Flinders Drama Centre - Class of 1983

		Class of 1983
Syd Brisbane		After graduating from Flinders Unversity Drama Centre, Syd worked with Troupe Theatre in their 1984 Festival Production *Tibetan Inroads. He was a founding member of the Bushdance Theatre Company, touring SA and Victoria with the Kelly Dance. He joined Troupe in 1985 appearing in many plays including Rundle Rita, The Floating Palais* and *The Last Drive-In On Earth* for the 1986 Festival. He has also worked with Harvest and Patch Theatre Company. For the Red Shed Company Syd has appeared in *Immaculate Deceptions* and *Road* and for State Theatre Company in *Marat/Sade* , *The Comedy Of Errors* and *Quickies. Other theatre highlights include Daniel Keene's Low* and *Terminus. His film credits include Dead Letter Office, Struck by Lightning, Hammers Over The Anvil, the mini-series Shadows Of The Heart, Tracks Of Glory, The Battlers* , *Epsilon* and the critically acclaimed *Bad Boy Bubby*.

John Crouch (1955-2019)		Since graduating from Flinders Drama Centre in 1983, John has worked in Theatre, Film, TV, Opera and Musicals. Initially he was an ensemble member of Troupe where he performed in *Tibetan Inroads, Salonika* and *The Centenary Dance. For the State Theatre Company Of SA, John performed in Pravada, Much Ado about Nothing, The Recruiting Officer* and *The wild Honey. While at State John had the privilege of working with John Gaden, John Bell, Aubrey Mellor and Gale Edwards. For State Opera John sang in La Traviata, The Czaradas Princess* and *The Gondoliers. His musical performances include The Venetian Twins* with Paul Backwell, Brecht's *A Happy End,and Sweeney Todd. TV credits include The Alien Years, The River Kings* , *Finders Keepers* and *The Secret. Feature Films include Struck by Lightning, Push Start* (Scott Hicks), and *Touch* (2013) with Matt Day and Leeana Walsman. In 2000 John became a Drama Teacher and moved regionally to Mt Gambier. Here he worked with Mainstreet Theatre in *Much Ado About Nothing, The Ants, The Ghost Riders* (a co-pro with Patch Theatre and Carclew) with Teresa Bell and Ken Radley. During this time John began to experiment with Media in performance, which culminated in *If There Was A Colour Darker Than Black I'd Wear It, a Ruby award winning (for innovation 2013) semi-installation hybrid work, in which he was a key creator and devisor of the original concept and intial development. The work involved 14 artists and opened at the national regional arts festival in 2012. Since then John has co-created GENER8 Theatre with Jamie Harding and has two new works in the pipeline, Everyone Is Young and Famous Already*, a darkly parodic exploration of our current obsession with fame as a commodity. Gener8 are working with Australian Cabaret icon Trevor Ashley on this work. Gener8 created a new work with australian writer Patricia Cornelius, examining rural isolation, ice (methamphetamine) and masculinity in regional aussie towns. John passed away in 2019.

Eileen Darley		Eileen's experience in theatre and film performance spans 29 years. On graduating from Flinders University Drama Centre in 1983 she joined the Troupe Theatre ensemble, then Magpie Theatre Company, and was subsequently a long - term collective member of Red Shed Theatre Company. Her innumerable performances at Red Shed include *Carthaginians, All Souls, Because You Are Mine, Frankenstein's Children, Dog Eat Dog, Sweetown* and *In Cahoots. Eileen has performed extensively for Vitalstatistix and Patch Theatre and for the Adelaide Festival Centre. Her feature film work includes performances as Amelia in Serenades* and Shirley in *Australian Rules. For State Theatre Company Eileen has appeared in The Misanthrope, Don's Party, Morning Sacrifice, Three Birds Alighting on a Field* , *Arabian Nights, Salt, Jonah* and *Carrying Light. Eileen also works as a singer, crossing the genres of folk, jazz and cabaret. She has performed in many music theatre pieces, including most recently Melissa Reeve's Tough Girls* (Vitalstatistix), *Rockin' the Boat* (2009 Port Festival and 2010 Waterside) and *A Night With the Flying Horses* (2010 Adelaide Cabaret Festival) with Darley, Day and Tin Can Alley.

