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PeopleSTAFFArtistic Director Yaron Lifschitz Executive Director Collette Brennan Director of Development Gaelle Lindrea Director of International Partnerships and Programs Jo Metcalf Touring Producer Brian Faker Production Manager Jason Organ Training Centre Manager Mark Douglass Marketing & Administration Beck Grace Finance & Administration Brigit Bannerman Ensemble Freyja Edney, Darcy Grant, Scott Grove, Emma McGovern, Emma Serjeant, Jesse Scott, Lewis West Trainers Lani Cleaton, Bracken Cunningham, Brooke Dawson, Rachael Gibson, Daniel Gorski, George Le Couteur, Rhys Miller, Louise Moriarty, Li Pawson, Jamin Samios, Kellie Vella BOARD Chair Karyn Brinkley Deputy Chair Sandra Fields Treasurer Ric Roach Secretary Peta Perring Members Bill Andrew, Lawrence English, Amanda Fergusson, Amelia Gundelach, Olwen McClintock, Phillippa Mowle STAFF BIOGRAPHIES Artistic Director Yaron Lifschitz is a graduate of the University of NSW and NIDA where he was the youngest director ever accepted into its prestigious graduate director’s course. Since graduating, Yaron has directed over 60 productions including large scale events, opera, theatre, physical theatre and circus. His work has been seen in 18 countries across 5 continents by over 500 000 people. He was foundation artistic director of the Australian Museum’s Theatre Unit, Head Tutor in Directing at Australian Theatre for Young People and has been regular guest tutor in directing at NIDA since 1995. He is currently Artistic Director and CEO of Circa. With Circa, Yaron has created works such as by the light of stars that are no longer..., The Space Between and 61 Circus Acts in 60 Minutes. His recent works have been reviewed as being “stunning”, “exquisite” and “the standard to which all other circuses can aspire”. Yaron lives in Brisbane with his son, Oscar, and is currently completing a Masters in Creative Writing. His passion is creating works of philosophical and poetic depth from the traditional languages of circus. Executive Director Collette Brennan has many years experience in arts and education. Previously Collette was the founding Creative Director of The Edge, State Library of Queensland’s program for children and young people; General Manager of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre’s Out of the Box Festival for 3 to 8 year olds, and; Executive Officer of Youth Arts Queensland, the state’s peak body for youth arts and cultural development. Collette has previously worked in schools as a drama and history teacher and also as a youth arts worker in a range of school and community contexts with children and young people. Circa Ensemble is a multi-skilled group of circus artists who each have an average of 12 years of skills training. They are selected on the basis of their potential as artists and work throughout the year to develop techniques for extending the artistic possibilities of circus. Ensemble Member Darcy Grant joined the Flying Fruit Fly Circus at age 13. After touring Australia and overseas for six years, Darcy went on to teach at the Little Big Tops in Melbourne. Darcy is an acrobat, tumbler, unicycle rider, diabloist and hand balancer. Darcy is also a highly skilled circus trainer and regularly leads Circa’s community training programs. In addition to this he also has a strong partnership with the Blackrobats the Indigenous youth circus from northern Australia. Recently he ran a weeks training intensive for the troupe and performed with them at the Byron Bay Blues Festival. Ensemble Member Scott Grove has been performing professionally as an acrobat since he was 15 years old. He joined The Leaping Loonies in 1995 and spent the next 13 years performing in and co-directing their shows. He has toured all over Australia and Asia doing shows at schools, theatres, clubs, shopping centres and corporate events, and spent 4 summer seasons in Europe and the UK performing at festivals. Over the years he has also worked with various other projects including the English National Ballet, the 2000 Sydney Olympics Opening Ceremony, Flying Trapeze Australia and the Tom Tom Crew. He has a wide range of skills including knockabout acrobatics, tumbling, teeterboard, pitching, handstands, flying trapeze and russian swing. Off stage he spends most of his time surfing, playing music and eating large quantities of food. Ensemble Member Emma McGovern’s passion for the physical art forms have led her on a journey through dance, physical theatre, circus, and martial arts. Studying Dance at the Conservatorium of Arts in Lismore in 1999, then merging into the world of circus. She has been working professionally for the last 6 years both in Australia and overseas with a variety of companies including Circus Monoxide, Aerial Angels, Strutt n Fret, CIRCA, and Topchick management. Her specialities include - Corde Lisse, Tissu, Duo trapeze,and Aerial ring. Other