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Caravan of Love

Trudy Hellier Creative Producer / Director

Trudy Hellier won an AFI for her first short Break and Enter. She wrote four episodes of Lowdown (ABC TV), won the 2013 AWGIE for One Fine Gay, (co-written with Amanda Brotchie and Adam Zwar) and received an AACTA nomination. She won the RE Ross Trust Award for her play Waking Up Dead, a 2015 Greenroom nomination and subsequent 2016 tour. The Furies co-written with Elise McCredie, (developed through MTC,) premiered off Broadway NY in 2006. Her play Trapped, funded by Screen Australia as a short, won the audience award at St Kilda Film Festival. Her recent short, Foul Play screened at Clermont Ferrand. In 2015 Film Victoria funded development for her comedy series (co-created with Maria Theodorakis) Little Acorns. Screen Australia commissioned a web series currently being co-directed by Hellier. Her feature film Barking Love received 2016 co-production funds from Screen Australia and the Irish Film Board. Her drama series Del Fricker, optioned by Werner Films for the 2015 Story Lab initiative, currently under consideration at ABC. A trained actor, Trudy has appeared in over 40 productions.

Maria Theodorakis Creative Producer / Director  

Maria Theodorakis is currently in pre-production for her Screen Australia funded web series Little Acorns (co- created with Trudy Hellier), which she co-wrote and will co- direct. Maria won best short film at FEFF in Toronto, for writing and directing Car Lady & Bike Girl, which also played at many other international festivals, including San Francisco. She wrote the plays Two Tickets to Heaven (Melbourne Comedy Festival) Conductors (St Martins) Seven Year Sleep (Rites of Passage) and directed Matt Cameron’s Requiem (Chameleon Theatre). She received development funding for The House of King. As an actor she starred in the award-winning feature film Walking on Water, receiving AFI and FCC Best Actress Awards. A Green Room Nominee, she has performed in theatre for MTC, Malthouse, Belvoir St/Storeroom, Arena, MIFA, MWT, and for many independent theatre projects including a European tour with Crying in Public Places. Her television work includes The Ex PM, Saved, Satisfaction, Rush, and main roles in Whatever Happened to that Guy, Crashburn and Marshall Law. She is currently preparing for her short film Jimmy and Douglas, which she wrote and directed, to be entered into international festivals.

Susie Dee Co-creator / Performer

Susie Dee has worked extensively in theatre, television and film as a performer, devisor and director both in Australia and overseas. Susie’s performance spans comedy, cabaret and serious drama. She spent two years working as an actor in the theatre company, Moving Parts, in Spain and another two years performing and touring with Circus Oz. She has performed and toured with numerous independent theatre companies over the past 25 years. Susie has worked on numerous projects with writers Angus Cerini, Patricia Cornelius, Melissa Reeves and Declan Greene. She has had many small roles in television but spends most of her time directing and performing in theatre. In 2009/2010 she had a lead role in the ABC series Bed Of Roses. Susie has performed with Angus Cerini in his award winning play Wretch and The Man with the September Face at the Arts Centre and in Beached for the MTC in 2014. Last year Susie directed Cornelius award winning play SHIT (part of MTC NEON season) and co-devised and directed the award winning The Long Pigs (Sydney Festival).

Nicci Wilks Co-creator / Performer

Nicci Wilks is a freelance artist continually creating and performing works of various art forms. Nicci has worked with a number of companies including: Circus Oz, Melbourne Theatre Company, Malthouse, KAGE, CIRCA, Melbourne Workers Theatre, Hothouse Theatre, Born In A Taxi, Dislocate and Legs On The Wall. She was Assistant Director and performer for The 24 Hour Experience (Festival of Live Art) and for the award-winning show, Taxi by Susie Dee and Patricia Cornelius. She has performed in 12 different languages at numerous international theatres and festivals. Nicci has created many new works as a performer and creator/devisor with various independent artists and companies throughout Australia and also as a solo artist. She is a performer and co-devisor of The Long Pigs, nominated for three Green Room awards. Most recently she was a performer in the critically acclaimed production of SHIT by Patricia Cornelius, part of MTC’s Independent Theatre Festival NEON, and played a dog for the Malthouse Theatre production of Normal Suburban Planetary Meltdown by Angus Cerini.

Patricia Cornelius Writer

Patricia Cornelius is a founding member of Melbourne Workers Theatre. She’s a playwright, novelist, film writer and dramaturge. She’s a recipient of the 2015 Australian writers’ Foundation Playwriting Award, a Fellowship from the Theatre Board of the Australia Council and the 2012 Patrick White Fellowship. She has also been awarded the 2014 Victorian Premier’s drama award, 2011 Victorian and NSW Premier’s literary awards, 2006 Patrick White Playwright’s award, 2009 Richard Wherrett Prize, 2003 Wal Cherry Award, The Jill Blewitt Award and the RE Ross Trust Award. Her plays have earned her 10 AWGIES for stage, community, theatre for young people, and feature film adaptation. She has written over 25 plays. She co-wrote the feature film Blessed. She has been part of two Aurora programs for Screen NSW for Dust and Stolen. Recently her play SHIT was shortlisted for the 2015 Victoria Premiers Award and has been nominated for a Green Room Award for Best Writing.

Melissa Reeves Writer

Melissa Reeves is a Melbourne Playwright. Her plays include Happy Ending, which premiered at the Melbourne Theatre Company, and short-listed for three Premiers Awards, Furious Mattress, The Spook (awarded the 2005 Louis Esson Prize for Drama in the Victorian Premier’s Awards), and two AWGIES for best new play and Sweetown (awarded the Jill Blewitt Memorial Playwrights Award in 1993). She wrote In Cahoots and Storming Heaven for the Red Shed Co., Great Day for Melbourne Workers Theatre, Road Movie for Back to Back Theatre, and Salt Creek Murders for Mainstreet. She has co-written the plays Magpie (with Richard Frankland) and Who’s Afraid of the Working Class and Fever (with Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius and Christos Tsiolkas, Irine Vela, composer) – the former winning best play in the Queensland Literary Awards, two AWGIES for best new play, and the Jill Blewitt Playwrights Award in 1999. Melissa also co-wrote the screenplay for the film Blessed, based on Who’s Afraid of the Working Class. She has just completed a two-year fellowship awarded by the Theatre Board of the Australia Council, and new play The Zen of Table Tennis was part of the 2015 Cybec Readings at the MTC.

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