Brendan O’Connell
Brendan O’Connell is a Green Room Award-nominated theatre maker and creative producer. Brendan is currently living in New York City, working as a Public Diplomacy Officer for the NYC Consulate General’s Office. Brendan is a former Associate Producer at Sydney Opera House, where he worked in the Children, Families & Creative Learning program. His previous positions include Program Executive at Come Out Children’s Festival, Associate Producer at Adelaide Fringe, and Artistic Director of Tantrum Theatre (where he also served on the Board of Directors for two years). A drama graduate of the University of Newcastle and directing graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Brendan has worked as an Assistant Director with some of Australia’s leading directors, including Julian Meyrick, Roger Hodgman and Kate Champion.
Penelope Kentish (Nel)
Penelope Kentish (Nel) is a theatre maker, and teaching artist. Apart from her work with Big One Little One, Nel has worked extensively in youth theatre and performance, with Bathurst Theatre Company, Smashed Arts (Bathurst), Tantrum Youth Arts (Newcastle), Flag Youth Theatre (Melbourne), Australian Theatre for Young People (Sydney), Ballarat Community Health, and Appel Farm Arts and Music Center (New Jersey, USA) for which she has staged countless new works. Nel was a selected playwright for Australian Theatre for Young People’s Fresh Ink writing program in 2009, and has been mentored by acclaimed Australian playwrights Debra Oswald and Lally Katz. She was an Open House artist-in-residence at Canberra Youth Theatre in 2011, and in 2010 was nominated for a CONDA for Talk is small: a play with Scrabble. Since returning to Bathurst she has lectured in theatre and communication at Charles Sturt University, and created her own theatre company for young people, Beloved Monster.
Sarah Coffee
Sarah Coffee is a theatre-maker, performer, writer and researcher. She is core member of Paper Cut and of live art collective Big One Little One. With Paper Cut, Sarah was a key deviser and performer on Spent (2013, 2014), Be My Friend (2015) and The Past is a Foreign Country (2012, 2013), which received the 2013 City of Newcastle Drama award for Best New Play. During the development of Spent Sarah undertook a mentorship with professional dance theatre artist Cadi McCarthy. As an actor Sarah has performed with Newcastle’s Stooged Theatre (Rabbit 2011) and Tantrum Youth Arts (Going Home 2009, The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other 2009, Blackrock 2010, As You Like It 2011). Sarah has also worked as Marketing Coordinator with Tantrum Youth Arts (formerly Tantrum Theatre), and written for publications such as ArtsHub. Sarah holds a PhD in media and communication with a focus on the study of creativity, and is a sessional academic at the University of Newcastle in the schools of communication, sociology, and creative and performing arts.
Rachel Jackett
Rachel Jackett is an actor and drama workshop facilitator who works with young people. She spent 2013 and 2014 touring the east coast with Brainstorm Productions, performing theatre-in-education shows to primary and high school students. Rach was Tantrum Theatre’s Associate Director in 2011 and 2012 where she directed Outlast (2012) and Treasure Hunt (2011), was Dramaturg for Dreams of a Forgotten City (2010), and performed in Blackrock (2010), 2039 (2010), The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other (2009), Peepshow (2009), and As You Like It (2011). Rach has also performed with Newcastle’s Stooged Theatre The Shape of Things (2009), Rabbit (2011), The Return (2012) and The Removalists (2013), and performed in Popular Theatre Company’s The Vagina Monologues (2012). Rach is a drama graduate from the University of Newcastle.
Big One Little One 