4000 MILES
By Amy Herzog
Directed by Kenneth Moraleda
Sydney Theatre Company acknowledges the Gadigal of the Eora nation who are the traditional custodians of the land and waters on which the Company gathers. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, and we extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with whom we work and with whom we share stories.
Welcome from Artistic Director, Mitchell Butel
The distance between us and those we love. The distance between our younger and older selves. The distance between what we hoped for and what arrived. And our gentle and constant attempts to bridge those divides. There are some pretty big questions at work in Amy Herzog’s beautifully tender, mischievously witty and emotionally penetrating Pulitzer Prize-nominated play.
It is a deep privilege to welcome you to this exquisite production from one of Sydney Theatre Company’s Resident Directors, Kenneth Moraleda.
It’s a similar privilege to welcome Australian theatre legend Nancye Hayes back to the Company. Nancye originated the role of Roxie Hart in the record-breaking premiere Australian production of Chicago for Sydney Theatre Company, directed by former Artistic Director, Richard Wherrett in 1981 and she has been dazzling audiences ever since with her great craft, heart and flair.
There are some pretty big questions at work in Amy Herzog’s beautifully tender, mischievously witty and emotionally penetrating Pulitzer Prize-nominated play.
It's a great personal delight to have been on The Wharf while Nancye has been rehearsing with her ferociously talented onstage colleagues – Shiv Palekar, Ariadne Sgouros, Shirong Wu and Valerie Bader. Nancye directed me in my first ever professional production in Sydney; the first musical I ever directed was at the Hayes Theatre, named in her honour; and the first show I directed as Artistic Director at State Theatre Company South Australia starred her. And I’ve been lucky to perform alongside her and bask in her unique glow in many productions. To sing Nancye’s praises in my first program note as Sydney Theatre Company’s new Artistic Director feels quite wonderful and perfectly full circle.
I think you’re going to exit the theatre after this show feeling quite wonderful too. Herzog’s exploration of intergenerational connection and empathy in the midst of challenge and change is such a beguiling tale and to witness the artistry of Kenneth, the actors, a superb design and support team and the expert makers of the Sydney Theatre Company’s workshop and wardrobe bring this production to life has been a joy.
Here's to many other joys in the theatre together in 2025 and beyond. Thank you for joining us on the ride.
Mitchell Butel
Artistic Director and Co-CEO
Sydney Theatre Company
Cast & Creative Team
Cast
Vera Joseph
Nancye Hayes
Leo Joseph-Connell
Shiv Palekar
Bec
Ariadne Sgouros
Amanda/Lily
Shirong Wu
Cover – Vera Joseph
Valerie Bader
Creative Team
Director
Kenneth Moraleda
Designer
Jeremy Allen
Lighting Designer
Kelsey Lee
Composer & Sound Designer
Jessica Dunn
Associate Designer
Emma White
Intimacy Coordinator
Chloë Dallimore
Voice & Text Coach
Charmian Gradwell
Production Team
Production Manager
Ryan Garreffa
Stage Manager
Sarah Smith
Assistant Stage Manager
Zoe Davis
Costume Coordinator
Sam Perkins
Backstage Wardrobe Supervisor
Simone Edwards
Wig & Hair Supervisor
Lauren A. Proietti
Lighting Supervisor
Tim McNaught
Lighting Programmer
Ethan Hamill
Lighting Operator
Sam Scott
Sound Supervisor
Ben Andrews
Staging Supervisor
Chris Fleming
Set Construction Supervisor
Boaz Shemesh
Props Supervisor
Leandro Sanchez
Scenic Art Supervisor
Ron Thiessen
Drafting
Andrew Powell
Rehearsal Photographer
Daniel Boud
1 hr 40 mins, no interval
This production is supported by STC Angels
4000 Miles was Originally Produced by Lincoln Center Theater in 2011, New York City
This production opened at Wharf 1 Theatre, Sydney on 7 February
4000 Miles is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc
www.concordtheatricals.com
Cast
Vera Joseph
Nancye Hayes
Leo Joseph-Connell
Shiv Palekar
Bec
Ariadne Sgouros
Amanda/Lily
Shirong Wu
Cover – Vera Joseph
Valerie Bader
Creative Team
Director
Kenneth Moraleda
Designer
Jeremy Allen
Lighting Designer
Kelsey Lee
Composer & Sound Designer
Jessica Dunn
Associate Designer
Emma White
Intimacy Coordinator
Chloë Dallimore
Voice & Text Coach
Charmian Gradwell
Production Team
Production Manager
Ryan Garreffa
Stage Manager
Sarah Smith
Assistant Stage Manager
Zoe Davis
Costume Coordinator
Sam Perkins
Backstage Wardrobe Supervisor
Simone Edwards
