Creative Leadership in Learning

Tamara Harrison is the Head of Children, Families and Creative Learning. She has extensive national and international experience in the arts and culture sector across a range of performance genres.

She has held a number of senior positions at The School of Life Australia, Australia Council for the Arts, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and Malthouse Theatre, across programming, sector and audience development, partnerships and communications. 

Frank is the Creative Learning Specialist for the Sydney Opera House. From 2007-2012 Frank was Terrapin Puppet Theatre's Artistic Director and during this time, won a Helpmann Award for Best Production for Young Audiences. He has a Bachelor of Creative Arts, Majoring in Theatre Technology, from Wollongong University.

Frank’s shows have played in festivals in Australia and around the world. Frank is studying for his Doctorate at the Queensland University of Technology researching creativity, site specific practice, creative learning and the Sydney Opera House. 

Alice Osborne is a theatre maker who works collaboratively as a puppeteer, director, performer and movement artist. She worked as Puppetry and Movement Director on The Splinter by Hilary Bell for Sydney Theatre Company,  Monkey Baa's adaptation of Jackie French's Diary of a Wombat, Ruby’s Wish for MakeBeLive, and Justine Clarke’s Look! Look! It’s a Gobbledygook. Alice's television credits as puppeteer include Five Minutes More, Me & My Monsters, Farscape Mini Series and The Upside Down Show.

She has a Bachelor of Arts (Communication - Theatre/Media) from Charles Sturt University, Bathurst. Most recently, Alice worked as Puppetry Director for Monkey Baa’s adaptation of Possum Magic in 2019 and on a new stage adaptation of Edward the Emu.

Curly Fernandez (he/him) is an Australian conceptual artist with an interest in audience participatory processes. He is of Indian and Portuguese ancestry. His work combines disruptive art with social experiments that are incendiary, experiential, and provocative explorations of humanity.

He leads the Leftovers Collective which has performed for the City of Sydney, Mardi Gras, The Powerhouse Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Art and Sydney Opera House.

Curly is a specialist creator in hybrid drama techniques, weaving literacy, leadership, and visual arts for young people to unleash creativity through Artistic Anarchy.

Notably, he has worked with young people who have refugee status, English as a second language and also Indigenous youth in Central Desert NT, giving them confidence and freedom regardless of societal rules and norms. Curly has collaborated with other cultural youth institutes such as Australian Theatre for Young People, Poetry In Action, The Arts Unit, Bell Shakespeare and The Multicultural Playwrights Program. 

Howard Matthew is a multimedia artist who works with film, sculpture, photography, drawing and performance. His work has been shown internationally and has been purchased for private collections. He has worked in a broad range of contexts, including early years education and with adults who have intellectual and physical disabilities. Howard has also taught in universities and worked widely in community and outreach programs.

As a freelance arts educator, he has worked with a number of other organisations including Sydney Living Museums and Sydney University. Since 2014, he has maintained an artist in residence program in two South Sydney public schools.

Kate is an actor, theatre maker, youth arts facilitator and voice over artist who has worked for theatre companies across Australia, creating original theatre pieces with her students and embedding a passion for theatre in young people. 

Shehas voiced characters for movies and TV, including Sesame Street and as lead voice actor for the Shopkins web-series and feature films. She has also Voice Directed multiple series for Australian TV. 

Kate has a unique and varied skill set, with a Bachelor of Theatre Arts, an improvisation scholarship at The Second City in Chicago and teaching theatre at University of Southern Queensland.

Kay Yasugi is a puppeteer, puppet maker and teacher based in Sydney, Australia. She trained at London School of Puppetry (UK) and runs shows and workshops through Pupperoos. She is the General Secretary for the puppetry organization UNIMA Australia.

Her passion for puppetry has led her to projects and festivals around the world, working in Denmark, Italy, France, USA, Cambodia, China, South Korea and Prague. She has performed at Sydney Opera House in The 13-Storey Treehouse, a play based on the book by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton and has also appeared on ABC’s Play School (‘Through the Window’ segments) for their puppetry episodes.

Luke Escombe is an award-winning songwriter, musician, comedian and speaker who works in health, education, entertainment and the arts. He is the creator of Chronic, a musical comedy show about living with chronic illness, and The Vegetable Plot, a nationally touring children's band signed to ABC Kids.

Luke received his early musical education in the UK, where his father’s job in the rock and roll industry enabled him to see hundreds of legendary performances by artists like Freddie Mercury, Prince and Bruce Springsteen while he was just a boy.

Michelle is a theatre-maker whose career has gravitated towards puppetry, creative facilitation, acting and devised performance. Since completing her training in Contemporary Performance at WAAPA/SOCA she has worked as a performer for a diverse range of companies around Australia and overseas, including Terrapin Puppet Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company, ERTH Visual & Physical Theatre, Vivid Sydney, Sydney Festival and Sydney Theatre Company. As an educator, Michelle also works with Sydney Theatre Company as a Teaching Artist helping teachers to use drama to improve children’s literacy and she also co-facilitates a drama ensemble for adults living with a disability and conducts artistic residencies in schools that explore visual and performing arts. She is currently completing her Master of Teaching (primary) and still learning how to surf.

Sarah-Vyne is a recognised leader in Australia for the professionalisation of inclusive arts practice and has a lived experience of invisible disability. She is a director, choreographer, writer and arts consultant with a career spanning 20 years in the Arts and Entertainment industry. Her practice intersects with dance, theatre, screen, visual arts, music and design, engaging some of the most prestigious arts companies in Australia.

Sarah-Vyne is currently in creative development for Murmurations screenplay Bowerbirds, directing a regional arts learning program Ripple Effect in partnership with The Arts Centre Cootamundra. The company’s first major work premiered in 2017 and was programmed in the Joan Main Season in 2018.

Sophie is a director, actor and theatre-maker. As a director, she has worked for Bell Shakespeare, NIDA, ATYP and Newtown High School of the Performing Arts. As an actor and theatre-maker, Sophie’s performance credits include Tattoo and Motortown (Griffin); The Waiting Room (STC Rough Drafts); Titus: The Ultimate Murder Ballad Musical (Darlinghurst Theatre); Hamlet and Measure for Measure (Complete Works Theatre Company) and her acclaimed solo-show Miriam and the Monkfish (The Old Fitz, Melb Comedy Festival, Melb Fringe Festival.) Sophie is a graduate of the VCA (Acting) and the University of Sydney Law School (LLB) and was a recipient of the 2002 Pratt Foundation Award.