ORLANDO

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf was born into a privileged family in 1882, grew up surrounded by books and literary conversation, and is now acknowledged as one of the key writers of the modernist movement. Her works Mrs Dalloway, The Waves and To the Lighthouse redefined the novel, but she was as versatile as she was prolific, producing biographies, diaries, essays and volumes of letters. In style and ideas, her work captures a rapidly-changing era, with gender, sexuality and class interrogated at the same time as language and form. Her ‘stream of consciousness’ technique opened a window into her themes – the city, the elasticity of time, the shifting sense of self, the marginal and overlooked in daily life – and has had a profound impact over the last century. A key personality in what came to be known as The Bloomsbury Group, her role as a radical re-thinker brought her status and admiration. However, she suffered from poor mental health for much of her life, and died by suicide in 1941 by placing a large stone in her pocket and wading into a river.

Carissa Licciardello

Carissa Licciardello is a director based on Gadigal Land. She was Resident Director at Belvoir St Theatre from 2022 to 2024, following her position as Associate Artist in 2021 and the company’s inaugural Andrew Cameron Fellow in 2018 and 2019. 

Recent work as Director includes – for Belvoir, Scenes from the Climate Era (2023), as Director/Adaptor, Opening Night (2022) and A Room of One’s Own (2020/2021); as Associate Director, Fangirls (2019/2021),Counting & Cracking (2019); as Production Dramaturg, Nayika: A Dancing Girl (2024), Miss Peony (2023). Other work as Director includes – for Malthouse, Anna K (2022); for National Institute of Dramatic Arts, Machinal (2022).

 Carissa is a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Arts’ Directing course, and was a recipient of NIDA’s Glorias Fellowship in 2020.

Elsie Yager

Elsie Yager is a director and writer working between London and Australia.

Orlando is Elsie’s Belvoir debut. Recent work as Director/Adaptor includes IPHIGENIA; or the sacrifices of a young woman in nine movements (2023) and Colonus (2022).

Elsie was a JMK Award finalist in 2022, and winner of the Projekt Europa Elevate award. Elsie is a graduate of University of London’s MA Theatre Directing course where she studied under Katie Mitchell and received the inaugural Alison Hodge Prize for Excellence in Theatre Directing. She has a background in devised physical theatre and arts and disability facilitation. She is also a graduate of Actors Centre Australia.

Janet Anderson

Janet Anderson graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in 2022, having previously studying at Newtown High School of Performing Arts. Her theatre credits include: Orlando (Belvoir), Sistren (Old Fitz Theatre), All the Fraudulent Horse Girls (Old Fitz Theatre), Collapsible (Red Line Productions), Overflow (Darlinghurst Theatre), Mercury Fur (Kings Cross Theatre).

TV: Plum, Last King of the Cross (Season 1 & 2), Reef break.

Awards: Sydney Theatre Awards (Nomination): Best Performance in a supporting role in an independent production: All the Fraudulent Horse Girls, Time Out Sydney Arts & Culture Awards Critics’ Choice and Peoples Choice Award for Best Performance in a Play: Overflow, Sydney Theatre Awards (Nomination):  for Best Performance in a Leading Role in an Independent Production: Collapsible, Greenroom Awards 2025 (Nomination): for Outstanding Performance for Overflow.

Janet is also a changemaker and vocal advocate for transgender rights, she has written op-eds for Vogue and been interviewed for the ABC.

Nyx Calder

Originally hailing from Melbourne, Nyx (they/them) is a non-binary artist driven by a love for language and live performance, and has recently returned to Sydney after completing an almost four year tenure as a principal actor in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Australia.

A graduate of NIDA (2018), Nyx is also known for their performances in Sugary Rum’s Jess & Joe Forever and STC’s Lord of the Flies in 2019, and is eager to return to their roots in exploring gender diverse stories and characters.

Emily Havea

Emily Havea is a Tongan Australian actor, singer, dancer, and drag performer who graduated NIDA in 2014.