Wig & Hair Supervisor
Lauren A. Proietti
Lighting Supervisor
Tim McNaught
Lighting Programmer
Ethan Hamill
Lighting Operator
Sam Scott
Sound Supervisor
Ben Andrews
Staging Supervisor
Chris Fleming
Set Construction Supervisor
Boaz Shemesh
Props Supervisor
Leandro Sanchez
Scenic Art Supervisor
Ron Thiessen
Drafting
Andrew Powell
Rehearsal Photographer
Daniel Boud
1 hr 40 mins, no interval
This production is supported by STC Angels
4000 Miles was originally produced by Lincoln Center Theater in 2011, New York City
This production opened at Wharf 1 Theatre, Sydney on 7 February
4000 Miles is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc
www.concordtheatricals.com
Synopsis
In the middle of the night, 21-year-old Leo shows up at his grandmother's Greenwich Village apartment. He’s visibly dirty, smells terrible and is lugging with him a bike and an enormous camping pack on his thin shoulders.
91-year-old Vera, tiny and frail but strong-minded, cannot comprehend his sudden appearance. No one in the family has heard from him in weeks and everyone’s been worried sick. It’s obvious Leo isn’t doing well.
Vera asks Leo to stay, shower and eat something, and makes an uneasy truce to not tell his mother she’s seen him. Leo finally stops running, finding comfort in his grandmother’s strength and warmth (despite her prickly exterior).
Slowly these unlikely roommates find deep connection across generations, pushing one another to confront the grief they’ve been avoiding.
Writer's Note
Amy Herzog
The character ‘Vera’ in 4000 Miles is based on my grandmother, Leepee Joseph, who died in 2013. In the play, Vera’s grandson, Leo, refers to her as a “card-carrying” communist, but that was not quite true of Leepee – her Communist Party membership was revoked in the 1930s in an episode she still found too painful to talk about fifty years later. Two different stories have circulated in my family explaining her expulsion from CPUSA:
1) Leepee was outspoken about her disagreement with the Party’s plan to infiltrate the National Guard. Dissent was not tolerated in the party.
2) The head of Leepee’s local chapter of CPUSA made a pass at her and she rejected him. He revoked her membership as revenge.
I find both of these stories to be plausible based on the woman I knew as my grandmother.
Nancye Hayes
Nancye Hayes
The youngest of four daughters of Jewish immigrants, Leepee was arrested for civil disobedience for the first time when she was twelve years old. She dropped out of school at sixteen to join the workforce as a secretary in the theatre division of the Works Progress Administration, where she earned the nickname “Junior Longshoreman” for her flat shoes, lack of makeup and foul mouth. She was congenitally incapable of keeping her disapproval to herself, as any of my aunts, uncles, cousins or parents could attest (I can hear her criticising these sentences as I write them). There was never a chance that Leepee would sit quietly while Party leaders presented a plan she thought would backfire. It would not surprise me at all if, in making her case, she’d used the word “stupid.”
And then, Leepee was a heartbreaker. I was aware even as a young child that I had a very sexy grandma, a green-eyed, sly, funny and curvy grandma who’d long ago had an affair with the movie star John Garfield. Laughing darkly, she used to tell me about all the men whose advances she’d had to fend off -- the father of the family she babysat for when she was fourteen, her stepson from her first marriage when she was forty, her landlord in the years before she died. I never found these stories funny, but perhaps her sense of humour was a survival tool. I could imagine her laughing while trying to physically evade some smitten local Party official trying to “cop a feel” as she liked to say.
In the years before [my grandmother] died, she saw two plays I’d written about her premiere in New York. “Well, you’re certainly creative,” she told me with great love. “It’s too bad that ultimately, you’re a reactionary.”
It’s possible that both stories are true, and anyway, they’re the same story: a self-assured, independent woman didn’t bow to a man in power and she paid for it. How did this idealistic leftist and feminist reconcile the cruelty, the misogyny of the authoritarian Party with her lifelong devotion to the principles it represented? When confronted with atrocities perpetrated by communist regimes, Leepee would respond with that most unsettling of leftist sayings: “You have to break some eggs to make an omelet.” As though she hadn’t been one of the eggs.
