Hayden Tonazzi is an award-winning director and creative producer who in 2025 was appointed the Artistic Director & CEO of the Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP). 

A graduate of the 2019 NIDA MFA Directing Program, for over eight years’ they have worked across new writing in theatre and musical theatre, most notably Saplings by Hannah Belanszky for the 2024 Sydney Festival (Winner of Best Production for Young People, Sydney Theatre Awards), Pickled كبيس for PYT Fairfield & Downstairs Belvoir, the last train to madeline by Callum Mackay for Fever103 and MeatMarkets Melbourne, and Converted! by Vic Zerbst with Oliver John Cameron for the 2025 Sydney Festival.

In 2022 they were awarded the inaugural Backing The Future Award from the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation (VFFF), which allowed them to build skills in artistic and organisational leadership through the role of Artistic Associate for ATYP. During this time, they were responsible for Generator: Regional Connections Program with the Office for Regional Youth, mentoring 12 teaching artists across regional NSW, and supporting them in the delivery of free drama workshops for over 700 young people. Shortly after they were offered the role of Associate Director & Creative Producer as an acknowledgement of their role in the company, specifically their work across a slew of credits including  Shack by George Kemp, the tour of  Cusp by Mary Anne Butler, the tour of Past The Shallows based on the novel by Favel Parret adapted by Julian Larnach, and Follow Me Home by Lewis Treston. 

Outside of ATYP, their directing credits also include This Genuine Moment by Jacob Parker for La Mama and the Old 505, Significant Other by Joshua Harmon for the New Theatre, Tell Me Before The Sun Explodes by Jacob Parker for the Kings Cross Theatre, and Stop. Drop. And Listen. for Shopfront Youth Arts. From 2022 to 2024, Hayden was also the Co-Artistic Director and Creative Producer for the Lysicrates Foundation, where he ran both the Lysicrates Prize and Martin-Lysicrates Prize, commissioning and developing two new plays a year, including Ripple by Jacob Sgouros, Nothing Scares Us Anymore by Joseph Brown, and Murder, Murder, Hair! by Suvi Derkenne.

Their associate/assistant directing credits include Heroes Of The Fourth Turning for OutHouse Theatre, CAMP and The End Of Winter for Siren Theatre Co, and 21 Forster St for Steps & Holes Theatre. Their directorial secondments include Moulin Rouge: The Musical with Global Creatures, Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour: La Traviata with Opera Australia, and The Bridges of Madison County for the Hayes Theatre.

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).

www.stagespodcast.com.au

Dr Jacqui Hall Cuny is a passionate pedagogue, musical theatre performer, stage and vocal director, and researcher with over 40 years of professional experience.

In 2022, she completed her PhD in Musical Theatre at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. Her doctoral studies examined the elements that create musical theatre performance synergy, or the 'It' factor, how they combine and work together, and how this energy can be practised or encouraged. Jacqui has developed a workable, dynamic framework for teaching skills that encourage this performance quality. Her SASS Toolkit – Strategies for Acting Singing Synergy – draws upon a variety of tried and tested singing, acting, movement and psychological methodologies, as well as her original material.

Known by both her maiden (Hall) and her married name (Cuny), Jacqui sang, danced, and played piano throughout her childhood before completing a classical musical degree in voice, and an arts degree in drama. She made her professional theatre debut in 1981 and toured Australia with major commercial musicals in the 80s before moving to England to further her career. She performed in musicals in Manchester, Birmingham, and London’s West End before returning to Australia in 1989.  

Since then, Jacqui has continued performing, directing, and teaching, expanding her knowledge. She undergirded her experience by completing a Master of Music Studies in Vocal Pedagogy (with Distinction) where she examined tertiary teaching and learning practices in musical theatre, discovering that a more holistic and integrative approach to coaching would enhance the triple-threat skills required by the industry.  

Jacqui has written her research and findings into a book, Find Your 'It' Factor: A guide to dynamic musical theatre performance, published worldwide by Bloomsbury and now available on online platforms and in good bookstores.

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).

John Lonie is a screenwriter, playwright, script editor and book author.

John co-wrote the feature film Kokoda, directed by Alister Grierson. John wrote the television program Frankie's House, three episodes of the AFI Award winning mini-series The Paper Man and he script doctored the AFI award winning mini-series True Believers.  

Other screenwriting credits include A Country Practice, Rescue, Willesee's Australians and GP.  John is regularly engaged as a script editor for features and his script editing credits include Japanese Story, Beneath Clouds, Dogwatch and No Man's Land. John has had five plays professional produced by companies such as State Theatre Company of South Australia, NIDA and St. Martin's Theatre. John's prose work includes his three novellas Act of Love (Blackwattle Press) and other short stories published in various anthologies.

