Incubator Fellowship

Eve Beck (Fellowship Recipient)

Eve Beck is a director and creative producer for theatre and screen, and a founding member of theatre company BITE Productions. She seeks to present work that explores contemporary feminism, politics and challenging class structures in Australia and is continually looking to experiment with form. Eve has been working in the independent theatre sector across Australia for the last five years directing works at venues including NIDA, Theatre Works (Melbourne), Kings X Theatre, the Old 505, Giant Dwarf, Perth and Sydney Fringe Festivals. She has directed two short films for independent production houses and a music video for Melbourne hip-hop artist IJALE, to be premiered on ABC’s Rage. Eve has also worked as a creative producer in immersive events, directing and producing installations across Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland. Eve has studied at the Atlantic Acting School NYC (Summer Program), and holds a Bachelor of Communications (Theatre/Media) from Charles Sturt University, where she was awarded the Blair Milan Touring Scholarship for the direction her graduating production INJEST. She is a tutor at Australian Theatre for Young People and was shortlisted for the Rose Byrne Leadership Scholarship in 2020. Eve is currently finishing her Masters of Fine Arts (Directing) at NIDA.

Kirsty Marillier (Shortlisted)

Kirsty Marillier is a South African actor and award-winning playwright. She is currently a part of the Emerging Writers Group at Sydney Theatre Company and has two original plays in development. Her first work—Orange Thrower—was produced by Griffin and Riverside’s National Theatre of Parramatta in 2022, and was the winner of the 2019 Rodney Seaborn Playwrights Award. Her second play—The Zap—was the winner of the 2020 Max Afford Playwrights Award and was developed with Playwriting Australia and Darlinghurst Theatre Company’s Next In Line program. Kirsty has been a part of multiple creative programs including Griffin Studio (2020), Sydney Theatre Company’s Rough Draft Program (2019) and Malthouse Theatre’s Besen Writers Group (2018). In addition to being an award-winning writer, she is an accomplished performer, having starred in the Australian premiere of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Cherry Orchard at Belvoir, Home I’m Darling at Sydney Theatre Company, and Coma Land at Black Swan State Theatre Company. Her acting credits in film and television include Home and Away (Seven Network), The Greenhouse (Netflix) directed by Thomas Wilson-White, and Hook Up (MQFF) directed by Laura Nagy. Kirsty attended WAAPA, has a BA in Creative Writing/Performance Studies and is a proud member of MEAA.

‘Low Standards’—Jeremy and Bedelia Lowrenčev (Shortlisted)

Jeremy Lowrenčev is a proud deaf artist from Western Sydney, who is determined to intertwine the Australian Deaf Culture with the Australian Arts Culture. His passion for expression, creativity and messing with social norms is shown through his credits. Jeremy’s recent credits include ‘Scarecrow’ in HMDS’s production of The Wizard of Oz, and Dear Australia with Spark Youth Theatre as part of the Greenway EDGE festival. Previously, Jeremy took on the title role of ‘Sam Newton’ in the film, Illustrating Sam Newton, directed by the award-winning Lily Drummond. Realising the significant effect of playing one’s true self and owning your disability and identity, Jeremy strives for Deaf inclusion and authentic representation in theatre, film and cultural events.

Bedelia Lowrenčev is a groovy, disabled actor, dancer, singer and theatremaker. She is Artist in Residence at PYT Fairfield, and recipient of the Bundanon Trust Artist in Residence Program. Previously mentored by Anthea Williams, and presently mentored by Felicity Nicol, Bedelia is working crip time with her deaf twin brother Jeremy on their multidisciplinary work, Collision, exploring the intersection of queerness, disability and deafness. Studying a BA of Criminology and Social Sciences, Bedelia continues to work in social justice, undertaking leadership, advocacy and activism opportunities with SYNC Leadership, Front and Centre Leadership Program and working with Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA), including the Disability Royal Commission, and studies into transport discrepancy for disabled people. Recently, Bedelia choreographed her first solo dance work for BOLD Festival in affiliation with Dance Makers Collective, and was a collaborator in Riana Head-Toussaint’s work, Animate Loading at Pari. In her spare time, you can spy Bedelia singing and creating with The House That Dan Built, Spark Youth Ensemble, Dance Makers Collective and DirtyFeet.

Shahmen Suku (Shortlisted)

Shahmen Suku was born in 1987 in Singapore and arrived in Australia in 2009. He is a performance artist based in Sydney who explores ideas of racial, religious and cultural identity, gender roles, the home and the kitchen, food and storytelling. Growing up in a modern matriarchal Indian family in Singapore, Shahmen processed his sense of displacement from home as Radha, the Diva from India. Moving to Australia has given Shahmen multiple perspectives on migration, culture, race, colonisation and gender identity. He found discussing some of these issues openly easier as his alter ego Radha. Shahmen’s practice has been presented internationally and nationally at various exhibitions, events and TV programmes. 