More and more I understand it this way: her disdain for organised religion notwithstanding, Leepee had a fundamentally devotional temperament. She needed to believe in something larger than her own life, and to live in service of a good that would outlast her. Her faith in Communism didn’t just survive her unjust expulsion from the party – it survived the revelation that the Soviet Union was one of the bloodiest experiments in history, as well as the Cultural Revolution in China and Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge.
During the Bush and Obama years, my grandmother watched in dismay as income inequality ballooned in the US, as investment bankers and Russian oligarchs moved into her neighborhood, as many of her grandchildren drifted away from the family’s Marxist values. She lived long enough to march in the protests at Occupy Wall Street, carrying a sign that read “Tax the #@&%-ing Rich.” I’m glad she got to chant old familiar slogans with young people taking up the mantle of socialism, and gladder that she never had to see Capitalism Incarnate move into the White House -- twice. In the years before she died, she saw two plays I’d written about her premiere in New York. “Well, you’re certainly creative,” she told me with great love. “It’s too bad that ultimately, you’re a reactionary.”
Shirong Wu and Shiv Palekar
Shirong Wu and Shiv Palekar
LEO: I find if you approach people with love and trust you can count on getting the same things back from them.
(brief pause)
VERA: What is that, Confucius, or...?
Amy Herzog, 4000 Miles
Director's Note
Kenneth Moraleda
Nancye Hayes and Kenneth Moraleda
Nancye Hayes and Kenneth Moraleda
The cornerstone I cling to with 4000 Miles is a contemplation of the distances we traverse, both physically and emotionally, across our lifetimes. Our paths can diverge, time and space can expand the chasms of connection. Yet those paths still lead us back to those who ground us. In Amy Herzog's beautifully crafted narrative, Leo’s cross-country bike trip – a quest for clarity and connection – crashing into his grandmother Vera’s apartment, creates a powerful intersection of two lives, each marked by struggles and resilience.
Herzog drew inspiration from her own family in the writing of this play, which embeds this fine character study with delicious language twists, quirks and specificity. The characters’ interactions afford us complex dynamics in familial and intimate relationships to navigate. Along with After the Revolution an earlier companion piece, this play gifts us details that revel in the texture of humanity – ambiguities, messiness, clarities, clashes, and pockets of commune and joy.
It's been such a treat to share this process with Nancye and Shiv who bring such expertise and heart to Vera and Leo, supported so adeptly by Ariadne, Shirong, and Valerie – all enriching these beings with their vulnerability and boldness and humour.
The honesty of naturalism guided us in the set and costume design. The intimacy of Vera’s New York City apartment serves as a character in itself. Jeremy, with the support of Emma, has given us a space to play with, a space laden with memories, treasures, etchings of well-worn paths, and the weight of history. Layers of nuance, reflective of the characters' internal landscapes, serve as a hallmark for Kelsey and Jess's beautiful touches of atmosphere.
Ariadne Sgouros, Shiv Palekar and Kenneth Moraleda
Ariadne Sgouros, Shiv Palekar and Kenneth Moraleda
A line of Vera’s resonates deeply: “... you help people, it’s about the community.” I am profoundly grateful to be supported by the STC village of craftspeople and practitioners who brought us to this small slice of the West Village NYC, to be part of Kip's final season, and to have the generous support of Mitchell as he takes the reins of the company.
Grief is a silent yet powerful force that runs throughout the play. Grief can both isolate and connect individuals. But ultimately this play challenges us to embrace vulnerability and empathy, to value the importance of listening and understanding across generations. Every moment of conflict is also an opportunity for growth and healing, and I believe that’s where the play’s true beauty lies.
Thank you for joining us on this journey.
Biographies
Amy Herzog
Writer
Amy Herzog was a double nominee at the 2024 Tony Awards, for Best Play (Mary Jane) and Best Revival of a Play (An Enemy of the People). Her new version of A Doll’s House was nominated for six Tony Awards in 2023, including Best Revival of a Play, and received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Adaptation. Additional works include 4000 Miles (Pulitzer Prize finalist, Obie Award for Best New American Play), After the Revolution (New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award), and Belleville (Drama Desk nominee). She received the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Amy teaches playwriting at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.
