Hello, World! Program (2020)

HELLO, WORLD! BY / Natesha Somasundaram 2020

CAST & CREATIVE BIOS

NATESHA SOMASUNDARAM WRITER Natesha Somasundaram is a writer and performer based in Naarm, Melbourne. Writing for both television and theatre, her most recent credits include girl friend (Belvoir 25A) and Big Words, Small Stories (ABC/Telegael). She has had her theatrical work read and performed at The National Play Festival, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Melbourne Fringe Festival, Melbourne Theatre Company (Cybec Electric), and Sydney Theatre Company (Rough Draft).

BRIDGET BALODIS DIRECTION

CASEY FILIPS PERFORMER

Bridget trained as a director at the Victorian College of the Arts and Australian National University. She works primarily with new Australian writing and is a member of theatre collective, New Working Group. As a dramaturg/ director Bridget has developed work with playwrights Michele Lee, David Finningan, Dan Giovannoni, Amelia Evans, Morgan Rose, and Rachel Perks. Recent directing credits include She Is Vigilante (Theatre Works), Cybec Electric (Melbourne Theatre Company), MORAL PANIC (Darebin Arts), Desert, 6:29pm (Wuzhen Theatre Festival/Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre), GROUND CONTROL (Next Wave/ Brisbane Festival), Jurassica (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre/ Critical Stages), and Kids Killing Kids (Next Wave Festival). In 2015 and 2016 she lived in New York, where she worked with downtown legends Elevator Repair Service and Wooster Group alumna, Anna Kohler.

She was a part of the inaugural Melbourne Theatre Company’s Women Directors’ Program and has been the recipient of the Ian Potter Cultural Trust Award, Mike Walsh Fellowship, and Dame Joan Sutherland Award.

Casey Filips is a Melbournebased actor and writer. Upon graduating from the National Theatre Drama School in 2017, Casey was selected as the Red Stitch Graduate Ensemble member for the 2018 Season. In 2019, Casey moved to Europe to study under internationally renowned comedy master Philippe Gaulier in Paris, France. His theatre credits include The Antipodes, Dance Nation (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre), and Desert, 6:29pm (Wuzhen Theatre Festival/Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre). Casey has also performed at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Midsumma Festival, and Wuzhen International Theatre Festival. Hello, World! is Casey’s Malthouse Theatre debut.

CAST & CREATIVE BIOS

CHERYL HO PERFORMER

BROOKE LEE PERFORMER

MARK PRITCHARD DRAMATURG

Cheryl Ho is an actor, maker, and the Director of Special Projects at Artwave Studio.

Recent theatre credits include Cybec Electric (Melbourne Theatre Company), As You Like It (Melbourne Shakespeare Company), and Oh No! Satan Stole My Pineal Gland! which won the Best Emerging Performance Ensemble Award at Melbourne Fringe Festival. Her latest audio facilitated work, HILLS, supported by Yarra Ranges Council and Brunswick Mechanics Institute was presented at hillsceneLIVE. ROOM, an audio installation work commissioned by the University of Melbourne was part of Open House Melbourne. Cheryl’s new theatrical work, 落叶归 根 (Luò yè guī gēn) Getting Home, supported by SIGNAL’s Young Creatives Lab will be presented at Melbourne’s Digital Fringe. As part of Artwave Studio, Cheryl is working on a 1-on-1 audio experience, A Call Away, which will premiere at Singapore’s Writers Festival. She is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts.

Brooke is a proud Chinese Australian actor and graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts. Brooke’s theatre credits include Slaughterhouse (Belvoir 25A), Puffs or, Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic (Life Like Touring), The Skin of Our Teeth, Peter Pan, Henry V (VCA), The Echo of the Shadow (Melbourne Festival/ Teatro de los Sentidos), and co-created Mamasquito (Melbourne Science Gallery).

Brooke is a passionate collaborator for new Australian work and has participated in developments for Malthouse Theatre, Belvoir St Theatre, Midsumma Festival, Three Fates, and Worst Generation.

In 2021, Brooke is looking forward to performing in Let Me Know When You Get Home at the National Theatre of Parramatta.

Mark is the New Work Manager and Resident Dramaturg at Malthouse Theatre. Recent credits for Malthouse Theatre include K-BOX by Ra Chapman, The Return by John Harvey, Atomic

by Amelia Chandos Evans, Going Down by Michele Lee, Heart is a Wasteland by John Harvey (Brown Cabs), Little Emperors 小皇帝 by Lachlan Philpott (Asia TOPA), Turbine by Dan Giovannoni, and Blak Cabaret

by Nakkiah Lui. Mark is a recipient of the Mike Walsh Fellowship, chair of the Green Room Association Awards’ Independent Theatre Panel, and a participant in the Australia Council’s Future Leaders Program.

CAST & CREATIVE BIOS

EMILY COLLETT SET & COSTUME DESIGN

IAN MOORHEAD COMPOSITION & SOUND DESIGN

Emily is a set and costume designer whose practice comprises live performance, film, television, and costume research. Recent design credits include Control (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre), A Little Night Music (Watch This), and Niche (Elbow Room Productions). Emily was nominated for a Green Room Award for Dream Home (Northcote Town Hall), has received grants from the Ian Potter Cultural Trust and ArtStart, has participated in Malthouse Theatre’s Besen Family Artist Program, and Melbourne Theatre Company’s Women in Theatre Program. A PhD candidate and tutor in design at the Victorian College of the Arts, her research focusses on the topic of costume for performance as a cultural marker, specifically in relation to Australian identity.

Ian is a Melbourne-based artist specialising in music composition and sound design.

He has performed around Australia and internationally, including New York, London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Wellington, Calgary, and Vancouver.

He previously worked with Malthouse Theatre on Caravan and Turbine. Other theatre credits include The Violent Outburst That Drew Me to You, Happy Ending (Melbourne Theatre Company), The Give and Take, The Dumb Waiter, A Number (State Theatre Company South Australia), Hir, Desert, 6:29pm, The Realistic Joneses, Jurassica, Dead Centre/ Sea Wall, Eurydice (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre), She Is Vigilante, Drive, Perpetual Frustration Machine (Theatre Works), Broken (Lab Kelpie), and This is Eden (fortyfivedownstairs).

He has been nominated for two Green Room Awards for Composition and Sound Design for Jurassica (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre) and Looking Glass (New Working Group).

RACHEL LEE LIGHTING DESIGN Rachel is a lighting designer based in Melbourne and hometown Singapore. She works primarily with new writing and is a member of theatre collective, New Working Group. Recent credits include Virtual Intimacy (Asia TOPA), Gender Euphoria (Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras), Single Ladies, Ulster American (Red Stitch Actors’ Theatre), She Is Vigilante, Love/Chamberlain (Theatre Works), Oh No! Satan Stole My Pineal Gland!, Surge, Lou Wall’s Drag Race, Baby Bi Bi Bi (Melbourne Fringe Festival), The Three Graces (The Anchor), The Honouring, Blood Quantum (YIRRAMBOI Festival), World Problems, Truly Madly Britney, Fallen (She Said Theatre), and Romeo Is Not The Only Fruit (Melbourne International Comedy Festival). Rachel was an associate on MORAL PANIC (Darebin Arts). She was part of Melbourne Theatre Company’s Women in Theatre Program in 2019. This is her debut with Malthouse Theatre.

SUPPORTING PARTNERS

The Suitcase Series also receives generous support from individual Malthouse Muse donors.