform for people to engage with the city government to make it accountable to citizens. Prakash and like-minded citizens have founded the Greater Bengaluru Parisara Foundation, a trust with the vision to realise a healthy and sustainable Greater Bengaluru with clean air; piped supply of water; recharging of ground water, well managed tanks and other resources; improved management and renewal of urban and peri-urban forests, eco-friendly parks and wetlands with rich biodiversity.

Emma Harvie

Emma is a graduate from the Actors Centre Australia and has studied at The Atlantic Acting School in New York. She is a proud Equity member. Theatre credits include: Counting and Cracking (Belvoir UK Tour), My Brilliant Career (Belvoir), The Wolves (Belvoir), Dance Nation (STCSA/Belvoir), The Astral Plane (Belvoir 25A), 44 Sex Acts in One Week (Clubhouse Productions), Wherever She Wanders (Griffin Theatre Company), The Last Wife (Ensemble Theatre), Wrath (KXT/JackRabbit), A Cheery Soul (Sydney Theatre Company), The Harp in the South Parts 1 and 2 (Sydney Theatre Company), The Hypochondriac (Darlinghurst Theatre Company), The Wolves (Redline Productions), Taking Steps (Ensemble Theatre), The Players (Bell Shakespeare), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Sydney Theatre Company), Orfeo ed Euridice in the Art Gallery of NSW (Spectrum Now Festival)

Film credits include: Ladylike (Chekhov’s Gun Productions) 

TV credits include: LiMBO (ABC/Bunya Productions), Colin from Accounts (Easy Tiger/Binge), Frayed Season 2 (Guesswork/Merman), Diary of an Uber Driver (ABC/Revolver), The Letdown Season 2 (ABC/Netflix).

Antonythasan Jesuthasan

Nadie Kammallaweera

Nadie appeared in Belvoir’s critically acclaimed production of Counting and Cracking in 2019.

In 2021, Nadie appeared in another Belvoir production, The Cherry Orchard, directed by Eamon Flack. Other theatre credits include Kalumali (Stages Theatre Group, Colombo), House of Bernada Alba (directed by Priyantha Sirikumara), Blood Wedding (directed by Kaushalya Fernando), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Distortion, (Somalatha Subasinghe Play House, Colombo), and Mother Courage and Her Children (directed by Somalatha Subasinghe).

She has played Sister Suree in HBO’s The Young Pope directed by Paolo Sorrentino. Other TV credits include Bedde Kulawamiya and Sansaare Piyasatahan, Wakefield for ABC Australia, and Series 2 and 3 of Bump for Stan Australia.

Film credits include This is My Moon(directed by Ashoka Handagama), August Sun (directed by Prasanna Vithanage), Paanghu (directed by Visakesa Chandrasekaram), A Strange Familiar (directed by Malith Hegoda), and Mother Teresa (directed by Fabrizio Costa).

Nadie has won a number of awards in Sri Lanka for her performances, including Best Supporting Actress in a movie 2021, Best Teledrama Actress 2018, Best Upcoming Actress (2004), Special Jury Award for Acting 2004, and Best Supporting Actress 2003.

Ahi Karunaharan

Abbie-Lee Lewis

Abbie-Lee Lewis is a Kalkadoon actress who trained on the Aboriginal Theatre and Acting courses at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Perth.

Her credits include Seanna Van Helten’s Fallen, directed by Penny Harpham, for Sport for Jove; Our Town, directed by Clare Watson, for the Black Swan State Theatre Company of Western Australia; a national tour of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (as Hermia) for Bell Shakespeare; and Angus Cerini’s The Bleeding Tree, directed by Ian Michael at the Blue Room Theatre, Perth. Her television credits include Black Comedy for ABC. In recent years she has also worked as an assistant director, collaborating with Peter Evans on Hamlet for Bell Shakespeare and with Jena Prince on Charlie Pilgrim for the Australian Theatre for Young People.

This year she has joined the team at Belvoir as the Andrew Cameron Fellow and will make her directing debut with Bruce Pascoe’s Cutter and Coot for the Moogahlin Performing Arts, NSW.

