Nate Gilkes is the leading divisor and facilitator of work by young artists, and has worked in rural and regional contexts across Australia - in the outback, in Ballarat, Geelong, Broken Hill, and with the Fairfax Youth Initiative in 2019 and 2020. In 2019, Nate artistically led the Fairfax Youth Initiative work Songs in the Key of Fairfax, assembling a full band of musicians from across the region. This sparked the momentum for Nate to return and to further mentor and work with the incredible ecology of musicians and performers in the region. Nate is an award-winning musician and artistic director working across disciplines of theatre, music and performance. As theatre maker, director, music director and performer. In 2019 Nate composed the score for the Helpmann Award-winning production, Robot Song with Arena Theatre Company Best Production for Children and Young People), and he was Artistic Director at Marian St Theatre for Young People in Sydney from 2019 to 2022.

He holds degrees from the Victorian College of the Arts in Directing, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in Education and Voice and is a NIDA graduate in Music Theatre.

Since 2010 he has worked across the country with many companies and in roles including Composition and Music Direction for Robot Song (Arena Theatre Company - Helpmann Award Winner 2019 for Best Performance for Children and Young People); A Kindling Throne (Arena Theatre Company - Work in development 2020)

Direction for new musical Jack of Two Trades (Jeanne Pratt Artist in Residence, Monash University) and Death Comes Calling (Monash Centre for Performing Arts); Composition for The Acoustic Life of Sheds (with James Milsom, Big hART and Ten Days on the Island - APRA Art Music Award Winner); Music Direction for Hipbone Sticking Out (Big hART, Melbourne International Arts Festival); Blue Angel (Big hART, Tasmanian International Arts Festival); Delectable Shelter (The Hayloft Project); Collaborations with Rawcus; Vocal Direction for Murru (Big hART and Melbourne Festival); performing in Oedipus Rex/Symphony of Psalms (Sydney Philharmonia Choirs/ Sydney Festival); Parade (Federation University); For Lyric Opera of Melbourne he has directed Iphigenie en Tauride, Trouble in Tahiti and La Voix Humaine.

In 2011, he co-founded the Present Tense Ensemble with collaborator Bryce Ives. Works include Ricercar, an immersive operatic event based on the music of JS Bach; Margaret Fulton: Queen of the Dessert (Theatreworks), Chants des Catacombes (Castlemaine State Festival) an immersive, macabre music theatre event; FOMO: the Fear of Missing Out (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Melbourne International Comedy Festival); Good Morning MOFO (Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Malthouse); Common Ground (Arena Theatre Company and SEDA Arts); the #LOVELY WAR Project (Federation University), a town-wide activation based on Joan Littlewood’s Oh What a Lovely War and the Centenary of Anzac; and the innovative music event The Major Bruce Sessions.

Nate continues to advocate for strong artist training and teaches regularly at Marian St Theatre for Young People, The Sydney Opera House, Federation University, the Victorian College of the Arts, The National Theatre Drama School, Monash University, GPACed, Artology’s WotOpera, and trains regularly with Fragment 31.

Laura Burzacott is an actor and musician based in Townsville, originally from Ballarat.

Laura has been a facilitator with the Fairfax Youth Festival since 2018, and in 2019, she led a major community activation, ‘Songs in the Key of Fairfax.’ She is the Artistic Director of the Bright Cabaret Festival and is deeply committed to rural and regional Australia.

Laura Burzacott is an actor, singer and theatremaker committed to telling new Australian stories and creating entertaining cabaret and music theatre. Laura is a driving force behind cabaret acapella group Ginger and Tonic, touring Australia in the award-winning 'Desperate and Dateless' and 'For Love or Money.' As a founding member of the Present Tense Ensemble, Laura performed in 'Chants Des Catacombes' (Melbourne/ Adelaide/ Castlemaine seasons), ‘Margaret Fulton Queen of the Dessert’ (Theatre Works) and ‘Ricercar’ (Theatre Works). Other credits include ‘Blue Angel’ (big hART and Tasmanian International Arts Festival), the national tour of 'Long Gone Lonesome Cowgirls' and 'Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays' (Ellis Productions). Laura also had the pleasure of directing the graduating year performing arts students from Federation University in the devised work Exquisite Corpse (2021,2022).

Laura has trained in New York at Lee Strasberg, the National Theatre and is co-artistic director of the Bright Cabaret and Comedy Festival.

Fleur Kilpatrick is the Creative Producer of Riverland Youth Theatre (RYT) and an award-winning playwright, director and educator. Renmark is home of Riverland Youth Theatre, which sits at the western border of the Murray Mallee region in South Australia. Fleur has a longstanding commitment to working in rural communities and with small schools.

Fleur Kilpatrick is an award-winning playwright, a director and educator. She holds a postgraduate diploma of directing and a Masters in playwriting from the VCAM.