Kenneth Moraleda
Director
Kenneth Moraleda is a director, actor and writer of Filipino descent. He is currently Resident Director at STC, after being part of the STC/CAAP Directors Initiative in 2018-20. For STC, he was Director for American Signs, A Fool in Love and Rough Draft #48: Hubris and Humiliation. He was Assistant Director for Playing Beatie Bow, The Deep Blue Sea, How to Rule the World.
He co-founded the company kwento, producing three shows in their 2022 slate, and directing Ate Lovia (Old Fitz) and The Marriage Agency (KXT) followed by co- writing and directing One Hour No Oil (KXT) which garnered him a Best Director in an Independent Production nomination at the 2022 Sydney Theatre Awards.
Other directing credits include They Say She’s Different (Melbourne Fringe/Adelaide Cabaret Festival), Eat Me: Blowback (NIDA), co-directing the opera Chop Chef (Blush Opera/Riverside Theatres), developments of Diwa (Create NSW) Malacañang Made Us (QPDA) Lola! A New Musical (Hayes), Na’s Marriage Agency (Next In Line), The Grocer (PWA/Belvoir) and readings of Gamers for Life (Martin Lysicrates Prize), Daddy by Jeremy O. Harris and Office Hour by Julia Cho (kxteethcutting).
He was a collaborating artist in the works This Here. Land.(Liveworks) and Within and Without (PSpace/Blacktown Arts).
As an actor his credits include Muriel’s Wedding The Musical, Talk, Australian Graffiti, Cyrano de Bergerac and A Man with Five Children (STC), Three Sisters (Sport for Jove), Australia Day (National Tour - HIT), August: Osage County (Repertory Philippines), White Divers of Broome (Black Swan), The Lion King (Australian/Asian tour), War Horse (Australian tour), Cruise Control (Ensemble), An Enemy of the People (Belvoir Street) Kasama Kita (Belvoir 25a). Films include Lucky Miles (Best Actor - Cinemanila Film Festival), Banana Boy, Legacy, The Fence, Locusts and Christmess.
Television credits include Janet King S3, Bureau of Magical Things, Strife, Wolf Like Me, Schapelle, East West 101, City Homicide, Stingers, City Life, Water Rats, Wildside, White Collar Blue, Comedy Inc, Playhouse Disney, Jay’s Jungle, and most recently Tommy Murphy’s Significant Others (ABC/iView).
Kenneth was also a teacher and facilitator for Playwriting Australia and a participant writer in Performance 4a/PWA Lotus First Draft Program. He has facilitated Artist Lab NSW (CAAP) and Making A Musical (CAAP/ Hayes) programs.
Kenneth Moraleda
Director
Kenneth Moraleda is a director, actor and writer of Filipino descent. He is currently Resident Director at STC, after being part of the STC/CAAP Directors Initiative in 2018-20. For STC, he was Director for American Signs, A Fool in Love and Rough Draft #48: Hubris and Humiliation. He was Assistant Director for Playing Beatie Bow, The Deep Blue Sea, How to Rule the World.
He co-founded the company kwento, producing three shows in their 2022 slate, and directing Ate Lovia (Old Fitz) and The Marriage Agency (KXT) followed by co- writing and directing One Hour No Oil (KXT) which garnered him a Best Director in an Independent Production nomination at the 2022 Sydney Theatre Awards.
Other directing credits include They Say She’s Different (Melbourne Fringe/Adelaide Cabaret Festival), Eat Me: Blowback (NIDA), co-directing the opera Chop Chef (Blush Opera/Riverside Theatres), developments of Diwa (Create NSW) Malacañang Made Us (QPDA) Lola! A New Musical (Hayes), Na’s Marriage Agency (Next In Line), The Grocer (PWA/Belvoir) and readings of Gamers for Life (Martin Lysicrates Prize), Daddy by Jeremy O. Harris and Office Hour by Julia Cho (kxteethcutting).
He was a collaborating artist in the works This Here. Land.(Liveworks) and Within and Without (PSpace/Blacktown Arts).
As an actor his credits include Muriel’s Wedding The Musical, Talk, Australian Graffiti, Cyrano de Bergerac and A Man with Five Children (STC), Three Sisters (Sport for Jove) Australia Day (National Tour - HIT), August: Osage County (Repertory Philippines), White Divers of Broome (Black Swan), The Lion King (Australian/Asian tour), War Horse (Australian tour), Cruise Control (Ensemble), An Enemy of the People (Belvoir Street) Kasama Kita (Belvoir 25a). Films include Lucky Miles (Best Actor - Cinemanila Film Festival), Banana Boy, Legacy, The Fence, Locusts and Christmess.
