Dear Son

Thomas Mayo

Isaac Drandic

Isaac is a Noongar man from the southwest of Western Australia. He is a highly sought-after dramaturg, actor, playwright, and director who specialises in new work by First Nations playwrights.

He has directed for some of Australia’s leading theatre and opera companies including Belvoir Street, Queensland Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company, LaBoite, ILBIJERRI and the Victorian Opera. His shows have been seen at every major arts festival in Australia and toured internationally.

For Belvoir Isaac’s theatre credits include: At What Cost?, Coranderrk, (ILBJERRI Theatre Company/Belvoir St Theatre). Isaac’s other credits include As Director: The Visitors (Victoria Opera); From Campfire to Stage Light (JUTE Theatre); Hide the Dog, The Season (Performing Lines); From Darkness, Bigger and Blacker (La Boite Theatre); Blood on the Dance Floor (ILBIJERRI Theatre Company/Arts House); Into the Bloodstream (Archie Roach Foundation).

Positions: Head of First Nations Theatre (Current Position), Associate Artistic Director, Resident Dramaturg, Associate Artist, Queensland Theatre; Associate Director, ILBIJERRI Theatre Company; Resident Artist, Playwrighting Australia. Isaac is a Noongar man.

Awards: 2025 Matilda Awards – Best Direction and Best Mainstage Production 37; 2018 Green Room Awards – Best Direction and Best Mainstage Production The Season.

John Harvey

John’s credits include: As Writer: Dear Son (Queensland Theatre) Malthouse Theatre: The Return, Heart is a Wasteland (with Ilbijerri Theatre – National Tour); As Co-Writer: Ilbijerri Theatre: Black Ties; As Director: Orana Arts: A Little Piece of Heaven (with Yirramboi Arts Festival). Film: As Director & Writer: Still We Rise; Water (ABC); Out of Range (SBS). As Director, Co-Writer & Producer: Off Country; As Director & Co-Writer: Katele (Mudskipper); As Producer: Spear (Toronto International Film Festival); Sand (The Turning) (Berlinale); The Warriors (ABC).

Commissions: Australian Centre for Moving Image (ACMI): Canopy (multi-channel installation; adapted into a large-scale mural – Melbourne Metro); As Video Component Producer: Ricardo Idagi: Upi Mop Le.

Positions: Creative Director, Brown Cabs; Writers Residencies: Malthouse Theatre and Footscray Arts; 2024 Inaugural First Nations Writers Residency, New York City and Boston; Board Member, Bangarra Dance Theatre.

Awards: Victorian Premier’s Literary Award The Return; AIDC & ADG Best Documentary Awards Still We Rise; ADG Best Documentary Award Off Country (As Co-Director); FlickerFest & Melbourne International Film Festival – Best Australian Short Awards Katele (Mudskipper) (As Co-Writer); 2023 Sidney Myer Creative Fellow recipient.

Jimi Bani

Belvoir St Theatre: Title And Deed, Peter Pan, The Sapphires, Yibiyung; Other credits:Queensland Theatre: Othello, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Our Town, Hedda, My Name Is Jimi;  Grin & Tonic Theatre Troupe: The Boy Who Found His Way Home (with Torres Strait Regional Authority, Gab Titui Cultural Centre, Bani Consultancy); Barbican Centre (London): Shadow King; Sydney Theatre Company: Storm Boy, Romeo and Juliet; Malthouse Theatre: Shadow King, The Dragon; JUTE Theatre/Lone Star Productions: Half & Half; Black Swan State Theatre Company: The Sapphires (Korea tour), Jandamarra; Deckchair Theatre: Krakouer!; Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA): UnAustralia, Love & Human Remains, The Country Remains, The Winter’s Tale, Stories From The Suburban Road, Three Sisters, Dream Pay.

Film: A Thin Black Line.
Television: Black Comedy, Blue Water Empire, Ready for This, The People Speak, Redfern Now, Mabo, The Straits, R.A.N (Remote Area Nurse).

