Event Type: Salamanca Arts Curated

Genevieve Butler | Director

Director- Genevieve Butler is a bilingual performance artist who uses Bouffon, Drag, Circus, and physical comedy to examine the significance of social masks within theatrical frameworks.  Her artistic practice focuses on how audiences connect/relate universally to colloquial stories.

She is an actor, writer, director, circus performer, mask maker, video editor and teacher of circus fundamentals, mask play and devising. She has toured numerous Fringe and Arts Festivals around Australia, and worked with theatre companies across Australia, Italy and Belgium. She has been a working artist for over 10years   

Genevieve has a diploma in Commedia dell’Arte (FAVA, Italy) and Movement Analysis and Theatre Creation (Lassad, Belgium)— and a bachelors in Theatre (QUT).

Fithawit Hadgu | Actor

Fithawit recently migrated to Australia from Eretria. Since arriving Fithawit has been involved with Students Against Racism (SAR). Through SAR Fithawit has shared her personal story about how she came to Tasmania in schools and workplaces, revealing the realities of what refugees and new arrivals face when they come to this country. Last year Fithawit made her mainstage debut at the Peacock Theatre performing in The Story Behind My Suitcase. Fithawit received a scholarship from Salamanca Arts Centre to attend The Process drama workshops with Ben Winspear, Davina Wright and Lucien Simon.

Takani Clark | Actor

Emerging filmmaker, performer, artist Takani Clark is a professional dabbler and multidisciplinary creative from lutruwita, exploring and engaging with mediums of filmmaking, visual art and performance. As a First Nations woman, raised within the staunch palawa community, Takani feels a deep responsibility to protect and document the island and its cultural identity and diversity, both environmentally and socially. As a storyteller she strives to use her creative voice to deepen our understanding of each other, the natural world and ourselves. Takani believes that diversity is an integral part of her creative practice, striving to collaborate with people from different artistic practices, any background and all walks of life.

Bailey Jackson | Actor

Bailey is a Hobartian Thespian whose hit and miss performances will keep you guessing right until the very end — is this entertainment at its finest or is it a train wreck you can’t look away from? After more than a decade in Tasmanian theatre, still he isn’t sure. Nonetheless, Bailey appreciates Salamanca Arts Centre for rolling the dice and he hopes you enjoy the show.

Jackson Davis | Lighting Designer

Jackson Davis is a theatre maker, writer and performer based in Hobart. Since graduating with Honours from the University of Wollongong in 2012, Jackson has co-founded re:group performance collective and collaborates on new performance works with an emphasis on popular culture and videography. His theatre credits include Lost Boys (Performer, Merrigong Theatre Company, 2018), Route Dash Niner Part 1 & 2 (Director, Merrigong Theatre Company 2016-2017), Erth’s Dinosaur Zoo (Puppeteer, Japan Tour, 2016-2018), Conspiracies (Director, Shopfront, 2017) and LOVELY (Director, PACT, 2014).

Davina Wright

Davina Wright is a site-specific artist currently living in nipaluna/Hobart. 

She makes site specific, nonlinear and immersive theatre that looks at loneliness, suburbia, violence and feminism. She wrote and directed This is Grayson; a performance for audience 8+ with her collective Gold Satino. It received four Green Room Award Nominations in the Contemporary and Experimental Performance panel and received the awards for Innovation in Site Responsive Performance and Performance for Young Audiences.

Risa Muramatsu Ray

Risa began her dancing career at an early age,  studying both classical and modern ballet and receiving numerous awards at the national competition level. In 2006 she entered the Japan Women’s College of Physical Education, home to some of Japan’s rhythmic sports  gymnastics olympic medal winners, where she majored in contemporary dance and poured her creative energies into choreography, stage production and dramatic composition while performing as a contemporary dancer in Tokyo.  

Complimenting her work in the contemporary sphere, Risa has also  

performed regularly at numerous music festivals and many of Tokyo’s  most famous clubs, as well as contributing her skills in event production  and choreography to many artists both in Japan and on the international stage. Now Risa is based in Tasmania and she is enjoying creating her  works inspired by Tasmanian nature.