Television credits include Janet King S3, Bureau of Magical Things, Strife, Wolf Like Me, Schapelle, East West 101, City Homicide, Stingers, City Life, Water Rats, Wildside, White Collar Blue, Comedy Inc, Playhouse Disney, Jay’s Jungle, and most recently Tommy Murphy’s Significant Others (ABC/iView).
Kenneth was also a teacher and facilitator for Playwriting Australia and a participant writer in Performance 4a/PWA Lotus First Draft Program. He has facilitated Artist Lab NSW (CAAP) and Making A Musical (CAAP/ Hayes) programs.
NANCYE HAYES
Vera Joseph
Sydney Theatre Company: Summer Rain, The Conquest of Carmen Miranda, Chicago. Other Theatre: As Actor: Michael Cassel Group: Mary Poppins. The Production Company: A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Brigadoon, Funny Girl and Jerry’s Girls, Grey Gardens, Follies, Oklahoma, Music Man. Melbourne Theatre Company: Minnie and Laraz and Tonight at 8:30, This Glass Menagerie, Dusa fish stagand vi. Ensemble Theatre: Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, Murderer. Opera Australia: A Little Night Music and My Fair Lady. JC Williams: How to Succeed in Business, The Boys From Syracuse, Sweet Charity, Promises Promises, Pippin, Irene and Same Time Next Year. Adelaide Festival Trust: Guys and Dolls. South Australia Opera Company: Sweeney Todd. State Theatre Company South Australia: The Importance of Being Earnest and Ripcord. Opera Victoria: Sunday In the Park With George and A little Night Music. The Gordon Frost Organisation: Annie. As Director: The Production Co: The Boy From Oz, Sweet Charity, Gypsy. Brisbane Festival: Australia’s Leading Ladies Concert. GFO/SEL/Macks Entertainment: The Wizard of Oz. Christine Dunstan Productions: Noel & Gertie. TV: includes House Husbands, The Last Basman and Home and Away, Blue Heelers, The Dismissal, The Sullivans and The Sentimental Bloke. Other: The Hayes Theatre in Potts Point was named in her honour in 2014. Awards: 2014 Australia Day Honours (AM) for significant service to the performing arts, particularly musical theatre, as an actor, choreographer and director. 2011 Helpmann’s JCW Lifetime Achievement Award. 2008 Sydney Theatre Awards Lifetime Achievement Award. 2003 Green Room Awards Lifetime Achievement Award. 1981 Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for significant service to the performing arts, particularly musical theatre, as an actor, choreographer and director.
SHIV PALEKAR
Leo Joseph-Connell
Sydney Theatre Company: The Tempest, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Real Thing, Disgraced. Other Theatre: Melbourne Theatre Company: The Sound Inside Belvoir: Counting and Cracking. Griffin Theatre Company: The Almighty Sometimes. Bell Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice, The Players. The Corinthian Food Store Collective: This, This is Mine. Film: The Greenhouse. TV: Shantaram, Neighbours. Training: NIDA.
ARIADNE SGOUROS
Bec
Sydney Theatre Company: Debut. Other Theatre: Belvoir: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Scenes From a Climate Era, Never Closer. Ensemble Theatre: Midnight Murder At Hamlington Hall. TV: includes Strife, Home And Away, Swipe Right. Training: NIDA and Monash University.
SHIRONG WU
Amanda/Lily
Sydney Theatre Company: A Fool in Love, Chalkface (as Understudy, with STCSA), White Pearl (with Riverside’s National Theatre of Parramatta). Other Theatre: Old Fitz: All the Fraudulent Horse Girls, Belvoir: Miss Peony, Cursed!. Javaad Alipoor Th Co: Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World. Between the Buildings Th Co: What Every Girl Should Know. Hartwell Players: I, Cockroach. Dirty Pennies Theatre Project: Flagman. MUSC: Athens Reborn. Film: Godzilla vs. Kong, Pencil to the Jugular, What We’re Owed, Mother Tongue, You Can’t Make This Movie, Sweet Juices. Web Series: Appetite, Gardens of Edinburgh. TV: All Her Fault, Strife S2, Bump S5, Mother & Son S2, Neighbours. Awards: Smodcastle Film Festival Best Actor in a Comedy Short, 2019 Sydney Theatre Awards Best Ensemble (White Pearl). 2018 Best Supporting Actress for Monash One Act Play Festival (I, Cockroach). Training: 16th Street Actors Studio.
