Melbourne Playback is made up of a team of highly skilled and experienced theatre practitioners and facilitators all of whom are active participants in Melbourne’s vibrant wider arts community.
We work as actors, theatre directors, performance makers, musicians, drama teachers and dramaturges.
A number of our members also have skills relevant to our clients in the corporate, health, education and community sectors.
Husham was the first recipient of the MPTC Youth scholarship in 2015. Husham studied the playback form at the SeaACT program for three years and was invited to be a full company member in 2016.
Husham acting credit include ‘A Public Service’ with Nicola Gunn at the Malthouse, ‘The Wheel of Fate’ directed by David Nguyen which saw young people from all over Melbourne perform in North Fitzory and ‘Captain Jesters” directed by Hayley Lawson-Smith.
Karen has a B. Music Performance (Improvisation) in voice, and a Graduate Diploma in Animateuring from the Victorian College of the Arts. She has a Cert IV in Training and Assessment and and a M.A. in Performance Studies from Victoria University for which she received the College of Arts ‘Most Outstanding Post Graduate Award’. She has taught extensively, including at the University of Ghana and James Cook University.
Karen has worked as an actor, director, musical director, puppeteer, singer and instrumentalist in Australasia, Europe and Africa. Career highlights include award winning shows in the Edinburgh and Melbourne Fringe Festivals; musical directing shows for the Women’s Circus and at the City Baths in Melbourne; working in theatre-in-education in Namibia and the Northern Territory; participating in traditional ceremonies in Ghana; and appearing in Melbourne International Festival with Navigators, an international collaboration created from research carried out in Cape York, and with The Teapot Ensemble of Australia.
Sermsah’s name in the Indigenous community is synonymous with theatre, fashion, modelling, local television, the festival and event circuit, opera and choreography. In the non-Indigenous community, he is probably more known for cracking into the tough Top 14 on 2008’s “So You Think You Can Dance”,
Alan has a long history with Melbourne Playback going back to 1987 when he joined the company as an actor. After 9 years in the company he moved on, only to return a couple of years later as lighting operator. He has designed and operated the lighting for almost every public Playback performance since October 1998.
Outside Playback, Alan has worked in community radio, teaching and training, and currently works in online communications.
Danny has been with Melbourne Playback for nine years and has facilitated many training events and Playback Theatre Performances. He is passionate about using stories as an entertaining and rich way for groups to share their knowledge and open up dialogue.
In his current role with Melbourne Playback, Danny works as a facilitator with a wide range of corporate and community groups. These have included corporate cultural change programs and communication training, including with students, trainers, executives, airline staff, aid-workers and sustainability groups.
As a facilitator Danny brings prior experience leader of group-based programs with Relationships Australia. He has also undertaken projects in community contexts with Melbourne Citymission and Neighbourhood Renewal Programs. In November 2012, Danny presented a seminar on father inclusive practice at the QEC international conference, based on his experience with Relationships Australia.
Danny has taught and directed theatre extensively, including with the National Theatre and Monash University Schools Theatre Festival. He currently teaches a theatre company as part of NMIT (TAFE) which is predominantly made up of performers with disabilities.
As a workshop leader with Melbourne Playback’s workshop program, Danny teaches improvisation, mime, storytelling, clowning, comedy, creative writing and teamwork skills to corporate groups, NGOs and school groups.
Some of Danny’s theatre writing and directing credits include Mr Affogato, Hip Hop on Pop and The 72 Hour Mime Project, which received a Melbourne Fringe Award. More recently he directed Wishes in Space and Darkest Hours, created with the students of NMIT’s Ignition Theatre Company and performed at North Melbourne Town Hall.
Danny’s formal studies inform his approach to group processes and communication. He has a Graduate Diploma of Animateuring with VCA (Theatre-making/directing) and trained for a seven month period at The International School of Corporeal Mime in London. He studied masked performance and physical theatre styles with Tony Kishawi and Full Tilt Performance Troupe. His other qualifications include a Diploma of Community Development and a Certificate IV in training and assessment.