Adie Delaney 

Adie began her circus career at NICA in 2004. After graduating she left Australia to Europe to join the UK’s largest touring contemporary circus company NoFitState. Over 8 years she performed swinging and flying trapeze, hula hoops, fire, acrobatics, trampolining, roller skating etc. Adie also spent two years with Cie Oncore’s flying trapeze show ‘Une Drole de Maison’ flexing her clowning muscles, and among other various events performed a season with La Clique at Edinburgh Fringe.

Andy Vagg

Andy Vagg is an artist, designer, writer, poet and performer. His practice explores the qualities and limitations of contemporary existence, and how the choices we make inherently effect, respond to, and delineate social evolution. Using post-consumer objects and materials, he creates work in social contexts, to activate spaces to form literal and metaphorical platforms for the development of ideas to encourage positive social change. His performances explore the role of religion, liturgy and ritual in a contemporary secular context, and how they can help us navigate the ongoing ecological and psychosocial changes caused by industrialisation, globalisation and consumerism. Andy has created work in public and private spaces in Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne, Launceston and Hobart. He has collaborated with community in colleges, high schools, primary schools, community centres, and child and family centres.

www.andyvagg.com

Troy Melville

Troy has worked on an extensive range of film and art projects over 20 years. His projects have involved working for and in collaboration with many different organisations and has often involved working with at risk youth, First Nations and CALD groups. Recent art projects include Paul Boam – A Creative Life, a film for his retrospective exhibition at Moonah Arts Centre. The Partnershipping Project, a national touring exhibition where Troy worked remotely with 19 artists to edit short bio films and Regenerate where New Town primary students created a series of short films about connectivity.

Yumemi Hiraki

Yumemi Hiraki is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in Nipaluna. Her practice delves into the interactions between memory, nostalgia, history and connection to place, while re-examining the relationship to her Japanese heritage. Viewing herself as a resident of cultural gaps, her works evokes a familiar yet foreign sense of longing, belonging and holding on, while hinting at life’s inevitable continuity and ephemerality. 

Yumemi is originally from Hiroshima, Japan. She completed her BFA(Sculpture and Spatial Practice) at the Victorian College of the Arts and has been an active Arts Worker while exhibiting and developing her practice in both Naarm and Nipaluna. Yumemi has a growing interest in community-based arts, mentorship and education, and currently also works as a Youth Arts Officer at the Youth Arts and Recreation Centre.

Julie Waddington

A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Julie has been directing and producing theatre for over 20 years during which she has worked for many organisation including St Martin’s Youth Arts, La Mama, MTC, Melbourne Fringe, Tasmanian Theatre Company, Ten Days and Tasmania Performs. From 2007 to 2010 she was the Artistic Director of Riverland Youth Theatre in South Australia. Julie is currently a specialist drama teacher and independent director and producer. Her latest work, The Motherload, a creative documentary performance made through engagement with over 500 mothers across Tasmania and Australia recently premiered at Junction Arts Festival.

Takani Clark

Takani Clark is a professional dabbler and multidisciplinary creative from lutruwita, exploring and engaging with mediums of filmmaking, visual art and performance. As a First Nations woman, raised within the staunch palawa community, Takani feels a deep responsibility to protect and document the island and its cultural identity and diversity, both environmentally and socially. As a storyteller she strives to use her creative voice to deepen our understanding of each other, the natural world and ourselves. Takani believes that diversity is an integral part of her creative practice, striving to collaborate with people from different artistic practices, any background and all walks of life.

Neko Kelly

Neko Kelly is a New Zealand born emerging video artist with experience in editing and animation. His work involves a range of content; from stop-frame stories screened in Mona Foma, to LGBTQI+ educational resources for Tasmanian schools. Neko has a keen interest in telling stories that inspire empathy and compassion for marginalised communities.

Sheree Martin (Utopia Now Coordinator)
Info to come

Dummies Corp

Dummies Corp are the Australian circus-comedy specialists, recognised for creations of quality that are intelligent, theatrical, inventive and resonate across generations. Their productions transcend language barriers and their unique brand of dum and delightful has created treasured experiences for audiences across the globe.

Emma Field

Emma is an accordionist and classically trained pianist with a love of French film music, chanson, musette, and tango styles. Having trained in the UK, she has accompanied divas, folk bands, and theatre productions in London – along with weddings in Italy and France. She now enjoys playing in all-female performance ensemble Miettes.

