Lauren Swain (Performer) (she/they) is a proud Dabee Wiradjuri person based in Naarm (Melbourne). She grew up in a rural town in the Mountains of Ngarigo Country (Cooma, NSW), an upbringing that underpins an artistic practice grounded in: community consciousness, care and working with what you’ve got. Lauren is a Victorian Collage of the Arts (BFA Theatre) graduate and emerging multidisciplinary theatre maker that weaves between performer, collaborator and facilitator. She is interested in nontraditional theatre that is responsive to unconventional spaces, movement led, immersive and holds interpersonal connection and process at the core. Lauren can be found building worlds alongside the magic of children (Paper Planets, 2023), buzzing around (Bees, 2023) and cooking up a storm (Feast, 2023) as an artist with Polyglot Theatre Company. She is also an emerging program producer at Theatre Network Australia (Australian First Nations CaPT Circle) and now teaches in the BFA Theater course at the Victorian College of the Arts.
Laura Aldous (Performer) (she/her) is an actor, theatre maker, director and facilitator working across creative disciplines in Naarm (Melbourne). Laura holds a Bachelor of Arts from Monash University’s Centre for Theatre and Performance. For the past five years she has been a core member of Bloomshed with credits including Paradise Lost, Animal Farm and The Nose. Since 2017 Laura has collaborated with Barking Spider Creative, devising and delivering multidisciplinary performance works including the Green Room Award nominated immersive theatre work Wood Wide Web and In a Heartbeat. Other stage credits include After Hero (Monash/ Malthouse), Pink Matter (Melbourne Fringe Festival) and Any Sugar (Melbourne International Comedy Festival). Later this year Laura will appear in The Bloomshed’s next work, A Dodgeball Named Desire at Fortyfive Downstairs Theatre.
Syd Brisbane (Performer) (he/him) has been working in the industry for 40 years and graduated from Flinders University Drama Centre. Recent credits include Masterpiece part 2 of Glenn Shea’s An Indigenous Trilogy (La Mama), Coranderrk (Illbijerri/La Mama), Manuel in Fawlty Towers Live Australian Tour, Romeo & Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, A MidSummer Night’s Dream, The Comedy of Errors, Hamlet, Henry IV part One, Twelfth Night, Alice In Wonderland and Pygmalion (Australian Shakespeare Company), Victory directed by Judy Davis (Sydney Theatre Company), He Stumbled (UK tour), Because The Night and K Box (Malthouse Theatre), Closer (State Theatre Company of SA), Dealer’s Choice, Unidentified Human Remains, Capricornia, Marat Sade, The Club, Spring Awakening, The Decameron, and Restoration. Syd was a founding member of The Rabble directing Osama The Hero and performing in their productions Orlando and Salome.
James Jackson (Bloomshed Artistic Director) (he/him) is an award winning director, writer and producer. He is the creative director of Bloomshed. Recent works include Animal Farm, Bad News (Nominated Best Writing and Best Design, Green Rooms 2021), Paradise Lost (winner Best Production and Light and Costume & Set Design, Green Rooms 2023), The Market (Critic’s Pick 2018 Sydney Fringe) and The Nose (Festival Director’s Award, Sydney Fringe and Nominated for Direction and Production, Green Rooms 2019). Outside of Bloomshed James has production managed the national tour of Stardust & The Mission, worked as a dramaturg with Back to Back’s Theatre of Speed and at the National Theatre of Croatia (Rijeka) on Gilulio Cesare in Egitto and Our Violence, Your Violence at the Wiener Festwochen. James holds a Masters of Dramaturgy from the Victorian College of the Arts.