Orlando marks her debut at Belvoir.

Theatre credits include Truth (Malthouse), Curly McLain in Oklahoma! (Black Swan State Theatre Company), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Hayes), Wherever She Wanders (Griffin Theatre Company), Fun Home (Sydney Theatre Company & Melbourne Theatre Company), Caroline, or Change (Hayes Theatre), Grounded (Riverside), Julius Caesar (Bell Shakespeare), Kill Climate Deniers (Griffin), and Brown Skin Girl, which she co-wrote and performed in (Griffin & Old Fitz Theatre).

Film work includes The Fall Guy (Universal Pictures), A Perfect Pairing (Netflix), Upgrade, and the web series Resting Pitch Face.

Television credits include Erotic Stories, The Deluge (SBS, AACTA Nomination), Mother and Son (ABC), Home and Away (Seven Network), Latecomers (SBS), Darby & Joan (Acorn TV), The Secrets She Keeps (Network 10), Harrow (ABC), Wentworth Seasons 6 & 7 (Foxtel/Showcase), Sisters (Network 10), and Growing Up Gracefully (ABC).

In 2020, Emily created her drag king alter ego, Texas Gold. As Texas, they have regularly performed alongside industry icon and RuPaul’s Drag Race All Star Kween Kong, including appearances at Adelaide Fringe and the Hordern Pavilion. In 2022, Texas choreographed and performed in STAN’s RuPaul’s Drag Race float for the Mardi Gras Parade.

Amber McMahon

Amber trained at Flinders University Drama Centre, the Stella Adler Company and SITI Company in New York. Best known for her work in theatre, Amber boasts an extensive list of credits.

Belvoir credits include; The Master and Margarita, Stop Girl, Dance Nation, Bliss, Atlantis, Twelfth Night, Angels in America, and The Power of Yes. Other selected theatre credits include; Top Coat, Rules for Living, Banging Denmark, Accidental Death of an Anarchist and The Popular Mechanicals for Sydney Theatre Company; Girl Asleep and School Dance for Windmill; A Broadcast Coup, Photograph 51, Tribes and The Appleton Ladies Potato Race for Ensemble, Small Mouth Sounds for Darlinghurst; North by Northwest for Kay & McLean Productions and Optimism and Picnic at Hanging Rock for Malthouse, which included two seasons at Royal Lyceum Edinburgh and Barbican London.

Amber was also a member of the Sydney Theatre Company Actors Ensemble, appearing in War of the Roses, The Season at Sarsaparilla, The Lost Echo, Gallipoli, and The Art of War.

Amber’s screen credits include the feature film Girl Asleep and the series Erotic Stories and The Hunting for SBS.

She has received two Helpmann Awards for Best Female in a Supporting Role one for Girl Asleep for Belvoir/Windmill and School Dance one for Windmill.

Nic Prior

Belvoir St Theatre: Tiny Beautiful Things Other credits: Queensland Theatre: Tiny Beautiful Things; Dead Puppet Society: Holding Achilles; Gob Squad: Creation (Pictures for Dorian); CalArts: Oedipus, Antigone, Hamlet, Our Iliad,  And Tell Sad Stories of the Death of Queens; Fleshmarket Co: Well That’s Oz, You Are Frogs. Television:  In Our Blood. Training: Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting), California Institute of the Arts. 

Shannen Alyce Quan

Shannen Alyce Quan (they/she) graduated from WAAPA in 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts (Music Theatre). 

Shannen is excited to return to Belvoir this year, after previously performing in Holding The Man (2024) Fangirls (2021). Other theatre credits include The Dictionary of Lost Words (STC and STC), The Dismissal (Squabbalogic), Flat Earthers (Griffin Theatre Company and Hayes Theatre Company), Metropolis (Hayes Theatre Company), Little Women, City of Angels (Joshua Robson Productions), Six The Musical (Sydney Opera House), Spring Awakening (CPCA) and Priscilla Queen of the Desert – The Musical (Michael Cassel Group), The Gathering (Vic Theatre Company), Post: A New Musical (Something Blue Productions), Boat People and Tejas Verdes (Theatre 451) and Romeo and Juliet (Australian Shakespeare Company).

