HILARY BELL is a playwright, librettist and lyricist. Notable works include Wolf Lullaby, Splinter, Summer of Harold and musical adaptation Picnic at Hanging Rock (composer Greta Gertler Gold). She’s been produced nationally by the Sydney Theatre Company, Ensemble, Belvoir, Griffin, City Recital Hall, Black Swan, Deckchair, La Boite, NORPA, National Theatre of Parramatta, Sydney Opera House, Arts Centre Melbourne, Vitalstatistix and Darlinghurst Theatre Company. Internationally her work’s been produced by Atlantic and Steppenwolf (USA), London’s National and the Edinburgh Fringe. Awards include the inaugural Philip Parsons Young Playwrights Award, Jill Blewitt Award, Bug’n’Bub and Eric Kocher Award (both USA), Aurealis Fiction, Inscription, three AWGIEs, a Helpmann and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize shortlist. She was the 2003-04 Tennessee Williams Fellow in Creative Writing at the University of the South in Tennessee, and 2013’s Patrick White Playwriting Fellow at the STC. Hilary is a graduate of the Juilliard Playwrights’ Studio, NIDA and AFTRS. She has served on boards including Griffin, ANPC and Australian Plays. She is a member of 7-ON Playwrights and a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. Hilary is the creator, with illustrator Antonia Pesenti, of several picture books, including best-seller ‘Alphabetical Sydney’. Please visit hilarybell.org for more information.

JULIAN MEYRICK is the Strategic Professor of Creative Arts at Flinders University, and until recently Associate Director and Literary Advisor at Melbourne Theatre Company. He has directed many award-winning productions for MTC, STC, SASTC, the Griffin, MWT and his own Kickhouse Theatre. His work for MTC includes Blue Orange (nominated for three 2002 Green Room Awards), Frozen, Memory of Water (nominated for two Green Room Awards), Dinner (nominated for four Green Room Awards and a Helpmann Award), Cruel and Tender, A Single Act, The Ghost Writer, Enlightenment, Thom Pain, The Birthday Party, and Tribes. For STC, he has directed The Snow Queen, Doubt (nominated for four 2006 Green Room Awards) and The Vertical Hour. For Griffin, Julian directed October, Lady Grey and Angela’s Kitchen. Other credits include many new Australian works such as Luke Devenish’s Grace Among the Christians, St. Rose of Lima, Fun and Games with the Oresteia and Jane Bodie’s Hinterland. He directed Fever and the inaugural production of Who’s Afraid of the Working Class? for the Melbourne Workers Theatre and won the 1998 Green Room Award for Best Director on the Fringe. In 2017 he also directed The Realistic Joneses by Will Eno at Red Stitch to glowing reviews. He was responsible for expanding the Affiliate Writers Scheme at MTC and for initiating the Hard Lines new play program. He is Deputy Chair of Play Writing Australia, a member of the Federal Government’s Creative Australia Advisory Group, and an Honorary Fellow at Deakin University. As a theatre historian, he has published an account of Nimrod Theatre, See How It Runs (2003), a history of MTC, The Drama Continues, a Currency House Platform Paper, Trapped by the Past, and academic articles on post-War Australian theatre, the theory-practice nexus, and contemporary dramaturgy.

PAUL CAPSIS is one of Australia’s most versatile performers. His extensive career has included theatre, live concerts, cabaret, film, and television. Paul has worked with many leading Australian theatre companies (STC, MTC, Malthouse Theatre and Company B Belvoir) as well as in Vienna, Hong Kong, London, Edinburgh and New York. Paul’s theatre credits include Barrie Kosky’s The Lost Echo (2006, STC) which earned him the 2007 Helpmann Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Play. Boulevard Delirium in Vienna and Australia with his Australian performance earning him the 2006 Helpmann Award for Best Contemporary Concert Performer and the 2006 Green Room award for Best Cabaret Artiste. More recent theatre credits include Black Rider (Malthouse), Cabaret (Hayes Theatre and Athenaeum), Rumpelstiltskin (Windmill Theatre), The Wizard of Oz (Belvoir), Calpurnia Descending (Malthouse/STC), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Newtheatricals) and Angela’s Kitchen (Griffin Theatre) for which he won the 2012 Helpmann Award for Best Male Actor. Paul is also a popular guest in television variety and has performed for My Favourite Album, In Siberia Tonight, The Sideshow, Sunday Arts, Spicks and Specks, Studio A with Simon Burke, Mornings with Kerry Anne and as a guest presenter for the ABC’s Art Nation. More recently he has featured in the critically acclaimed miniseries Deep Water for SBS and Black Fella Films. Paul’s film credits include Ana Kokkinos’ 1998 film Head On which won him the 1998 Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Supporting Actor and a nomination for an AFI Award in the same category. Other film credits include Love is Now, Carlotta and The Boy Castaways. Paul’s other awards include the 2004 Green Room Award Best Cabaret Artiste and 2002 Helpmann Award for Best Live Musical Presentation for ‘Capsis vs Capsis’ at the Sydney Opera House.