Danny has acted in more than forty different plays and devised shows since 1995. These include X with Barking Spider and numerous plays, with companies including CIA, Full Tilt Performance Troupe and Jigsaw, by authors including Pinter, Berkoff, Tsolkas and Fo. Danny has also directed and performed street theatre spectacles and roving acts for Folk Festivals, Multicultural Arts Events (both locally and abroad) as well as the Crown Logies and Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. He has created performances in a wide variety of styles including Bouffon, Commedia Dell’Arte and puppetry.
Rachael joined Playback in 2010 and is part of the ensemble as an actor and training facilitator. She has a Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts from Auckland’s UNITEC.
Rachael facilitates groups in corporate, community and education sectors. She enjoys applying the principles of improvisation to different working environments and enabling groups to hone their communication skills and presentation skills.
Rachael also works with school groups as a Teaching Artist and provides workshops in devising, improvisation, Shakespeare and acting technique.
Recent performances include April Underhill, Tooth Fairy (Best Kid’s show award Melbourne Fringe 2014), Two Mortals, an original audio verbatim theatre work exploring mortality at La Mama (plus regional and international touring), Tamara Saulwick’s Public, an audio-led hybrid performance set in a food court. In development is STRIVE, supported by City of Yarra. Films include Motu (Tim Gordon), Stringer (Steve Morrison) and the short films Cafaye (Christobel Lobos) and Soldier On (Bonnie Marnock).
Other recent work includes Seddon Archives (Tamara Saulwick), Drowning Girls (Turtle Lab), Neon Toast (Melbourne Fringe & Brisbane Festival. Rachael has also worked with Auckland Theatre Company, Massive and Potent Pause Productions.
Ernie Gruner joined Melbourne Playback as a musician in March 1999. He was the Company’s Treasurer for 10 years, and currently is involved with archives, marketing and social media.
Ernie is passionate about the use of music in story. Music has the capacity to change the atmosphere of Playback performances to allow participants and audiences to strongly connect with the emotion within stories being presented. It also can provide support and color for the story. www.erniegruner.com
He brings a strong background from performing or creating music for a diverse range of theatre and dance projects. He also brings the ability to access many cultural backgrounds thru work with a wide variety of musicians, bands and communities over 30 years, and is regarded as Australia’s leading klezmer violinist.
He works as a professional musician, teacher and booking agent. He regularly performs at events ranging from festivals to weddings to conferences and manages Kaleidoscope Music, an entertainment booking agency specialising in acoustic music. Previously he worked for 10 years in science.
Ernie’s band experience includes ; Bohemian Nights (Gypsy, European, Middle-Eastern, Tango), Klezmeritis (East European Jewish), Bowlines (improvising violins) and Jugularity (Jazz Comedy Cabaret), Theatre projects included Café Scheherezade , Our Chalk Circle, Progress and Melancholy, Sarajevo and Emma Celebrazione. He has over 75 recording credits in jazz, rock, country, classical, celtic and world/folk music areas.
Television experience includes ABC TVs Spicks and Specks with Jewish and Middle-eastern bands. His teaching experience includes giving private lessons (classical, klezmer, celtic and improvised violin) and workshops in klezmer music , wordless Jewish singing and improvisation.
Mike McEvoy joined Melbourne Playback Theatre in 2005. He is an Honours Graduate from the School of Creative Arts, VCA and is also an ensemble member with Rawcus.
Mike has facilitated training programs and communication workshops at Qantas, NAB, Melbourne Business School, the CAE, and theatre workshops for Melbourne Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre, St Martin’s Youth Arts Centre, in high schools, for young men at the Melbourne Juvenile Justice Centre, for teenagers with disabilities and for the Education Foundation.
Mike’s theatre credits include Catalogue (2015), Two Mortals (2013/14/15), Small Odysseys (2012), Golden Valley (2009, dir. Suzanne Chaundy), The Heart of Another is a Dark Forest (2008, Best Performance, Melbourne Fringe Awards), The Time is Not Yet Ripe (2008, La Mama, dir. Jane Woollard), Hunger (2007 Melbourne Festival, Rawcus, dir. Kate Sulan), and White With Wire Wheels (2007, UHT, dir. Susie Dee). Screen credits include roles in; Utopia (2014, ABC), Neighbours (2009), Cat_nip (2009), Albatross (2007, dir. Troy Schultz).