Sasha Gavlek

Sasha Gavlek is a contemporary bassist hailing from Hobart, with a love for alternative jazz and rhythmic experimentation, alongside a passion for exchanging culture and musical knowledge between fellow peers and audience members.

Edith Perrenot

Edith Perrenot  is an interdisciplinary artist of visual, performing and musical art as well as an emerging writer for performance. Here she navigates between french repertoire and theatrical experiments. Performing using voice as an instrument and building fictional characters to share feelings and vignettes-like narratives.

Julia Drouhin

Julia Drouhin is an artist and curator working with field recordings, water based instruments, electromagnetic frequencies, dice, rope, textile and edible objects to embody invisible soundstream that reveal friction in sociality and shift usual modes of transmission.

Svetlana Bunic

An adept accordionist, composer, musical director and multi-instrumentalist (guitar, bass, ukulele, programming, percussion), Svetlana’s music has framed live international circus theatre, underscored film and thrilled audiences worldwide in a kaleidoscope of exotic music ensembles.

Maude Davey
Maude Davey has worked as an actor, director and writer in Melbourne for more than thirty-five years, with her primary focus being the creation of new work. Recent acting work includes: K-BOX, by Ra Chapman for Malthouse Theatre; Set Piece by Anna Breckon and Nat Randall for Rising Festival; The Heartbreak Choir, by Aidan Fennessey for MTC; Anthem for Arts Centre Melbourne at the Melbourne, Sydney and Perth Festivals.

She has worked extensively in variety, as member of Finucane & Smith’s Glory Box/Burlesque Hour ensemble and directed the acclaimed Gender Euphoria, presented by Melbourne Festival 2019. Television appearances include The News Reader, Sisters, Offspring, Tangle, Summer Heights High, Five Bedrooms, The Newsreader, and films include My Year Without Sex, Noise and Ride Like A Girl. She has also been the Artistic Director of two small theatre companies (Vitalstatistix Theatre Company in Adelaide and Melbourne Workers Theatre). She won a Green Room Award for Outstanding Performance in a Supporting Role for her work in Melancholia by Declan Greene, (Malthouse Theatre, 2018). Her directing credits include Clare Barron’s Dance Nation for Red Stitch Actor’s Theatre; KillJoy with the laserbeanz and Fish for the Rollercoaster Ensemble. She received a Masters in Writing for Performance from VCA in 2016. She is currently a PhD candidate at La Trobe University, investigating queer short form variety performance.

Rowan Harris 

Rowan Harris has created a number of long-form improvisation show formats including ‘The Holey Book’,  ‘Sciprov’, ‘The Chair’ and ‘MomentUs’ as well as founding the first Long-Form and Narrative improvisation ensemble in Tasmania, ‘Imprognosis’. Some of his favourite shows performing alongside international improvisors have been ‘Close To You’ by Rama Nicholas, ‘The Long Weekend’ by Christine Brooks and ‘In a New York Minute’ by Glenn Hall.   More recent work includes performances for the Burning Desire Festival, Underground ArtsBar, Theatresports and for Science Week.  Rowan was a member of the Danger Academy ensemble for a number of years and performed at the Marion Bay Falls Festival.

Matt Wilson

Matt Wilson has worked for over 25 years as an improvisor, actor, and director. He has performed with companies such as Terrapin, Tas Theatre Company, Blue Cow and Round Earth. As an improvisor he has been seen in The Underground ArtsBar, Theatresports, science week Impro, and Imprognosis’ The Holey Book, as well as his long-standing prize-winning work with Rowan Harris in the duo Harris and Tweed. He can also be seen in the film clip to A. Swayze and the Ghosts Mess of Me and briefly in the feature film Van Diemens Land.

Andrew Morrisby

Andrew Morrisby is a pianist, award winning musical director, choral director, arranger, and tutor based in Hobart, Tasmania. He studied at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music, completing a Bachelor Degree under the tutelage of Beryl Sedivka. As a student, he performed as a soloist in the Tasmanian Messiaen Festival (2008), and with the Derwent Symphony Orchestra playing Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”. He has also played as an orchestral keyboardist with the Tasmanian Discovery Orchestra and Derwent Valley Concert Band.

