BARE WITNESS
BIOGRAPHIES
Writer: Mari Lourey
Director: Nadja Kostich
Performers: Daniela Farinacci, Adam McConvell, Eugenia Fragos
Todd Mac Donald/James Saunders and Ray Chong Nee
Designer: Marg Horwell
Musician/Composer: Kristin Rule
Lighting Design: Emma Valente
Video Design: Michael Carmody
Mari Lourey (writer) is a playwright, performer and singer and the author of several plays,
including the critically acclaimed Dirty Angels – Dir Lynne Ellis - 2003 for La Mama Theatre and
south-west regional Victorian tour, 2004. Between 2002-06 she was researcher/writer/
performer of several plays for the highly regarded Torch Project, including the Green Room and
Vic Health Award winning The Bridge, dir Rachael Maza, 5 week north-west Victorian tour and
Trades Hall season. She is currently undertaking a Masters in Performance Writing at the VCA,
University of Melbourne and developing several new works, including a play set against the
backdrop of mining. She is also the facilitator of ILBIJERRI Theatre Company’s Black Writers Lab
playwriting initiative. Between 2007-09 she was Artistic Coordinator of The Big Issue Arts
Project. She studied performance writing at RMIT under Peta Murray and also trained at the
John Bolton Theatre School. Awards have included the R E Ross Trust in 2005, two Playworks
Varuna Fellowships, the Patrick White short-listing in 2008 and an Apollo Bay Music Festival
Songwriters Award for Cries on the Wind. In the nineties she was in bands, co-founded shadow
puppet theatre company Beyond A Shadow of a Doubt, creating the widely performed Songlines
of the Sea and other Stories, and wrote and performed Digging Into the Green Mountain, dir
Susie Dee, for La Mama Theatre and various music festivals. She has worked as a professional
artist and writer in a variety of community settings, including prisons, rooming houses and
community theatre groups.
Nadja Kostich (director) is a cross-arts director, performer, creative producer and writer who
trained at the VCA. She received a Green Room Award nomination for Outstanding Direction for
her debut production, InsideOut, for the Brunswick Women’s Theatre. She co-founded
paradigm productions with Jeremy Angerson, a hybrid arts company creating original public
works, including Sweet Dreams and The Grand Feeling (Green Room Award for Outstanding
Production). For Platform Youth Theatre, Nadja directed Test Pattern, (two Green Room
Awards), by Angus Cerini. With paradigm she co-conceived and directed small revolutions, a 30minute documentary film and kinetic sculpture installation in Federation Square, for The
Melbourne Fringe Festival. Film credits include writing and co-directing Forbidden, a Tropfest
finalist and winner of two craft awards. She has performed in numerous stage plays and in many
of Australia’s television series. She wrote and directed Here, a multimedia spectacular with over
70 performers for Women’s Circus. Most recently, Nadja directed the multi award
winning Tenderness by Patricia Cornelius and Christos Tsiolkas at Footscray Community Arts
Centre. Nadja creates large scale works in public spaces bringing artists together with
communities including the Moomba Waterfest Parade 2009 and an ongoing role in Fed
Square's Light in Winter Program with Artistic Director, Robyn Archer.
Daniela Farinacci (Dannie) has been widely acknowledged for her roles in award winning films
such as Look Both Ways( AFI Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress), and Lantana (IF
Award for Best Actress, a Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress, and nomination
for AFI Award for Best Supporting Actress). More recently she completed work on two feature
films: Nadia Tass’ Matching Jack and Lou directed by Belinda Chayko. Daniela’s theatre career
spans numerous productions for companies including Melbourne Workers Theatre, Arena
Theatre, and Hit (Furiously Fertile) and Melbourne Theatre Company, notably appearing as Juliet
in Romeo & Juliet, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as Matilde in The Clean House,
directed by Kate Cherry (Green Room nomination) and recently in Helicopter. She received
further Green Room Award nominations for her roles in Metamorphoses for MTC, 2003 and for
Traitors, Branch Theatre Company in 2005. She was nominated for a Silver Logie as Most
Outstanding Actress for her work as Maritza Wales in The Society Murders. Other television
credits include the main cast role of Helen Callas in East West 101, semi-regular roles on MDA,
The Secret Life of Us and Carla Cametti as well as key guest roles in City Homicide and Rush. She
will soon be seen in the tv productions Lowdown, Jack Irish and Dangerous Remedy (ABC); and
Puberty Blues (Channel 10). Daniela has been a proud member of Equity since 1994.
Adam McConvell (Jack and other roles) has had extensive acting and vocal training that
includes the Victorian College Arts and the United Performers Studio, Tokyo. He has had many
highlights in the theatre, performing in numerous Australian productions, with great
collaborators and instigators. Internationally, he toured the Japanese production of The Seven
Spirits, directed by renowned Indian theatre maker, Nilam Chowdri. Earlier 2012 he performed
in the Australian premiere season of The Motherf**ker With The Hat by Stephen Adly Guirgis,
directed by David Bell, and produced by Red Stitch Theatre. Recent television credits include
Neighbours, Rush, and City Homicide. This year he will appear in the Australian feature film The
Last Dance, premiering at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Adam is excited to be
working with this excellent group of people on the production of Bare Witness, and very much
looks forward to the tour.
