Vidya Rajan (Writer) is a writer & performer currently based in Australia. A former writer-in-residence at the Malthouse Theatre, graduate of the VCA, and a recipient of Screen Australia’s Developer Program. Some past projects as a writer and performer include Looking for Alibrandi (Malthouse/Belvoir), Deadloch (Amazon), Respawn (MICF, Darwin Festival), The Feed Comedy (SBS).
Recently, she has been awarded the 2022 AWGIE award for Best Comedy Writing and Best Experimental Artwork at the 2022 Melbourne Fringe.
She can next be seen as a writer/story consultant as well as core ensemble on the new sitcom series - Aunty Donna’s Coffee Cafe (2023, ABC).
Shamita Sivabalan (Performer) is a multi-faceted performance artist and theatre maker specialized in movement. She holds a BA Performing Arts from Monash University, Shamita has trained at Stella Adler AoA Los Angeles, AAFTA, Brave Studios, and 16th Street. Recent theatre credits include Nosferatu (Malthouse), Mara Korper (Citizen Theatre) and Let Men Tremble (The Danger Ensemble). On screen, she has won Best Supporting Actor awards in films Dashboard Dogs and Someone Else. Recent feature films include FOE (Garth Davis, Amazon Studios), La Famiglia (Tom Conyers), and upcoming Coconut (Saloni Chopra). Her own written and produced dance film, Twin Flame will premiere in January 2023.
Emily Tomlins (Performer) is co-founder and co-artistic director of Elbow Room. She has worked as an actor, creator, and director with various companies and festivals including Elbow Room, Polyglot Theatre, Playable Streets, VIMH, JOF, Musica Viva, STC, QT, La Boite, SASTC, Malthouse, Terrapin Puppet Theatre, MTC’s Neon Festival, the Melbourne, Brisbane, Darwin, Perth, Poppyseed and Flight Festivals, Fabricated Rooms, Everybody Dance, Collyer/Kerridge, Restaged Histories Project, Qld Arts Council, Bell Shakespeare, Four Larks, Daniel Schlusser Ensemble and The Hayloft Project. Emily was in Queensland Theatre’s Emerging Artist Ensemble in 2006. She is a Sidney Myer Fellow and Associate Director at Polyglot Theatre.
Marta Kaczmarek (Performer) graduated from the Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Poland. In Perth she co-founded the iconic Theatre Zart, worked as a dancer, actor, waitress, cleaner, real estate agent, lecturer at Edith Cowan University. In Melbourne she ran Lifestyle Programs in Aged Care. Marta performed in Dostoyevski’s, Toystoy’s, Shakespeare’s, Becketts’ repertoire and won Green Room Best Actress Award for Masha in A. Zabel’s Café Scheherazade. Her screen credits include Shine, Rake, Underbelly, The Circuit, Wildcat, Blue Hillers, Wentworth, Harrow, Jack Irish, North Shore and Ricky Stanicky. Marta received a Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta for cultivation of Polish Culture in Australia.
Rachel Kamath (Performer) is an Indian-Australian actor and producer based in Melbourne. A qualified engineer, she studied at the Stella Adler Academy in Los Angeles. She has since performed in various productions on stage and on screen, including her recent appearance as a series regular in Shantaram (2022) on AppleTV+. Her recent theatre credits are Reigen! (Periscope Productions, 2022) and What Every Girl Should Know by Monica Byrne (2020) and screen credits include The Taverna (2019), Jack Irish Season 2 (2018), and the US short film, Please Don't Call the Cops (2017). She also produced She Wrote The Letter by Kieran Carroll (St Martin’s Theatre & La Mama 2022), and is a co-founder of the theatre company, Empty Seat Theatre.
Tom Dent (Performer) has appeared in Elbow Room’s The Motion of Light in Water and the award-winning trilogy After All This (‘Best Live Performance’ – Melbourne Fringe Awards; ‘Best Ensemble’ – Green Room Awards), As We Mean To Go On and Now More Than Ever; Salomé , Danergous Liaisons and Psycho Beach Party (‘Best Ensemble’ nominee – Green Room Awards) for Little Ones' Theatre; The Abscence Of Unknowing, In The Solitude of the Cotton Fields and The Darkening Sky for Richard Murphet/La Mama/Theatre Works; ABC TV’s Australia On Trial: The Eureka 13; Marcel Dorney’s Kassandra; J.A.T.O and 22 Short Plays for MKA; Daniel Schlusser’s adaptation of The Hollow. Short film roles include To The Beach; I, The Other; Gutter Crawler and Drenched In Glorious Light. Tom trained at the Victorian College of the Arts.