Based in: Kalkatungu Country, Australia

Shiv Palekar

Gandhi McIntyre

Sukhbir Singh Walia

Vaishnavi Suryaprakash

Vaishnavi Suryaprakash is an actor, dancer and emerging writer. She completed her training at the National Institute of Dramatic Art, Sydney, in 2017 and also holds an Arts/Law degree from Sydney University. Her theatre credits include Counting and Cracking, Life of Galileo and Sami in Paradise for Belvoir; Grand Horizons, White Pearl and Julius Caesar (as understudy) for the Sydney Theatre Company; What the Ocean Said at the Sydney Opera House; Moby Dick for Sport for Jove; and Pramkicker for Vox Theatre. Her television credits include Wakefield for ABC, Pieces of Her for Netflix and The Secrets She Keeps for Lingo Pictures. She also appeared in the short films Pass the Parcel and Stories of Kannagi, which won the Blake Prize. Vaishnavi won the Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a Play for her performance in Counting and Cracking. She is currently a literary associate at Belvoir, and was selected for this year’s AFTRS (Australian Film Television and Radio School) Writing Talent Camp.

Kaivalya Suvarna

Nipuni Sharada

Rajan Velu

Rajan Velu is a graduate of Actors Centre Australia and has worked extensively across Theatre, Television, and Film in Australia and the United States.

Rajan’s theatre credits include Counting and Cracking (Belvoir), Life of Galileo (Belvoir), Norm and Ahmed (Australian Theatre Live), The Last Highway (Urban Theatre Projects), The Drum (Sydney Opera House), Friends in Transient Places (Fresh Produce’d LA), The Changeling (Independent Shakespeare Company LA ), Henry V (Independent Shakespeare Company LA).

Film credits include This Little Love of Mine, Eat Spirit Eat, Honeyglue and the short film Bug due to premiere at festivals later this year

Rajan’s television credits include, Criminal Minds-Beyond Borders, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Scandal, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, All Saints, Doctor Doctor, RFDS, Diary of an Uber Driver, Born to Spy and has just finished filming on the mini-series Savage River directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse.

Sukania Venugopal

Kranthi Kiran Mudigonda

Janakan Raj

Venkhatesh Sritharan

Kalieaswari Srinivasan

Kalieaswari Srinivasan’s stage credits include Une pierre de patience, directed by Clara Bauer, at last year’s Les Francophonies Festival, Limoges; Counting and Cracking with Belvoir at the 2019 Adelaide Festival; The Prisoner, directed by Peter Brook and Marie Helene Estienne, at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris, and on tour in Europe and the USA; The Tempest at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord; On the Other Side — Concert for Piano and Silences, directed by Diego Pileggi at the Grotowski Institute, Wrocław; Land of Ashes and Diamonds for Indianostrum Théâtre at Le Petit Salle of Theatre du Soleil, Paris; Ki Raa Kulambu, directed by Rajiv Krishnan, presented in Tamil Nadu; and Kunti Karna, directed by Koumarane Valavane and performed in India and France. Her films include Dheepan, directed by Jacques Audiard, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2015; Sivaranjaniyum Innum Sila Pengalum, directed by Vasanth S. Sai; Biryani, directed by Jay Emmanuel, which she co-wrote; the short films Begum Parvathi, directed by Radhika Prasidhha, and Pablo Neruda, directed by Bagu; and Rettai Jadai, directed by Franziska Schönenberger and Jayakrishnan Subramanian. She appeared in two installations bridging theatre and fashion at BOZAR, Brussels: Figure Studies, directed by Andrew Ondrejcak, and Kabul to Bamako, directed by Clara Bauer.

Harish Vijaya

Biman Wimalaratne

Biman Kasun Wimaratne is an actor, performance coach, and a political activist involved in the Peoples Protest in Sri Lanka – for an inclusive and accountable society. A versatile actor, Biman has starred in shows such as ‘The Pillowman’ (dark comedy) and the ‘12 Angry Men’ (drama). Loves getting on stage for some standup comedy. Graduate – Actors Centre Australia.

Anandavalli

Anandavalli has achieved world acclaim as a dancer throughout her celebrated international career spanning 45 years. She has been taught and nurtured by the foremost Gurus in the field of Bharatha Natyam and Kuchipudi.

Migrating to Australia she founded the Lingalayam Dance Academy in 1987 and the company in 1996. Her opus includes an impressive repertoire of original productions centred on the theme of woman. The company has embarked on a series of collaborations with renowned national and international artists.

In 1989 she was presented with Australian Citizenship on stage in recognition of her contribution to the arts in Australia. In 2002 she was awarded a Fellowship by the Dance Board of the Australia Council for the Arts. In December 2007 Anandavalli was awarded the title of “Kala Seva Bharathi” from the Bharat Kalachar institution in Chennai, India, and in 2019 the “Natya Aachryamani” – Lifetime Achievement Award, from Apsaras Arts, Singapore in recognition of her services to the arts.