John was Co-Head of Scriptwriting at the Australian Film Television and Radio School from 2000 to 2008.  John's current feature script Tiger Tiger has been funded by Screen Queensland. John wrote two episodes for the Seven Productions show A Place To Call Home for Foxtel.

John’s novel The Woman From Saint-Germain was published by Simon & Schuster in early 2019, and has so far sold over 20,000 copies. His next novel The Woman in the Spotlight is newly published by Harper Collins Australia.

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).

www.stagespodcast.com.au

Paula Arundell has worked extensively across screen and theatre both nationally and internationally.

Her theatre credits include The Real and Imagined History of the Elephant Man (Malthouse Theatre); The Servant of Two Masters, Hippolytus, Antony and Cleopatra, Henry V, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing (Bell Shakespeare); The Master & Margarita, Sami In Paradise, Atlantis, Mr Burns, Mother Courage, Angels in America Parts 1 & 2, Peter Pan, Death of a Salesman, Gethsemane, Scorched, The Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie and Little Ragged Blossom, Paul, Peribanez, The Threepenny Opera (Belvoir); Clark in Sarajevo, The Bleeding Tree (Griffin Theatre Company); Company, Measure for Measure (Melbourne Theatre Company); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Michael Cassel Group); Night Letters (State Theatre Company South Australia); and Sweat, Death of a Salesman, Top Girls, The Bleeding Tree (Sydney Theatre Company).

Paula’s performances have earned her multiple accolades, including the 2016 Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Play, the 2001 Sydney Morning Herald Award for Best Actress, the 1999 Green Room Award for Female Actor in a Featured Role, and the 1997 Green Room Award for Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role.

Paula is presently on stage at Sydney’s Belvoir Theatre in Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead. She quickly follows this in another novel adapted for the stage, The Birds.

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).

Richard Martin joined Global Creatures as Technical Director in February 2012 and was appointed Head of Technical Production in March 2024.

Richard’s technical theatre career commenced in 1979 where he spent 11 years with Opera Australia at the Sydney Opera House. Richard subsequently joined Cameron Mackintosh as Technical Manager touring throughout Australia, New Zealand, Asia and South Africa over a ten-year period. Richard launched Martin Production in 1999. Following this, Richard has been the Technical Director and Supervisor of numerous major theatrical productions and arena events over six continents, through the world’s major cities, including in the West End and on Broadway.

Richard’s theatre credits include: Cats, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Five Guys Named Moe, Miss Saigon, Rent, Aspects of Love, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Slava’s Snowshow, Singin’ In The Rain, Saturday Night Fever, Cabaret, Oliver!, Pippin, Company, Spamalot, Dirty Dancing, The Lion King, High School Musical Live Onstage, Mary Poppins, Hairspray, Wicked, Love Never Dies, King Kong Live Onstage, Strictly Ballroom The Musical, The Beast, My Fair Lady, We Will Rock You, Wizard of Oz, Muriel’s Wedding The Musical, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, The Lion King International Tour, Hamilton, 9 to 5 The Musical, Moulin Rouge! The Musical, and &Juliet.

Richard’s event and arena credits include: 50th Anniversary of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, Opening and Closing Ceremonies for Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, The Boy From Oz Arena Tour, Shanghai World Expo 2010 Opening Ceremony, Walking With Dinosaurs, Tourism Australia’s USA campaign launch New York, White Night 2017 Melbourne & Ballarat. Richard continues to manage and develop productions as Head of Technical Production for Global Creatures.

Without a doubt Richard’s favourite musical is Les Misérables, but one of his most memorable theatrical experiences, whilst not in a theatre, was doing the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, both of which were presented on a theatrical creative.

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).

Tony Award®-winning writer and lyricist Lynn Ahrens is a native New Yorker. She began her musical career fresh out of college when she became one of the principal songwriters and singers for the renowned American television series, “Schoolhouse Rock.”

Since then, she has written extensively for theatre, film and television, winning theatre’s triple crown – the 1998 Tony Award®, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards – for the lyrics of the acclaimed Broadway musical, Ragtime. In the same year she received two Academy Award® nominations and two Golden Globe nominations for Best Song and Best Score, for Twentieth Century Fox’s animated feature film Anastasia.

With her longtime collaborator, composer Stephen Flaherty, her many Broadway, off-Broadway, and Lincoln Center Theatre credits include Once On This Island, Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, My Favorite Year, Lucky Stiff, A Man of No Importance, Rocky, Dessa Rose, The Glorious Ones and Broadway’s Seussical, which is now one of the most performed shows in America. 

A new work, Little Dancer, inspired by the Parisian Ballet world and the impressionist artist Edgar Degas, is presently awaiting production.

Ragtime was revived on Broadway in 2010 and 2025, and is presently playing at The Lincoln Centre in New York City. For the recording of Songs from Ragtime, and for the original Broadway cast recordings of Ragtime and Seussical, Lynn Ahrens has received three Grammy® nominations.

