Independent Theatre

Panel Co-Chairs

Ryan Hamilton (Co-Chair)

Ryan was born on Gadigal country, raised on Coast Salish and Kombumerri country, and now lives and works on Bunurong country.

He is a theatre-maker, producer, and writer who makes queer, site-specific, & auto-ethnographic theatre which makes the world a little better, queerer, and fatter. Ryan co-created Full Cream at Melbourne Fringe 2023, winning the Emerging Company Incubator Award, and in 2024 won the Funny Tonne Award at Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

Teri Steer (Co-Chair)

Teri is a Melbourne-based freelance stage, production, and project manager, who has worked extensively in Melbourne’s independent theatre scene since relocating in 2017.

She trained in Brisbane and Toowoomba in music, theatre, and technical theatre. Since leaving school, Teri has consistently worked in the arts, spending time designing, performing, building, operating, and managing for theatre, circus, music, opera, and dance.

She has spent significant stretches touring regional Australia, as well as the years she spent in QLD. Since moving to Victoria, Teri has worked repeatedly with Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, Arts Access Victoria, Melbourne Shakespeare Company, 15 Minutes From Anywhere, and many others.

For the last few years, Teri has been working for The Australian Ballet School and The University of Melbourne in addition to her freelance work.

Jade Smith (Deputy Chair)

Jade Smith (she/her) is an arts administrator and theatre enthusiast based in the inner-north of Naarm/Melbourne.

She works as an Events Coordinator for Melbourne Fringe Festival’s year-round venue, Fringe Common Rooms, whilst also completing her Masters of Arts & Cultural Management, where she has largely focused on labour relations in the arts and festivals sector.

Jade is a University of Melbourne Wattle Fellow, a co-curricular program for emerging leaders in global sustainability. She is passionate about the ability of art to facilitate social change, and has a particular interest in work which explores themes of climate, class, and marginalisation.

When she’s not seeing theatre, Jade can be found throwing parties, reading books, trawling op shops for vintage gems, or going for a walk along the Merri Creek.

Panellists

April Albert

April Albert is an international performer, theatre maker and academic. As an artist, she specialises in creating politically engaged performance in a range of contexts and settings. Her solo performance work explores how the historical and cultural resonates in our current social and political experiences. Growing up in both the US and Europe, April is multilingual and has studied and performed in Germany, the UK, US and Australia. 

April’s teaching places an emphasis on mixing theory and practice with a strong focus on contemporary global practices. Art with a purpose: to inform, educate and challenge audiences. She believes in challenging students to articulate and evolve their practice as arts managers and performers, to look for new ways to work collaboratively, cross borders and interdisciplinary boundaries that engage audiences in a twenty-first century way.

Miela Anich

Miela Anich is a Naarm-based actor with Torres Strait Islander, Croatian, Japanese and Chinese ancestry. She is a graduate from the Victorian College of the Arts with a BFA in Acting (2021).

Her stage credits include, ‘MinusOneSister’ (dir. Marni Mount), ‘How To Be A Person When The World Is Ending’ (dir. Meg Dunn), ILBIJERRI Theatre Company’s social impact project, ‘The Score’, (dir. Kamarra Bell-Wykes) which toured regionally,and ‘Goodbye Aunty Flo’, (dir. Rachael Maza), ‘Get Your Geek On’, (dir. Corey Saylor Brunskill) Australian Shakespeare Company’s production of ‘The Crucible’ (dir. Syd Brisbane and Tony Rive) and her first one-woman show in 2024, ‘OMG I’m Blak!’ (dir. Maryanne Sam).

For the last two years, Miela co-facilitated the ILBIJERRI Ensemble Program with Amy Sole, where she directed their showcase ‘Magic Tiddas’. Miela was an Associate Director for ILBIJERRI x Melbourne Theatre Company’s ‘Black in the Room’.

Chenturan Aran

Chenturan Aran is a Sri Lankan Australian playwright, journalist, and rapper. He has been published at The Age and is part of the editorial team at SAARI – a blog that platforms South Asian Australian writers. He is also a tutor at Uni Melbourne, teaching documentary film and mobile journalism.