Awards: Equity Ensemble Awards – Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Television or Miniseries Mabo; BOFA Awards – Best Actor Mabo, The Straits; Deadly Awards – Male Actor of the Year Mabo, The Straits.

Training: WAAPA.

Waangenga Blanco

Queensland Theatre: Dear Brother, 37 (with Melbourne Theatre Company). Other Credits: As Choreographer and Dancer: Griffin Theatre Company: Sand. Eryka Badu: Merasa. Australian Indigenous Mentoring: Big Story. Gravity and other Myths: The Pulse. Splendour in the Grass: Blak Rainbow. Bangarra Dance Theatre: I.B.I.S (2015 National Tour). As Dancer: Asia Topa: Bunyi Bunyi Bumi. Sarah Black: Value for Money. Sydney Festival: Pigalle. Bangarra Dance Theatre: 14 years as a dancer with Bangarra with particular mention of Patyegarang, Spear, Waramuk (with Australian Ballet), Rites of Spring (with Australian Ballet), Blak. 

Film: Ten Pound Poms, Seriously Red, Bran Nue Dae, The Turning, Mudskipper, Spear, Firestarter, Life of a Songman. 

Awards: Australian Dance Awards — Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer; Green Room Award — Outstanding Male Dancer Patyegarang; Helpmann Award — Best Male Dancer. Waangenga is a proud Indigenous man who descends from the Pajinka Wik in Cape York and Meriam Mer, the furthest eastern island in the Torres Strait.

Luke Carroll

A descendant of the Wiradjuri and Ngunnawal peoples, Luke Carroll is a seasoned theatre, film and television performer. Previous shows for Belvoir include: At What Cost, The Cake Man, Capricornia, Conversations with the Dead and A Midsummer Night’s Dream . Previous credits include: Mother Courage and All Her Children; Black Diggers (QTC); Sunshine Super Girl (Performing Lines), Black Cockatoo (Ensemble Theatre); Black is the New White, The Harp in the South, The Hanging, The Battle of Waterloo and Cherry Pickers (STC), The Season (Performing Tasmania and Melbourne Festival), Wind in the Willows (La Boite); Riverland (Adelaide Festival), Eora Crossing (Sydney Festival), Purple Dreams and My Girragundji for Bell Shakespeare.

Other credits include Strangerland, Needle, Stone Bros, Subdivision, The Tender Hook and Children of the Revolution. 
Television includes Goolagong, Mystery Road: Origin, Maverix, Total Control, Preppers and Playschool (ABC) Upright (Foxtel), Scrublands – Silver (STAN) The Artful Dodger (Disney+). 

Carroll is currently nominated for a 2026 AACTA Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama for Mystery Road: Origin.

Kirk Page

Belvoir St Theatre: Conversations with the Dead, The Dreamers; Other Credits: As Actor: Queensland Theatre: Black Diggers (with Sydney Festival).Brisbane Festival: Love Stories;Bangarra: Wudjang: Not The Past;Performing Lines: Sunshine Super Girl; Sydney Theatre Company: The Harp in the South, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Sunshine Club;  Griffin Theatre Company: Silent Disco; Bell Shakespeare: My Girranjundji; Merrigong Theatre Company: Death in Bowengabbie; Malthouse Theatre: One Night the Moon; Black Swan State Theatre Company: Corrugation Road; Ilbijerri Theatre Company: Coranderrk; Melbourne International Arts Festival: My Lovers’ Bones; Back Row Productions: Priscilla Queen of the Desert The Musical;CDP Theatre: Snugglepot & Cuddlepie; HotHouse Theatre: Australia the Show!; KooembaJdarra Indigenous Performing Arts: Binny’s Backyard, Going to the Island; Legs on the Wall: 4 on the Floor, Runners Up, EORA Crossing and On the Case.

