I was born in Ryde, Sydney’s North Shore and grew up in Pymble. I have one sister who’s 18 months older than me. My Mother was a Teacher / Librarian so all about stories, all about character. She would quote poems to me often. The Man from Ironbark was a classic. I have a great memory of visiting Mum at Chatswood Primary School which was one of the schools she taught at and she would often be in character, dressed up, reading to the kids and animating the stories to ignite their imaginations. Dad was more a factory, working class man. He was a factory manager and a hard working man.
Growing up as a kid in that area I think I noticed a toxic masculinity before it was a term in my consciousness. I was in an all boys school and I was very sporty. There was a lot of judgement, if you weren’t playing Rugby and you were playing Soccer, you were weaker. If you weren’t playing the main sport of Cricket and you were playing Basketball, you were a bit different. I was a dancer as well so I was a bit different. I left that school, I left a scholarship as well to go to Killara High which was more into Performing Arts and there were girls there to hang out with. I wanted to do Dance and Musicals without the judgement. I made that choice at 15. I mean, I love sport and I still love Rugby Union. My son plays Rugby who’s now 14 but for me I wanted to broaden my horizons and my parents were supportive of me being whoever I wanted to be. My sister was always pimping me out and making me dance in front of her friends and encouraging me to be expressive and I think that was my start to learning about performing.
I left home when I was 18. My whole house sort of broke up. My mother left my father when I was doing my HSC. It was a confusing time and strangely I regret that I never helped pack the house up. I left it to my mother and I wish I’d been more hands on with helping.
I went to University in Bathurst to study Theatre Media. My Mum had found the course in the UAC guide. There was theatre, juggling, movement, acting, etc and she pointed me in that direction. By this time I’d done some musicals and I was in an all female dance group at school, no other guys doing it. I auditioned and was one of 25 students in that year who got in. I moved to Bathurst and stayed for 3 years. I made so many deep, long standing friendships and learnt about theatre making. I guess it’s very relevant to where I am now because it actually taught me that theatre wasn’t necessarily for theatres. Theatre was a social tool that we were trying to create on the street or for the Tooheys 1000, a big car race. The course taught us about collaboration, inventing your own work, finding your own voice and teaching us that theatre can be mask or movement or dance to text. It’s been a big influence on my whole body of work. In fact I have a body of work now which has been informed by that experience and also my training overseas in London.
Chronologically for me was that course was building life skills as well. I was living in share houses with friends, learning to cook, having long standing relationships with great people I still love. I left there and went back to Sydney and had an Internship with a youth theatre company called ATYP (Australian Theatre for Young People). They wanted someone for 2 weeks to help with the production of Henry V in a massive warehouse, actually where Carriage Works is now. I did my 2 weeks but I could see that this Director needed me. I was running physical and vocal warm ups for 70 people, I was choreographing fight scenes with swords. It was a very physical, immersive show and I knew she needed me. She asked what I was doing for the next few weeks? I said, I’ve got some work lined up. My sister told me to say that (laughs). I didn’t! Anyway she employed me and that was first professional job. I was 20 and I was the Assistant Director on Henry V. From that moment I didn’t stop working. I was so busy I didn’t get to go back to Bathurst to receive my certificate because I was on another show with that same company.
A big part of my development and how I became a Theatre Director is because of ATYP. I did direct a major work for Uni which I created but the influence of teaching young people in those early days was really informative. I worked with ATYP for 15 years on and off. It was casual job but like every week and every holidays I was teaching young people. Those experiences are very precious to me. ATYP sent me to Walgett, to WA, to The Pilbara, doing jobs all through the country in youth theatre. I would go to remote communities making a show for 3 months. I went to Walgett which is mostly Indigenous community and I’m a white guy rocking in there to teach young people acting and circus with cameras and lights and we built a show called Breaking Ground. Nowadays that would be questioned a bit because we need to see more First Nation performers actually doing that work but I don’t regret that for a minute. I learnt a lot and these memories are very precious to me.
The second time I went out to Walgett I took Kirk Page. I met Kirk by doing a project with him in Walgett and we lived there for 6 weeks. We’re the same age and he’s a very dear friend. These experiences really shaped me because they were, create theatre with what you have, listen and feel community, mine the stories of place, be curious, inspire people coming together. During that time I was also running my own independent theatre company called State of Play which I ran for 6 years with a famous Playwright called Nick Enright. The man is one of the most famous people in my industry. We formed that together and we had a company of about 25 actors. He was my dear friend and mentor and he passed away. I kept it going for a little while but during that period I was directing Operas, big spectacle productions, creating works for festivals and working as Associate Director for Neil Armfield. I was the Assistant Director for Michael Gow, David Bertol, Antoinette Blaxland and the collaborator of Nick Enright’s. These are big guys in my industry so I learnt a lot, but they were my day jobs so I could build my own work through State of Play. I could also direct my ATYP productions. I was very busy, loving Sydney and living a good life.
ATYP also offered Scholarships. I auditioned and was selected as I of 4 to go and train anywhere in the world I wanted, so I chose London and Amsterdam which is my mother’s country. Amsterdam is my second home. I have big family there and I went there to train as an Actor and to meet my family. I was 26. I trained in London at a school called Philippe Gaulier which is world renowned as being a very physical theatre. Leading up to this period I was juggling a lot of things and a lot of that was directing. I still wanted to learn what the fuel was and the fuel for me as a Director is still performing. I only admit that occasionally so I had to go and study acting. I did it with Philippe Gaulier for a year, it was incredible and enlightening. I was also leaving Australia for the first time overseas and leaving a 6 year relationship which was still good but I was hungry to explore life. I was amongst International students from all over the world in London so there was a lot to take in. I was having a lot of exploration (laughs) and I got asked to audition by one of my teachers to work in professional production in London which was exciting because a lot of the performers were from Theatre de Complicite. I was distracted by the Japanese Interpreter and I didn’t really understand the opportunities I was being given.”