Eugenia Fragos (Violetta and other roles) holds a Bachelor of Dramatic Arts from the VCA, and
travelled to Greece on a scholarship she earned to study theatre and dance in 1987. She has
appeared in a variety of theatre roles in plays such as After Dinner at La Mama, Who’s Afraid of
the Working Class, Fever, and Salo all at the Melbourne Worker’s Theatre, Telephone Exchange
at 45 Downstairs and The Spook at Belvoir, and recently, she appeared in Memory of Water for
the State Theatre Company S.A. In television, Eugenia has appeared in a diverse collection of
shows including Blue Heelers, Acropolis Now, and in 2011’s The Slap as ‘Elisavat’. She has also
completed roles in a number of feature films, including two based on works by Christos Tsiolkas
in Head On and Dead Europe in 2012. Eugenia is currently based out of her home town of
Adelaide, Australia.
James Saunders (Jacek and other roles) has performed with the Sydney Theatre Company,
Melbourne Theatre Company, Company B Belvoir, Bell Shakespeare Company, Playbox, Eleventh
Hour and La Mama, as well as in both the Melbourne International Arts Festival, and numerous
international festivals throughout Europe and USA. He wrote and performed The Harry Harlow
Project, premiering at the Victorian Arts Centre in 2009, and touring with Performing Lines
through Mobile States to Australian capital cities in 2011. Other recent theatre credits
include On the production of Monsters, Richard III, Don Juan in Soho, all for the MTC; Song of the
Bleeding Throat for Eleventh Hour, Appetite (KAGE Dance Theatre) for the Melbourne
Festival, Antigone for Company B Belvoir, Fat Pig for STC, Small Metal Objects for Back to Back
Theatre touring around Australia and to Europe in 2007-9, and Bell Shakespeare’s Two
Gentlemen of Verona. He won a Best Actor Green Room Award for Stuck Pigs Squealing’s The
Black Swan of Trespass, which then toured to New York, (winner of 8 local and international
Awards). He was also a member of the Green Room Award winning ensemble Playbox Inside
2001, where he featured in Seven Days of Silence, Ancient Enmity and Public Dancing. He
received a Goethe Institute Scholarship to Berlin in 2005. Some other theatrical credits
include Inheritance, Full Dress Prodn’s, Conquest of the South Pole, Store Room; The Death of
Ivan Ilych, MIAF 2002; Minutiae and Gilgamesh for Uncle Semolina and Friends. Film credits
include the feature Animal Kingdom. TV credits include Offspring, City Homicide, Neighbours,
Wilfred, Blue Heelers and Stingers. James featured in the German/Australian co-production
film A Familiar Lullaby by Lally Katz. James is a graduate of the VCA.
Todd MacDonald (Jacek and other roles) has a Bachelor of Arts from the National Institute of
Dramatic Art and has worked extensively in film, television and theatre as a professional actor
and voice over artist over the past fifteen years. Todd has worked extensively in theatre in both
Sydney and Melbourne touring nationally and internationally with NYID, Playbox, Company B
/Belvoir, Railway St Theatre, The Other Tongue and Riverina Theatre Companies and performed
in works in the Melbourne and Adelaide International Arts Festivals. In 1999 Todd co-founded
(and is currently) the Artistic Director of The Store Room theatre in North Fitzroy, Melbourne
and in 2002 received a Green Room Award for Outstanding Contribution to Fringe as one of the
Artistic Directors of The Store Room. In 2005 he received a Green Room Award nomination for
Best Male Performer for his performance in Construction Human Heart which he produced and
performed for the 2005 Instorage Season at the Store Room. In 2010 received the Green Room
Award for Best Male Performer for his performance in Progress and Melancholy at
fortyfivedownstairs. He has been a company member of NYID for 10 years, performed in six
productions as well as assisted in numerous workshops and has been Associate Producer for the
company.
Ray Chong Nee Since graduating from the acting course at the University of Southern
Queensland (USQ) in 2004, Ray has worked across all performing mediums. His stage credits
include Eight (Exhibit A: Theatre, Melbourne), After All This (Elbow Room/Melbourne Fringe,
Melbourne), winner of the Best Performance for Melbourne Fringe, and two Green Room
Awards for Best Ensemble and Direction in 2011, Peer Gynt (Four Larks Theatre,
Melbourne), Angels in America (Theatre Ink/Parramatta Riverside/Mardi Gras, Sydney), The
God Botherers (Under The Table /Darlinghurst Theatre, Sydney), Cabaret (New Theatre, Sydney)
and Andy X (NIDA, Sydney) with the legendary director Jim Sharman. He has been seen recently
on screen in TV guest roles for Offspring, Rescue Special Ops, Magical Tales and Dance Academy.
