Ripening

Playing Lea

A Melbourne local, Veronica has been an avid performer since the age of 7. An accomplished dancer and cellist from an early age she then found her calling in acting, refining her skills at The Victorian College of the Arts.

Whilst training at The VCA, she toured for the Adelaide Fringe, Edinburgh Festival and various shows in the Melbourne Comedy Festival. Since graduating, her stage presence continued performing with the Redstitch Ensemble (‘Playlists’), La Mama Theatre (‘Thigh Gap’, ‘When The Light Leaves’), Theatreworks, Fortyfivedownstairs amongst others.

Some of her screen credits include ‘Neighbours’, The international award-winning 'Bruce', 'Sexy Herpes' ‘The Dr Blake Murder Mysteries', ‘Shantaram’, How to Talk Australian’, Five Bedrooms and ‘Ride Like a Girl’.

Veronica most recently performed with The Victorian Theatre Company in ‘Low’ and is set to soar with more upcoming projects this year.

Playing Mary and the Doctor

Ana began her professional career in Musical Theatre and has appeared in shows such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (GFO/Crossroadslive) Nine (StageArt), Merrily We Roll Along (Watch This), The Sound of Music (GFO/SEL) and The Buddy Holly Story (Everyday Productions). Most recently, Ana was in the premiere season of new Australian Musical, ‘My Brilliant Career,’ for Melbourne Theatre Company.

Screen credits include Neighbours, Newton’s Law, Pig’s Breakfast, Good Morning Australia, feature film Undertow and the title role in the award winning short film ‘Miriam’. In the UK Ana played the recurring role of ‘Maggie Peters’ in the TV series Family Affairs.

Musical Director credits include Ladies in Black (Fed Uni), Menopause the Musical (HIT & SK Entertainment), Motormouth Loves Suckface (Anthony Crowley), Mrs Prime Minister (Melbourne Cabaret Festival) and workshops of I Can Jump Puddles (Antipodes).

Ana is the co-founder and Artistic Director of children’s performing arts school ‘Stage Left.’ www.stageleft.com.au

Playing Childbirth Education Midwife and others

Emily Carr is an actor and writer based in Melbourne. A graduate of QUT Drama, she’s also trained with esteemed institutions such as NIDA and The Groundlings, along with some of Australia’s leading clowning, improvisation, puppetry, and voiceover coaches (ATYP, Dead Puppet Society, Lilli Pang, Hayden Spencer, Deanna Fleysher).

Her two solo show’s Beige Bitch (2022 MICF, Melbourne Fringe Festival) and Beauty Queen (2023 Melbourne Fringe Festival) captivated Melbourne audiences and received great critical acclaim. Beyond her personal projects, she has recently performed with theatre companies across Melbourne and Brisbane. Recent roles include “Mara KORPER” with Citizen Theatre, “Duck Duck Goose" with That Production Company, "Truthmachine” with Counterpilot and "Attempts on Her Life" with Split Focus.

Playing Grace, Ali and others

Originally from Coffs Harbour, Asha's passion for performance has always been at the core of her artistic journey. Dancing competitively from a young age, mixed with her love for acting and music, inspired her to pursue a career in the performing arts. After graduating Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Music Theatre), whilst still in the creative world she also became a qualified Pilates instructor. 

Asha’s stage credits include The Secret Life of Wonder (Antipodes Theatre), Passing Strange (Antipodes Theatre), and the innovative performance piece Mara KORPER (Citizen Theatre). 

In addition to her stage work, Asha has been featured in campaigns for major brands such as AAMI Insurance, Coles, eBay, Harvest Snaps, and Cheer Cheese.

Writer, Director, Producer

Jayde is a writer, director, dramaturge, lecturer and Artistic Director of Melbourne based theatre company, Citizen Theatre. She has directed & written multiple critically-acclaimed productions through Citizen Theatre including Green Room Award nominated Mara KORPER (2021), Ascent (2018), Nude (2015), and directed Rory Godbold’s Green Room Award nominated play, When The Light Leaves (2019 & 2020). She has also been the dramaturge on numerous musicals, original cabarets and plays. 