Additionally, Lynn co-wrote the book and score for the Broadway musical adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, in collaboration with composer Alan Menken and director Mike Ockrent, which ran for ten years at Madison Square Garden. She subsequently wrote its screenplay adaptation for the NBC/Hallmark Entertainment Special, starring Kelsey Grammer.

For her extensive work in children’s television, she has received the Emmy Award and four Emmy nominations. She has also contributed songs for the IFC feature film Camp and the documentary After the Storm, among others.

Out of this vast body of work has come a dazzling array of songs, including the power ballad “Make Them Hear You” from Ragtime, often performed by Aretha Franklin; the whimsical “Anything’s Possible,” from Seussical, recorded by Donny Osmond, and many classic “Schoolhouse Rock” songs, including “Interplanet Janet,” “Interjections,” and “The Preamble.” The pop hit “At the Beginning,” from Anastasia, sung by Richard Marx and Donna Lewis, went to Number One, and the soundtrack from that film earned a Gold Record.

Lynn Ahrens is a member of ASCAP, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. She is a Lifetime Member of Council of the Dramatists Guild of America, where she is proud to have co-founded the Dramatists Guild Fellows Program for emerging theatrical writers.

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).

Sam Strong is an award-winning theatre director and one of Australia’s leading cultural figures, known for combining artistic ambition with transformative leadership. He has served as Artistic Director of Queensland Theatre and Griffin Theatre Company, Associate Artistic Director of Melbourne Theatre Company, Chair of Circa, and Executive Director of Creative Industries at Creative Victoria. In 2024 he was appointed Creative Director and CEO of Gasworks Arts Park.

A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts and admitted as a barrister and solicitor in the Supreme Court of Victoria, Strong brings rare cross-sector insight to his work. At Griffin, he delivered seven consecutive seasons of subscriber growth and record-breaking productions. At Queensland Theatre, he rebranded and revitalised the company, achieving the highest box office in its history, overseeing the renovation of the Bille Brown Theatre, and positioning the company as a national home for new Australian stories.

Strong has directed for every Australian state theatre company and major festivals. His stage adaptation of Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe became the highest-selling production in Queensland Theatre’s 50-year history. His productions of Love Stories and Joanna Murray-Smith’s Honour were acclaimed, with the latter becoming the longest-running show in Red Stitch’s history. He made Helpmann Awards history as only the second director to have two productions nominated for Best Play in the same year.

Across more than two decades, Strong’s work — spanning classics, bold new writing and large-scale collaborations — has been seen by over 500,000 people. Renowned for unlocking potential in artists and organisations alike, he continues to champion ambitious storytelling and community-centred cultural leadership.

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).

Gavan Swift is a multi award-winning Lighting Designer. He graduated from Australia’s National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). 

His musical lighting designs include Mamma Mia!, Heathers the Musical, Mack & Mabel, The Mikado, The Pirates Of Penzance, Hot Shoe Shuffle, Little Shop of Horrors, Sweet Charity, Fiddler on the Roof, Jolson, Buddy, Oh What A Night, Footloose, Hair, Xanadu, Chess, Carousel, Follies, Annie and Saturday Night Fever both in Australia and on London’s West End. Gavan was the lighting designer for Moby Dick at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, making history as the first Australian Lighting Designer to light a production at the fabled Arts institution.. 

He has designed the lighting for The Production Company’s Anything Goes, Sugar (Some Like It Hot), The Music Man, Hair, Mack & Mabel, The Pirates of Penzance, Thoroughly Modern Millie and their inaugural production of Mame. For the State Theatre Company of South Australia his designs include Three Sisters (co-set designer), King Lear and Hamlet. For Bell Shakespeare; The Winter’s Tale, Pericles and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. 

He also designed the lighting for the Victorian Opera production of La Rodine and the multi award-winning production of Salome. Gavan has also designed lighting for productions at the Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, The Ensemble Theatre, and Opera Australia. 

Gavan was the Associate Lighting Designer for the Australian productions of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, The Book of Mormon, Aladdin, Cabaret, The Full Monty, Chicago, High School Musical, A Chorus Line, South Pacific, The Lord of the Rings, Wicked, Frozen, An American In Paris, 9 to 5, Jesus Christ Superstar, Hairspray, Beauty & the Beast, Moulin Rouge, Beetlejuice and The Lion King; as well as the West End production of A Chorus Line, the Japanese production of Beauty and the Beast, plus the Mexican production of Wicked.

In another busy year he is Associate Lighting Designer on productions that include Anastasia, Waitress, Beetlejuice and Pretty Woman. He will also create the Lighting Design for Victorian Opera’s Ned Kelly.

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).