His varied works have also included Associate Producer on Road Movie for the
Midsumma/Adelaide Fringe Festival and in the staged play reading of the feature film The
Savage Garden(Dungog/The Raw Festival, Sydney) directed by Peter Andrikidis. His voice credits
include Bulap Tribal Documentary (N.H.N.Z/ 456 Records, Sydney/Queensland), Azaziels Feast
(Terry Pelarek/Carriageworks, Sydney), and a voice over as Will.I.Am for Rosemount Wineries
(Sapient Nitro, Melbourne). Ray is currently in development with award winning theatre
company Elbow Room for the a show that will play Brisbane Festival 2012, and Melbourne
Fringe 2012. This year will also see Ray travel to New Zealand to work on a creative
development of another new work with a local theatre company there.
Ray has been a proud member of Equity since 2004.
Marg Horwell (Designer) is a freelance theatre designer, installation artist and photographer
who has received three Greenroom Awards and two Fringe Awards for outstanding design.
Recent projects include: Wretch by Angus Cerini (La Mama Theatre & regional Vic tour),
Chapters From the Pandemic, Angus Cerini; Life Is A Dream dir Daniel Schlusser (VCA &
Storeroom) and Voicing Emily, Helen Noonan (Malthouse). Marg is an ongoing collaborator of
Hubcap Productions with director Donna Jackson, and worked as the designer for We Built This
City - a large scale outdoor installation piece at ScienceWorks; Dust – a community production
involving over 300 performers, Regional Arts Victoria tour in 2009 and internationally in 2011.
She has worked extensively with Nadja Kostich including: Here (Women’s Circus), Tenderness
(Platform Youth Theatre), and Test Pattern (Platform Youth Theatre). She was the production
designer on the award winning short film Hugo produced by Thaumatrope Productions and on
Odin’s Eye Entertainment’s production of the short film Good Vibrations. Marg also worked on
Walking With Dinosaurs – The Arena Spectacular in association with BBC World Wide, and has
also worked as a mentor for young designers for YGLAM, St Martin's Youth Theatre and Platform
Youth Theatre.
Kristin Rule (musician / composer) completed her Bachelor of Music majoring in Composition,
at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2000. Known as ‘The Unconventional Cellist’, she has
developed a unique approach to cello technique which incorporates unusual timbres,
improvisation and live looping (recording and layering of sound live). In 2008, Kristin completed
a 20 week Australia Council Funded tour of Australia riding a motorcycle and towing a custom
built trailer with a solar panel, battery and inverter enabling her to perform Live Looping
concerts in remote regional towns. In line with her environmental beliefs, she made the radical
move to a bicycle in 2009 as her main means of cello transportation and touring. Her 2010
album, ‘The Knife that Cuts a Tear’, was released to high acclaim, receiving world wide radio play
and interest. Tracks from the album are featured on the National Geographic Documentary
entitled ‘Creatures of the Flood’. In 2011, she composed the original score to the feature length
Screen Australia funded documentary ‘Memoirs of a Plague’ (director; Robert Nugent,
screenings; Hot Docs Canada, IDFA Amsterdam, Margaret Mead, NY, Idocs, Beijing) and adult
puppetry piece ‘Hutch’ (Rachael Guy; performer/writer, Nancy Black; director). Kristin has
performed her own live looping cello compositions at a number of festivals and venues across
Australia, including the Castlemaine State Festival 2011 and the Cygnet Folk Festival 2012.
Emma Valente (Lighting Design) is a freelance lighting designer, director and production
manager and is Co- Artistic Director of THE RABBLE. Her most recent lighting design credits
include : When The Pictures Came - a collaboration between Chinese Children’s Theatre
Company CATC and Terrapin Puppet Theatre – in Shanghai 2010, and will be performed in
Tasmania and Adelaide in 2011; Cageling (CarriageWorks, 45 downstairs – THE RABBLE); Special
(La Mama, THE RABBLE); Perse (Sickic Theatre Company); Here (Women’s Circus); The Lower
Depths (Ariette Taylor); Manna (Sydney Theatre Company); Salome- In Cogito Volume III (THE
RABBLE/ CarriageWorks); Corvus (THE RABBLE/ CarriageWorks); Sunny South/ City Wit (Ballarat
Union Theatre). Emma will be designing For a Better World, directed by Daisy Noyes at Griffin
Theatre later this year. Emma is currently studying Engineering, Lighting and Design at RMIT and
is a member of the Green Room Awards Independent Theatre Panel and Hybrid/ Alternative
Panel.
Michael Carmody (Video Design) has designed video for theatrical productions that include: The
Grand Feeling (paradigm productions) dir Nadja Kostich, Jeremy Angerson; Stories from the
Hidden City (Bagryana Popov); Binded Flight (Elissa Goodrich); Sweet Dreams (paradigm
productions) dir Nadja Kostich and Jeremy Angerson;, Test Pattern (Platform Youth Theatre) dir
Nadja Kostich; Saving Henry V. 5 (Angus Cerini), and Chapters from the Pandemic (Angus Cerini)
for which he received a Green Room Award nomination. In 2005 his short documentary
DEBUTANES screened at the Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth International Film Festivals. He has
also worked as a writer/dramaturge with Platform Youth Theatre (Home, Walt and The Paradise
Plaza, Week, Test Pattern) and paradigm productions (Sweet Dreams, Sunshine).