Theatre Companies

Panel Chair

Lisa Mibus (Panel Chair)

Lisa Mibus is a Melbourne based Lighting Designer and has worked extensively in independent and mainstage theatre. In 2015 she was nominated for the Green Room Awards in two categories, receiving the award for Lighting Design: Independent Theatre for My Lovers Bones (Brown Cab Productions/Melbourne Festival).

Some of her design credits include; Boy at the Edge of Everything, Yellow Moon, Beached, Music, The Heretic, Helicopter, Return to Earth, Australia! The Show!, Ruby Moon (Melbourne Theatre Company), Normal Suburban Planetary Meltdown, The Orchid and the Crow (Malthouse Theatre), Grief and the Lullaby, Virgins and Cowboys (Theatreworks), Echo (UHT), The Nest (The Hayloft Project), The Drowning Girls (Turtle Lab), Colour of Glass (LaMama), War Crimes (Real TV), Big Sky Town (The Arts Centre/St Martins), Three Dog Night (Adelaide Festival Centre/Two Blue Cherries), Noye’s Fludde (Victorian Opera), Oasis, Oasis (45 Downstairs), and Il Re Pastore (Lyric Opera).

Lisa has a strong interest in the creation of new work and was co-deviser for My Lovers Bones (Brown Cabs Productions/Melbourne Festival) and Closed for Maintenance (LaMama). Lisa Mibus is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts.

Panellists

Aljin Abella

A 2006 acting graduate of NIDA, Aljin's career spans across film, television, animation, theatre, musical theatre, motion capture and voiceover work both nationally and across the globe.

Selected credits include Aladdin; Frozen (Disney Theatrical), Anything Goes (Opera Australia), Shakespeare in Love; The Sapphires (MTC), The Temple; The Good Person of Szechuan (Malthouse), Grimm (Shake & Stir), Vietgone (Queensland Theatre), Monkey Journey to the West (Bell Shakespeare/Theatre of Image), La Cage Aux Folles (The Production Company), Together (Neon) The Artful Dodger (Disney+), Power Rangers Jungle Fury; Marco Polo; Ali's Wedding, Allen (Netflix), Offspring; Neighbours (Network 10), Fisk; The Dr Blake Mysteries (ABC), City Homicide, Blue Heelers (Channel 7).

Kris Bird

After completing a Bachelor of Architecture degree in Sydney, Kris worked in architecture, urban design and on large-scale urban sculpture projects. Practices included Architect Marshall, Architectus Sydney, Renato D'Ettorre Architects and Richard Goodwin Art and Architecture. After moving to Darwin in the Top End of Australia in 2009, Kris worked in design management on Indigenous Housing to scope, rebuild existing and develop new housing.

In 2010 while still working in the building industry, Kris began the transition into full-time set and costume design finding it a satisfying creative outlet and used all my skills in design, concept development, sketching, drafting, model making, painting, sculpting and building to create unique alluring worlds for telling stories and above all making moving experiences for audiences. Collaborating with directors, writers, other designers and the production crew came naturally having a love of ideas and then realising them.

Kris works with Darwin companies such as Brown’s Mart Theatre, Corrugated Iron Youth Theatre, Darwin Theatre Company, Knock-Em-Down Theatre, Salt Productions, Sanity Productions and Luminous Productions. The majority of these premier new Australian dramatic work such as Broken by Mary Anne Butler, Marbles by Kate Wyvill and Bastard Territory by Stephen Carleton.

Now living on the Mornington Peninsula on Boon Wurrung country in a cooler climate, Kris designs shows while teaching and mentoring design students at the Victorian College of the Arts at the University of Melbourne in Southbank.

Patricia Cornelius

Patricia Cornelius (she/her) is a founding member of Melbourne Workers Theatre. Patricia has a fierce commitment to class and her work often examines the lives of the marginalised. She’s a playwright, novelist, and film writer.

She has written over 35 plays including: My Sister Jill, Bad Boy, Runt, Anthem, In the Club, Shit, Big Heart, Savages, Do not go gentle…, Slut, Love and The Call. Patricia wrote the adaption of SHIT for film and co-wrote the feature film adaptation, Blessed. Patricia’s novel, My Sister Jill (Random House) was published in 2002.

Cornelius is the recipient of the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, the Mona Brand Award, and the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards. Her prizes for stage work include the 2011 Victorian and NSW Premiers’ Literary Awards, the Patrick White Playwright’s Award, the Richard Wherrett Prize, the Wal Cherry Award and numerous AWGIES for stage, community theatre, theatre for young people. She won the prestigious Australian Writers Foundation Playwriting Award in 2015 as well as the Patrick White Fellowship (2012), and a Fellowship from the Australia Council’s Theatre Board. Patricia has won the AWGIE Major Award three times.

Romanie Harper

Romanie is a designer living on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nations.