Diana joined Playback as part of its first traineeship/mentoring program in 2010. Diana has been performing in Melbourne for 7 years since finishing her Bachelor of Arts in Drama and Theatre Studies and performed in plays including PipeDream’s King Turd, Short but Not Sweet’s The People Upstairs (nominated for best actress), CLOC Musical Epic Miss Saigon, Tunnel Rat @ Malthouse and recently Tamara Saulwick’s Big West Festival show “Public.”
Screen credits Include: Pilot ABC tv show Clean and Jerk Underbelly, Irish Black, Bollywood Chak De India, panelist on Q&A (ABC) and Channel 31 The world in our Backyard.
Diana produced written and performed in Phi and Me, a highly successful show about a second generation Vietnamese family at the 2011 -2013 Melbourne International Comedy Festivals, also 2012 “Singing 5 ways to Disappoint Your Vietnamese mother” Karaoke show and 2013 Cabaret “Viet Kieu: The no. 1 Australian-Vietnamese Outcast” at the Melbourne Fringe.
Combining her passion of performing arts and community development, Diana facilitates drama programs for schools, councils and not-for profit organization working with refugee and migrant young people in the South Eastern Suburbs.
Alex Sangster joined Melbourne Playback Theatre as an actor in 2002, and began working as a conductor in 2007.
Alex started performing professionally in 1988 with Handspan’s 4 Little Girls and later trained at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), graduating in 1995.
Screen credits include; Blue Heelers, Halifax, Phoenix and Street Angels. Alex has performed in numerous fringe theatre productions as well as Playbox’s Language of the Gods. She also won the Australian Young Playwrights Award for a radio play broadcast on ABC Radio National.
Alex has been involved in numerous community theatre projects including Melbourne Festival show Outside In at the Atherton Gardens Housing Estate.
She has taught drama at YMCA and at the National Theatre and has facilitated a number of retreats designed to awaken Emotional Intelligence.
Alex is a Minister of the Word at Chalice Uniting Church in Northcote.
With over 10 years theatre and television experience, Emily works as an actor, writer, voice artist, improviser and workshop facilitator. An award winning writer and performer, Emily has garnered critical acclaim with her solo theatre shows Backwards, Pet, Cannonball (Best Solo Show NZ Fringe 2013 and Tiki Tour Ready Award Melbourne Fringe 2012) and Hello You (Green Room Award 2010). She has toured her work throughout Victoria, New South Wales, Brisbane and New Zealand.
Lenka is a multi cultured Yawuru who in 2014 became our first Indigenous performing member. She was bitten by the PLAYBACK bug in 2001 whilst studying theatre at WAAPA. Lenka facilitates workshops for Melbourne Theatre Company’s Indigenous Scholarship Program and was the Creative Director and Producer of our 2015 & 2016 Reconciliation week public events. She is passionate about developing innovative opportunities for Cultural development, story telling and community building.
Melbourne Playback is proud to collaborate with a number of Associates in our work within the corporate, community and education sectors.
Ananth Gopal
Ananth is the Founding Director of a social enterprise; Polykala which facilitates Adaptive Leadership training. He an educator in Cultural Geography at The University of Melbourne and is a doctoral student at the AUSSCER (University of Wollongong). He was an actor with Melbourne Playback in 2014/2015. His training as an actor began in New Zealand and continued in the U.K. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) Geography (Melbourne University).
Beck Henshall
A consulting psychologist, trainer/ facilitator, and coach with 20 years experience managing and leading teams Beck regularly collaborates with organisations to achieve people results. She’s held positions or consulted to a wide range of sectors such as, Government, Telecommunications, Health, Education, National Sports clubs, NFP’s, and many medium sized Australian businesses.
Andrew Rixon
Andrew is Director of Babel Fish Group, a boutique management consulting company specialising in leadership and change. Leveraging the power and engagement of participatory approaches Andrew has worked across many different industries and organisations within Australia and internationally across the US, UK and Asia.
Andrew also works as a management and leadership educator with experience across Melbourne, Monash and Swinburne Universities teaching Organisational Behaviour, Organisational Leadership, Global Business Strategy and is an experienced Industry Consulting Coach. Andrew is a member of the global BP Faculty for Leadership Development.
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