Happy Feraren (Fellowship Recipient)

Happy Feraren is a Filipino actor and improviser based in Sydney with 14 years experience. She has performed in over 500 shows in a wide range of improvisational theatre formats both locally and internationally (including Manila, Sydney, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Chicago and New York). In the Philippines, she began as a presenter for national radio and television as well as live events, and was a supporting actor in the feature film My Candidate. She continues to be part of Asia’s premier improvisational group SPIT and the production team behind the biennial Manila Improv Festival, the largest in the region. In Sydney, she has performed in festivals such as Short and Sweet and the Sydney Fringe. She was the Artistic Director of improv training centre Laugh Masters Academy for two years and was selected as a participant for the CAAP Artist Lab year.

Tait de Lorenzo (Shortlisted)

Tait de Lorenzo is a director, writer and curator with a practice in new and multidisciplinary performance, making work under KUNST. She is a graduate of NIDA’s MFA Directing course and holds a BCA in Film & Television Production. Tait has directed and curated work for Kaldor Public Art Projects, PACT Centre for Emerging Artists, King Kong Magazine, Sydney Chamber Opera, NIDA, triple j Unearthed, For Film’s Sake Festival, and The Aboriginal Centre for Performing Arts. She is currently a resident curator at PACT Centre for Emerging Artists, recently co-curating Queer live art event Crisis Actor alongside Ian Sinclair. Her recent directing credits include A Respectable Wedding after Bertolt Brecht (2019), DIANA (2018), Angel Face by imbi the girl (2018), Fabulous Friends (2018), Texture (2018), Private View by Václav Havel (2018), SPOOK-KIKI (2017), Oops, I Did It Again (2017), Jane Doe (2016) and Untucked (2015) which was the recipient of Best Documentary at The SMPTE Film Festival, Los Angeles. In 2021, she will adapt and direct HORSES for Belvoir 25A and But I’m a Cheerleader! for The Flying Nun by Brand X.

Charlotte Salusinszky (Shortlisted)

Charlotte Salusinszky is an emerging actor, writer and theatremaker. Charlotte graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2017 where she completed her Honours year in Theatre Practice. Her research culminated in This Body, My City, a devised solo performance. In February 2020, Charlotte presented Little Jokes in Times of War, a devised solo performance developed through Shopfront Arts Co-Op’s 2019/20 ArtsLab residency. Charlotte is an Artistic Director of the experimental theatre company, The Dig Collective. She is a member of Soothplayers: Completely Improvised Shakespeare, and an alumnus of Impro Melbourne. As a performer and co-devisor, Charlotte has worked with independent theatre companies across Sydney and Melbourne, co-devising Planning Atlantis (Grub Theatre), The Roar (Until Monstrous) and The Midnight Club (Talulah Theatre). This work has seen her perform in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Midsumma Festival, Melbourne Fringe Festival, Sydney Fringe Festival, Adelaide Fringe Festival, and the Australian Improv Festival. Her film and TV credits include Hayden and Peter (web series), Silent Comedy (Channel 31) and Fur Baby (short film), and her writing has also appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Eliza Jean Scott (Shortlisted)

Eliza Jean Scott is an interdisciplinary artist working across performance, drag, sound and film. The nature of their work is experimental, queer and intends to shift away from the conventional narrative. Their practice integrates technology and sound into live performance – through the use of loop pedals, live-feed and audio-trickery. Eliza is passionate about making work that is unafraid to investigate and represent non-binary voices. Their Drag King, Luke from IT, is used to dissect gender identity and dysphoria through comedy, clowning and some very serious lip-synching. Eliza graduated from Actors Centre Australia and has since trained with Force Majeure, Holly Mandel (The Groundlings) and Improv Theatre Sydney. In February 2021, Eliza presented pollon, an interdisciplinary solo performance developed through Shopfront Co-Op’s 2020/21 Artslab residency. Pollon explores the liminal space that exists in the gaps of remembering, and how sound and music hold the blind-spots in our memories. Eliza lives and works on Gadigal Land (Sydney). Sovereignty was never ceded.