In 2024 she was commissioned to write the libretto and lyrics for an opera for young people at Victorian Opera, called The Lyrebird’s Voice (dir. Elizabeth Hill-Cooper), premiering in various venues in 2025. She was the 2020 recipient of Monash University’s Jeanne Pratt Artist In Residence commission to create a new musical with Peter Rutherford. She was also the Artist in Residence at Gasworks Arts Park in 2022 to create a new work, Ego Machine. 

She is a lecturer at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne where she regularly directs student works, which have included the graduating 3rd year production Sweet Charity (2021) and Morning Melodies concerts at Arts Centre Melbourne’s Hamer Hall (2019, 2022, 2024). 

From the University of Melbourne she holds a Bachelor of Music Theatre, Post Graduate Diploma of Arts (Anthropology) and is currently undertaking a PhD researching feminist dramaturgies in music theatre contexts.

Set designer

With a Bachelor of Interior Architecture, combined with a passion for theatre and landscapes Sarah’s love for visualising story through environment has led to work both internationally and across Australia as both a scenic and landscape designer. Sarah has worked in many roles around the theatre as a set and costume designer as well as a stage manager. Sarah is one of the three producers at Green Room Award winning production company, Pursued By Bear and works in residence as a Senior Designer with Waddell Landscape Design.

Lighting Designer

Clare is a Melbourne based Lighting Designer and Theatre Maker. She was the resident LD for Red Stitch Actors Theatre from 2013 to 2020. In 2014, she was nominated for a Green Room Award for lighting design on Eurydice (Red Stitch) and again in 2021 for Mara KORPER (Citizen Theatre). She was chosen for the 2016 Besen Family Artist Placement at The Malthouse. Clare was one of the 2018 Women in Theatre Participants at MTC, she was also part of the Core Design stream through the 2019 WIT program, working with Matt Scott on Shakespeare In Love as the Associate Lighting Designer.

Freelance Productions include: Mara Korper -dir. Jayde Kirchert, When the Rain Stops Falling - dir. Briony Dunn, Everyone is Famous w/ Riot Stage - dir. Katrina Cornwall, Burn This – dir. Iain Sinclair, Night Mother - dir. Briony Dunn, My Wife Peggy – dir. Gavin Roach, Shakespeare In Love – Lighting Associate w/ Matt Scott – Simon Phillips - Melbourne Theatre Company, Midsummer Mendelssohn- Flinders Quartet- dir. Richard Piper, My Wife Peggy (Melbourne Season) – dir. Gavin Roach, Gloria – Lighting Attachment w/ Paul Jackson –dir. Lee Lewis/Melbourne Theatre Company, A Midsummer Night’s Dream – dir. Francis Greenslade, True West – dir. Alice Darling, Playing Rock Hudson – dir. Cameron Lukey, Elmo’s World Tour 2012 - Lifelike Touring/Sesame Street Workshop.

Red Stitch Productions include: Feather in The Web – dir. Declan Greene, Oil – dir. Ella Caldwell, Dance Nation – dir. Maude Davey, Love Song – dir. Denny Lawrence, The Antipodes – dir. Ella Caldwell, The Way Out – dir. Penny Harpham, Rules for Living – dir. Kim Farrant, The River - dir. John Kachoyan, You Got Older – dir. Brett Cousins, The Village Bike – dir. Ngaire Dawn Fair, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE – dir. Denny Lawrence, Wet House - dir. Brett Cousins, Jumpers for Goalposts – dir. Tom Healey, EURYDUCE – dir. Luke Kerridge, Bellville - dir. Denny Lawrence, 4000 Miles – dir. Mark Pritchard, Midsummer (A Play with Songs) – dir. John Kachoyan, ORPHANS – dir. Imara Savage, Howie the Rookie – dir. Greg Carroll

Costume Designer

Aislinn is a costume designer and maker and graduate of the Bachelor of Fine Arts (Production) at Victorian College of the Arts (VCA). She has employed her hands-on approach to designing on a range of dance, theatre, film and musical theatre pieces, and was nominated for a Green Room Award for Best Costume Design for Citizen Theatre’s Mara KORPER (2021).

