Connor Reidy is a South Australian director and theatre maker. He graduated with first class Honours in Directing at the Flinders University Drama Centre. His directing credits include pool (no water), BC, Control, Iphigenia in Orem, The Seagull, and Lungs (Flinders DC).
In 2016, Connor underwent a playwriting mentorship with Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP). In 2021, Connor co-founded The CRAM Collective, a South Australian independent theatre company. His credits for CRAM include NEW WORLD COMING and Anna Barnes’ Something Big. CRAM is the proud recipient of the 2022 Helpmann Academy Creative Innovator seed funding.
Connor’s professional assistant directing credits include Lines and The Bleeding Tree (Theatre Republic), Oleanna (Flying Penguin Productions), and The Normal Heart, Prima Facie and Hibernation (STCSA). Connor recently directed Emily Steel’s The Worst as part of Theatre Republic’s Future:Present 2.0 and Proud for Famous Last Words.
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Henry Cooper is a South Australian actor who has recently graduated from the Flinders Drama Centre. During his time at the Drama Centre, Henry had the opportunity to portray a diverse range of characters. These include: Peer Gynt in Gynt: After Henrik Ibsen (Dir. Nescha Jelk), Demetrius, Starveling and Peaseblossom in William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Nights Dream (Dir. Tom Healey), Joseph in Rita Kalnejais’ B.C (Dir. Connor Reidy), Hamlet (Dir. James Wardlaw), Roland in Nick Payne’s Constellations (Dir. Tom Healey), Kulygin in Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters (Dir. James Healey) and Dionysus in Euripides’ Bacchae (Dir. James Wardlaw). Through his time studying, Henry also developed a keen interest in devised theatre and hopes to further pursue this area.
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Elvy-Lee recently graduated from the Flinders University Drama Centre in 2022 with a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Honours). Elvy-Lee’s professional theatre debut was as Mei in Single Asian Female for the State Theatre Company of South Australia. She also starred in Elena Carapetis’ short film Blame the Rabbit ahead of pursuing her acting career in theatre, film and television. Elvy-Lee is eager to create passionate, socially and politically charged work, and further her artistry delving into diverse and inclusive projects.
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Praise Mangena is an up and coming full time artist trained in event organization, sketching, dance, creative writing, poetry and modeling. Praise has organized multiple successful social events with Adverse Reign (2022-) and has worked with SANAA Festival and FESHENE, curating music. She specializes in contemporary afro-fusion dance influenced by South-East African traditional movement and most notably to date, has performed at WOMADelaide (2022), SANAA Festival (2022/23) and at TheFinestFilth during the 2023 Fringe Festival. Praise has also been actively involved as co-director, producer and writer in the development of ‘Unheard’- a multidisciplinary collective that showcased stories of intersectionality in 2022 for the Adelaide Festival Centre In-Space Development Program. Currently, Praise is working on her writing and recently had the opportunity to showcase her work at the open-mic event Soul Lounge as a feature where she incorporated dance with poetry.
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Evyenia “Jennifer” Stefanidis is a multidisciplinary Greek-Australian artist working on Kaurna Country, South Australia. An alum of the Flinders University Drama Centre, she continued her collaborative, ensemble-based practice as a member of Slingsby’s Flying Squad. In 2022, Jennifer undertook a directorial secondment with State Theatre Company South Australia on Antigone, for which she performed various offstage roles before stepping in as an understudy. Evyenia finalised her work with Slingsby Theatre in The River That Ran Uphill, as part of the 2023 Adelaide Festival and Slingsby’s By Request program, touring metropolitan, rural and regional South Australia. She is enthusiastic to join Patch Theatre’s Spark program as a Glow & Tell creator and performer, as well as for her collaboration with The CRAM Collective on THE FUTURE IS YOU. Her recent credits include The River That Ran Uphill, This Tree is a Story (Slingsby Theatre), The Seagull (Dir. Connor Reidy) and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. (Dir. Anthony Nicola).
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Kate Burgess is an Adelaide College of the Arts Graduate, completing her Honours of Creative Arts (Dance) in 2022 and Bachelor of Creative Arts (Dance) in 2021. Kate has studied a range of multidisciplinary subjects, however found a strong interest in Euro crash tumbling, dance on film, capoeira-inspired movement, classical ballet technique and contemporary dance technique. She is drawn to inspiration from a variety of different art forms including visual art, film and physical theatre; to create original, hybridised works. Her Honours choreographic work “THAT’S AMORE.” 2022 was a combination of dance theatre and five short films.
