Artist of the Month
In 2023, we're making it our mission to highlight a new artist from the Australian theatre scene each month.
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This individual could be a performer, director, writer, reviewer, sound designer, musician, lighting designer, set designer, stage manager and so on.
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If you feel like you'd know someone who would be perfect, contact us or hit us up on our socials @theatrethoughtsaus.
September - Morgan Moroney
(he/him)
Lighting & Video Designer​
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Morgan Moroney (he/him) is a lighting and video designer working across theatre, opera, dance and installation. A graduate of NIDA, Morgan received the 2020 APDG Emerging Designer for Live Performance Award for his design on GHOSTS (NIDA). Morgan has been nominated three times for a Sydney Theatre Award in Best Independent Lighting Design, winning in 2023 for COLLAPSIBLE (essential workers). He won the 2023 APDG Award in Lighting Design for CLEANSED (Redline Productions). In 2024, Morgan was the recipient of the Michael Northen Award for emerging Lighting Designers, administered by the Association for Lighting Production and Design in the UK.
Morgan’s work as Lighting Designer includes NAYIKA: A DANCING GIRL (Belvoir), DIDO & AENEAS (Pinchgut Opera), THE TURN OF THE SCREW (Hayes Theatre Co), INFERNO (Australian Brandenburg Orchestra), SAPLINGS (ATYP), SHITTY (Belvoir 25A) GIRLS IN BOYS’ CARS (NTofP), SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER and CLYDE’S (Ensemble), THE BARBER OF SEVILLE (Opera Australia National Tour). His video design work includes A LETTER FOR MOLLY (Ensemble). Collaborations as Lighting and Video Designer include: COLLAPSIBLE, which he also co-directed, CAMP (Siren Theatre & WorldPride) and A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO SELF-DEFENCE (Merrigong & NTofP). Morgan has worked with Nick Schlieper as Associate Lighting Designer for DRACULA (Sydney Theatre Company) and Assistant Lighting Designer for THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA ON SYDNEY HARBOUR (Opera Australia). Morgan is one half of independent theatre contingent essential workers.
My Story
​What inspired you to get involved in theatre?
Growing up in Adelaide, I was lucky to be exposed to a wide world of weird and wonderful performing
arts. Locally, theatre companies like Windmill and Patch – and of course, the annual Fringe!
My family is quite musical – and my great-grandmother was an opera singer – but sadly I inherited minimal vocal talents. Instead, I played various instruments, and spent a lot of hours in ensembles, bands and choirs to avoid PE class.
In my spare time, I made short films and music videos with my siblings and friends. Despite encountering creative conflict at a very young age, luckily, they still remain my siblings and friends.
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At age nine, I was cast as Sailor #2 in the school musical – an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It was my big break. The sailors and I tragically perished in the opening number, after I cried out the single line “Reef the sails!”
My clearest memory, however, is how exciting it was to be immersed in a storm onstage, even though I had no idea how it was being conjured with light and smoke.
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I soon came to my music teacher with a new request. In addition to my promotion to Clarinet 1, I wanted to be working on the lights and projections too. To my delight, she agreed!
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I like to think that what I do now is the convergence of all these interests.
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Where did you start?
Fast forward a couple of years to high school, and I signed up for the theatre technology program. Given it was South Australia, it was the only program of the kind available in the state. It was an excellent excuse to keep avoiding PE class.
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Like many dedicated theatre fanatics before me, I spent every spare second there, experimenting with ideas in a sandbox that felt limitless. Completely falling in love with it, I designed school plays before finding volunteer and work experience roles at the Fringe and around Adelaide.
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In one sense, I would consider all of that my “start” – but in a professional sense, you’d have to fast forward another few years to when I finished studying at NIDA and launched myself into the independent theatre scene in Sydney.
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What have been the highs? What have been the lows?
With no hesitation, the best thing about my job is the people I’ve met. The most resilient, passionate,
generous people make up our industry and I’m so proud to call them my friends and peers.