Dale Ferguson

Dale has designed many Belvoir productions including Sami in Paradise, The Blind Giant is Dancing, Radiance, Brothers Wreck, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Neighbourhood Watch, The Seagull, Measure for Measure, The Power of Yes, Antigone, Exit the King, Peribanez, and The Judas Kiss (Toronto, West End and Brooklyn Academy of Music). Dale’s other credits include Away, Les Liaisons Da ngereuses (STC), August: Osage County, An Ideal Husband, The Weir, The Speechmaker, The Crucible, Top Girls, The Drowsy Chaperone (MTC); Dance of Death, Night on Bald Mountain and Because the Night (Malthouse Theatre); ‘Stay’ (Sydney Festival). For opera, Dale designed The Magic Flute (Lyric Opera of Chicago), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Houston Grand Opera, Canadian Opera) Otello (Cape Town Opera), Ariadne auf Naxos (Welsh National Opera), Anything Goes, The Marriage of Figaro, Eugene Onegin (Opera Australia). Dale received Helpmann Awards for August: Osage County and Counting and Cracking and Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations for the Broadway Production of Belvoir’s Exit the King.

Damien Cooper

Damien designs lighting for Dance, Theatre, Opera and Film.  Designs for Belvoir include Into the Woods, Light Shining In Buckinghamshire, Wayside Bride, Things I Know To Be True, Counting and Cracking, Mark Colvin’s Kidney, The Dog/The Cat, Radiance, The Glass Menagerie, Coranderrk, Miss Julie, Stories I Want to Tell You in Person, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Peter Pan, Private Lives, Conversation Piece, Strange Interlude, Neighbourhood Watch, The Seagull, Gethsemane, Keating!, Toy Symphony, Peribanez, Stuff Happens, The Chairs, The Spook, In Our Name, The Underpants, The Sugar House, A Taste of Honey, The Ham Funeral, Exit the King (with Malthouse Theatre, and Broadway transfer). 

Designs for Sydney Theatre Company include Blithe Spirit, White Pearl (with National Theatre of Parramatta), Top Girls, Dinner, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Disgraced, Arcadia, Orlando, The Golden Age, Suddenly Last Summer, The Women of Troy, The Lost Echo, Riflemind, Tot Mom, King Lear, The Shape of Things, These People, Morph, Thyestes, Far Away, Bed, This Little Piggy, Julius Caesar, Summer Rain, Boy Gets Girl, The Metamorphosis, The Cherry Orchard, A Hard God, Fat Pig, A Walk With the Goons, Self Esteem, The Art of War, The Great, The Duel, Honour, Oresteia, Zebra!, Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness, Blood Wedding, Bloodland (with Queensland Theatre, Adelaide Festival and Bangarra), Pygmalion, Under Milk Wood, The Splinter, Storm Boy, The Long Way Home, Children of the Sun, Cyrano de Bergerac, Arms and the Man. 

Other theatre highlights include Queensland Theatre: Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (with Belvoir), Away; Bell Shakespeare: The Tempest; MTC: Golden Shield; Ensemble Theatre: Kenny, Honour.

Damien also designs lighting for other forms of performance art, including over 150 opera, ballet and dance productions. He has been awarded Three Sydney Theatre Awards – Best Lighting; Three Green Room Awards – Best Lighting; Two Australian Production Designers Guild Awards – Award for Best Lighting Design Der Ring des Nibelungen; Award for Best Lighting Design The Glass Menagerie.

Stefan Gregory

Stefan Gregory is an Australian composer and sound designer for theatre, dance and film. His recent productions include: Medea (Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY), Yerma (The Young Vic, London), Medea, Ibsen Huis, Husbands And Wives (Toneelgroep Amsterdam), Drei Schwestern, Engel In Amerika, Medea (Theatre Basel), Trilogie de Vengeance, Les Trois Soeurs (L’Odeon, Paris), Avalanche (Barbican, London), There Is Definitely A Prince Involved (Australian Ballet, Melbourne), L’Chaim (Sydney Dance Company), Wonangatta, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Arturo Ui (Sydney Theatre Company), The Present (Broadway, NY), Counting And Cracking, The Wild Duck, Thyestes (Belvoir St Theatre, Sydney), The Dig (Netflix). He has worked with many esteemed directors and choreographers, including Simon Stone, John Crowley, Neil Armfield, Benedict Andrews, Anne-Louise Sarks, Eamon Flack, Kip WIlliams, Gideon Obarzanek, Matthew Lutton, Ralph Myers, Angelica Mesiti.