Shannen appeared recently in the highly anticipated 6-part limited Netflix series Apple Cider Vinegar, based on the true story of Belle Gibson.

Shannen won two Performing Arts WA Awards: Best Actor and Best Newcomer in Next to Normal (Black Swan State Theatre Company). They were also nominated for Best Performance in a Leading Role at the 2024 Sydney Theatre Awards for their portrayal of Jo March in Little Women. Prior to this, Shannen also received a nomination for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical at the 2023 Sydney Theatre Awards for their performance in Metropolis.

Zarif

Zarif is an Egyptian/Sudanese performer based in Sydney.

Zarif has worked on productions with various theatre companies across the East Coast, with Orlando being their first main stage production with Belvoir. Zarif previously worked with Belvoir in the creative development of Fangirls.

Their theatre credits include: Flat Earthers: The Musical (Hayes Theatre Co & Griffin Theatre Co), Choir Boy (National Theatre of Parramatta), Burn Witch Burn (Old Fitz Theatre), Two Weeks with the Queen (Queensland Theatre Company), and The Zap (Darlinghurst Theatre Company).

Zarif has starred in the feature films Carnage for Christmas (Dir: Alice Mackay), Satranic Panic (Dir: Alice Mackay), Lonesome (Dir: Craig Boreham), and Bloody Hell (Dir: Alister Grierson).

Their television credits include Wellmania (Netflix) and The Other Guy S2 (STAN).

Zarif has also appeared in various short films, including Cut (Dir: Samuel Lucas Allen), In The Witching Hour (Dir: Alister Griersen), Right Here (Dir: Claudia Bailey), Brace (Dir: Nicholas Burton), This Must Be The Place (Dir: Rebecca Sawyer), and Killer in the Woods (Dir: Jack Voegt). They also starred in the web series Touch and The Formal for Slag Productions.

Zarif was nominated at the 2023 Septimius Awards for ‘Best Oceanian Actor’ for their role in the feature film, Lonesome. The film went on to win the Septimius Awards ‘Best Oceanian Film’ that year.

David Fleischer

David is a designer working across Australia with leading theatre, dance and opera companies. Previous designs for Belvoir include: Fangirls, A Room of One’s Own, Opening Night and Hedda Gabler. Other theatre credits include: RBG; Of Many One Into the Shimmering World, Oil, The Seagull, Death of A Salesman, Blithe Spirit, The Deep Blue Sea, Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, The Harp in the South, Saint Joan, Top Girls, Chimerica, Speed The Plow, The Golden Age, Children of The Sun, Travelling North, Romeo and Juliet, Australian Graffiti, Machinal among others for Sydney Theatre Company; Love and Information, Calpurnia Descending for Malthouse Theatre; Myth for Melbourne Theatre Company (NEON); The Brothers Size, Between Two Waves, The Sea Project for Griffin Theatre; Scenes from a Marriage and Hedda for Queensland Theatre; Boundary St (as associate designer) for Black Swan and Brisbane Festival; Der Gelbe Stern at the New York Musical Theatre Festival; and Kiss of The Spiderwoman and No Way to Treat a Lady for Darlinghurst Theatre. Other career highlights include Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev) for Ballet Zürich, My Brilliant Career for Queensland Ballet, Gilgamesh and The Rape of Lucretia for Sydney Chamber Opera; Impermanence, Ab [Intra] and Orb for Sydney Dance Company as well as Griselda and L’amant Jaloux for Pinchgut Opera. David was the co-resident designer at Sydney Theatre Company from 2012 – 2013. 

Nick Schlieper

Nick Schlieper has designed for all of the major performing arts companies in Australia and works regularly internationally.