Morry Morgan is co‑founder and teacher at the Hard Knock Knocks Comedy School, a Melbourne‑based training ground that has helped more than 900 students — keynote speakers, first‑time comedians and bucket‑list performers — take the stage with confidence. 

A comedic entrepreneur and media commentator, Morry created the Gigme app, produced the comedy‑drama series Is This Thing On?, and ran The Rubber Chicken Comedy Pub from 2021–2023. 

His school, staffed by A‑list coaches, pairs new acts with headline performers and has been featured on Channel 9’s Travel Guides and supported by the NDIS for its inclusion work.

Before returning to Australia in 2013, Morry lived and worked in Mainland China, founding award‑winning corporate training firm ClarkMorgan and publishing the region’s leading bilingual HR title, NetworkHR. A three‑time TEDx speaker and fluent Mandarin speaker, he regularly appears in Australian media on comedy, leadership and the creative arts.

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).

A graduate of the Drama Studio Sydney, Anthony Skuse is a director, dramaturge and teacher. 

Anthony’s directing credits include: Bradford Elmore’s Gravity (Qtopia); James Elazzi’s Saints of Damour (Qtopia); Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler (KXT, Secret House); Gary Owen’s Cherry Orchard: after Chekhov, (Old Fitz, Secret House); Ibsen’s Doll’s House (The Actors Company, ACA); Simon Longman’s Gundog (KXT, Secret House); Katie Pollock’s Rough Trade (Sydney Writes and Theatre Works Melbourne), Breaking the Code (New Theatre); Chekhov’s Three Sisters (Belvoir Downstairs, AFTT) Alistair McDowall’s Pomona, (KXT, Secret House); Katie Pollock’s Normal (Uncertainty Principle); Crime and Punishment (Secret House); Joanna Erskine’s Air  (Old 505); Simon Stephens’ Birdland (New Theatre); Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis (Old Fitz); Suzie Miller’s Sunset Strip (Uncertainty principle & Griffin, and with Critical Stages National Tour); Chekov’s Seagull (Secret House, Depot Theatre); Bathsheba Doran’s Mystery of Love and Sex (Darlinghurst Theatre); Charlotte Jones’ Airswimming (The Vaults, London); Nick Enright’s Man With Five Children (Darlinghurst Theatre Company); Christopher Harley’s Blood Bank (Ensemble Theatre); Jane Bodie’s Fourplay & Ride (Darlinghurst Theatre Company); Suzie Miller’s Caress/Ache (Griffin Theatre Company); Jessica Bellamy’s Shabbat Dinner (Rock Surfers, Rocks Pop Up Festival, Griffin Theatre Company); Nick Payne’s Constellations (Darlinghurst Theatre Company); Simon Stephens’ On the shore of the wide world (Griffin Independent); Amy Hertzog’s 4000 Miles (Under the Wharf, Sydney, La Boite, Brisbane & Critical Stages Regional Tour); Simon Stephens’ Punk Rock (Under the Wharf) which won three Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Independent Production and Best Direction

Anthony was Head of Performance at Actor Centre Australia. He has directed graduation shows WAAPA, NIDA and AFTT and now JMC. He was an Associate Lecturer at NIDA from 2009 – 2013, working in the Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses. 

Anthony is presently directing Beth Steel’s Till The Stars Come Down for company Secret House, being presented at the KXT theatre in Sydney from March 27th.

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).

Deborah Jones is one of Australia’s most respected arts journalists, with a career spanning more than 25 years as a writer, critic and editor at The Australian. She served as Arts Editor for a decade and also edited the paper’s influential Review section, later becoming Executive Editor for five years.

Joining the Sydney bureau in 1987 as a sub-editor, Deborah rose through the ranks to become a leading national voice in arts criticism. In 2001 she was appointed Arts Editor, a position she held for nearly ten years, shaping coverage of theatre, dance, opera and music across the country. She subsequently became the paper’s national dance critic — a role she continues to hold — while also reviewing musical theatre and opera.

Deborah holds an honours degree in drama from the University of Newcastle, completed part-time while working as a journalist. She later spent three years as a drama tutor at the university, grounding her criticism in both scholarship and practical understanding of performance.

In addition to her work for The Australian, Deborah has been the Sydney correspondent for the London-based Opera Magazine for seven years, reviewing opera performances in Australia for an international readership. She is also a member of the Sydney Theatre Awards judging panel, contributing her expertise to recognising excellence on stage.

Now working as a freelance writer and editor, Deborah specialises in dance, musical theatre, theatre and opera. Her blog, deborahjones.me, continues her lifelong conversation about performance — archiving reviews, offering commentary, and proving that retirement is no match for a seasoned journalist with a passion for the arts.

The STAGES podcast is available to access and subscribe from Spotify and Apple podcasts. Or from wherever you access your favourite podcasts. A conversation with creatives about craft and career. Follow socials on instagram (stagespodcast) and facebook (Stages).