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On the flip side, there’s no sugarcoating life as a freelance artist. I love what I do, but the hours are long, and the rates don’t often match the high expectations for commitment and delivery. Maintaining a work-life balance is difficult when the work oscillates between feast and famine.
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And might I add (while on my tiny soapbox) that I have a somewhat spiky relationship to theatrical criticism when it comes to the vernacular of lighting design. Articulating ideas about light is difficult – I certainly know that – but I often find it relegated to a single descriptor (if there’s a mention at all!). Of course, there are many exceptions to this, and I have nothing but respect for critics and the important role of criticism in the theatrical landscape. When I’m working, I’m not focused on creating isolated images - I’m trying to tell a story with all the other voices in the room. That’s what I love about making theatre.
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Where do you see yourself going or want to go?
In the most literal sense, I’m going to Japan at the end of the year and can’t wait for a holiday! More broadly, Zoë Hollyoak (Theatre Thoughts Artist of the Month Alum) and I have our own little corner of the creative world called essential workers – a company we run to make work that excites us. I’d like to spend more time devoted to those endeavours together.
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We have a brand-new website at www.eswrkrs.com
Contact
Email: morgan@morganmoroney.com
Personal Website: www.morganmoroney.com
Business Website: www.eswrkrs.com
Our Artists of the Month Gallery
Who will we highlight this year? Sign up to our Monthly or follow our socials to find out.
Lily Hayman (she/her)
Lily Hayman is a young writer, director and producer who lives and works on unceded Gadigal Land. She is the current Young Leader and Associate Producer at Shopfront Arts Co-Op, and one half of the all-female team behind Purple Tape Productions. Having received a Bachelor of Performance and First Class Honours (Theatre) at the University of Wollongong, Lily has since created and presented two fully realised productions: Fledgling (KXT 2022, MerrigongX 2021) and The Infinity Mirror (Shopfront ArtsLab 2021, BrandX Flying Nun Residency 2022). She has worked as Assistant Director to Margot Politis with Milk Crate Theatre and has been a member of the Harness Ensemble of artists with and without disability since 2021. In 2023 Lily is looking forward to directing Expiration Date and Party Girl as well as developing her own works Preparing for the Inevitable and Perfect Match.
Hayden Tonazzi (they/him)
Hayden Tonazzi (they/he) is a theatre and musical theatre director, and creative producer based in Gadigal. A graduate of the NIDA MFA Directing program, this year they commence their appointment as Artistic Associate with the Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP), after being an Associate Artist at the Kings Cross Theatre (KXT).
As Director, their play credits include Shack by George Kemp for ATYP, Tell Me Before The Sun Explodes by Jacob Parker for KXT, the Australian Premiere of Significant Other by Joshua Harmon for The New Theatre, This Genuine Moment by Jacob Parker for La Mama & The Old 505. Their musical theatre credits include Miracle City by Nick Enright for NIDA, Carrie: The Musical for The Depot Theatre, Parade at The Seymour Centre, and The Hatpin at The King Street Theatre. This year they will be developing a new work titled Pickled (كبيس) for PYT Fairfield, creating a new youth-devised work titled Stop. Drop. And Listen. for Shopfront Arts, and directing a new Australian play, The Last Train To Madeline by Callum Mackay for Fever103.
Sarah Carroll (she/they)
Sarah Carroll (she/they) is an award winning Pasifika queer and neurodiverse writer, performer and producer working on Dharug Land (Western Sydney). Sarah has two successful one woman shows under her belt, ‘Cherry’ (Sydney Fringe Award Winners and Hollywood Fringe Nominee) and ‘Unkissed’ (Developed with Shopfront – ArtsLab). They also run their own production company Sour Cherry Productions that has successfully produced works in the indie theatre scene and fringe circuits.
