2012 DIRECTORS

MICHAEL PIGOTT
B.A. (Hons) Performance Studies, Dip.Ed. (Drama)

Michael Pigott is a director, teacher and writer. His directing work includes: La La Land (Darlinghurst Theatre); Pugilist Specialist (Darlinghurst Theatre); The Forgotten Tide, The Space Between, A Midsummer Night's Dream & Roberto Zucco (Sydney Theatre School); The Golden Ass (B Sharp); The Young Tycoons (Darlinghurst Theatre); Dahling You Were Marvellous (NIDA Studio); Meet the Candidates (Darlinghurst Theatre); King Lear (Harlos Productions); The Doglogs (National Tour); Crescent Moon, Yellow Star (Belvoir Downstairs); Backpacker (Darlinghurst Theatre); Barnsey the Harbour and You (Darlinghurst Theatre); Rozencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Harlos Producations). As a writer his work includes: Between the Seabed and the Sky (VCA / Darlinghurst Theatre); Walking on Eggshells which premiered in Slovenia and toured to Germany.

MALCOLM FRAWLEY

Malcolm Frawley is a writer/director/teacher and actor with over 30 years of professional experience. His plays and/or productions have been performed in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra, Byron Bay and Darwin. One Of The Girls, Malcolm’s AWGIE-nominated theatre-in-education play about peer pressure, was published in 1995. Malcolm worked for some years in serial television, writing and script-editing series including Neighbours and E Street. More recently, he moved into screen-writing and worked as script editor with young film-maker Christopher Weekes on his feature film Bitter And Twisted that was recently screened, to great reviews, at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.He was also commissioned to write First Lady, a first fleet screenplay, with acclaimed novelist Alan Gold (Jezebel, Boadicea, The Pirate Queen etc). Malcolm played Knife, one of a club of serial killers, in the low budget horror feature The Seventh Hunt, now in post-production and major supporting roles in the low-budget features Rollover and Sum Of Existence (broadcast on Channel 9) and a cameo in I Wish I Was Stephanie V. He played the title role in the short film Reubens and major roles in Product, Rose and Faith. Malcolm was co-director of NIDA’s screen acting programme for Third Years from 2000-2003 (inclusive). He has taught screen acting, audition technique, stage-craft, text analysis, improvisation and characterisation at Sydney Theatre School, Screenwise, Actors College of Theatre and Television, Theatre Nepean, Screen Actors Workshop, The Actor’s Lounge, Ed5, Kick Performance Group and Keane Kids /Gala Studios. He regularly leads screen writing workshops for teenagers at St Aloysius College and play writing at The Studio, MLC Burwood. He has directed six productions for Darlo Drama. Malcolm is the artistic director of Ferknerkle Productions (http://www.ferknerkle.com/) and directed both plays in its most recent double header Gone Bush and Sniper.

JEROME PRIDE
B.A. Acting (VCA)

Jerome has worked extensively as an actor over the past 20 years in Australia. Theatre credits include: 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (Bell Shakespeare Co.); 'Macbeth' (Macbeth) - Melbourne Theatre Co. ; 'Twelfth Night' and 'The Comedy of Errors'; 'Footprints on Water' and 'Chilling and Killing my Annabel Lee' (Griffin Theatre Co.); 'The Large Breast or the upside down Bell' (Belvoir St.); 'Bird's Eye View' (Old Fitzroy); 'The Wind in the Willows' and 'Alice in Wonderland' (EHW); 'Mary Shelley and the Monsters', 'Hideous Portraits', 'Footprints on Water', 'The Large Breast...', 'Trapped' and 'Self' (La Mama Theatre); 'The Soldier's Tale' (Melbourne Fringe); and the one-man play - 'The Room' (Green Room Award nom') for Ranters Theatre, of which he was a founding member. He was also a full-time performer/company member with 'Rock 'n' Roll Circus'. Feature films - 'The Dinner Party', 'Three Dollars', 'The Zone’, 'Rainbow’s End', 'Mr Nice Guy'; T.V. - 'Blue Heelers' (Guest Lead); 'Good Guys Bad Guys'; 'Mercury'; 'RAW FM'; 'State Coroner' (Semi-regular); 'Backberner'; 'White Collar Blue'; 'Mcleod's Daughter's'; 'The Alice'. Many shorts include AFI winner 'Headlock', and he has featured in numerous ad campaigns...'No Gary No'! Jerome has also worked extensively in Voice - acting in many radio plays for the ABC and BBC; and as a Narrator, has recorded over fifty novels/books for Bolinda Audio and Vision Australia. Commercial voice work includes channel announcer for UKTV. Directing credits include 'Macbeth', 'Twelfth Night', 'Audience', 'Innocent When You Dream'; 'A Plane and Simple Truth'; 'The Arabian Nights' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' for STS; and 'From Chekhov with Love' and 'Mating in Captivity' at the Newtown theatre.

NETTA YASHCHIN
B.A (Acting), Director's Course (NIDA)

Netta graduated from the Tel-Aviv University Acting department in 1993. She was an actress for one of Israel’s most innovative theatre companies The Itim Ensemble. Itim’s production Va-Yomer, Va-Yelech was presented at the 1998 Telstra Adelaide Festival. Prior to Netta’s arrival in Adelaide she performed in Itim’s production of Romeo and Juliet and participated in the prestigious production of The Dibuk in Habima, Israel’s national theatre. On arriving in Adelaide she formed the Yashchin Ensemble, a group of Adelaide actors. The Ensemble presented the creative development a hand full of earth that resulted in the full production of Mnemosyne. The Ensemble also presented the creative development of The Intimate. Netta was also invited by Vitalstatistix for it's winter play reading season; undertook a lead role for a training video for Channel 7; and had a role in the feature film Serenades. She led Masterclass workshops for various companies including including Legs on The Wall, Brink Productions and NIDA. She was the assistant director for the State Theatre Co. of South Australia production The Government Inspector. She performed in the show Checklist for an Armed Robber with Vitalstatistics and directed The Hit , by Christos Tsiolkas; Antigone with Urban Myth; and “Talk to me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen…” by Tennessee Williams for Sydney Theatre Company in 2007 and performed in Memmie Le- Blank for Deckchair Theatre and the 2008 Adelaide Fringe at the Queen’s Theatre. She also directed and acted in I Only Came to Use the Phone by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, presented in the Queen’s Theatre by The Yashchin Company 2008 which won the Adelaide Advertiser’s award. Netta undertook the post-graduate course in directing at NIDA in 2009. Her graduating show Through the Leaves by Franz Xaver Kroetz toured to the Adelaide Fringe Festival. She also participated in two observations: MTC with Simon Phillips on Drowsy Chaperone and Bliss with Neil Armfiled at Opera Australia. In 2010 she directed Woytzeck by Georg Buchner for the B Sharp season at Belvoir St Theatre which toured to the Brisbane Festival, as well as Notes From the Underground with the Sydney Chamber Opera. In 2011 Netta directed and performed in I Only Came to Use the Phone at Darlinghurst Theatre; Games in The Backyard at ATYP and Electronic City for NIDA.