Alongside designing, Aislinn also enjoys working as a support worker at Sacred Heart Mission and is currently studying a Master of Social Work at University of Melbourne.

Sound Designer/Composer

Imogen Cygler is a contemporary composer and performer. Imogen is classically trained in piano, violin and voice and contemporary composition. She completed Honours in the Bachelor of Music (Interactive Composition) at the Victorian College of The Arts and her Masters. She also recently released her debut EP, ‘Wrocław’, a collection of songs about watching the world pass by in solitude. In addition to regular performances with her own ensemble, Imogen is a performer in groups such as: Jade Alice, Sunfruits and Pup Tentacle. She was the recipient of the Adolph Spivakovsky Scholarship for Composition of Music in 2020. In 2019 Imogen completed a commission for the Arts Centre Melbourne (5x5x5) and in 2020 for the University of Melbourne’s ‘Multivocal’ exhibition.

A keen collaborator, Imogen also composes, performs and directs music for live shows and short films. Recent accomplishments include: ’Sweet Dreaming’ for the Melbourne Fringe Festival with a sold out season at the Meat Market; ‘Ascent’ for the Melbourne Fringe Festival at Theatre Works; ‘When The Light Leaves’ for Citizen Theatre; ‘Lennox: Legend In My Living Room’ at the Melbourne Cabaret Festival; numerous scores for short films including ‘Mwah’ (dir. Nina Buxton) selected for MIFF; Musical Director for ‘Put The Blame On Mame’ at the Melbourne Cabaret Festival and ‘When I Awoke’ at the Butterfly Club. Imogen is the resident composer for the Theatre Company ‘Citizen Theatre.’ Imogen takes audiences on a journey allowing them space to interpret and be fully immersed in the music. Theatre Press described her work as “… breathtaking… beautifully rich

Assistant Director and Social Media Associate

Gabrielle Ward is a Melbourne-based, Sydney-born artist who studied at the Victorian College of the Arts in a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Music Theatre).

Upon graduating, Gabrielle fell in love with directing and made her directorial debut in ‘Murder is an Art’ by Conor Beaumont for The Butterfly Club (2022) and went onto direct The Human Centipede,

Parody Musical (2023), (t)issue - La Mamma and Melbourne Fringe (2024) and ‘Have a Goodnight Walter’ which will be opening at The Butterfly Club in July.

Her acting credits include Bridget in ‘The Humans’ by Antipodes Theatre (2023), the Australian premiere of Will Buyers’s Stranger Things in ‘Stranger Sings, The Parody Musical!’ by Salty Theatre (2022) and Adult Maria in ‘Castro’s Children’ by Peter Fitzpatrick (2024). Gabrielle was also a puppeteer and onstage swing in Australian tours by Lifelike Productions of Paw Patrol Live! (2024) and Gabby’s Dollhouse Live (2025). 

Gabrielle has been an assistant director to Jayde Kirchet in VCA’s production of Morning Melodies and Citizen Theatre’s show ‘Ego Machine’ in 2022.

She is thrilled to be teaming up with Jayde again in Citizen Theatre's show Ripening!

Stage Manager

Teri is a Melbourne-based freelance stage, production, and project manager, who has worked extensively in Melbourne’s independent theatre scene since relocating in 2017. She trained in Brisbane and Toowoomba in music, theatre, and technical theatre. Over the last decade, Teri has spent time designing, performing, building, operating, and managing for theatre, circus, music, and dance. She spent half of 2022 touring the country with Menopause The Musical as Company Stage Manager. Her time in Melbourne has seen her working consistently with Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre, La Mama, fortyfivedownstairs, 15 Minutes From Anywhere, Melbourne Shakespeare Company, Citizen Theatre, and Arts Access Victoria. Outside of her freelance work, she is currently working at The Australian Ballet School and The University of Melbourne.