VALERIE BADER
Cover – Vera Joseph
Sydney Theatre Company: Talk, Children of the Sun, M.Rock (with ATYP), Australia Day (with MTC), Morning Sacrifice, Falsettos, Summer Rain, Darlinghurst Nights, King of Country, The Venetian Twins, Dinkum Assorted, Jonah Jones, The Wharf Revues: Free Petrol!, The Year of Living Comfortably, Sunday in Iraq with George, Revue Sans Frontieres, Beware of the Dogma. Other Theatre: Melbourne Theatre Company: Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Dinkum Assorted. Queensland Theatre Company: The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race. STCSA: Entertaining Mr Sloane. Bell Shakespeare: The Comedy of Errors. Ensemble Theatre: The Heartbreak Choir, Suddenly Last Summer, A Christmas Carol, Killing Katie, The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race. Belvoir Street Theatre: Cursed!, Barmaids. Deckchair and HIT Productions: Barmaids. Griffin Theatre Company: Wicked Sisters. Company B: Parramatta Girls. National Theatre of Parramatta: Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam. Sydney Opera House: Babies’ Proms: Jingle Bell. Sydney Festival: Symphonic Fairytales. Christine Dunstan Productions: Inside Out, Tim. Nimrod: The Venetian Twins, Tartuffe, The Winter’s Tale, The Golden Age. Playbox: Secret Bridesmaids’ Business, Competitive Tenderness. Film: Rip Tide, Truth, Black & White & Sex, Say Nothing, Close Contact, Crackers, The Roly Poly Man, Wish You Were Here. TV: Bump, The Crew’s Ship, The Let Down, Dead Lucky, Devil’s Playground, East of Everything, Come in Spinner, True Believers, All Saints, Murder Call, GP. Proud Member of Equity.
JEREMY ALLEN
Designer
Sydney Theatre Company: Sweat, Dear Evan Hansen (with Michael Cassel Group), Fences, The Goat or, Who is Sylvia? (with State Theatre Company of South Australia), White Pearl (with National Theatre of Paramatta, toured to Queensland Theatre, Canberra Theatre and OzAsia Festival). Other Theatre: State Theatre Company of South Australia: The Questions, The Normal Heart. Griffin Theatre Company: The Lewis Trilogy, Orange Thrower. Ensemble Theatre: Summer of Harold, Is There Something Wrong with That Lady? Hayes Theatre Company: A Little Night Music, Merrily We Roll Along, The Rise and Disguise of Elizabeth R. Red Line Productions: Cleansed, Angels in America, 4:48 Psychosis. Darlinghurst Theatre Company: Small Mouth Sounds, Savages. Outhouse Theatre Company: Gloria, John. Pinchgut Opera: Dido and Aeneas, Guistino, Orontea, The Loves of Apollo and Dafne. Sydney Chamber Orchestra: Fumeblind Oracle, The Diary of One Who Disappeared. Kings Cross Theatre: If We Got Some More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Love You, Ironbound. National Theatre of Paramatta: Flight Paths. New Theatre: Stupid Fucking Bird. Training: NIDA, University of South Australia.
KELSEY LEE
Lighting Designer
Sydney Theatre Company: Debut. Other Theatre: As Lighting Designer: Belvoir: Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time; Well-Behaved Women; A Room of One’s Own. Griffin Theatre: Whitefella Yella Tree; Sex Magick; The Lewis Trilogy. reGroup Theatre Company: Autotune. Marrugeku: Mutiara. Force Majeure: Gurr Era Op. Ensemble: Masterclass; The Memory of Water; A Letter For Molly; Killing Katie. Bell Shakespeare: The Comedy of Errors. NTofP: Queen Fatima. Belvoir 25A: Extinction of the Learned Response; Skyduck; Kasama Kita. Aya Productions/Griffin Lookout: Jali. ATYP: April Aardvark. Greendoor Theatre Company: Good Dog; If We Got Some More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Love You. Michelle Guthrie Presents/Hayes Theatre: Tell Me On A Sunday. As Set and Costume Designer: Sydney Dance Company: Somos; Silence & Rapture. NTofP: A Practical Guide To Self Defence. As Set Designer: NTofP: Nothing. Hayes Theatre: Catch Me If You Can. As Costume Designer: Ensemble: Switzerland. As Set and Lighting Designer: Belvoir 25A: An Ox Stand On My Tongue. As Lighting, Set & Costume Designer: Australian Chamber Orchestra: Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge; There’s a Sea In My Bedroom. NIDA: Lulu: A Modern sex Tragedy. As Co-production Designer & Lighting Designer: Belvoir 25A: Destroy, She Said. As Associate Lighting Designer: Marrugeku: Cut The Sky. Belvoir: At What Cost?, Blue. Film: As Art Department: Long Story Short; Shang Chi: The Legend Of The 10 Rings. Awards: Sydney Theatre Awards: Best Set Design for Destroy, She Said. Training: NIDA. Pronouns: she/her.