As Choreographer: Griffin Theatre Company: Swim.

As Director: NORPA: My Cousin Frank. Television: Redfern Now, Mystery Road.

 Training: National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA).

 Awards: Logie Nomination – Most Outstanding Actor Redfern Now. 

Tibian Wyles

Queensland Theatre: As Co-Writer and Actor: Dear Brother, As Actor: 37 (with Melbourne Theatre Company), Country Song, Black Diggers. Other Credits: As Actor: ILBIJERRI Theatre Company: Big Name No Blankets; HIT Productions: The Sunshine Club, The Sapphires; Performing Lines: Hide The Dog; Blak Social: Queens City. Training: Advanced Diploma, The Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts. Positions: Member, DJUKI MALA. Tibian is a proud Warrgamay, Girramay and Kalkadoon man from North Queensland.

Kevin O’Brien

Kevin’s credits include: Dear Brother, The Button Event (Queensland Theatre) La Boite Theatre: A Streetcar Named Desire, From Darkness, Bigger and Blacker; Moogahlin: The Weekend (with Sydney Festival); Urban Theatre Projects (Sydney): Blak Box (with Barangaroo, Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens); Metro Arts: Where We Meet.

Exhibition Design: Various exhibitions for Gallery of Modern Art, Institute of Modern Art, National Museum of Australia, National Gallery of Australia, Queensland Museum, Venice Art and Architecture Biennales.

Film: Set Design and Production: Katele (Mudskipper).

Positions: Adjunct Professor, Architecture, University of Sydney.

Awards: 2023 Flickerfest International Short Film Festival Winner – Best Australian Short Film Katele (Mudskipper) by John Harvey; 2024 Venice Arts Biennale – Golden Lion for Archie Moore’s Kith and Kin (Exhibition Design).

Delvene Cockatoo-Collins

Delvene’s theatre credits include: Queensland Theatre: Dear Brother; La Boite Theatre: Capricorn.

Other credits include: Collections for Cairns Indigenous Art Fair: Dilly Bag, Mat Making; Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair’s Indigenous Fashion Projects: Country to Couture.

Awards: Matilda Award – Best Costume Design Capricorn. Delvene is a Quandamooka artist based on Minjerribah, North Stradbroke Island.

David Walters

Credits: Queensland Theatre: Dear Brother, don’t ask what the bird look like, Bernhardt/Hamlet, Emerald City, Nearer The Gods, The Wider Earth, Motherland, Quartet, Ladies in Black, Brisbane, Boston Marriage, Gloria, Macbeth, Australia Day, Venus in Fur, End of the Rainbow, Romeo & Juliet, Pygmalion, Grimm Tales, The August Moon, Rabbit Hole, The Glass Menagerie, The Memory of Water, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Molly Sweeney, Chilling and Killing My Annabel Lee, The Skin of Our Teeth, Vertigo and the Virginia, Long Day’s Journey into Night, Amy’s View, Master Class, After the Ball, Summer Rain, Arcadia, The Hope of the World, Money and Friends, Gilgamesh, The Shaugraun, Broken Glass, Shadow and Splendour, The Marriage of Figaro, The Game of Love and Chance, On The Whippingside, The Crucible, Essington Lewis: I Am Work, Mrs Klein, The Cherry Orchard, Seven Little Australians, Season’s Greetings, The Merry Wives of Windsor, A Month In The Country, Top Silk, Moby Dick, The Taming Of The Shrew, Ghosts, Major Barbara, The Barrets of Wimpole Street, Snoopy, Chorus of Disapproval, Briefs, God’s Best Country, Hard Times, The Bloke, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Night And Day, The Recruiting Officer, A Month Of Sundays, A Spring Song, The Man from Mukinupin, A Different Drummer, Fuente Ovejuna, Salonika, The Venetian Twins.  Various credits for Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, State Theatre Company of South Australia, Bell Shakespeare Company, PlayLab, QUT, QPAC, Jute, Handspan, Playbox, La Boite Theatre, Rock‘n’Roll Circus, Nimrod, Company B, Dead Puppet Society, Expressions Dance Company, Queensland Ballet, Australian Ballet, Opera Queensland, Opera Australia, Topology, Camerata, Boxties, Zen Zen Zo, as well as Iceland’s National Theatre, National Opera, and Reykjavik City Theatre.

