SHORT BIOGRAPHIES 2007
Directors:
MISCHA BAKA & RACHEL ANG
Mischa Baka and Rachel Ang met at the Victorian College of the Arts where
they are in second-year Film/TV and Fine Art respectively. Together they
create installations which are highly specific, sensual, hand-made and
ephemeral worlds inhabited by dolls, exploring the potentials of
imagination, space, playfulness and the immersive experience. Slide Night
is the culmination of many months of collaboration, playing, planning and
creating. We look forward to sharing it with you.
Cast
MISHKA BECKMANN
My name is Mishka Beckmann and I am a second year fine arts student at VCA. Outside of the VCA I am a freack/ performance artist and a fire twirler. I have performed in collaboration with Angel Circus, and a number of festivals. I cannot remember a time in my life when I did not play with dolls, and I remember making my first doll when I was ten years old.
MICHAEL BEVITT
Michael began his puppet career in 2001 when he auditioned for a two-man
touring puppet show. After being accepted he explored country outback NSW
and Victoria performing and running workshops in schools. This led him to
a Bachelor of Arts (Acting) at the University of Ballarat 2004-2006. He is
currently studying a Postgraduate Diploma in Production (Puppetry) and the
Victorian Collage of the Arts and has just finished his end of semester
solo performance.
JENNY ELLIS
Jenny Ellis has been making and performing with puppets for over ten
years. She has worked with many Australian companies including Polyglot,
Nigel Jameson, KneeHigh Puppeteers, Gary Friedman, Curious Legends and Al
Martinez Studios. Her own productions include short films The Handmade
Chef and The Movement made by Mercury. Recently she has been studying the
art of traditional wooden marionettes in Prague and shadow puppetry in
Buenos Aires. Her African musical Shadow puppet show The Mermaid’s
Daughter has just completed a tour of festivals throughout New South Wales
and the Northern Territory. Jenny is currently undertaking a Post-Graduate
Diploma in Puppetry at the Victorian College of the Arts.
CONOR FOX
Conor Fox works as a children's entertainer combining storytelling,
puppetry, character-work, music, magic and group imagination-explorations.
He has completed the Advanced Diploma in Rudolph Steiner Education,
providing a firm grounding in a range of performing and visual arts, and
studied ethnomusicology at Canterbury University in New Zealand. He is
currently completing his Post-Graduate studies in puppetry at the
Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia.
CHRIS WILLOUGHBY
Born, did some schooling. Still working on some things.
Puppeteering and choreography development
BETH MCMAHON
Beth began acting training in 1992 at an academy for young actors in
Adelaide, SA and was a performer and street theatre
artist until 2000. She began assistant directing in 1994 and directed her
first professional show in 1996 when she was 17. From 2000 – 2003 Beth was
Artistic Director of Southern Edge Arts (SEA), Western Australia’s
premiere youth arts company. After a year of directing circus in
Queensland, Beth moved to Paris in 2004 to study at École Internationale
de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. In Europe she discovered object theatre,
puppetry and naked hand theatre – and wondered where they’d been all her
life. Beth has just performed her first solo show Venom in Paris, and was
glad to have some puppets for company on stage. The official debut of
Venom is in Cape Town, at the Out of the Box UNIMA South Africa
International Puppetry and Visual Theatre Festival, September 2007. Beth
has worked in South Africa, New York, Hong Kong, France, Denmark, Morocco,
and would like adopt a puppet from Africa.
LEONIE VAN EYK
Leonie Van Eyk has spent the last ten years working within the community
as an artist, performer, filmmaker, stage manager and costume creator for
companies such as Polyglot Puppet Theatre; Snuff Puppets; Arts Access;
Performing Older Women’s Circus; Club Wild; The Art of Difference, The
Torch and The International Puppet Carnival 2006. Her performances have
been mainly movement based with ongoing training from Yumi Umiamare,
Melbourne’s leading Butoh practitioner and Al Wunder (Theatre of the
Ordinary). Leonie's interest in puppetry stems from a need to tell stories
through objects that are something other than human. She has won two
awards for an animation Blockade which was entered into the 15/15 film
festival in 2005. She completed a Bachelor of Arts in Communications 1997,
a Diploma in Small Companies and Community Theatre 2003 and is currently
studying a Graduate Diploma in Puppetry/Production at Victoria’s College
of the Arts.
Production design
CHLOE GREAVES
Chloe Greaves is in her second year of Bachelor of Theatre Production at
Victorian College of The Arts. She had her debut as a designer in June
2007 on Underground choreographed by Kate Denborough and since has
designed for splash dance competition piece Disrupted Social Current
choreographed by James Welsby and Hiding Jack directed by Mischa Baka. She
is very excited to be a part of The Dolls have a Slide Night.
Lighting Design
HARRISON COPE
Sound Design
GEOFF ADAMS
Geoff is a 1st year Bachelor of Production student at the VCA. After finishing high school in 2004, he completed a Diploma of Stage Management, where he discovered that he doesn't like stage managing. In 2006, he worked on the Commonwealth Games, the Comedy Festival and the Fringe Festival, as well as other fringe and amateur shows throughout the year.
