Artist+Biogs

Jane Woollard is a director and playwright. Since her early explorations in student theatre at Melbourne University in the 1980s, and since graduating from the VCA Directors Course in 1987, Jane has directed productions for La Mama, St Martins Youth Arts Centre, Barnstorm Theatre, RMIT Union Arts, Victorian College of the Arts, the Victorian Arts Centre, Theatre of Spheres and Mainstreet Theatre SA. Jane has lived and worked in regional Victoria and South Australia, and has generated work in communities with young people, the elderly and with children. Alongside her work in community Jane has continued her practice as a director and writer of innovative Australian theatre. She has been the recipient of funding from state and federal arts bodies, as well as philanthropic trusts (Harold Mitchell, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, The Myer Foundation) for projects ranging from writing for upper secondary audiences, through to cross art- form projects that engage with archaic material. From 1999-2002 Jane was Artistic Director at Union House Theatre at the University of Melbourne. In this role Jane worked as a mentor with many emerging writers, performers, designers and directors. In 2003 Jane founded Here Theatre with Amanda Johnson, Kit Lazaroo and Colin James. Works by the company include: //Aelfgyva// by Jane Woollard (2003 Melbourne Autumn Music Festival); //True Adventures of a Soul Lost at Sea// by Kit Lazaroo (RE Ross Award, 2005 Trades Hall); //The Time is not yet Ripe// by Louis Esson, (Winner GRAA Best Ensemble, 2006 Northcote Town Hall); //Asylum// by Kit Lazaroo (Wal Cherry Play of the Year, Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards Shortlist, 2007 & 2008 La Mama); and //Letters from Animals// by Kit Lazaroo (Storeroom Theatre Workshop 2007.) //Asylum// and //The Time is not yet Ripe// were both selected for the 2008 VCE Playlist and had successful return seasons at La Mama. From 2006-09 Jane was commissioned by an grief support agency of the Uniting Church to create ‘Prophet and Loss’, a theatrical production exploring stories of those bereaved by work-related death. Jane is presently writing and directing the documentary film that tells the story of making ‘Prophet and Loss’. Jane has also been working as dramaturg with Kit Lazaroo on her new script //Topsy//, which received a 2007 RE Ross Award. Jane is Co-ordinator of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program at Montmorency Primary School. In this role she teaches the students the art and science of gardening, and ensures that the weekly classes engage with and support VELS.
 * Director: Jane Woollard **
 * Designer: Tanja Beer **
 * Tanja graduated from the University for Music and Dramatic Arts in Graz, Austria with an MA in Stage Design (First Class Honours) under the professorship of Hans Schavernoch. She subsequently completed a Graduate Diploma in Animateuring/Performance Making at The Victorian College of the Arts, and has worked extensively over the last ten years as a designer, director, performance maker, and teacher in Australia and oversees. **


 * In Brisbane, Tanja has designed set and costumes for The Queensland Theatre Company, Expressions Dance Company, Circa, Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts, Vulcana Women’s Circus, Kite Children’s Theatre, State Library of Queensland, Queensland Arts Council, Real TV Project, Backbone Youth Arts and Contact Inc. In Melbourne, Tanja’s work includes designs for the 2001 Melbourne International Arts Festival, The Melbourne Museum, NICA (National Institute of Circus Arts), Westside Circus, La Mama Theatre, The Torch Project, The Geelong Youth Arts Centre, Platform Youth Arts, as well as direction for the 2007 Melbourne International Arts Festival, The Store Room and St Martins Theatre of Youth. **


 * Over the last few years, Tanja has been increasingly involved in a number of indigenous projects in Brisbane and Melbourne, working closely with Aboriginal communities to help develop stories through three dimensional design and performance. **