Positions: Adjunct Associate Professor in Drama, QUT.

Awards: Matilda Awards/Commendations in 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2008, 2012, and 2018; ABF Lifetime Achievement Award.

Craig Wilkinson

Craig Wilkinson is an award-winning live performance video designer and the creative director of optikal bloc. His video design work has toured extensively across Australia and internationally to Hong Kong, UK, North America, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

Video design credits include: GRIEF IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS (Belvoir St Theatre); DRACULA (Sydney Theatre Company); LOVE STORIES, BOY SWALLOWS UNIVERSE (Brisbane Festival, QPAC); ROUND THE TWIST, DEAR SON (with State Theatre Company of South Australia), FIRST CASUALTY, THE MOUNTAINTOP, GASP! (Queensland Theatre); ILLUME (Bangarra); CINDERELLA, THE LITTLE MERMAID, MY BRILLIANT CAREER (Queensland Ballet); FRANKENSTEIN, JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, ROALD DAHL’S FANTASTIC MR FOX, FOURTHCOMING, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, GREEN DAY’S AMERICAN IDIOT, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, 1984 (Shake & Stir Theatre Co); SHAUN THE SHEEP’S CIRCUS SHOW (Circa, QPAC); ANNIE, GREASE THE MUSICAL (Crossroads Live).

Awards: Australian Production Design Guild Award – Video Design for a Live Performance or Event for BOY SWALLOWS UNIVERSE, AVOIDABLE PERILS, and FIRST CASUALTY; Matilda Award – Video Design for BOY SWALLOWS UNIVERSE, ROALD DAHL’S FANTASTIC MR FOX and A CHRISTMAS CAROL; Matilda Award ─ Gold Matilda, Body of Work PALE BLUE DOT, THE MOUNTAINTOP, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, GASP!, 1984; Adelaide Fringe’s John Chataway Innovation Award TERROR AUSTRALIS.

Wil Hughes

Belvoir St Theatre: Blue. Other Credits: Queensland Theatre:Dear Brother, 37, Rice, The Scene Project; La Boite Theatre: Yoga Play (with National Theatre of Parramatta), Closer, IRL, Capricorn, Tiddas, Single Asian Female, The Dead Devils of Cockle Creek, The Village, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Wind in the Willows; Opera Queensland: Straight from the Strait; Queensland Performing Arts Centre: Is That You Ruthie; Playlab Theatre: Face to Face; Australasian Dance Collective: Lucie In The Sky, Arc, Still Life; Queensland Ballet: Cinderella, Mind Your Head, From Within, Sonder, B- Sides; That Production Company: Every Brilliant Thing, Kill Climate Deniers.

Film: Made It With My Hands (SBS); Still Life (ADC, Kiosk); Bird Drone (ScreenWest).

Awards: Recipient of Best Music accolades: Australian Screen Music Awards, California Independent Film Festival (USA), Festival du Film Marveilleux (France).

 Member: Australian Guild of Screen Composers; Australian Theatre Composers Guild.

Waangenga Blanco

Queensland Theatre: Dear Brother, 37 (with Melbourne Theatre Company). Other Credits: As Choreographer and Dancer: Griffin Theatre Company: Sand. Eryka Badu: Merasa. Australian Indigenous Mentoring: Big Story. Gravity and other Myths: The Pulse. Splendour in the Grass: Blak Rainbow. Bangarra Dance Theatre: I.B.I.S (2015 National Tour). As Dancer: Asia Topa: Bunyi Bunyi Bumi. Sarah Black: Value for Money. Sydney Festival: Pigalle. Bangarra Dance Theatre: 14 years as a dancer with Bangarra with particular mention of Patyegarang, Spear, Waramuk (with Australian Ballet), Rites of Spring (with Australian Ballet), Blak. 