Recent productions for Belvoir include Master and Margarita, Opening Night, Packer & Sons, Ghosts and set and lighting for Scenes From The Climate Era and Once In Royal David’s City.

His many productions for STC include Dracula, The Tempest, Jekyll & Hyde and The War of the Roses as well as set and lighting designs for Happy Days, Endgame, Face To Face and Baal.

For MTC, his work includes As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Richard III, Hamlet and The Tempest as well as set and lighting for North By Northwest (with Simon Phillips) and Photograph 51.

Nick’s international work includes productions for The Salzburg Festival, Hamburg and Bavarian State Operas, Royal Shakespeare Company, and The London Barbican as well as productions in Vienna, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Oslo. Hedda Gabler, Streetcar Named Desire, Uncle Vanya and The Maids, also played in New York. His lighting designs for Dorian Gray, The Present and Priscilla, have been seen on Broadway and Gross und Klein also travelled to Paris, London and Vienna.

He has lit many productions for Opera Australia and was lighting and associate set designer for the first Australian production of The Ring Cycle in Adelaide.

Nick Schlieper has received seven Sydney Theatre Awards (two for set design and 5 for lighting design), six Melbourne Green Room Awards, and 5 Helpmann Awards. He recently received a Tony Award nomination for Dorian Gray on Broadway.

Ella Butler

Ella is a Sydney-based Production and Costume Designer for theatre, film and live performance. Informed by her beginnings in theatre, Ella’s work has evolved through contrived spaces, searching for the extraordinary found in the everyday.

Ella’s work as Costume Designer at Belvoir includes August: Osage County, Tell Me I’m Here, The Weekend and Scenes From the Climate Era. Her costumes examine character with an urban melancholy. Currently, her work can be seen in the national tour of RENT; The Musical, directed by Shaun Rennie coming to Opera Australia in 2025.

Productions where Ella has worked as both Set and Costume Designer include The Comeuppance (Red Stitch), Dubbo Championship Wrestling (The Hayes), LOVE (Darlinghurst Theatre Company), First Love Is The Revolution and Wherever She Wanders (Griffin Theatre Company).


In film, Ella worked as the Costume and Production Designer for CATSinAM, The Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Nurses and Midwives, for In Our Own Right; recounting Black Australian Nurses’ and Midwives Stories.

In commercial as Production Designer, her clients include Google, Woolworths, Officeworks and James Squire.

Ella is a graduate from the National Institute of Dramatic Art with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Design for Performance).

Hailley Hunt

Hailley is an emerging Set and Costume Designer, whose credits include: Set and Costume Designer for Forgetting Tim Minchin (2023) (Nominated for APDG Emerging Designer Award), Aurat Raj (2024) and Feminazi (2023), and Set Designer for Shitty (2024), for Belvoir’s 25A program.

Outside of Belvoir, she has Set and Costume Designed for Amber (2025), Sitting, Screaming (2024), Anomalies (2024), The Changelings (2024), Scab (2024) and How to Win a Plebiscite (and Tennis) (2022).

She has also Set Designed for Catch Me if You Can (2025) at Newington College, Picnic at Hanging Rock (2022) at NIDA, and Associate Set Designed for The Hello Girls (2024). 

Jessica Dunn

Jessica is a composer, sound designer, and performing musician. Recent theatre credits include: as sound designer for On The Beach (STC); as composer for Beetle, The Lovers (Legs on the Wall); as composer and sound designer for CAMP (Siren Theatre Co.), Chalkface (Sydney Theatre Company/State Theatre SA), Is There Something Wrong With That Lady?, Photograph 51 (Ensemble Theatre) Blaque Showgirls, A is for Apple (Griffin), Trestle (Legs on the Wall), and The Mares (Tasmanian Theatre Company); as sound programmer for Julius Caesar, The Tempest (Sydney Theatre Company); as associate sound designer for Wonnangatta (Sydney Theatre Company), Random (Belvoir) and Counting and Cracking (Belvoir); as Composer’s Assistant for Harp in the South Parts I & II (Sydney Theatre Company); as Performing Musical Director for the 2017 and 2019 seasons of Barbara and the Camp Dogs (Belvoir); as bassist for SIX The Musical (LWA). Jessica is Artistic Director of Sirens Big Band, who was awarded the 2020 APRA Arts Music Award for Best Performance for their work on Bridge of Dreams.