skills and training include Hand Balancing, Adagio, Hand to Hand, Tumbling, Capoeira, and Flying Trapeze. Ensemble Member Jesse Scott has been involved in the circus industry since he could walk. As a member of the Flying Fruit Fly Circus for 11 years, Jesse was taught under the guidance of some of the worlds best circus trainers including Master Trainer Lu Guang Rong. After graduating in 2004, Jesse has worked as a freelance performer both nationally and internationally with companies including Legs on the Wall, The Australian Opera and CIRCA. A major influence in Jesse’s career has been his strong involvement with the Brewarrina Youth Circus over the last 3 years, passing on his skills and knowledge to the members of Australia’s largest indigenous youth circus. Ensemble Member Emma Serjeant is a shining graduate of Australia’s National Institute of Circus Arts, majoring in hand balancing under the guidance of internationally renowned Master Trainer Lu Guang Rong. In March 2007, Emma was one of Australia’s first invitees to the annual European circus school gathering, La Piste Aux Espoirs Festival in Belgium, proudly representing her university and country at this prestigious international event. Ensemble Member Lewis West, born on Australia Day 1988 as the youngest of four boys, Lewis has been constantly moving since birth. He began with gymnastics, then bounced between trampolining, breakdancing and various circus disciplines in the aerial, manipulation and acrobatic streams. He has been a part of the Warehouse Youth Circus, the circus stunt crew Team Loko and graduated from the National Institute of Circus Arts in 2008. When not training circus he can be found spinning on his head. Ensemble Member Freyja Edney has been training and performing aerials since the age of 8. Freya spent 7 years at the Flying Fruit Fly Circus, graduating in 2007. Since graduating Freyia has taught at the Fruit Flies and at Little Devils Circus as well as facilitating and teaching many workshops. Most recently she has been teaching Aerial Ring and Hula Hoops for the performance group at the Fruit Flies. Freyja's performance experiences include performing at the 2005 World Expo in Aichi, Japan. At the 2006 Commonwealth Games 'Cultural Festival'. Touring the east coast of Australia throughout 2007 as part of the national tour of 'Circus Girl', and performing in a schools tour of 'Go Super' with Little Devils Circus this year." BOARD BIOGRAPHIES Chair Karyn Brinkley is the new CEO of the Brisbane Institute, Queensland's independent think tank, a role she has taken up after two years with the Queensland Department of the Premier and Cabinet as Executive Director, State Services, with responsibility for whole-of-government communications, events and market research policy and Q150. Karyn spent three years in the UK as Pro Vice Chancellor of a small Manchester university, responsible for the university's non-academic functions including finance, HR, estates and infrastructure and student services. This followed a three-year period with Griffith University as Director, External Relations, where she was responsible for rebranding the university and for the international-award-winning "Get Smarter" marketing campaign. Prior to Griffith, she worked with the Australian National Training Authority developing national communication strategies for vocational education and training, for AgForce as General Manager (Commercial), for the Port of Brisbane Corporation as Communication and Marketing Manager, at QUT as Deputy Director (Public Affairs) and in the Queensland Forestry Department as Manager, Community Engagement. This latter role occurred during Tony Fitzgerald's Inquiry into the Management and Use of Fraser Island, and Karyn produced a master's thesis examining the role of alternative dispute resolution in community environmental conflicts. She is currently working towards her doctorate in business. Karyn commenced her career as a copywriter and continues to write privately. Her co-edited book with Carolyn Barker, She Said What?, published in March 2009, is in its second printing. Her board experience includes, in Australia, chairing the State Government's Advertising Review Committee and the QUT Law Faculty Quinquennial Review, Councillor and Fellow with the Australian Institute of Management, Councillor with the Queensland University of Technology and member of the QUT Alumni Board, board member (by ministerial appointment) to the Timber Research and Development Advisory Council, Deputy Chair of the Brisbane Writers Festival and Chair of Bibliophile (friends of BWF), and chair of the marketing committee for the Palliative Care Association of Queensland. In the UK she had appointments to the Bolton Octagon Theatre, the Bolton Literacy Trust, the Bolton Vision Steering Group, and fellowships to the Industry Parliament Trust and the Leadership Foundation. Deputy Chair Sandra Fields has over 15 