Film: Ten Pound Poms, Seriously Red, Bran Nue Dae, The Turning, Mudskipper, Spear, Firestarter, Life of a Songman. 

Awards: Australian Dance Awards — Outstanding Performance by a Male Dancer; Green Room Award — Outstanding Male Dancer Patyegarang; Helpmann Award — Best Male Dancer. Waangenga is a proud Indigenous man who descends from the Pajinka Wik in Cape York and Meriam Mer, the furthest eastern island in the Torres Strait.

Eben Love

Queensland Theatre: Dear Son. Other Credits: Head of Lighting: JUTE: From Campfire to Stagelight (Tour); Production Manager: Brisbane Festival: Siva Mai Club. Positions: Venue Supervisor (Current), Assorted roles across lighting, programming and operating, Bulmba-ja; Lighting Design & Production Manager, Tropical Arts. Traineeship: Cairns Centre of Contemporary Arts (now Bulmba-ja). Eben is a proud Ngarrindjeri man born.

Patrick Mau

Queensland Theatre: Dear Son. Other Credits: As Music Composer: Cairns Regional Council: Kids Rock The Show; As Producer and Actor: Patrick Mau: The Show Will Go On. Film: Elements (SBS/NITV). Television: Islands of Australia (Seven Network). Positions: Managing Director, Music Producer, Owner; One Blood Hidden Image Entertainment Group. Discography: Blue Lotus; The Awakening (2016), The Show Will Go On (2014), Shut Tha Gate (2008), My blood my people (2005). Awards: 2020 QMusic Award – Best Song of the Year – Indigenous Arrived; 2020 National Indigenous Music Awards nominations – Best Artist of the Year, Best Album of the Year Blue Lotus; The Awakening. Mau is a proud Torres Strait Islander Dhoeybaw man of the Guda Maluilgal nations.

Tibian Wyles

Queensland Theatre: As Co-Writer and Actor: Dear Brother, As Actor: 37 (with Melbourne Theatre Company), Country Song, Black Diggers. Other Credits: As Actor: ILBIJERRI Theatre Company: Big Name No Blankets; HIT Productions: The Sunshine Club, The Sapphires; Performing Lines: Hide The Dog; Blak Social: Queens City. Training: Advanced Diploma, The Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts. Positions: Member, DJUKI MALA. Tibian is a proud Warrgamay, Girramay and Kalkadoon man from North Queensland.

Liam Maza

Queensland Theatre: Dear Son. Television: As Set Designer and Constructor: Tanks Arts Centre: Birmba. Positions: Script Assessor, Queensland Premier’s Drama Award (two occasions). Experience: Remote and Regional Northern Territory and Queensland: Building, community development, social and legal services. Dear Son represents a significant learning opportunity for Liam by working alongside industry leaders.

Susie Henderson

Living on Gadigal and Bidjigal Country, Susie (she/her) is a Video Designer working across live performance. Collaboration is at the forefront of Susie’s practice, and she is happiest when she is making good work with good people. Susie’s recent credits include: as Video Designer: for Belvoir Street Theatre: The Weekend, for Sydney Theatre Company: Julia, Lifespan of a Fact, for Griffin Theatre Company: Wherever She Wanders; for Legs On The Wall: Beetle; for Critical Stages, Black Sun Blood Moon; as Video Editor: for Michael Cassel Group/Sydney Theatre Company: The Picture of Dorian Gray (London, 2024), for Sydney Theatre Company: Dracula, The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde, for as Video Systems & Content Designer: for Belvoir Street Theatre: Stop Girl; and for Sydney Theatre Company: The Wharf Revue 2020: Good Night & Good Luck; as Lighting Realiser; for Contemporary Asian Australian Performance; The Bridal Lament. In 2024 Susie won the APDG award for Video Design for Live Performance or an Event for her work on Julia.