Andrew is heavily involved with the musical theatre community, having worked as a musical director, conductor, repetiteur, and pit orchestral musician for a number of Tasmanian theatre companies. He was a member of the winning ensemble, “Blush Opera” at the Tasmanian Cabaret Festival in 2014, and is a recipient of the Tasmanian Theatre Awards for Musical Direction in “Forbidden Broadway” (Hobart Rep 2015), and Best Ensemble for “[Title of Show]” (Old Nick Theatre Co 2019). Andrew has credits for vocal arrangements on the new work “Euphrasia, The Musical” (The Actors Studio, Kuala Lumpur 2019) in a collaboration with composer Mia Palencia.

More recently, Andrew has been busy post-covid as Musical Director for “Shane Warne the Musical” (The Cabaret Club) and “The Old Man and the Old Moon” (Jack Lark Presents), as a guest conductor for the Tasmanian Youth Orchestra Sinfonietta, co-directing vocal group “Tonic”, as accompanist for the Southern Gospel Choir, performing with original rock band “Gabe and the Dagrezios”, original funk/fusion band “Solace”, and as a member of the long-form theatrical improvisation group “The Practitioners of the Ephemeral Arts”.

Andrew works as a private teacher, tutor, and accompanist in Hobart.

Natalie Venettacci

Natalie is a proud Tasmanian creative and a graduate from Actors Centre Australia. She recently toured internationally with Terrapin’s Red Racing Hood. Natalie also toured with Poetry In Action around Australia and recently produced a performance art piece through UTAS at Dark Mofo called Touch Me if you Trust Me. Acting credits include As You Like it and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Directions Theatre, One Man Two Guvnors and Hamlet for Old Nick, O – The Tragedy of Ophelia for Andy Aisbett, and Dot Dot Dot for The Old 505. You might find her on Saturday’s at Salamanca Market roaming as a Covid Buster for Terrapin Puppet Theatre.

Simone Dobber

After a long-short hiatus, Simone is thrilled to be back performing Imprognosis alongside some of Tassie’s finest. Her pre-covid credits include As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing with Directions Theatre, Chicago with Bijou Creative, How to Hold Your Breath and Those Who Fall in Love Like Anchors Dropped Upon the Ocean Floor with Loud Mouth Theatre Company. Her screen credits include Rosehaven in 2016 and 2017 and The Magnetism of Us with Acute Brow Productions. She has also co-written, costume designed, acted and composed music for Mermaid and the City with Beauty and the Bitches.

Carrie Maclean

Carrie is a writer, actor, director and mother of four. She is a founding member of Mudlark Theatre and the Radio Gothic collective. Since graduating from UTAS with a BPA, Carrie has had numerous performing roles onstage and onscreen, with her debut in a feature role as Ann Solomon in The First Fagin (2012). As a writer, Carrie has several projects in development, including a television drama series for Aquarius Films and Pistachio Pictures and Mental, the Mother Load, a documentary theatre performance exploring the grotesque nature and beauty of motherhood.

Jeff Michel

Jeff is a performer, puppeteer, and theatre teacher who moved to Tasmania in 2005.  He is the chair of Big Monkey Theatre Inc. and a co-founder of Blue Cow Theatre. Credits include: TTC’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf with Rowan and the 2012 Helpmann Award winning BOATS for Terrapin.  His solo show, Pedalling Back, was developed with Peter Matheson, produced by Blue Cow, and toured by Tasmania Performs in 2016.

Rosemary Cann
Rosemary Cann is a pākehā writer, musician and actor based in nipaluna, who has previously performed as a member of Wellington-based improv troupes Playshop, and Definitely Not Witches. Rosemary has participated in multiple playwriting residencies, including Carclew’s Writing Place, Blue Cow Theatre’s Future Proofing the Page and Tarraleah Residency, and ATYP’s National Studio and Fresh Ink Mentorship Program. She has performed in local productions Eurydice, HerStory (2019-2020), The Campaign (2018) and CRAVE (2021). Rosemary is passionate about representative, intelligent art that touches audiences and brings queer and feminine narratives to the forefront. Rosemary holds a BA in Theatre, English Literature and Anthropology, and a Masters in Creative Writing.