JESSICA DUNN
Composer & Sound Designer
Sydney Theatre Company: Chalkface (with STCSA). As Sound Designer: Dracula, On the Beach. As Programmer: The Tempest, Julius Caesar. As Associate Sound Designer: Wonnangatta. As Composer’s Assistant: The Harp in the South: Part One and Part Two. Other Theatre: Griffin Theatre Company: Blaque Showgirls, A is for Apple, Is There Something Wrong with that Lady?. Legs on the Wall: Trestle, Beetle, The Lovers. KXT: Girl in A School Uniform Walks into a Bar. Tasmanian Theatre Company: The Mares (with 10 Days on the Island). Ensemble Theatre Company: Photograph 51, Alone It Stands. Siren Theatre Co: CAMP (with Sydney World Pride). As Associate Sound Designer: Belvoir: Counting and Cracking. As Performing Musical Director: Belvoir: Barbara and the Camp Dogs (2017 and 2019 seasons). As Musician: LWA/Sydney Opera House: SIX The Musical. Positions: Artistic Director of Sirens Big Band. Awards: 2020 APRA Arts Music Award for Best Performance (Bridge of Dreams). Training: Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
EMMA WHITE
Associate Designer
Sydney Theatre Company: As Set Designer: Oil. As Costume Designer: The Lifespan of a Fact. As Associate Costume Designer: On the Beach. As Assistant Designer: Lord of the Flies. Other Theatre: Hayes Theatre Co: Flat Earthers, The Musical. Queensland Theatre: As You Like It. Griffin Theatre Company: Green Park, A Is For Apple. Ensemble Theatre: Alone it Stands. ATYP: The Deb. Red Line Productions: A Streetcar Named Desire, Burn Witch Burn, Hand To God, Seven Deadly Sins + Mahagonny Songspiel, Chorus. Belvoir 25A: Kasama Kita. Campbelltown Arts Centre: Bad Machine. Milkcrate Theatre: Natural Order. Riverside’s National Theatre of Parramatta/Sydney Festival: Boom. Blue Room Theatre: You’ve Got Mail. NIDA: Stay Happy Keep Smiling, Venus In Fur. As Associate Designer: Sydney Dance Company: Momenta. Hayes Theatre: American Psycho. Sport For Jove: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest. As Assistant Designer: National Theatre, London: Nine Night. Shakespeare’s Globe: Richard II. Film: Aje: Fractal, Tough, Beautiful They. Feature Documentary: As Production Designer: Step Into Paradise. TV: As Assistant Costume Designer: Mr Inbetween, PM’s Daughter. As Buyer/Dresser: Preppers. TVC: Numerous as Production Designer and Costume Designer. Awards: APDG Emerging Designer (nominated) Training: NIDA, UNSW Art and Design.
CHLOË DALLIMORE
Intimacy Coordinator
Sydney Theatre Company: Dear Evan Hansen (with Michael Cassel Group), A Fool in Love, The Seagull, The Importance of Being Earnest, On the Beach, The Tempest, A Raisin in the Sun. Other Theatre: Belvoir: Who’s Afraid, Counting & Cracking, Boomkak Panto, Miss Peony, The Cherry Orchard. Hayes Theatre Co: Jekyll & Hyde, Bridges of Madison County. GWB: Jagged Little Pill, Girl from the North Country. Film: Three Thousand Years of Longing, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, Five Blind Dates, Transfusion. TV: The Twelve, Heartbreak High, Bali 2002, Pieces of Her, The Secrets She Keeps 2, Wellmania, Barons, Vanishing Act, After the Verdict, The PM’s Daughter, Aftertaste, Home & Away, Doctor, Doctor, Frayed, Wakefield, Between Two Worlds. Awards: 2005 Helpmann Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical (The Producers). Training: London Studio Centre, London, UK; Intimacy on Set, London, UK; Intimacy Directors and Co-ordinators, NYC, USA.
