
Our People
Our Patron

Dr Liz Jones, AO
DR LIZ JONES, AO has worked as a performance artist at La Mama with the ensemble led by
Lloyd Jones continuously since 1973. She has also worked extensively with a
number of directors and ensembles including Ariette Taylor, Suzanne Chaundy,
Humphrey Bower, Mammad Aidani, David Pledger and NYID, Margaret Cameron
and Aphids, Emma Valente and The Rabble, Samara Hersch and Bagryana
Popov.
In 2009 she commenced working on The Minutes of Evidence Project
(Coranderrk) with writers Giordano Nani and Andrea James, and director Rachel
Maza and Ilbijerri Indigenous Theatre Company as a performer. This toured until
2015. She commenced work in Albury (Hothouse Residency) with Alicia Talbot on
her youth project Night Vision which culminated in a Bundanon Residency
involving local Koori/Shoalhaven youth as part of the Siteworks Festival 2016.
Since 2014 she has worked with Bagryana Popov in the ‘Uncle Vanya-in-
Residence Project’ in regional Victoria which in 2018 included a residency and
performance at Bundanon and participation in the 2019 Adelaide Festival. She
performed in Sex and Death directed by Samara Hersch in the Festival of Live Art
(2019) Darwin Festival (2020) and Adelaide Festival(2022)
In 1995 Liz was awarded the 1994 Kenneth Myer Medallion for the Performing
Arts. In 2000 she was awarded the Sidney Myer “Facilitator’s” Award and in 2001
Liz received the Green Room Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2002 she was
placed on The Victorian Women’s Honour Roll and in 2008 received the Dorothy
Crawford AWGIE for her contribution to playwriting. She received the 2018
Australia Council Award for Theatre and in 2019 was presented with The Sue
Natrass Award by Live Performance Australia.
On March 31st 2023 Liz stood down as Artistic Director and CEO of La Mama.

INTRODUCING OUR PRESIDENT
Anton Berezin (he/him)
Anton Berezin is an Australian actor, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. Berezin is best known for his roles in over 25 commercial musical theatre productions such as THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, EVITA, SWEENEY TODD, WICKED, THE PRODUCERS, CABARET, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF and CATS. His film and Television work credits include NEWTON’S LAW, THE DIVORCE, JACK IRISH: BLACK TIDE and MISS FISHER’S MURDER MYSTERIES. He has been a prolific producer of Musical Theatre and Family Theatre through Life Like Touring, a production house he established in 1998 with his wife, actress and writer, Theresa Borg. Berezin is an Ashkenazi Jew, born in Leningrad in the former Soviet Union and arrived in Melbourne in 1976, at the age of 3, as a refugee. Berezin speaks fluent Russian and learned his ancestral language, Yiddish, as an adult.

Executive Committee


Dean Drieberg (he/him)
Vice President

Weng Yi Wong (she/her)
Secretary

Emily Harvey (she/her)
Treasurer
Life Members

1993 Blair Edgar OAM
(founding member)
1993 Steven Tandy(founding member)
1994 Irene Mitchell (1905 - 1995)1994 Lady Pamela Travers (1899 - 1996)
1995 Lady ‘Viola’ Tait AM (1911 - 2002)
1996 Pamela Ruskin (1920 - 2010)
1996 Anne Fraser
2000 Frank van Straten OAM
2001 Paul Hammond FRAD OAM (1922 - 2010)
2008 Geoffrey Milne (1945 - 2013)
2011 Mark Williams
2013 Martin Croft
2013 Will Conyers
2016 Chris Thompson
2017 Chris Boyd
Past Presidents

1983-1985 Steven Tandy
1985-1990 Prof. John Rickard
1990-1994 Hugo Leschen
1994-1999 Beverly Dunn
2000-2002 Rob Meldrum
2002-2005 Will Conyers
2005-2010 Dr Mark Williams
2010-2011 Richard Watts
2011-2012 Tim Stitz
2012-2015 Chris Thompson
2016-2020 Prof. Hilary Glow
2021-2022 Eugyeene Teh and Sapidah Kian