Emma Skalicky

Emma Skalicky has worked in Hobart theatre since 2014. Highlights include Shakespeare in the Gardens productions from 2016-2021; Loud Mouth Theatre Company’s Hamlet: Heads or Tails (2014) and The Island of Doctor Moreau (2016); Theatre with Teeth’s Buckets (2017); PLoT Theatre’s Eurydice (2018) and Deadly (2019); and The Theatre Closet’s Crave (2021). She has directed Bad Company Theatre’s Picnic At Hanging Rock (2019); PLoT Theatre’s Doctor Faustus (2017) and Salome (2020); and assistant directed Loud Mouth Theatre Company’s The Island of Doctor Moreau (2016) and Archipelago Production’s The Bleeding Tree (2020).  Previous works include Ophelia: A Decomposition in Two Parts (The Picton Grange Quarterly Review, Issue 6), Panopticon for ATYP’s Intersection 2019: Arrival (Currency Press), and Medusa Waking (Bad Company Theatre, 2021).

Lizy Spanos
Lizy Spanos is a Greek/Canadian performer with a deep love for music, dance, acting, and especially doing all three at once. They have been involved in community theater since the age of ten, in Canada, Greece, France, and Australia. Their most recent performances include Alice (Rattle, 2021) and Mabelu/Lucy (The Old Man and the Old Moon, 2021), and they have been in productions ranging from Shakespeare (in French!) to Rocky Horror Picture Show. They are extremely excited for the opportunity to play with a talented group of improvisors and improve their skill!

Ollie Gorringe

Ollie Gorringe is thrilled to be working with the Practitioners of the Ephemeral Arts, he has enjoyed performing since a young age and has been involved in several theatre productions throughout his schoolyears, including 100 Reasons for War (Hobart college, 2019), Carrie (Bijou, 2018) and The Old Man and The Old Moon (Jack Lark Presents, 2021). For the last two years Ollie has been employed as a Performer with the Round Earth Theatre Company on the West Coast of Tas, honing his skills in acting and storytelling.  Working with a talented set of creatives and performers in such a unique production has been an intoxicating experience for him and he hopes you enjoy the performance.

Jacob Golding 

Jacob Golding is a local performer who’s been seen in Hobart theatres since 2017. Most recently he was seen as Jeremy Heere in the Tasmanian premiere of Be More Chill in the Playhouse Theatre. Prior to stage Jacob has trained for the screen with Sara Cooper since 2010. Jacob is really excited to take on a new performance challenge, completely script less!

Milla Chaffer
Milla Chaffer has been working in theatre for many years in and out of schools. Milla has performed as Kathy Seldon in ‘Singing in the Rain’. Some of her other stage credits include Spring Awakening (Old Nick, 2018) and 21 Chump St (Old Nick, 2018). Her most recent role was as Heather McNamara in Old Nick’s production of ‘Heathers’ this year. Milla has also been working several shows as a part of the creative team, including her role as Assistant Director and Assistant Stage Manager for ‘The Old Man and the Old Moon’ (Jack Lark Presents) to be performed in September 2021. Milla is passionate about theatre both on and off stage and is always looking for opportunities to expand her experience.

Jack Lark
Jack Lark is a theatre producer, director and performer, who holds a bachelor of musical arts in vocal studies, training under Maria Lurighi. He has spent time in Los Angeles studying directing at USC, and has a hardcore passion for directing contemporary musical theatre. He produced the Australian premiere of ‘The Old Man and the Old Moon’ in 2021 and is currently collaborating to create a new Australian Musical Theatre Production.  Jack’s recent performances include As You Like It (Directions Theatre), My Fair Lady (Bijou Creative), and Miss Trunchbull for St.Mary’s College

Jacqueline Collyer

Jacqueline Collyer is a musician, composer and producer based in Hobart. She has recently begun a PhD in Music Technology at the University of Tasmania. Collyer was a founding member of Melbourne band KINS and has toured extensively throughout Australia, the UK and Europe.