Marcel Dorney (Director) An award-winning playwright and director, Marcel Dorney is a founding member and co-artistic director of Melbourne based performance company, Elbow Room.
As a playwright, Marcel’s work has been commissioned, developed and produced by QTC, Malthouse Theatre, Merrigong Theatre Company, Hothouse Theatre, La Boite, Griffin Theatre, Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, Brisbane Powerhouse, Artslink, and the Next Wave Festival, and published by Playlab Press. He has been an affiliate writer with QTC, La Boite and Griffin Theatre, has worked as a screenwriter for Matchbox Pictures and as a dramaturg and script consultant for national and state bodies. His awards include the 2010 Queensland Premier’s Drama Award.
Antoinette Tracy (Assistant Director) (she/her) is a Naarm-based actor and theatre maker. Her practice aims to offer spaces of understanding, compassion, and celebration, with a particular emphasis on the experiences of the BIPOC community. Antoinette is a graduate of the VCA Theatre Making course and the co-founder of Tedious Theatre, which was awarded the 2020 Digital Realisation Green Room award for their premiere work ‘Shadow Piece’. Antoinette has also collaborated on works with Born in a Taxi and the National Gallery of Victoria and looks forward to making more work that explores and exposes human behaviour and connection.
Kaite Head (Stage / Production Manager) (She/Her) is a producer and stage manager based in Naarm, she is a 2019 VCA graduate who has worked across theatre, dance, opera, and interactive devised work.
In 2023 she produced 2 works at The Melbourne International Comedy Festival for comedians
Ange Lavoipierre and Jane Watt to critical acclaim. This year as a Stage Manager she toured Aus with Operation Ouch! (Andrew Kaye) and then travelled to Singapore to develop and present Come Back Home (Polyglot / Esplanade).
She is currently trying to find a hobby that does not include dressing in all black and welcomes suggestions.
Rachel Nankin (Set & Costume Designer) (she/her) is an emerging production designer and maker based in Naarm/Melbourne. She completed her BFA Design and Production at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2022. She worked as the Associate Designer for The Marvellous Elephant Man The Musical working with Designer Roberto Surace (2023). As well as her work at VCA, Costume and Set Designer for the Alter Kintetic (2022), Set Designer for Merrily We Roll Along (2022), Associate Set Designer for The Hello Girls (2021), Workshop Leading Hand for three devised works: Rats on Cocaine Prefer Jazz, Dead Serious, and B**ch (2021).
Saieesh Shanmugarajah (Sound Composer) is a Boorloo-born artist raised in a Tamil household, Their initial release, A.Y.A. A. Focuses on their journey through childhood and adolescence with the constant cast of the east and west weighing upon them and the diaspora alike. Genre-Defining in some ways, SAIEESH. lets us experience sound with no barrier, whilst maintaining a constant energy that binds their work together. They have received rave reviews for the album A.Y.A.A. Liveschool (a prominent member of Sydney’s Electronic Music scene) stating it to be “one of the best underground pop records of the past decade”.
Kris Chainey (Lighting Designer) is a Naarm based Lighting Designer. Notable credits include The Leenane Trilogy (2014) and Shrine (2017) for The Kin Collective, The Absence of Knowing: Four Men and Dog Play (2017) with Richard Murphet, Point8Six (2016/22) with Kirsten von Bibra, the multiple award winning Bighouse Dreaming (2018-21) with Declan Furber Gillick, Mark Wilson and Susannah Day and Technique (2022), Prehistoric (2018) We Get It (2015-16), and The Motion of Light in Water (2014-15) for Elbow Room.
Chris Wenn (Sound Designer) is an award-winning sound designer for theatre, based in Melbourne, Australia. His sound design and compositions have featured in productions by Malthouse, Elbow Room, St Martins Youth Theatre, Red Stitch Actors Theatre, and Sarah Austin & Collaborators.
Chris has received Green Room Award nominations for Sound for his work on The Trouble With Harry (MKA/Darebin Arts Speakeasy/Melbourne Festival 2014) and Rust and Bone (La Mama, 2016), and was the recipient of the Straits Times ‘Life!’ Theatre Award for the Sound Design of In The Silence of Your Heart (2018) at Esplanade – Theatres by the Bay, Singapore.