CHARMIAN GRADWELL
Voice & Text Coach
Sydney Theatre Company: Sweat, The President (with Gate Theatre, Dublin), No Pay? No Way! Into the Shimmering World, Dear Evan Hansen (with Michael Cassel Group), Dracula, Stolen, A Fool in Love, The Seagull, The Importance of Being Earnest, Constellations, Do not go gentle..., Fences, The Tempest, The Lifespan of a Fact, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Fun Home (with MTC), The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Mary Stuart, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, The Harp in the South, The Long Forgotten Dream, Saint Joan, Blackie Blackie Brown (with Malthouse Theatre), Still Point Turning, The Resistible, Rise of Arturo Ui, Lethal Indifference, Top Girls, Dinner, The Father (with MTC), Black is the New White, Talk, Chimerica, A Flea in Her Ear, All My Sons, Disgraced, Hay Fever, Arcadia, The Golden Age, King Lear, The Present, Suddenly Last Summer, After Dinner, The Long Way Home, Travelling North, Machinal, Waiting for Godot, Romeo and Juliet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Storm Boy (with Barking Gecko), The Maids, Mrs Warren’s Profession, Sex with Strangers, Under Milk Wood, Gross und Klein, Bloodland, In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), Uncle Vanya, A Streetcar Named Desire, The War of the Roses, Tot Mom. As Director: The Comedy of Errors. Other Theatre: As Voice & Text Coach: QT: Triple X (with Sydney Theatre Company). Royal Shakespeare Company: The Taming of the Shrew, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, The Canterbury Tales (tour), A Winter’s Tale, Pericles, Days of Significance, Macbeth, Macbett, The Penelopiad, Noughts and Crosses, The Comedies (London season), Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Gunpowder (London season), Romeo and Juliet, Comedy of Errors. As Dialect Coach: Musicals: Muriel’s Wedding: The Musical (with Global Creatures), Aladdin, Assassins, The Lion King, Mary Poppins, The Tap Brothers, Xanadu the Musical. As Director/Trainer: A year with Space 2000 in Kaduna, Nigeria. Film: As Dialect Coach: Elvis, Peter Rabbit 2, Thor: Ragnarok, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Reaching for the Moon, Truth, Ginger & Rosa. Other: Voice trainer, London School of Puppetry. Member of London Shakespeare Workout, which brings Shakespeare into UK prisons. Training: Central School of Speech and Drama.
GALLERY
Valerie Bader
Valerie Bader
Nancye Hayes
Nancye Hayes
Shiv Palekar
Shiv Palekar
Ariadne Sgouros
Ariadne Sgouros
Shiv Palekar and Nancye Hayes
Shiv Palekar and Nancye Hayes
Shiv Palekar and Ariadne Sgouros
Shiv Palekar
COMING UP
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Some of Australia’s finest young theatremakers take on a potent Australian mystery.
How to be a Designer with Elizabeth Gadsby
Learn to turn abstract concepts into inspiring and creative designs with an award winning set and costume designer.
Bloom
A rollicking and irreverent musical from one member of Australia’s most beloved comedic team, Working Dog.
CORPORATE PARTNERS
Sydney Theatre Company is grateful to our corporate partners for their generous support of theatre and the arts. We applaud their commitment and vision.
Find out more about our current partners.
OUR DONOR COMMUNITY
Thank you STC Angels for your unwavering commitment to our work.
Anita Belgiorno-Nettis AM & Luca Belgiorno-Nettis AM
Jane & Andrew Clifford
Gretel Packer AM
Rebel Penfold-Russell OAM
Rosie Williams & John Grill AO
Thank you to our donors at all levels, who support a bright future for STC.
View your acknowledgement.
If you would like to help STC continue to be one of the largest employers of artists and theatre-makers in Australia, please make consider making a tax-deductible donation.
SYDNEY THEATRE COMPANY BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Ann Johnson (Chair)
David Craig (Deputy Chair)
Anita Belgiorno-Nettis AM
Brooke Boney
Mitchell Butel
Sarah Constable
Mark Coulter
Anne Dunn
Heather Mitchell AM
Kate Mulvany OAM
David Paradice AO
Annette Shun Wah
Rosie Williams
See Sydney Theatre Company’s full staff list.
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