His play Just Pass The Papadums, Katherine won the Union House Theatre Award for Best New Writing in 2020. The script was developed during a mentorship with Samah Sabawi and featured Osamah Sami in a Zoom table read. Chenturan is also an active member of the Melbourne underground rap scene, performing under the name ‘Chen Be Quiet’.

Lakshmi Ganapathy

Journalist and theatre-maker Lakshmi Ganapathy is founder of Mucky Puppy Theatre, directing work intersecting community and independent theatre in the north-eastern suburbs.

In 2024, she was selected for La Mama Emerge and directed a site-specific production of 'DNA' by Dennis Kelly under Mucky Puppy Theatre.

She is currently a Green Room Awards panellist for Independent Theatre, and reports for both Indian Link and C31's Laneway, winning the 2024 VMC Award for Excellence in Media.

Madeleine Gandhi

Madeleine grew up on Turrbal/Yuggera country in Meanjin and started her career on Gadigal land. She is the General Manager of ILBIJERRI Theatre Company, Australia's longest running First People's theatre company. Prior to joining ILBIJERRI, Madeleine served as General Manager of Darlinghurst Theatre Company and social enterprise Stage A Change, which aims to create and sustain professional opportunities for artists of colour across Australia. She holds a Bachelor of Arts/Laws from the University of Sydney, and was awarded the Paramount Scholarship to study a Masters of Arts & Cultural Management in 2025.

As an independent producer, Madeleine has developed and delivered work at the Sydney Opera House, Belvoir St Theatre and Griffin Theatre Company. Her role in co-founding LGBTQIA+ organisation Fruit Box Theatre was recognised by Out For Australia's 30 Under 30 Awards in 2023. Outside theatre, Madeleine has worked in law reform and regulation at the ACCC and Attorney-General’s Department. She is passionate about embedding workplace safety, sustainable business practices, and inclusive pathways in Australia’s cultural sector.

Emma Gibson

Emma is a playwright, writer and dramaturg based in Melbourne.

Emma's plays have been produced internationally and include After Rebecca, Cuddle Parlour, Tourmaline, War Stories (as co-writer), which had multiple productions in the UK and Ireland; Bloodletting (winner of the Bread and Roses Theatre Award, London); Johnny Castellano is Mine (winner Canberra Critics Circle Award); The Pyjama Girl; Widowbird; and Love Cupboard. The Pyjama Girl, first produced by HotHouse Theatre, is published by Australian Plays.

Emma was a 2020 participant in Melbourne Theatre Company’s Women in Theatre program (for dramaturgy) and a writer in residence at Theatre Works. Emma also wrote a piece for Alternative Futures, a site-specific promenade piece along Acland Street in St Kilda, produced by Theatre Works.

Scott Gooding

Scott Gooding is an actor, director, playwright, improviser, and educator.

Credits include Ruby Moon (Steam Productions) 360 Positions In A One Night Stand (Vicious Fish Theatre), The Belbel Project (Vicious Fish Theatre), Eric – The One Man Sketch Comedy Show Trilogy (Vicious Fish Theatre), The City They Burned(Attic Erratic), Cuckoo (15 Minutes From Anywhere), Agni – Lit By Fire (Apollon Studios), and Cock (15 Minutes From Anywhere), Away (Browns Mart Theatre), and Adrift (15 Minutes From Anywhere).

His solo play Robert In Crisis (Vicious Fish Theatre) has toured interstate, won Best Performance Award at the 2019 Darwin Fringe Festival and also had a return season as part of the 2020 Browns Mart Program as well as a Norther Territory Tour in conjunction with ArtBack.

Ben Keene

Ben Keene is a composer, recordist and sound designer. He graduated with distinction from the RMIT Digital Media Course in 2016 and was awarded the RMIT Higher Education Award. He is currently a casual academic and completing his Honours degree at RMIT.

His theatre sound design credits include the Melbourne Theatre Company, Expressions Dance Company, TheatreWorks, Hoy Polloy and Big West Festival.

He works closely with Darrin Verhagen as part of the band Shinjuku Thief (with whom he completed additional composition for the AFI award nominated soundtrack THE BOYS IN THE TREES in 2016) and as a research assistant at AkE (Audiokinetic Experiments) Lab.

