CREATIVES

ERIN BROOKHOUSE - ARTISTIC DIRECTOR DIRECTOR / WRITER / CHOREOGRAPHER

Erin Brookhouse is a Sydney based choreographer, writer, teacher and performer.

Trained in R.A.D. classical ballet and all styles from four, she pursued her studies at Brent Street P. A. full time certificate course and furthered her acting studies at A.T.Y.P., N.I.D.A. and Screenwise.

Upon graduating she performed and choreographed in both commercial and contemporary dance industries and toured nationally with children's theatre. She has appeared in TVC's, music videos and TV series and performed and recorded as a vocalist with several bands.

In 2011 Erin relocated to Toronto, Canada where she was resident choreographer for The Lower Ossington Theatre. Erin also co-founded Echo Productions, a unique physical theatre company where she was resident choreographer and co-artistic director.

Before returning to Australia, Erin graduated from Brooklyn, NYC’s The Movement Theater Studio, Directing For The Ensemble specialising in physical theatre.

Upon returning to Australia, Erin founded Doll pARTS, with a focus on producing fusion theatre, utilising movement, music and unconventional venues to create unique & accessible live experiences.

ANGELA BLAKE - ARTISTIC ASSOCIATE

Angela is a Sydney girl who grew up dancing, singing and acting from the age of four. She has worked as a performer on stages all over the world for companies including Princess Cruise Lines, M.E.I., The Entertainment Store and many others. She lived in LA from 2010-2012, graduating from The New York Film Academy's Acting for Screen Program. She then went on to shoot countless shorts and web-series, many touring the festival circuit. She has also worked extensively in theatre and her credits include: The Silence Came, Love Game, Surprises, The Odyssey, The Crucible, The Silence Came, Popesical-The Musical and the Off-Broadway Production of Sex, Relationships and Sometimes Love in NY.

As a director, Angela's first play was Eating Out, which she also co-wrote and produced in LA. Since then she has won the Wildcards and Audience Favourite Award for the short play Weeing on a Stick at the 2012 Short and Sweet Festival. She worked with writer, Adele Shelley to turn this into a film and she has just wrapped the shoot and plans to send it out to festivals world-wide later this year. She was also Assistant Director for Mongrel Mouth's last production, The Age of Entitlement, and is currently co-writing their play which will play in June.

Angela also has her Bachelor's in Communications and Journalism and is in the development phase for her first feature film, Burnu.

Romy graduated from NIDA in 2002 with a Bachelor of Dramatic Art (Acting) Romy’s television credits include, Murder Under the Microscope and School Sux (pilot) for SBS, White Collar Blue for Knapman Wyld TV, Love My Way and The Surgeon for Southern Star and The Politically Incorrect Parenting Show for Channel 9 and the soon to be released short film Unified.

Her theatrical credits include; a national school tour for the Australian Theatre of the Deaf, Love Child for Griffin Theatre, Tracked, Rocket Baby and Fidelity for The Old Fitzroy, Car Gods Burn for Railway Street Theatre, Go Pinocchio for Theatre of Image - Sydney and Regional Tour, The Happy Prince for Theatre of Image - Sydney and Regional Tour, Rabbit for Wharf 1 - Sydney Theatre Company, Caravan and Love Child for The Actors Forum 2009, Trying and Jigsaw for The Actors Forum 2010, Randwick City in a Nutshell for Randwick City Council and Diagnosis for the Short and Sweet play festival, Alan Ayckbourn’s A Plain Guide to Playmaking, Thankyou for Being a Friend for The Comedy Store - Sydney Mardi Gras Festival and Why Torture is Wrong and The People Who Love Them for The New Theatre.

Romy has also starred in 6 short films, most notably Plastic for AFTRS which won a VES Award in L.A and was nominated for an AFI Award in 2009 and the soon to be released Unified for Guy Edmonds & Josh Logue Productions. Directing credits include, Hair! for Short and Sweet Play Festival, A Comedy of Errors, Cosi and Black Rock for The McDonald College Senior Acting Ensemble and she directed and produced Bustown for her own company Act Out for the NIDA Parade Studio.

Romy recently took time out of the industry to start a family. She now has two beautiful children.