Michael Griffin		Michael studied drama at the University of Adelaide and at Flinders University Drama Centre in South Australia. He has a double major in Drama and Performance and in Anthropology (Social Science) from the University of Adelaide. He has a first class honours degree in Cultural Studies and Critical Theory from the University of Adelaide. Michael has worked extensively as an actor on the stage and in television and film throughout Oz. He has played lead roles on the stage on numerous occasions but most notably in the Australian Premiere of Stephen Lowe's *Tibetan Inroads* during the 1984 Adelaide Festival of the Arts and in the cult hit world premier of John Romeril's music theatre piece *Black Cargo* for the Melbourne Worker's Theatre in 1991. He has appeared with the State Theatre of South Australia in the Greek tragedy *Medea* and in the very popular *Dealer's Choice. He has been nominated for acting awards in both Melbourne and Adelaide. He appeared in Scott Hick's first feature film Call Me Mr Brown* and in Australian television series such as *The Flying Doctors, Chances* and *The Gerry Connelly Show*. He has had grants from government arts departments to write and develop scripts for the stage. Before acting, he worked as a musician/singer and more recently he has worked as an Academic - lecturing and tutoring law, and as a legal research officer. He has also enjoyed success as a writer and event co-ordinator.

Tania Nehme		Tania Nehme edited numerous documentaries and short dramas before she cut her first feature, *Epsilon, for Rolf de Heer in 1995. Tania was a student at the AFTRS when she was nominated for her first Australian Film Institute Award in 1991 for the short drama Once In Time, directed by Isou Morimoto. She edited The Quiet Room, The Sound Of One Hand Clapping, Dance Me To My Song, The Tracker* and *The Old Man Who Read Love Stories. The Tracker* was the fifth feature Tania cut with de Heer, earning her Best Editor nominations at both the 2002 AFI Awards and the 2002 Film Critics Circle Awards. After it's delayed release in 2004, Tania received nominations for an IF, AFI and Critics Choice Award for *The Old Man Who Read Love Stories. She won the Best Editor Award at the Independent Filmmakers (IF) awards in November 2004. Her sixth feature collaboration with Rolf de Heer, Alexandra's Project, resulted in nominations for Best Editing for Film Critic's Circle and AFI awards in 2003. As well as the film editing nominations, Tania also received nominations for an IF and AFI Award as part of the sound team for The Tracker* (2002). In 2006 she won the AFI and Critics Circle Award as Best Editor for *Ten Canoes. She also shared best Documentary award at the Critics Circle Award with Molly Reynolds and Rolf De Heer for The Balanda And The Bark Canoes* (aka MAKING TEN CANOES). IN 2007 Tania edited the silent feature *Dr. Plonk. Tania collaborated with Rolf de Heer and Molly Reynolds and the Yolngu people of the Arafura swamp to make 12 Canoes. Tania also edited the highly successful Feature documentary Contact* . The documentary has earned several awards including best documentary at the Sydney Film Festival 2009. She recently edited the ABC series *First Footprints* as well as Rolf de Heer's 2012 feature *The King is Dead*.

Melissa Reeves		Melissa Reeves is a Melbourne Playwright. Her plays include *In Cahoots, The Girl I Love, (co-written with Margeret Mills, Maude Davey and Nicki Redlich), Sweetown* - awarded the Jill Blewitt Memorial Playwrights Award in 1993, *Great Day, The Emperor's New Clothes, Storming Heaven* and *Road Movie. Who's Afraid of the Working Class* and *Fever* were both co-written with Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius and Christos Tsiolkas, the former winning best play in the Queensland Literary Awards, two Awgies for best new play, and the Jill Blewitt Playrights Award. *Salt Creek Murders* was winner of the Wal Cherry award. Melissa received the Major Awgie Award in 2005 for her new play *The Spook. Her latest works Furious Mattress* and *Happy Ending* both were staged at the Malthouse Theatre.

Annabel Giles

Robert Crouch