He is a member of FINUCANE SMITH, collaborating on productions including INTIMATE 8 at the National Gallery of Victoria and THE FLOOD at XiXi international theatre festival in Shanghai.

Ben's sonic installation practice includes the composition for a 6DOF chair experience directed by Daniel Schlusser , and curating a sound installation for State Library Victoria, Intimate Surround, in 2018. In 2019 Ben travelled to europe to participate in the PRAGUE QUADRENNIAL as part of the Impossible Project team.

Leigh Lule

Leigh Lule is a Ugandan-Australian actress, writer, and theater maker based in Naarm. She joined Western Edge Arts in 2018, writing and performing theater works as a member of the ‘Sub-30 Collective’.

As a company lead artist, she also devises and delivers drama workshops for young people throughout Melbourne’s Western suburbs.

Leigh has carried out creative facilitation in collaboration with RAWCUS, Art Centre Melbourne’s ‘New Writers Collective’ and guest lectured at Melbourne University. She is also the founder of the digital publication, ‘Ubuntu Magazine’.

Recent stage credits include ‘SUB30: Now This’ (2022), ‘POINT8SIX’ (2022) and ‘Trophy Boys’ (2022 - 2025). Leigh is the co-creator, writer and performer of web-series ‘CEEBS’, supported by SIGNAL, Screen Australia, SBS’ Digital Originals and VicScreen. As a screenwriter, she has written for ABC ME’s ‘Turn Up The Volume’ (Matchbox), and was the Script Attachment for Season 3 of Netflix’s ‘Heartbreak High’ (Fremantle).

Jamila Main

Jamila Main is an actor and playwright making candid, tender work infused with the survivalist humour of living in a queer, disabled, chronically ill body in chronic pain. Jamila has been writing and performing for the stage, screen, and livestream since 2016, and has worked with Sydney Theatre Company, Adelaide Festival, Malthouse Theatre Company, Darlinghurst Theatre Company, Adelaide Cabaret Festival, State Theatre Company of South Australia, Vitalstatistix, Midsumma Festival, ActNow Theatre, First Draft Gallery, Feast Festival and Carclew.

A commissioned writer for the Ruby award-winning Decameron 2.0 (STCSA and ActNow Theatre), Jamila’s debut play Butterfly Kicks was a finalist in the Queer Playwriting Awards (Midsumma Festival, 2020) and winner of the Queer Short Story Award (Feast Festival, Writers SA, 2018); winning again in 2019 for Queer Utopia is on the Roof of a Westfield.

STCSA awarded Jamila’s plays Immaculate and How to Eat Rabbit, with Griffin Theatre Company also awarding How to Eat Rabbit.

Accessibility and joyful rigour inform Jamila’s practice. Jamila graduated from the Acting program at Adelaide College of the Arts in 2018, holding a Bachelor of Arts in the Advanced Program for High Achievers (Drama and International Relations) from Flinders University. Jamila is a proud ambulatory wheelchair user.

Anne-Marie Peard

Anne-Marie Peard has been a theatre critic and arts writer since 2006. With a passion for supporting independent artists, she has written for mastheads, street press and online sites including The Age/Sydney Morning Herald, Time Out, Arts Hub, The Music and Witness, and is a regular guest on radio RRR.

Her blog called Sometimes Melbourne was the longest-running theatre blog in Melbourne, but @SometimeMelbourne hangs on Instagram these days.

Anne-Marie also works as a freelance editor; teaches journalism, cultural criticism, editing, and professional writing; and sits on theatre judging panels including the Melbourne Green Room and Melbourne Fringe awards. Before becoming a writer, she spent many years working at arts festivals around Australia.

She has a BA (Arts Management), a Diploma of Professional Writing and Editing, and an Advanced Diploma of Professional Screenwriting.

Lauren Swain

Lauren Swain is a proud Dabee Wiradjuri person also with mixed settler heritage. She grew up in a rural town in the mountains of Ngarigo Country (Cooma, NSW), and is now based in the big smoke of Naarm (Melbourne).