Ang Collins (Fellowship Recipient)

Ang is an emerging playwright originally from Newcastle, NSW. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Languages) from the University of Sydney, and a Master of Fine Arts (Writing for Performance) from NIDA. Theatre credits include: as Playwright: for ATYP: Intersection 2017; for Bondi Feast: 24 Hour Party Playwright; for Bondi Feast/Griffin Theatre Company (Batch Festival)/Sotto/The Blue Room Theatre (Summer Nights): You’ve Got Mail; for Bontom/Red Line Productions at the Old Fitz: Chorus; for Griffin Theatre Company (Batch Festival)/Red Line Productions at the Old Fitz/ The Blue Room Theatre (Summer Nights): Blueberry Play; for Periscope Productions/Meat Market Stables: Huge Indoor Plant Warehouse Sale; for Q Theatre at the Joan Sutherland Theatre: Project Bestfriendship; and as Dramaturg: for Bondi Feast/Crack X Festival: MARS: An Interplanetary Cabaret; for NIDA: UBU; for Sotto/Old 505: SAFE. Ang has been shortlisted for the Griffin Award in 2017 and the Phillip Parsons Award in 2018, and her play MATE was awarded Highly Commended in Playwriting Australia’s Max Afford Award in 2018. In late 2018 she was the recipient of Create NSW’s Young Creative Leaders Fellowship, for which she wrote a new one-act play, Fruit Bat, in partnership with ATYP.

The Incubator Fellowship will provide Ang an opportunity to write a play about the climate crisis in Australia. Her program will consist of a self-directed research and drafting process, dramaturgical developments and a traveling research component to investigate theatre within the climate crisis.

Justice Jones (Shortlisted)

Justice Jones is a graduating MFA Directing student at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA). Prior to her studies at NIDA, she completed her Bachelor of Music, majoring in Voice Performance, at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She is currently the assistant director of Home, I’m Darling with Sydney Theatre Company and is the 2019 BBM Global Industry’s Drama Scholar. With an interest in music and opera, Justice recently directed a production of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci for the NIDA Festival of Emerging Artists and is currently directing a staged recital of Brahms’s and Granados’s  song cycles with The Song Company. As a director, Justice is passionate about diversity in theatre and believes that in 2020, it is important that the performing arts community continues to strive for inclusivity by providing platforms and opportunities for underrepresented voices.

The Incubator Fellowship will provide Justice with an opportunity to create a piece of theatre that explores the Middle Eastern immigrant experience by engaging with real stories from her own community and through international research in Germany, where a quarter of people have an immigrant background.

Frieda Lee (Shortlisted)

Before training as a theatremaker, Frieda worked for NGOs like UN Women, the Australian Human Rights Commission and the National Association of Community Legal Centres. She has an Arts/Law degree and a Masters of Human Rights. She graduated from WAAPA’s Bachelor of Performing Arts in 2016. In 2017, she worked with The Last Great Hunt to devise and perform in The Advisors (State Theatre Centre) and wrote and performed Bad Woman as part of 600 Seconds for Summer Nights. She was part of Black Swan State Theatre Company’s Emerging Writers Group and won the Malcolm Robertson Foundation prize for her play All His Beloved Children. In 2018, Frieda performed in A Ghost in My Suitcase with Barking Gecko Theatre Company at the Melbourne International Arts Festival and Improvement Club with The Last Great Hunt (State Theatre Centre). She wrote and directed The Inconsequential Lives of Little Fish at The Blue Room Theatre (nominated for five Performing Arts WA Awards). She won the PAWA Award for Best Actor in an Independent Production (Female). In 2019, she performed in A Ghost in My Suitcase for Sydney Festival and Perth Festival.

The Incubator Fellowship will provide Frieda an opportunity to focus on the development of her work All His Beloved Children, which is a playful, modern myth about sex, violence, depravity and the creator’s first children, as well as a homage to creation stories of world religions.

Claudia Osborne (Shortlisted)

Claudia Osborne is a director of theatre and performance. She makes and produces work under kleine feinheiten. Claudia has a Masters in Directing from NIDA. Since graduating, she has worked professionally with Sydney Theatre Company and Bell Shakespeare. Her directing credits include Delilah by the Hour (kleine feinheiten 2020), Homesick (Old 505 2019), The Lady or the Tiger (kleinefeinheiten 2019) LULU: A Modern Sex Tragedy (NIDA 2018), God is a DJ (NIDA 2018), The Library of Babel (kleinefeinheiten 2017), and HeySorryGottaGoBye (2016/2017), which she co-wrote. As Assistant Director: The Real Thing (Sydney Theatre Company 2019), Titus Andronicus (Bell Shakespeare 2019). In October, she will direct Destroy, She Said, and adaptation of the book and film by Marguerite Duras, for Belvoir 25A.

The Incubator Fellowship will provide Claudia with an opportunity to create work from a uniquely feminine perspective, that provides an in-depth psychological and physical exploration into representations of the female body, exploring dark and difficult themes relating to teenage girls and the idea of womanhood.