Shannon Burns

Shannon Burns is a leading Australian creative, specialising in choreography and movement direction across theatre, opera, film, and major events.

Her recent theatre credits include Dear Evan Hansen (2024/2025), a co-production between Sydney Theatre Company and The Michael Cassel Group, and The Producers (2025) for Joshua Robson Productions. A frequent collaborator with Hayes Theatre Co, Shannon has contributed to acclaimed productions such as A Little Night Music (2023), Ride the Cyclone (2024), and Murder for Two (2023). She has also created work for Redline Productions, Sydney Festival, CDP Theatre Producers, and Sport for Jove.

In opera, Shannon has choreographed major outdoor productions for Opera Australia, including La Traviata on Sydney Harbour (2021) and Carmen on Cockatoo Island (2022). She also choreographed the company’s brand new production of Carmen (2025) which opened at Sydney
Opera House and will later tour to Melbourne. Internationally, she choreographed Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire (2024) for the Berlin Philharmonic. Her collaborations with Victorian Opera include multiple productions, most recently Abduction (2025). Shannon has worked extensively with Pinchgut Opera in various capacities including choreography, movement direction, direction, and assistant direction. Her additional credits include work for the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra and Musica Viva.

A former professional dancer, Shannon trained at the Queensland Dance School of Excellence and ED5INTERNATIONAL.

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 Counting and Cracking directed by Eamon Flack (2024), Never Closer directed by Hannah Goodwin (2024), Lose to Win directed by Jess Arthur (2024), Holding the Man directed by Eamon Flack (2024), At What Cost? directed by Isaac Drandic, Miss Peony directed by Courtney Stewart (2023), The Master & Margarita, Into The Woods, directed by Eamon Flack (2023), Blue, directed by Deborah Brown (2023), The 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).  

Brooke Lee

Supported by Australian Plays Transform’s Developing the Dramaturg program with Create NSW.

Luke McGettigan

Luke is Belvoir’s Resident Stage Manager. For Belvoir, he has stage managed The Spare Room, Song of First Desire, August Osage County, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Never Closer, Holding the Man, Master and Margarita, The Weekend, Scenes from the Climate Era, Blessed Union, The Jungle and the Sea, Tell Me I’m Here, Opening Night, The Boomkak Panto, Stop Girl, My Brilliant Career, A Room of One’s Own, Packer & Sons, Things I Know To, Be True, Counting and Cracking, The Dance of Death, A Taste of Honey, Sami in Paradise, Barbara and the Camp Dogs, Ghosts, The Rover, Mark Colvin’s Kidney, Faith Healer, Twelfth Night or What You Will, The Great Fire, Mortido, Seventeen, Elektra/Orestes, Radiance, The Glass Menagerie, Brothers Wreck, Once in Royal David’s City, Miss Julie, Forget Me Not, Peter Pan (including New York tour), Private Lives, Death of a Salesman, Babyteeth, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Neighbourhood Watch, The Wild Duck (including UK and Europe tours), Namatjira (Belvoir/Big hART), Page 8, The End, That Face, The Promise, Scorched, Antigone, Keating!, The Little Cherry Orchard and The Caucasian Chalk Circle. His other credits include The Pig Iron People, The Give and Take, Bed, La Dispute (Sydney Theatre Company); Like a Fishbone (STC / Griffin); The Government Inspector, The Tempest, The Servant of Two Masters, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew (Bell Shakespeare); Paradise City, Through the Wire (Performing Lines); and Alive at Williamstown Pier (Griffin).

Estelle Gomersall