Marcus Oborn

Credits: As Vocal Coach: Queensland Theatre: Dear Brother; La Boite Theatre: Macbeth, Assembly+; Ad Astra: Proof, Speaking In Tongues; Pip Theatre: Banging Denmark, Accidental Death of an Anarchist; University of Southern Queensland: Whitlam, Beached, The Mercy Seat, The Crucible, Macbeth, The Wolves, Sex with Robots and Other Devices, Lieutenant of Inishmore, Oedipus, Constellations, A Dream Play, Love and Information, Fire; As Actor: Brisbane Fringe: All My Friends Are Returning To Brisbane;The Hive and Metro Arts: Elektra/Orestes; Big Scary Animal: Savage In Limbo; Room to Play and Playlab Theatre: The Hanging;Opera Queensland and Queensland Music Festival: The Merry Widow; The Empire Theatre: Breaker Morant. As Director: The Empire Theatre: MOTH; University of Southern Queensland: Buckets, The Crucible, The Mercy Seat, Oedipus; Australian Performing Arts Conservatory (APAC): Medea, Sound & Fury, Oedipus. 

Television: As Actor: Nautilus, Young Rock 2. 

Training: Patsy Rodenburg Associate, Patsy Rodenburg Associates Ltd.; Bachelor of Creative Arts (Theatre), University of Southern Queensland; Doctor of Philosophy Candidate, University of Southern Queensland. 

Positions: Lecturer, University of Southern Queensland School of Creative Arts (2017-present) and School of Law & Justice (2023-present); Lecturer, Australian Performing Arts Conservatory (2023-present); Coordinator, BrisVO (2024-present). 

Awards: Alan Edwards Memorial Scholarship, University of Southern Queensland.

Sam Illingworth

Sam is a Sydney-based Stage Manager and a 2012 graduate of WAAPA’s Stage Management course.  

His credits across Stage Management include, for Belvoir St Theatre: Grief is the Thing with Feathers; for Crossroads Live: Wicked the Musical (Australian national tour and Singapore season); for Global Creatures: Moulin Rouge! The Musical and Muriel’s Wedding The Musical; for Opera Australia: La Traviata – Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour; for Gordon Frost Organisation: Pippin the Musical and Shrek the Musical; for Michael Cassel Group: Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – The Musical and Les Miserables; for Jones Theatrical Group: The Book of Mormon; for West Australian Ballet: Peter Pan; for the Royal Shakespeare Company/Louise Withers and Associates: Matilda the Musical; for Adam Liberman/Strange Duck Productions: Freud’s Last Session; for Hayes Theatre Co: Miracle City; for Black Swan State Theatre Company: The Seagull; and for Louise Withers and Associates: Agatha Christie’s A Murder is Announced and Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap. 

Thomas Hamilton

Thomas Hamilton (he/him) is an emerging Stage Manager who recently graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Technical Theatre and Stage Management. Thomas aims to push the limits of what theatre is and put collaboration at the forefront of his work.

Thomas’ most recent work includes being the Stage Manager for Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn (A Well Done Creative Production, 2025), Production Stage Manager for Peter Pan (NIDA, 2025), Assistant Stage Manager for JPG Fashion Freak Fashion: Japan Tour (RGM Productions, 2025), Stage Manager for IRL (KXT, 2025), Assistant Stage Manager for Hot Tub (25A Belvoir, 2024), Stage Manager for Heaven (Brand X, 2024), Technical Operator for Paper Stars (ATYP, 2024), Stage Manager Cover for All Boys (KXT, 2024), and Deputy Stage Manager for The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (NIDA, 2024). He is excited about the future and ready to dive into various creative productions.