Almitra Mavalvala (she/her)
Almitra (She/Her) is a Sydney-based, Persian Pakistani, performing artist, writer, composer and independent producer. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Music (Music Theatre) from the Australian Institute of Music. Almitra’s theatre credits include Fiddler on the Roof (Willoughby Theatre Company) & Kinky Boots (Packemin Production). She was also part of the Feminist Comedy show ‘Tough Titties’ as a featured musical artist. Her screen credits include, a short film, ‘Red Lantern’ (Noah Films, Supporting Female Lead)
Tiffany Wong
Tiffany Wong is a theatre-maker with a disability working across Gadigal and Wurundjeri lands. She is an Australian-born Chinese artist with Singaporean and Malaysian heritage.
Tiffany is a director for stage. She is the 2024 Cosgrave Associate Artist for Bell Shakespeare. Her credits include Boom (Slanted Theatre & KXT bAKEHOUSE), Short Blanket (Slanted Theatre & Meraki Arts Bar), Lady Precious Stream (Slanted Theatre & The Flying Nun at Brand X), Three Fat Virgins Unassembled (Slanted Theatre & KXT bAKEHOUSE), and Ching Chong Chinaman (Slanted Theatre). She has also worked as an Assistant Director to Courtney Stewart for Top Coat (Sydney Theatre Company), to Lucy Clements on Iphigenia In Splott (New Ghosts Theatre Company), and as a Directorial Assistant to Richard Carroll on Murder For Two (Hayes Theatre Co), and to Javaad Alipoor on Things Hidden Since The Foundation of the World – Creative Development (National Theatre of Parramatta).
Ava Madon (she/her)
Ava is an Actor and Singer graduating from Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore. Her work spans theatre, musical theatre and television. She was most recently seen in Sport for Jove’s I Hate People/Timon of Athens, a production praised by the Sydney Morning Herald as “the pinnacle of Shakespeare in Sydney this century”.
Her other recent stage credits include If/Then (Neglected Musicals), Venus and Adonis (Sport for Jove),The Lucky Country (Hayes Theatre Co.), Macbeth, Othello (Sport for Jove), Merrily we Roll Along (Hayes Theatre Co.), Bells are Ringing (Neglected Musicals), Titanic the Musical: In Concert (The Marrollo Project) and Cinderella in Into the Woods with both Belvoir and Watch This, for which she was nominated for a Greenroom Award.
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Jess Zlotnick (she/her)
Jess is a multi-disciplinary creative living and working in Sydney. She has experience as a writer, director, designer, artist, and musician. Jess graduated from the University of Sydney in 2019 with a double major in Gender Studies and Theatre and Performance Studies. Jess is passionate about diversity and challenging stereotypes through theatre and storytelling.
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Solomon Thomas
Solomon Thomas' work explores the intersection between the physical and digital in theatre, experimenting with how theatre and film can co-exist in a live context.
He works as a director, performer, puppeteer, and video designer and is driven by how these practices meet formally. His recent works include POV (Belvoir 2024), Oh Deer! (Rising, 2023), Sex Magic (Griffin 2023), UFO (Griffin 2023), Autotune (Brand X, 2022), The Sucker (Brand X, 2021) and What the Ocean Said (Opera House, 2022). Solomon is a core member of re:group performance collective, who’s work Coil had a national tour with Arts on Tour and was also presented at the Opera House, Mona Foma, PACT and Next Wave.
Maeve Hook (she/her)
Maeve Hook is a queer director, writer and actor, and co-founder of TART Theatre Collective. Maeve has a rich performance history in circus and is a BFA Acting graduate from Queensland University of Technology. In the final year of her studies, she received the Jennifer Blocksidge Memorial Award, allowing her to train with Shakespeare and Company (Massachusetts USA) post-graduation. She has several independent performance credits, some of which include the title role in ‘Anna Bella Eema’ (Dir. Anja Homburg), Mercutio in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (Dir. Shaz Mullens, Fresh Theatre) and the lead in Queer historical short film ‘Ballad’ (Dir. Roe Bonnici). Maeve was a chosen playwright for ATYP’s Emerging Playwrights National Studio (2021) and is currently a part of She Writes at Theatre Works (2022-2023). Her directing work has most recently been seen by national and international audiences with the 2022 tour of ‘POLES: The Science of Magnetic Attraction’.