Stefan has won two Sydney Theatre awards, and OBIE, was nominated for a drama desk award, has received a Sidney Myer Fellowship and has won a Helpmann award.

Stefan was a band member of Faker from 2004-2009, which achieved a platinum release with This Heart Attack and was nominated for several ARIA awards (Australian Recording Industry Association).

Stefan has a degree in pure mathematics (Hons. 1st) from the University of Sydney and also studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, but did not finish his diploma.

The son of science teachers and amateur folk musicians, Stefan grew up in a steel agricultural shed on a bushland property in the hinterland of Sydney with no electricty and a pet wallaby called Basil, where he nearly died from a red back spider bite at the age of nine.

Tim Dashwood

Belvoir: The Life of Galileo. Other Theatre: Sydney Theatre Company:Julius Caesar, Death of a Salesman, No Pay? No Way!, Lord of the Flies. Opera Australia: Whiteley, West Side Story on Sydney Harbour, Krol Roger, Faust. shake & stir theatre co.: Fantastic Mr Fox, Jane Eyre, George’s Marvellous Medicine. New Theatre: The Removalists. Outhouse Theatre Co: Ulster American. Empress Theatre: Cyprus Avenue. Packemin Productions: Les Miserables. Sport for Jove: Rose Riot, Servant of Two Masters, Measure for Measure, Fallen. ATYP: Intersections: Arrival, War Crimes. NSW Public Schools: Macbeth. Red Line Productions: Fierce. As Actor: Kay & McLean Productions: The Graduate. Bell Shakespeare: Richard III. shake & stir theatre co.: Fantastic Mr Fox, Animal Farm, Dracula, Wuthering Heights, George’s Marvellous Medicine. Darlinghurst Theatre Company: A Chorus Line (understudy), Deathtrap. Gordon Frost Organisation: Fame: the Musical. Queensland Theatre Company: Managing Carmen, The Odd Couple, Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, Rabbithole, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Exception and the Rule. The Escapists: Packed. La Boite Theatre Company: The Year Nick McGowan Came to Stay. Other: President of the Society of Australian Fight Directors incorporated. Training: Bachelor of Theatre Arts: university of Southern Queensland, Certified by the Society of Australian Fight Directors incorporated.

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, 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.

Laura Farrell

Laura Farrell (she/her) is a Voice and Dialect Coach living and working on Gadigal land. She holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Voice from NIDA; a Post Graduate Diploma in Voice from the Victorian College of the Arts; and a Bachelor of Music Theatre from the Victorian College of the Arts. A current lecturer for NIDA’s BFA, Laura has also taught on multiple Sydney actor training programs, including NIDA’s Diploma of Stage and Screen and Diploma of Music Theatre, Actors Pulse, Sydney Acting Studio, Actors Centre Australia and The University of Wollongong.

For Belvoir, Laura’s coaching credits include Into The Woods, directed by Eamon Flack (2023), Blue, directed by Deborah Brown (2023), Jungle And The Sea, directed by Eamon Flack (2022), Tell Me I’m Here, directed by Leticia Caceres (2022), Fangirls, directed by Paige Rattray (2022) and Counting And Cracking, directed by Eamon Flack (2022).  

Other credits include Pear Shaped, directed by Miranda Middleton (Rogue Projects, 2023), F*** It Bucket, directed by Alyssa McClelland (LeftBank Productions UK, 2022),  Reluctant Sea Shanty for UNHCR, directed by Kyra Bartley (FINCH, 2022), Picnic At Hanging Rock, directed by Claudia Osbourne (NIDA, 2022), Paper Stars, directed by Miranda Middleton (Salty Theatre, 2021) and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again., directed by Heather Fairbairn (NIDA, Sydney 2021). 

Amy Hume

Amy Hume is a voice and dialect coach for theatre and screen, and Lecturer in Voice at Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). Recent theatre credits include Fangirls, Counting & Cracking, Sami in Paradise (Belvoir), The Sound Inside, Fun Home, Cyrano (Melbourne Theatre Company), An American in Paris (Australian Ballet and GBS), Six the Musical Australia; Billy Elliot Australia (LWAA), White Pearl (Sydney Theatre Company), Merrily We Roll Along (Hayes). Recent coaching for screen includes Bad Behaviour (Stan), New Gold Mountain (SBS), and The Secrets She Keeps (Ten). Amy previously taught BFA Acting and MFA Voice students at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) from 2015 – 2019. Amy also facilitates voice training for individuals and organisations across different industries, recently working with NSW Parliament, Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman, and NSW Department of Education. She is a Designated Linklater Teacher and currently serves on the Board of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA), the international organisation for voice and dialect practitioners.