Recent design credits include What Am I Supposed to Do? and Equinox (Deep Souful Sweats), Australian Realness, Trustees, Good Muslim Boy, Little Emperors and Turbine (Malthouse), The Violent Outburst That Drew Me To You (MTC), Die! Die! Die! Old People Die!, We All Know Whats Happening and Never Trust A Creative City (Arts House), Contest and Moral Panic (Darebin Speakeasy, 2018), Bottomless, This Is Eden, Resident Alien and Triumph (fortyfivedownstairs), Desert 6.29pm, Jurassica and Splendour (Red Stitch) Conviction (ZLMD Shakespeare, 2016), M+M (Daniel Schlusser Ensemble), The Sovereign Wife (Sisters Grimm, NEON), The Judgement (LaMama) META (Malthouse Helium), The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant and Bright World (Theatre Works), and Madonna Arms (Next Wave). In New York she has worked with The Wooster Group, and co-designed Radiohole’s Inflatable Frankenstein (The Kitchen, 2013). She has co-directed and designed The Collected Works of Victor Bergman (Fortyfivedownstairs, 2014) by The Family, and Calamity (NEON 2015) by ZLMD Shakespeare.

Jade Hibbert

Jade is a South African Theatre Maker, Writer, Stage Manager, and award-winning Violinist, Dancer, and Actor. Having been in the performing arts for most of her life, she came to Melbourne in April of 2023 to further her career and is currently studying a bachelor of performing Arts [Stage Management] at Collarts. Jade has been playing violin since the age of five, playing in the Simfonia Juventi orchestra, and performing in various showcases and events across the country, being mostly known for her unique combination of contemporary violin pieces and dance. She has been trained in dance styles such as Ballet, Spanish, Contemporary, Musical Theatre, and Jazz.

In South Africa, her work as an actor includes: Prins van die Towerfluit, Bloed-Nyl, Krop, and Boksie. As well as competing and winning awards in the South African Championships of Performing Arts in various genres.

Since coming to Australia, she has embraced more work as a Stage Manager and lighting and sound operator. Recent works include Prisoner At The World's End, La Belle Epoque, and DREDGE. She also worked as an Assistant Stage Manager and operator on The Roof Is Caving In, and PIPER.

Isobel Morphy-Walsh

Isobel Morphy-Walsh, a proud Nirim Baluk Woman from the Taun Wurrung (Taungurung) people. She is a lover of anecdote, an artist, an activist, an educator and weaver.

Isobel has spent her life working with her community and culture with a particular emphasis on history and its relevance to today. For the last three years, Isobel has worked inside museums with Victorian First Peoples histories, stories and cultures.

Michele Perera

Michelle Perera (She/Her) is a Green Room Award nominated Sri Lankan-Australian Actor, Broadcaster, Journalist, Voice Artist and Arts Advocate with a Specialised Degree in English / English Literature and has been involved in theatre for over 30 years.

Michelle’s recent stage credits include Rodeo Ruth/Officer (RUMBLESKIN, Dirty Pennies Theatre Co 2025), Olivia (St Kilda Tales, Victorian Theatre Co 2025), Mahla/Toni (Werewolf, Arts Centre 2024), Ruby (In the Club, Theatreworks 2023), Calpurnia/Clitus (Julius Caesar, Melbourne Shakespeare Co 2023), Sharleen (This is Living, Malthouse 2023), Possum Lady (Lemon Tree On Dreg Street, Dirty Pennies Theatre Co 2023), Elena (And She Would Stand Like This, Antipodes Theatre Co 2021) and Sy (Guerilla Sabbath, La Mama 2021).

Michelle has also had roles in the short films End Pointe (St Kilda Film Festival) and Call me Puritan (Flickerfest), as well as the TV series Fake (Paramount+).

Amy Sole

Amy Sole is a proud Wiradjuri/Worimi person. Amy is a playwright, director, actor, dramaturg, producer and advocate. They are Creative Associate at Ilbijerri Theatre Company and a recent graduate of MFA (Directing) at NIDA and hold a Master of Theatre (Playwriting) from VCA. Recent works for theatre include Benched (director, Darlinghurst Theatre Company); Burning (writer/director, NIDA); Nan's Place (writer, Ilbijerri Theatre Company); Doing (writer/director, Kings Cross Theatre). Amy regularly directs developments of new works, most recently Phoebe Grainer’s Sugarcane for the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award and Dylan Ven Den Berg’s way back when at Darlinghurst Theatre Company. They have worked as assistant director on God's Country, Metamorphoses (NIDA); and RENT (Sydney Opera House). They are also Creative Director of Big Blak Bang, a festival of First Nations storytelling and Artist-in-Residence at Darlinghurst Theatre Company, Co-Founder of Puddle or Pond Theatre Company, and a sitting Co-Chair of the Equity Diversity Committee.

Zoë Barry

ZOË BARRY is a composer, cellist, sound artist, performance maker and educator. She creates across site specific installation, galleries, film, immersive theatre, digital space and chamber music. She is drawn to creating ways to gather, ways to connect, and intuitive meaning-making. Her practice is devised, collaborative, relational and aesthetic. Her work explores liminal spaces, disturbance, atmospherics, intuition, slowness, and amplification of quiet voices.

Zoë completed a B Mus in Ethnomusicology and cello performance at the University Of Adelaide, and spent her twenties performing baroque and experimental repertoire, and playing in bands. Drawn to composing for theatre, her practice developed into devised, collaborative performance making, as a performer, director and composer. She cofounded theatre company Ladykillers, and developed longstanding collaborative relationships with theatre companies including Patch Theatre, Restless Dance Theatre, Sandpit, Brink and Drop Bear Theatre. Upon relocating to Melbourne Zoë became a Teaching Artist with The Song Room and Arts Centre Melbourne, and her creative practice and teaching practice continued to develop and inform one another.