years experience working in youth affairs for the state government, local government and community organisations in leadership, management and service delivery roles. Her work has included community engagement, community capacity building, needs analysis, social policy development, evaluation, community grants administration and strategic planning. Sandra left as the Director of the Office of Youth Affairs in 2003 to establish her own consultancy business, FIELDWORX. Through FIELDWORX, Sandra has developed research and evaluation methodologies for local governments, community organisations and state government. She is passionate about bringing together community, government and business to build happier places to live. Treasurer Ric Roach is a partner with Ernst & Young and brings significant financial expertise to the Circa Board. Secretary Peta Perring is a Brisbane-based lawyer and is currently an in-house corporate lawyer with Ergon Energy. Peta previously was on the Board of the Practical Theatre Company in Sydney and provided advice to Arts Law. Peta has also worked at the Queensland Performing Arts Trust. Peta also advises other government boards and is a reservist legal officer for Defence. Peta has completed her ATMUSA and Bachelor of Arts (Music) from the University of Queensland before completing postgraduate qualifications in education, law and a Masters of Business Administration. Member Lawrence English is the director of room40, a multi-arts organisation and record imprint focused on publishing an eclectic range of sound and media projects and multiples. Outside this role English remains one of the busiest sound artists and avant-composers in Australia, touring internationally and curating a variety of exhibitions such as Airport Symphony shown at Queensland Music Festival 2007 and Three Part Harmony For Architecture installed as part of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2008, English also serves as a board member with Circa. Member Amanda Ferguson is a freelance Producer and Consultant to the entertainment industry, specialising in large scale events. Having produced 2 segments of the Sydney 2000 Opening Ceremony, Deep Sea Dreaming and Tin Symphony, Amanda then went to the UK to produce the Opening Ceremony of the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games. Most recently she has been consulting to the Producers of Doha 2006 Asian Games Ceremonies in Qatar as well as consulting with a number of Australian based Festivals on various production matters. Member Amelia Gundelach has worked as Media Coordinator for the Queensland Art Gallery since 2002. Prior to that, she coordinated Craft Queensland's marketing and retail operations and was Independent Program Coordinator for Smith+Stoneley Gallery, Newstead. Amelia has a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Fine Art) and a post graduate diploma in Art Curatorship & Museum Management. She is a passionate advocate of the visual and performing arts and one of her most recent projects was curating, 'Barbara Heath: Jeweller to the Lost', an exhibition of work by one of Australia's most innovative jewelers. Member Phillippa Mowle is currently Marketing Manager for CS Energy, responsible for positioning this new company in its chosen markets through the integrated use of all marketing tools including advertising, direct mail, public relations and sponsorship. Her speciality is business to business marketing, a field that relies upon the development of ongoing relationships with clients. A Bachelor degree in Marketing and a Masters in Communication supplement this experience. Member Bill Andrew has more than 20 years experience in organisational and individual development, change management and strategic planning. In his current role as Executive General Manager Organisational Development for Seqwater, Bill is responsible for Human Resources, Industrial Relations, Workplace Health and Safety, Organisational Development and Business Improvement. Bill has an overarching responsibility for organisational strategy, structure and culture alignment. Prior to joining Seqwater, Bill was General Manager Organisational Development for CS Energy, Queensland’s largest electricity generator. Bill has worked with a range of public and private sector companies throughout Australia and New Zealand in a consulting capacity, including BHP Billiton, Brisbane City Council, Bougainville Copper and Taronga North. Member Olwen McClintock is a Brisbane-based lawyer and is currently working as a business development manger for Ergon Energy. Olwen has a bachelor of Arts Law with a major in Drama and is currently studying for a Masters of Business Administration. Olwen has previously worked in the Programming Department at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre and has had a long association with Backbone Youth Arts.  |
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