Lauren’s upbringing in a small town, underpins a multidisciplinary arts practice grounded in community consciousness, care and working with what you’ve got. Lauren has spent many days building imaginary worlds in the back paddock, rummaging through the recycling bin for costume materials and putting on theatre shows in the lounge room with her cousins (little did Lauren know this would be the foundations of their practice as a theatre maker for years to come).

Lauren is an artist with Polyglot Theatre Co, Bloomshed Theatre Co and associate artist with Pummel Squad.

Lauren can be found teaching devising skills at the VCA in the Theatre making course or facilitating workshops with young people in schools and community arts programs.

Yvonne Virsik

As a freelance director, Yvonne has worked with Malthouse, MTC, La Mama, fortyfivedownstairs, Theatre in Decay, Red Stitch and St. Martins.

She is a VCA Grad and was part of the inaugural Women Directors' Program at MTC. Yvonne is the Artistic Director of MUST, or Monash Uni Student Theatre, where she has produced nearly two hundred productions and directed pieces such as Spring Awakening the musical, Declan Greene’s BOG & Laugh Out Loud, and Macbeth; and has mentored hundreds of brilliant young theatre makers, many of whom are now creating exciting work in the sector.

Her directing credits include Margaret Atwood's The Handmaids' Tale, Bucket's List by Sarah Collins, (Touring Award Melbourne Fringe); Darragh Martin's An Air Balloon Across Antarctica for Edinburgh Fringe; Adam Cass’ I Love You, Bro, (Malthouse & UK); and David Finnigan’s Kill Climate Deniers.

Yvonne is a recipient of the Geoffrey Milne Award – a special Green Room Award for Outstanding Contribution to Independent Theatre.

Guy Webster

Guy Webster is an academic living on unceded Wurundjeri land. His work has appeared in Textual Practice, Cambridge Quarterly, The Conversation, Cambridge Review of Books, British Modernist Association. He is currently in his third year of doctoral research at The University of Melbourne, researching conceptions of fear in the early 20th century and their function in the work of Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, May Sinclair and Mary Butts.

He is Resident Arts Tutor at St Hilda's College, Co-Editor of Platform Journal and in 2022 was Vice-President of the Culture and Communication Graduate Committee (CCGC). Outside of his academic pursuits, Guy is an avid theatre reviewer, writing for Australian Book Review, Time Out Melbourne, Limelight Arts Magazine and Australian Arts Review. His non-fiction essays have also appeared in Overland, Kill Your Darlings, Metro Magazine and The Suburban Review.

David Williams

David Williams has worked extensively as a performer, writer, director, researcher, dramaturg, producer, mechanist and flyman.

He was the founder of version 1.0 and co-created and produced all of the company's work from 1998-2012, including CMI, The Wages Of Spin, This Kind Of Ruckus, The Disappearances Project, Deeply Offensive And Utterly Untrue, and The Bougainville Photoplay Project. His works have toured extensively, and have won Helpmann, Green Room and Drovers’ Awards. He holds a PhD from UNSW, was the Curator of ATF2015, and is currently the director of Alternative Facts.

Recent works include IS SHAKESPEARE IN THIS MOVIE?, Democracy Sausage, Quiet Faith, Grace Under Pressure (co-written with Paul Dwyer), Smaller, and Smurf In Wanderland. Grand Theft Theatre, his collaboration with Pony Cam, was awarded Best Theatre at the 2022 Melbourne Fringe Awards and played at the 2024 Adelaide Festival.

Georgie Wolfe

Georgie is a Melbourne-based lighting designer. She is a graduate of Monash University’s Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science with interests in how theatremaking and science can interact. Alongside her practice as a lighting designer, she is a freelance director, technician, sound and set designer. Her recent lighting credits include Blackrock (Platform Arts), Treats (Fever 103), Thigh Gap (La Mama), Half Steam Ahead (The Butterfly Club), Q (La Mama), Wood Wide Web (Barking Spider Visual Theatre, ArtPlay), Pink Matter (Dancehouse), Daydream (Motley Bauhaus, MICF), Love of the Nightingale (Theatreworks, Fringe Replanted), The Bachelor S17 E05 (Mechanics Institute), Death Match (Monash Uni, Malthouse) and The Drill (Women’s Circus). She is passionate about creating a more sustainable theatre practice while pushing the boundaries of the role that technical design can play in the creation of new works.