Justin Gardam (Dramaturg, Sound Designer & Production Manager) (he/him) is a dramaturg, writer, and award-winning designer and director. He is a graduate of Monash University’s Bachelor of Performing Arts and completed a Master of Dramaturgy at the Victorian College of the Arts. He has won a Green Room Award for his work with Bloomshed, and has been nominated for multiple awards in 2023. His wider credits include Everyone is Famous and F. (Riot Stage); Lamb, Control, and Wakey Wakey (Red Stitch); Paradise Lost, Bad News, The Market is a Wind-Up Toy and The Nose (Bloomshed); and I’m Not a Mime, The New Nine and Mime Consultant (Patrick Collins). As associate: Considerable Sexual License (Joel Bray Dance); Suddenly Last Summer and The Moors (Red Stitch); Merciless Gods (Little Ones Theatre); and Abigail’s Party (Melbourne Theatre Company).
John Callopy (Lighting Designer) (he/him) is an award winning lighting and visual designer, whose work for the stage has been seen in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. His recent lighting design credits include Otello (Melbourne Opera; directed by Bruce Beresford); Paradise Lost (Bloomshed/Darebin Arts Speakeasy 2022); The Nose (Bloomshed; Green Room Awards 2019 nominee for Best Production, Best Direction); The Market is a Wind Up Toy (Bloomshed, Critics’ Pick of Sydney Fringe 2018); Sensory Decadence and Kilter (One Fell Swoop Circus); Slaughterhouse Five (Theatre Works/Monash Uni Student Theatre); Helping Hands(A_tistic/La Mama); Too Ready Mirror (Darebin Arts Speakeasy); Ironbound; Hurlyburly; and Shining City (Q44 Theatre). He is an associate artist with A_tistic
Nathan Burmeister (Set & Costume Designer) (he/him) is an award-winning Melbourne based set and costume designer and theatre maker for live performance. He works closely with new styles, forms, and stories, exploring contemporary dramaturgies, audience experiences, and aesthetics. Nathan’s recent works include Loaded (Malthouse Theatre, 2023), Paradise Lost (Bloomshed/Darebin Arts Speakeasy, 2022), Animal Farm(Bloomshed, 2021), Considerable Sexual License (Joel Bray Dance/Darebin Arts Speakeasy, 2021), End Of (Griffin Theatre Company, 2022; Darebin Arts Speakeasy, 2020), Love/Chamberlain (Moral Panic/Theatre Works, 2019), Fly (Lyric Opera, 2019), Q (La Mama, 2019), Sneakyville (Before Shot Productions, 2018).
Samantha Hastings (Set & Costume Designer) (she/her) is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts Bachelor of Fine Arts (Design & Production). Sam found her passion for Design and Production through her experiences of theatre, visual arts & design. During her time at VCA, Sam furthered her love for Costume Design, tailoring her learning to focus on this area of Theatrical Design. Recent works include costume design Tyran Parke’s musical Our House, Venus in Fur (Adelaide Fringe), Paradise Lost (Bloomshed 2022) and Neighbours.
Jacinta Anderson (Stage Manager) (she/her) is a Stage Manager, Producer and Technical Manager and has worked professionally in the theatre industry for the past five years. Stage Management credits include Us (Saint Martins Youth Theatre, 2021), The Ball Room (Chapel off Chapel, 2021), Everyone is Famous (Riot Stage, 2021), Virtual Intimacy (Asia TOPA, 2020), Gender Euphoria (Sydney Mardi Gras, 2020), Paradise Lost, (Bloomshed 2019), The Market is a Wind Up Toy (Bloomshed 2019, 2018, Sydney and Melbourne), The 2018 tour of Always…Patsy Cline (Hit Productions), The Nightingale and the Rose (Little Ones Theatre, 2018), Anti-Hamlet (New Working Group, 2018), The Moors (Little Ones Theatre and Red Stitch, 2017) and The Happy Prince (Little Ones Theatre, 2017). As a Technical Manager, she has worked with Yummy Productions since 2019 on shows such as Yummy Deluxe (Speigeltent Barwon Heads, Sydney Mardi Gras, HOTA Gold Coast, 2020), Yummy Unleashed (Castlemaine Festival, 2021), and the filmed project, Yummy: How to Make a Western.