Since graduating Kate has hit the ground running, being one of three Co-founders of Adelaide's newest Collective "ALCHEMY DANCE COLLECTIVE '' alongside Caroline De Wan and Hanna Instrell-Walker. Bringing Alchemy's debut performance to Adelaide Fringe in 2023, "SOUL & DEJA VU" as both performer in Soul By Hanna Instrell-Walker and Director of Deja Vu. Alchemy was also accepted into the Helpmann class of 2023 for the Creative Innovator, and is co-curator for “TRILOGY FILM FEST” supported by Goodwood Theatre and Sponsored by Bacardi.
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Alix Kuijpers is a multidisciplinary dance based artist with a passion for queer centered performance work, sound design and experimental dance theatre. The award winning choreographer has been celebrated for their multiple choreographic works including i know the end, IMMATERIAL and Cowl and is currently a sharehouse resident at Carclew. Kuijpers most recently has completed time overseas performing in Jacob Jonas's Mind Cry at Orsolina 28 and Annamari Keskinen & Ryan Mason's Particle Accelerator at B12 research or die.
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Since graduating from Drama Centre and entering the industry, James Starbuck has dived into a wide variety of projects. From acting in short films, physical theatre and motion capture to writing and developing upcoming projects with artists overseas, James is making a name for himself as a versatile performer for all mediums of storytelling.
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2020 Honours Graduate from the Flinders University Drama Centre; Ren Williams (she/her) is an Actor, Writer, Director and Film-maker and co-founder of CRAM Collective, creating work on Kaurna Yerta.
Through her writing, Ren recently won the 2021 Award for State Theatre Company SA’s Young Playwrights Competition for her play ‘Modified’, after her play ‘Touch’ won a merit in the competition in 2020. In August 2021, Ren worked with Under the Microscope with their interactive theatre development of ‘Guthrak’; and with Kinetik Collective’s development of ‘Kill Climate Deniers’ by David Finnigan, which will be part of STCSA’s StateSide program in 2022.
Making her Stage Directing debut in November 2021, Ren was thrilled to have directed Deadset Theatre Company’s production of Lachlan Philpott’s ‘Truck Stop’.
Ren’s film-making has won multiple awards over the last four years at the Adelaide 48 Hour Film Project; her 2018 film ‘Andii’ winning Best Film, taking it to Filmapalooza in Orlando Florida. This has led to Ren co-founding her new film company ‘Error Squared Productions’ which has recently released their 2021 film ‘INGÉNUE’, winning her the title of this years Best Actress.
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Melissa Pullinger is an actor, deviser and creative, and is a 2020 Honours graduate of Flinders University Drama Centre. Growing up in England, Melissa appeared in the Andrew Lloyd Webber production of The Sound of Music (2008) at the London Palladium, where she played Brigitta Von Trapp for six months. Upon emigrating to Adelaide, Melissa performed in Border Project’s Disappearance (2008) and then Windmill Theatre and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s Granpa (2008), whilst being extensively involved in an array of theatre groups.
Melissa has starred in and been on the production team of various award-winning short films. She is a founding member of the 48hr Film Project team, The Dee Cees, later rebranded as Error Squared Productions, who have won multiple awards, including Best Film in the Adelaide competition with their film ANDII (2018). With this film, they went on to win a further award at Orlando’s international Filmapalooza. Melissa was Production Manager, co-created and starred in the feature film, The Garden (Dir. Aarod Vawser).
Since graduating, Melissa has toured with Perform! Education in their Book Week Tours in 2021 and 2022. In 2021, Melissa co-founded The CRAM Collective and has produced and starred in NEW WORLD COMING (2021) and the world premiere of Anna Barnes’ Something Big (2022). In 2022, Melissa travelled to England after being selected to be part of Frantic Assembly’s International Summer School. In the 2022 and 2023 Adelaide Fringe season, Melissa was the Schools Program Coordinator, and she also teaches at True North Youth Theatre Ensemble and True Ability. Melissa is a proud member of MEAA and RUMPUS. Melissa was recently part of Illuminate Adelaide, puppeteering a crab with Slingsby and Blanck Canvas, and has now joined the American tour of Bluey’s Big Play for the next six months, where she will be puppeteering Bingo.
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