IRENE NICOLA - PERFORMER/ COMPOSER/ MUSICAL DIRECTOR

Irene Nicola is a performer, whose specialities lie in music, comedy, acting, burlesque and dancing, and combining these in the style of cabaret. She's also interested in directing, being quirky and generally having fun onstage. Irene has written music for children's theatre, musical theatre, cabaret, various bands, comedy shows and a web-series pilot. She is also an accomplished singer, featuring in variety nights across Sydney with her unique brand of quirky, comedic music and her hybrid burlesque and stand-up comedy performances. Notable works include composing and performing in The Return of the Little Prince, a Bush Chapel Production in 2009; creation and performance of Madam Osanda's Fortune Telling, featured in Griffringe 2013, featuring roles in Pippin and various plays in Short and Sweet and the lead in a short film, Vanish. She has worked with bands and artists such as No Peace For Charlie, Off Broadway Productions, Mind Blank, Darkside Dance Collective, Perverse Productions and Strangerous Collective. Having made appearances at Burlesque Idol Blue Mountains 2014, Red Light Confidential, Knox St Bizarre, CabaRED, and Cabaret Sasquatch, Irene is a fast becoming a force to be reckoned with on the stage. Irene is also credited with creative development, producing, composing and directing Black Sambuca and the Girl Who Poured It, a time travel adventure comedy created for stage in 2011 and then adapted to screen. It will be premiered in 2015 at the Hub Studio.

Irene's most recent work is her first full length show, a one-woman cabaret called A Postmodern Striptease, which she wrote and performed at the Phoenix Theatre in 2013. It then featured as a bite-sized version in Short and Sweet Cabaret Festival, Short and Sweet Variety Gala, and Burlesque Idol 2014. It was restaged in the 2014 Sydney Fringe and plans to tour Australia and Edinburgh in 2015. When not performing or producing new work, Irene teaches piano and singing, and mentors young and emerging performers with their craft.

ASSOCIATED ARTISTS

ROMY BARTZ - DIRECTOR / WRITER / ACTOR

JACQUELINE MARRIOTT - IDLE LIES / BATTLERS & DREAMERS

Jacqueline holds a Masters in Classical Acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). Prior to living in London, Jacqueline was based in New York where she worked and trained for twelve months.

Since graduating from LAMDA, Jacqueline has worked on Australian children’s cartoon series, Tashi, as the lead female, Lotus Blossom – lots of fighting dragons and saving lives – and has spent time back in New York working with two Shakespearean companies on productions of Othello and Cymbeline. Throughout 2015 Jacqueline will be working on a new contemporary performance work by Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre in collaboration with renowned Japanese Butoh company, Dairakudakan.

With a particular passion for physical theatre, Jacqueline has trained with Tina Mitchell & Shane Anthony, Yorgos Karamalegos, Vincent Manna, Steph Kehoe and Zen Zen Zo and can’t wait to get domestic with the Idle Lies clan.

CASPAR HARDAKER - IDLE LIES

After being selected as 1 of 18 performers across the state chosen by the Board of Studies New South Wales to perform in ON STAGE, Caspar has continued to steadily be involved and work hard in the theatre and screen acting world.

Caspar is currently student studying in his 3rd year in Bachelor of Theatre and Performance with Creative writing as a minor at UNSW.
He was recently awarded best supporting actor in the Dorian Gray adaptation for theatre ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray and highly commended Actor for 2013 Original theatre work, ‘Love Story’

Recent credits include ‘Peter’ in ‘Peter Pan’ (UNSW), Selection for International Singaporean Theatre workshop (ATYP) and the highly anticipated original play "The Block" (Violent Romantics Theatre Company)
His film credits include Bryan Jordan's 'Flux' , 'Inevitable' (Outback Film Festival) and is currently working on projects due for release this year.

Caspar is also a writer and has recently finished and filmed his screenplay ‘A Walk to the Pub’. He is also one half of the exciting hip hop duo FLIP THE SCRIPT who are garnering much buzz in the Sydney scene. Their single 'A Girl's Name' was released to acclaim earlier this year.

JACK MARSDEN - IDLE LIES

Jack has been acting in theatre productions around Sydney since the age of 17.

A passionate and innovative performer, his powerful stage presence and maturity has led him to be cast in leading roles in productions ranging from intense psychological war dramas to children's pantomime.

Ever devoted to his craft, Jack is always looking for ways to improve, and has worked with some of Sydney's leading teachers of dramatic art, at NIDA, Actors Centre Australia, and the Hub Studio, with a particular focus on voice work.

He is also an avid reader and writer, rarely found without a book and a pen in his bag."

ISAAC REEFMAN - IDLE LIES

Isaac has been acting since he was 7, but only discovered the true extent of his passion for the art while studying Music Theatre Performance at the Australian Institute of Music in 2009, when he got his first taste of just how profoundly you can move an audience, and the energy they give you when you do. Since then he has been doggedly pursuing a career in the hopes that somewhere out there, someone will pay him to do that more often. In that pursuit, he has played witty comics (Algernon: The Importance of Being Ernest), foul mouthed mass murderers (Trentell: I Love You You’re Perfect, Now Change), real estate tycoons (Bennie: Rent) and even the odd zoo animal (Elephant: The Silver Donkey). Isaac is relishing the process of getting to know George and exploring his skin, especially in the context of this fresh and abstract piece.