Steve Hendy

Tom Houghton

Chloe Greaves

Zainab Syed

Zainab Syed is the Director of International at Creative Australia, leading the organizations’
international engagement strategy for the arts.

Originally from Pakistan, Zainab has lived, studied and worked across Romania, Yemen,
England, Wales, US and Australia. Her practice sits at the intersection of social justice and live
performance. After graduating from Brown University, USA, she toured across the world as a
performance poet working with incarcerated women, trauma victims and refugees in prisons and
detention centres.

From 2014-2017 Zainab worked as a researcher with the Centre for Muslim States and Societies
in Perth, WA and New York University, USA. Between 2017-2023 Zainab worked at Performing
Lines WA in Perth and Belvoir St Theatre in Sydney as a Senior Producer spearheading
ambitious works of scale with artists across dance and theatre. Her work has focused on
facilitating intercultural collaborations, developing inclusive frameworks for creating new work
and pathways for culturally diverse artists; as well touring Australian works regionally, nationally
and internationally alongside advocacy work enabling systemic change within small to medium
and mainstage institutions in Australia.

Zainab has served on the board of the Blue Room Theatre board and Theatre Network Australia
board. She is also a founder of Pakistan Poetry Slam, co-founder of HME-WRK: a diverse arts
collective, a Humanitarian Observer with the Australian Red Cross Immigration Detention
Program and a 2020 Churchill Fellow.

SUE DONNELLY

One of Australia’s most prominent and experienced arts administrators, Sue Donnelly was the Executive Director of Belvoir from August 2017 to March 2022. Sue is no stranger to Belvoir, having worked here as General Manager from 2004 to 2006.

Since 2012, Sue has led Queensland Theatre ensuring its position as one of the best in the country. Prior to Queensland Theatre, Sue was Executive Director of the national lobbying and advocacy organisation Australian Major Performing Arts Group (AMPAG).

With more than 20 years of experience in arts and cultural development, health and social policy, Sue has held a diverse range of senior executive positions including Director of UNSW Foundation; Director of South East Arts (UK); Public Affairs Manager for Sydney Symphony; and Director of Arts Development, Arts NSW.

She has consulted and lectured in arts business development and management, and served on wide-ranging Government advisory boards, funding committees and tribunals, as well as the boards of numerous arts and not-for profit companies.

Sue holds a Master of Social Work with Merit and a Bachelor of Social Studies from the University of Sydney and is an alumnus of the Asialink Leaders’ program.

She has been a peer assessor for the Australia Council, Arts NSW and Arts Queensland, and is currently a member of Live Performance Australia’s Executive Council, and sits on the boards of Chunky Move and PAC Australia (formerly APACA).

Barry Searle

Georgiane Deal

Ayah Tayeh

Born on Wurundjeri land and currently working on Gadigal land, Ayah is a stage manager with a passion for new work and diverse storytelling. Her Belvoir credits include: The Boomkak Panto (2021), A Room of One’s Own (2021) and My Brilliant Career (2020). Other credits include: 7 Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner (Darlinghurst Theatre Company), Breaking Glass (Sydney Chamber Opera), and Double Delicious (Contemporary Asian Australian Performance with Sydney Festival).

Clive Meldrum

Gayda de Mesa

Gayda de Mesa graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) with a

Bachelor of Dramatic Art (Production). She has spent her career in technical production working in theatre and live events.

She is currently the Senior Venue Technician for Belvoir St. Theatre. Her recent productions as Sound Engineer include She Loves Me (Hayes Theatre Co), Cry-Baby (LPD Productions), Gypsy (Luckiest Productions), Melba (Hayes Theatre Co), Cabaret (David M. Hawkins Productions), Big Fish (Hayes Theatre Co/RPG Productions) and Rent (Highway Run Productions).

Her Stage Management credits also include Once (Darlinghurst Theatre Company), Monty Python’s Spamalot (One Eyed man Productions/Hayes Theatre Company), Cry-Baby (LPD Productions), The Sound of Waiting (Darlinghurst Theatre Company), An Act of God (Darlinghurst Theatre Company), Sunset Strip (Griffin Theatre Company), The Guru of Chai (Indian Ink/Belvoir St Theatre), the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and the Lord Mayor’s Picnic for Sydney New Year’s Eve.

Clare Hibberd