CREATIVE TEAM BRISBANE 2023
Peter Cook: Writer and Performer
Peter is an actor, writer and educator whose career has taken him from performing on stage at the Sydney Opera House, to creating theatre with young people in remote communities, to most recently becoming a published playwright with his critically acclaimed one-man show Breaking The Castle.
Peter has worked as an actor in numerous Australian film, television, and theatre productions.
He has also worked extensively in the field of Theatre in Education over the last ten years devising work with young people across the country.
He has worked on film and television sets as an acting coach; most recently he was the acting coach for Malachi Dower-Roberts, who received an AACTA nomination for his work on Leah Purcell’s film, The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson.
Peter has written numerous plays for young people whilst working in Theatre in Education and Breaking The Castle is his debut as professional playwright. He also wrote for The Dear Australia Project run by Playwriting Australia.
Bridget Boyle: Director
Dr Bridget Boyle is a co-founder of debase productions. She has worked extensively in the field of clowning as a director, performer and teacher, having studied with Philippe Gaulier in 2001.
With debase productions she has been involved in the creation (writing, directing and performance) of many new works, including Death in a Statesman, Leotard (with Neridah Waters, co-production debase and Metro Arts), The Longest Minute (co-production with Queensland Theatre and JUTE), co-winner of Best Mainstage Production Matilda Awards 2018. Other works include Hurry up and Wait (with Liz Skitch), originally commissioned by Queensland Theatre (Shanghai International Arts Festival 2019, Kijimuna Festa Fringe 2012) The Furze Family Variety Hour, which she wrote and directed and which was staged as part of the Brisbane Festival in 2014 and Lily Can’t Sleep (with Liz Skitch and David Megarrity), commissioned by Queensland Theatre which toured Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Melbourne and Queensland after a premier season in QPAC’s Out of the Box Festival. With David Megarrity, she performs in Warmwaters, a musical comedy duo (Brisbane Cabaret Festival 2015-16, RPAC, Artsworx, Riverways Theatre, JWCOCA and QPAC).
For Queensland Theatre she has appeared in The Works: Taking Aim, The Estimator, Lily Can’t Sleep, Europe, The Venetian Twins, Scapin and Backseat Drivers. For La Boite theatre, she appeared in Romeo and Juliet and for Someone Productions He Died with a Felafel in his Hand. In 2005 she was nominated for a Helpmann Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Debase productions won the 2018 Gold Matilda award for special contribution to Queensland theatre.
She has taught into the Acting and Drama programs at Queensland University of Technology over many years, specialising in acting and performance making. Her doctoral thesis, which focused on gender and physical comedy, received an Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award from QUT in 2015.
Directing credits include Breaking the Castle (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), An Ideal Husband (La Boite), Weathering Well (Brisbane Powerhouse and QLD tour), for JUTE theatre: Cloudsong (creative development), To Kill a Cassowary; for Queensland Theatre: The Holidays, The Longest Minute (co‑pro with JUTE and debase), Rice (QPDA Finalists reading), The Landmine is Me and Hurry up and Wait. For Flipside Circus and Metro Arts: We Live Here (co-directed with Natano Fa’anana, Winner, Best Direction 2018 Matilda Awards), The Outhouse , Babushka Book Club, Right to Party,The Owl and the Pussycat (Little Match Productions, Brisbane Festival, Festival 2018, Flowspace), Angels in America, Gloria, Dead Man’s Cellphone, Little Revolution, Bassett, Twelve Angry Women and Top Girls for Queensland University of Technology, Death in a Statesman, Popping Lead Balloons, The Clown from Snowy River, Lovejunk and Titanic – the Clown Show for debase productions.
Raymond Milner: Designer
Raymond Milner is an award-nominated exhibition and scenic designer based in Brisbane.
Raymond works across theatre, dance, circus, musicals, festivals and museum exhibitions with over 30 credits to his name. He graduated from the University of Southern Queensland with a Bachelor of Theatre Arts in 2019, and in 2021 achieved a Master of Museum Studies from The University of Queensland where he researched the role of scenography in contemporary museums and galleries.
Recent productions include: Anatomy of a Suicide (BC Productions); Season Of Contemporary American Plays 2019, The Ladies and Sons of the Prophet (QUT); Six Hundred Ways to Filter a Sunset (Queensland Theatre); Bare (Understudy Productions); and Poison (EG Productions).
Selected Credits include: Breaking the Code (QUT); The New Black (Follies Productions); Boys of Sondheim, A Very Naughty Christmas The Second Coming (Understudy Productions); Cosi (Beenleigh Theatre Group); Two Weeks With The Queen (THAT Production Company); Les Misérables (Savoyards Musical Theatre).
Kimmo Vennonen: Sound Designer
Kimmo Vennonen is a creative artist combining sound, music and electronics, specialising in sound design and music mastering. From his Canberra studio he works with people and companies around Australia, frequently in music, dance and theatre. In 1991 he contributed as an improvising musician to the radio special “Collaborations” that won the Prix Italia for the ABC. In the 1990s he studied at the Australian National University with Greg Schiemer and David Worrall, specialising in immersive sound in a geodesic dome, leading to being an ANU Visiting Fellow 1995-1998. In 2010 he won the MEAA Green Room Award for "creative and innovative sound design". As Canberra’s only mastering engineer he has worked on many hundreds of CDs from the ACT region since 1996 and now has regular customers interstate and overseas. As a recording engineer he works for festivals, national institutions and prominent local musicians. His mission is to take part in collaborative projects with maximum quality and integrity. As an individual he strives to keep his creative ground fertile.
Ben Hughes: Lighting Designer
Ben Hughes’ lighting design spans theatre, dance, opera, concerts and events, including for Queensland Theatre: Othello, The Almighty Sometimes, The Sunshine Club, Return To The Dirt, Boy Swallows Universe, Triple X (with Sydney Theatre Company), Mouthpiece, Antigone, L’Appartement, Twelfth Night, Good Muslim Boy (with Malthouse), Scenes From A Marriage, An Octoroon, (with Melbourne Theatre Company); for Prospero Arts and QPAC: Singin’ in the Rain – In Concert; for Sydney Theatre Company: Black Is The New White, The Effect (with Queensland Theatre); for Australasian Dance Collective: Three 2.0, Forgery, Aftermath, Converge, Mozart Airborne (with Opera Queensland), The Dinner Party, Carmen Sweet, Propel; for Queensland Ballet: Peter And The Wolf, The Masters Series, Flourish, Giselle, A Classical Celebration, ...With Attitude; For Opera Queensland, Don Giovanni, Snow White; for La Boite: The Last Five Years, Away, The Time Is Now, Naked & Screaming, The Neighbourhood, From Darkness; for Adelaide Festival: Two Feet; for Dead Puppet Society/Legs on the Wall/Brisbane Festival/Sydney Festival: Holding Achilles.
Ben lectures in lighting design at Queensland University of Technology.