Fleur’s plays have won the 2019 Helen Noonan Award (Whale), 2018 Max Afford Playwrights Award (Whale), 2016 Jill Blewett Award (Blessed, Poppy Seed Festival) and 2015 Melbourne Fringe’s Emerging Playwright Award (The City They Burned, Melbourne Fringe, Brisbane Festival). In 2019, she directed her adaptation of Slaughterhouse Five to critical acclaim and Whale premiered at Darebin Speakeasy. In 2018 her new play Terrestrial toured South Australia with the State Theatre Company of South Australia and her play Yours the Face received a new production in Sydney. Writing credits include Insomnia Cat Came to Stay (Quiet Little Fox, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth Fringe, Brisbane Festival, TINA), Yours the Face (Quiet Little Fox, Adelaide Fringe, Perth Fringe, Flight Festival) and Welcome to Nowhere co-written with Daniel Keene, Angus Cerini, Zoey Dawson and Morgan Rose (Monash University). In 2021 her new work, Rebel, will premiere with Lab Kelpie in both digital and staged versions.

Fleur was a lecturer and producer/programmer at Monash Centre for Theatre and Performance for five years. In 2020, her efforts teaching during lockdown won her the Monash Student Association’s Arts Faculty Teaching Excellence award and saw her short-listed for the university-wide Above and Beyond Award. In her academic work, she researches how we teach care to emerging theatre makers, the new field of staging theatre of climate crisis and how to build and maintain sustainable artistic careers.

Fleur is the co-founder and dramaturge of Lonely Company, working to support emerging playwrights create sustainable careers.

In 2016 she directed Julius Caesar for Essential Theatre (Melbourne, Adelaide and Edinburgh) and Slaughterhouse Five for MUST (which she also adapted). She appears fortnightly on 3RRRs Smart Arts with Richard Watts and was the co-host of the podcast Contact Mic with Sarah Walker until 2018.

Christian Leavesley is the Artistic Director of Arena Theatre Company, a leading Australian theatre company based in regional Australia, making work for and by young people. Bendigo is home of Arena Theatre, which sits at the eastern border of the Murray Mallee region. Christian has facilitated workshops at the Fairfax Festival since 2016, and has a longstanding commitment to working in rural communities and with small schools.

Cristian trained at Monash University, the Victorian College of the Arts and the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Christian was co-Artistic Director of Uncle Semolina(& friends), whose multi-award winning works were programmed around Australia, including Melbourne International Festival, Malthouse Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre, Sydney Opera House, Arts Centre Melbourne and internationally in Europe and Asia, including venues such as The Barbican Centre London, The Shanghai Centre for Dramatic Arts and Chao Yung Centre, Beijing.

Christian’s directing work for Arena Theatre includes Starchaser (AWGIE Award for Best Children’s Play), Marlin (3 Helpmann nominations, including Best New Australian Work, and Winner Drama Victoria Best Play for Primary Aged Students), Trapper (2 Green Room nominations), Sunny Ray and the Magnificent Moon (Sydney Festival, Awesome Festival, Official Selection for China Children’s International Theatre Festival and ASSITEJ International Gathering) and Air Race (Darwin Festival).

Outside of Arena, he has directed Eurosmash and The Orchid and the Crow (Dan Tobias and Clare Bartholomew), both of which won Green Room Awards and toured widely in Australia, North America and Europe, and Ben Grant’s The Shrink and Swell of Knots (La Mama Theatre and Brisbane Festival.)

Christian is a recipient of The Malcolm Robertson Prize for new writing, and in 2020 was nominated for the Regional Development Victoria Leadership and Innovation Award. He is currently a member of ConnectUp – European Theatre for Young People in a Union of Diversity, run out of the University of Agder, Norway.

Barham local Angela Frost is a multi-award winning community cultural development artist and theatre maker. She has worked with over 40 communities throughout Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory as a producer, project manager, director, writer, and actor. While having a particular focus on young people in regional and remote areas, Angela has worked across age groups, cultures, and demographics and has created over 35 new theatre works.

Angela has a longstanding commitment to young people in Swan Hill and the Murray Mallee, she led the Marruk project from 2009 to 2015, and has also worked in the Swan Hill Aboriginal Service from 2009 to 2013. She has been involved in the Fairfax Festival many times.

Chelsea Zeller is an actor, comedian, theatre maker and facilitator who is deeply passionate about community engagement and committed to affecting social change through the arts. In her associate roles with the Foundation for Young Australians and YLab, she regularly co-designs and facilitates programs with young people on the future of work, ideation, and belonging. She has collaborated with Brimbank City Council, Swan Hill Rural City Council and City of Parramatta to develop and deliver artistic programs for young people living in outer metro and rural areas. Chelsea has worked extensively as a mentoring artist with Fairfax Festival in Swan Hill, collaborating with young people living in the Murray Mallee region to create new theatre works.

As a performing artist, Chelsea has devised and performed new works for The Malthouse Theatre, The Butterfly Club, Melbourne and Adelaide Fringe Festivals, The Village Festival and has toured with Regional Arts Victoria. She is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and has trained in improvisation and sketch writing at The Second City Chicago and Improv Theatre Sydney. Her one-woman shows ‘High Achievers’ and ‘Massive Bitch’ premiered to sold out audiences at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Chelsea is the co-creator of independent theatre collective fear+love.