Facilitator
As an educator and facilitator, I have run programs, consultations and workshops with a variety of festivals and organusations across Melbourne, including Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), Satellite Foundation, City of Stonnington, the Department of Health, Williamstown Literary Festival and more. My approach is centred on embracing the strengths of participants, “passing the mic” as often as possible, and creating environments where every participant has the opportunity to be engaged.
Alongside one-off workshops, consultations and events, I have coordinated several projects that are led by, and co-created with young people. I am passionate about co-design, especially in the youth mental health space, and have utilised both my unique approach as a creative, and a Model of Care framework to bring young people’s ideas to life; both in the mental health space, and their creative endeavours. You can view some of these creative outputs below.
I am the CEO of Dramawerkz Theatre Inc: a non-profit organisation dedicated to providing positive arts experiences for young people in Melbourne’s west.
Dramawerkz was founded by Lisa Collins in 2006 and, in the years since, we have worked with more than 200 young people, produced more than two dozen performances, organised tours to both Singapore and regional Victoria and coached more than a dozen students through Trinity College (London) Acting Exams. I became CEO of the organisation after the company was passed down to me by Lisa in 2019 and, in late 2020, I established Dramawerkz Theatre Inc. as an incorporated association, Since then, I have established a mentorship program for young playwrights, co-devised works with an ensemble of youth performers to be toured regionally, and facilitated 18 months of online learning and connection upon the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Find out more about Dramawerkz and our projects here.
Click on any of the images below to see the event, workshop or program I was facilitating when it was taken.
Tech Rehearsal for the Regional 'Tour of Hold Fast' - 2023
Working with Shadows with 8-12 yr olds at Louis Joel Arts and Community Centre, 2023
'102.2FM' by Dramawerkz Youth Theatre, directed for performance in 2022
Working with Teenagers at Louis Joel Arts and Community Centre, 2023
Learning storyboards with 8-12yr old students, 2021
Managing and facilitating a teen drama camp in Stratford, Gippsland in 2023
Facilitating a workshop with Michelle Write at Williamstown Literary Festival 2023
Facilitating a stage make up workshop for young people, 2023
Facilitating a workshop with Michelle Write at Williamstown Literary Festival 2023
Teaching performance making and devising for children at Louis Joel Arts and Community Centre, 2022
Attending the Inaugural Parliamentary Friendship Group for Youth Mental Health at Parliament House, Canberra, in 2023. Attended as a Carer Lived Experience Representative to speak to politicians about our unique perspectives.
Operating sound and lights at 102.2FM in 2021
Prop-making with children and young people at Dramawerkz Theatre Inc.
Operating sound and lights at 102.2FM in 2021
Interviewing Genevieve Bailey after a screening of 'Happy Sad Man' at Cinema Nova, 2022.
Creating a "news set" for 8-12 yr olds at Dramawerkz Theatre Inc
Cutting the Ribbon at a Walk for Mental Health, 2023
Working with teenagers to save music in the apocalypse, 2022
Facilitating and hosting a "Writing for Lived Experience" panel with Maxine Beneba Clarke, Sian Prior and Justin Heazlewood in 2022.
Facilitating and hosting a "Writing for Lived Experience" panel with Maxine Beneba Clarke, Sian Prior and Justin Heazlewood in 2022.
Speaking in Morewell (Gippsland) to Monash University researchers about addressing mental health stigma in regional towns, 2023.
Teaching in March of 2020.
Facilitating a performance day for teen students at the end of Covid-19 lockdowns, 2021.
Speaking to parents and carers of arts students about the impact of Covid-19 on young people's development, 2021.
Performance of 'Hold Fast' in Melbourne, 2023
Performance of 'Hold Fast' in Melbourne, 2023
Performance of 'Hold Fast' in Melbourne, 2023
Making chatterboxes with mental health and self care questions inside for children and young people. 2022
Teaching lived experience facilitation skills at Satellite Foundation, 2023.
The Happy Prince Project
In Term 1 of 2023, the 8-12yr old students at Dramawerkz reimagined The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde. Here’s a clip of the intro video they made to the story, where students wrote and narrated the voiceover, as well as constructing and filming the shadow puppets you see in the clip.
In this project, students develop their comprehension and communication skills, as well as building on performance skills such as expression, confidence and narrative form. This, alongside lessons focussed on constructing and manipulating the shadow puppets. for film, contribute to a Term 1 curriculum centred on “understanding story.”
Making Movies
In this project, we worked with local young people to create a world and a character (who they based a monologue on) and then celebrated their hard work and creativity by designing movie posters that championed the stories they had created.
As you can see, these posters combine the children’s drawings with other designs so that every kid could see themselves in the big poster that they took home upon completion of the project.