[|www.tanjabeer.com] Anne O’Keeffe is a teacher, choreographer and performer with a B.Ed in Dance and Drama (Deakin University, 1983) and a Grad. Dip. of Choreography (V.C.A, 1997). She has worked as a freelance artist for the past 21 years, creating work for the Victorian Arts Centre, Australian Choreographic Centre, Dancehouse and numerous theatre groups and community events. As Artistic Director of her company SIRENSONG, Anne choreographed and performed in WALK ON WATER (2000), a dance theatre piece performed in and around water at the Melbourne City Baths. Her first full-length solo, SEX AND DEATH, was then performed over two seasons at Chapel Off Chapel in 2002/3. Anne teaches Movement to Actors at the National Theatre Drama School and Ballarat University and Improvisation and Composition to dancers at Victorian College of the Arts and the National Theatre Ballet School. With a passion for improvisation, Anne has performed at Movement Research, (N.Y) Rushing for the Sloth (Sydney), Conundrum (Melbourne), Cracking it Open (Melbourne), the Women’s Night (Melbourne) Precipice (Canberra), and Out of the Ordinary, an event she also curated. This interest also led her to create her own improvisation classes called Alchemy: from Impulse to Expression, which she teaches at Dancehouse, Danceworks and Cecil St Studios, Melbourne. At the heart of her teaching is a deep commitment to supporting students as they integrate inner life with outer expression, to achieve greater presence in performance. Emilie is a writer, performer and teacher. She has a Diploma in Professional Writing and Editing from RMIT. She performs and teaches regularly with Impro Melbourne and has studied impro in the USA and with a variety of international teachers. As well as being a teaching artist with the Victorian Arts Centre she is also an artist with the Arts Centre’s annual Chookahs program. She currently teaches creative writing and runs specialised script writing intensive workshops for VCE media and drama students. Emilie particularly loves teaching writing and story workshops with both primary and secondary level students. She also teaches drama and impro skills and enjoys devising new works with students. Emilie has received support from the Australia Council for the Arts, Arts Victoria, Varuna Writers’ Centre, the Ian Potter Foundation, the ANPC, Playworks, Playbox (now The Malthouse) and MTC. She has also won awards and had published her fiction, non-fiction, reviews and poetry. Emilie is currently writing a book about arts and culture in Australia for upper primary/lower secondary students (Binara Publishing), a community theatre history project about the Kensington Neighbourhood House and an Australia Council funded radio play about the work of WW2 nurse Muriel Knox Doherty. Emilie Collyer has had over fourteen plays produced for theatre and radio. These include //Hover// (ABC Radio National Airplay 2005, Short-listed Malcolm Robertson Award 2001), //Promise// (Winner George Fairfax Award 2000, Commended Patrick White Award 2000) and //Argonauta// (Winner Young Playwrights’ Award 1997). Gillian Howell is a musician, composer and facilitator, working with groups from diverse backgrounds, ages, and abilities, to create original music and music-theatre. She works in a freelance capacity with schools and arts groups throughout Victoria, and is the Creative Director of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Community Outreach Program, a program of creative projects that teams young people with musicians from the MSO as collaborators and fellow performers. Gillian Howell studied clarinet at the Victorian College of the Arts and completed postgraduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, as a member of the performance group the Guildhall Ensemble, in the Department of Performance and Communication Skills. She undertook further studies in clarinet and chamber music at the European Mozart Academy, Poland, at the Kodaly Institute, Hungary, and with esteemed clarinet professor Hans Deinzer in Italy. She spent a year working with the international development agency War Child, directing creative music projects for young people in post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina and the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. Gillian’s recent artist residencies include Collingwood English Language School (for The Song Room).; Grimwade House (with Musica Viva’s Composer in the Classroom program); Debney Meadows Primary School; and Furlong Park School for Deaf Children. Recent commissions and collaborations include //Collisions//, co-production between MSO and Rawcus (Melbourne International Arts Festival 2005); //Common Ground//, commissioned music for the opening of ArtPlay Children’s Arts Centre (2004); sound artist for the //Settled and Unsettled: A view from the highrise// installation at the Immigration Museum with film-maker Rick Randall and photographer Jen Ritchie-Jones; //Hidden// creative development, Courthouse Youth Theatre.
 * Tanja is currently a teaching artist with The Arts Centre and the Malthouse Theatre, and lectures at RMIT University. **
 * Dance: Anne O’Keefe **
 * Drama/Writing: Emilie Collyer **
 * Music: Gillian Howell **