In 2020, Collyer won a Tasmanian Theatre Award in Sound Design for her work in The Tasmanian Theatre Company’s production of ‘Gruesome Playground Injuries’. Collyer has also delved into the realm of film scoring, composing for short films including ‘AQUA’ (2021), ‘A Hairy Problem’ (2019), ‘The Snake Lady’ (2019) and ‘In Search of Family’ (2019), both as a part of the 10 Days on the Island Festival, and Chris Pender’s ‘Ruthless’ (2016). Collyer has also composed for sound installation, most recently creating a work for the Cardinia Art Society’s ‘New Beginnings’ exhibition in February 2021.

Collyer recently worked as the assistant sound designer to Glenn Richards for Archipelago Production’s ‘The Bleeding Tree’ (2020) and as a composer for the theatrical production of Samuel Beckett’s ‘Happy Days’ (2021), which was featured as a part of the Mona Foma Festival. 2021 was an exciting year for Collyer, who composed for ‘Mental: The Motherload’, a production that opened as a part of the Junction Arts Festival that year. Collyer has also recently released a new single entitled ‘Sky Diver’ under the solo moniker ‘Q.E.’, a project which combines the pop and experimental genres. In the future, Collyer hopes to continue honing her skills in composition and sound design through ambitious new projects, continuing her research in spatial music composition and giving back to the music community through teaching.

Rough Skies Records

Rough Skies Records is an independent artist-run record label based in nipaluna/Hobart and is dedicated to releasing music from the region. The label’s debut ‘Community – a compilation of Hobart music’, was curated by Rough Skies’ founder Julian Teakle and released on CD and digitally via Bandcamp, in the summer of 2009. Teakle has since curated another 3 Community Compilations, all of which have served as snapshots of the local music scene and were dubbed ‘open love letters to Hobart Music’ by Vice journalist, Jennifer Park.

Over ten years and 30 releases, Rough Skies has steadily built a niche profile in Australian independent music, recognised for documenting unique underground bands from lutruwita/Tasmania. The label operates as a collaboration between two friends, Teakle and Claire Johnston, who joined in early 2018. Teakle and Johnston are currently working on several exciting new releases for the label in 2022 alongside their day jobs and individual music projects.

www.roughskiesrecords.bandcamp.com

Obon lanterns – see the installation of lanterns created in the lead up to Winter Light by community members and facilitated by Yumemi Hiraki, mirroring the practice of Japanese obon festival to commemorate and honour ancestors.

Obon dance – gather beneath the lanterns to learn the Obon dance, practiced throughout Japan as part of the Obon Festival, with Yumemi Hiraki and Eri Mulloolly-Hill Konishi.

Rhythmz Bollywood – get ready for high energy classic Bollywood dance from nipaluna (Hobart) bollywood dance institution, Rhythmz Bollywood. Workshop participants have the opportunity to perform during opening night event. (workshop dates to come)

MMT – Madi Mega Talent Hita Man and Rasta Jay of South Sudan. These energetic MC’s rip up the stage with their brand of Badman style East African Dancehall.

Miettes – A contemporary and performative journey into the musical history of France. This unique trio explore their Gallic roots and present a show full of striking sounds and sights, leaving you begging for more than just the crumbs!

Svetlana Bunic – Accordionista Svetlana Bunic presents a well-travelled cinematic repertoire of Frech musette, Argentinian tango, continental movie themes, retro melodies, gypsy grooves, smoking jazz, Latin and cabaret show tunes.

Son Del Sur – Son del Sur is an exciting 10 piece Latin-Jazz and Salsa band. Son del Sur (meaning “they are from the South”) has performed at many of Tasmania’s premier music events and has wowed audiences with their impressive sound.

Kattleya – Kattleya are an acoustic duo from Colombia featuring Latin American music with distinctive upbeat, tropical sounds and uplifting melodies. 

Salsita Kids – Salsitas is an intergenerational dance group with ancestral roots transmitting folklore stories. Salsitas explores traditions which are then performed by modern Latin Americans with a mission to rediscover their unique histories, through Latino rhythms and traditional dance.

Sharifah Emalia Al-Gadrie

Sharifah Emalia Al-Gadrie is a multidisciplinary artist, curator and community development worker based in nipaluna/Hobart, lutruwita/Tasmania.

Her creative practice is responsive and explores belonging and cultural heritage in contemporary Australia, drawing on lived experience as an Asian-Australian woman. Representation, connection and community building are central themes which ground her curatorial practice.