Tyler Fitzpatrick (she/her)
Tyler (she/her) is a stage and production manager, producer, lighting designer and theatre maker currently based on unceded Dharawal Land. She graduated with distinction from the University of Wollongong, earning the Merrigong Theatre Company Production Prize. Tyler has been the Production and Operations Manager at Shopfront Arts Co-Op since 2020 and services arts organisations as a Production Associate with The Paperjam Partners. With Paperjam, she has production managed Jailbaby and Pony (Griffin Theatre Company, 2023), A Practical Guide to Self-Defense (National Theatre of Parramatta/Merrigong Theatre Company, 2022), Nothing (NTofP, 2022), and Dust (Milk Crate Theatre Company, 2022).
Brea McCarthy (she/they)
Bria McCarthy (she/her) is a Wiradjuri/Irish writer and theatre-maker working on Dharug and Gundungurra land. In 2019 she wrote and directed her debut play ‘A Game For Flies’, which played at PYT Fairfield. In 2022 her debut manuscript ‘Finding Liminas: The Sudden Tree’ was shortlisted for the Text Prize 2022.
Eleni Cassimatis (she/her)
Eleni Cassimatis (she/her) is a Sydney-based actor, and a graduate of the Actors Centre Australia. Eleni’s theatre credits include productions of Macbeth, Hamlet, The Comedy of Errors and In A Nutshell for Bell Shakespeare. She was also a member of Bell Shakespeare’s national touring company The Players in 2020 and 2021.
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​Eleni’s voice work includes the indie short Time Stamp. Eleni is a proud MEAA member.
Em Tambree (they/them)
Em Tambree is an emerging director & producer based in Naarm. Em undertook intensive Musical Theatre training at Centrestage, SHOWFIT (2016) and received their Diploma of Music for Musical Theatre at The Australian Institute of Music (2019). Post graduation & disability diagnosis, Em Tambree's exploration into accessibility within the industry led them to develop experience in almost every aspect of stagecraft.
They founded TART Theatre Collective with Maeve Hook in
April 2022; an independent theatre company focused on the untold, misheard, and/or ignored stories from underrepresented voices and communities (Company in Residence 2023, The Motley Bauhaus).
Aloma Barnes (she/her)
Aloma Barnes is a distinguished costume and set designer, actively contributing to both theatre and screen. With a foundation in fashion design, marked by a Bachelor of Arts degree from Mumbai, India, Aloma's passion for storytelling through attire and settings propelled her to pursue further education at the London College of Fashion. There, she completed her Master’s degree in Costume Design for Performance, honing her skills and artistic vision.
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Her career trajectory includes notable roles, such as a costume designer for various theatre productions in London and a design intern for an Amazon Prime web series in Mumbai.
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Ziggy Resnick (they/she)
Ziggy graduated the NIDA (BFA acting) in 2020 where they worked with and learnt from many inspiring and change makers and artists: Jim Sharman (Twelfth Night), Leticia Caceres (SIX), Priscilla Jackman (Ghosts). Since the institute Ziggy starred in Girls in Boys Cars (Riverside, dir. Priscilla Jackman), Feminazi (Belvoir’s 25A), A is for Apple (Griffin Theatre), How to Defend Yourself (Old Fitz Theatre) and The Eisteddfod (Old Fitz Theatre). Ziggy also toured with The Bell Shakespeare Players in 2022 and worked as a clown on Opera Australia’s Ernani.
Zoë Hollyoak
Zoë is a Director and Creative Producer who has worked across a range of organisations, including Performance Space, Performing Lines, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts and Black Swan State Theatre Company of WA. She holds a Bachelor of Performing Arts (Performance Making) from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) and a Master of Fine Arts (Directing) from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). Zoë runs essential workers, a Sydney-based Performance Making Group.