Kate Larsen (she/her) is an arts, cultural and non-profit consultant and writer with more than 25 years’ experience as a sector leader and rabble-rouser working across Australia, Asia and the United Kingdom. A lapsed Western Australian, Kate is currently based on Wurundjeri Country in Naarm/Melbourne. She has particular expertise in arts governance and cultural leadership, workplace culture and wellbeing, digital and community-engaged practice.

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Black Swan State Theatre Company

Kate has decades of experience working in theatre, dance-theatre, opera, musicals, film and circus - in many genres ranging from devised original work, new Australian plays, classics, comedy, multi-art form work, interactive and physical theatre.

In 2002, Kate founded the company Force Majeure based in Sydney, and helmed the company from a project-based concern to a multi-year funded company premiering five original main stage works for major festivals and touring extensively regionally, nationally, and internationally until 2015. Force Majeure has toured twice to WA.

Kate works extensively on large-scale projects, and for major theatre companies as well as in the small-to-medium and independent theatre scene.

Kate had a 26-year career as a performer and dancer with companies both nationally and internationally and created two acclaimed solo shows. Kate performed her solo show Face Value at PICA.

 Kate is a multi-award winning artist, winning the Helpmann Award Best Visual or Physical Theatre Production for Same, Same But Different (Sydney Festival), Most Outstanding Performance by a Company at the Australian Dance Awards for Already Elsewhere (Sydney Festival and Biennale de la Danse in Lyon), the 2012 Helpmann Award for Best Visual or Physical Theatre Production for Not In A Million Years, and Most Outstanding Performance by a Company at the Australian Dance Awards for The Age I’m In (Sydney and Adelaide Festivals, touring to Dublin, Montreal and Seoul).

FOUNDER & CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Why Not Theatre

Ravi Jain is a highly acclaimed theatremaker known for making politically bold, accessible, and thought-provoking theatrical experiences that are changing the face of Canadian theatre. A visionary artistic director, versatile director, astute producer, and playful actor, he has spent his career reimagining what theatre can be, impacting the lives of both audiences and artists alike.

In 2007, Mr. Jain founded Why Not Theatre, which has become synonymous with innovative theatrical experiences that push boundaries. With Why Not Theatre, Mr. Jain has created over forty collaborations and performed over five continents, from small, intimate shows with non-actors—like his mother, in A Brimful of Asha, and renowned environmentalist David Suzuki, in What You Won’t Do for Love—to big, bold productions like his recent adaptation of The Mahabharata, which premiered at the Shaw Festival and toured to sell out the Barbican Theatre in London.

Ravi’s work tours for many years after it is made and has been presented on national stages and internationally at major festivals including off-broadway and off-West. Mr. Jain was shortlisted for the 2016, 2019 and 2022 Siminovitch Prize and won the 2012 Pauline McGibbon Award for Emerging Director and the 2016 Canada Council John Hirsch Prize for direction. In 2022, Mr. Jain was awarded the Johanna Metcalf Foundation Performing Arts Prize. He has won several Dora Mavor Moore Awards.

FESTIVAL DIRECTOR Sydney Festival

Kris Nelson has a 20+ year career as a festival maker, curator, producer and theatre artist. His commitment to festival-making, innovative artistic work and cultural mobility has led him to work across the world in some of the planet’s most exciting contexts, currently as Festival Director of Sydney Festival for the 2025-2029 editions. Kris was Artistic Director/CEO of LIFT (London International Festival of Theatre) from 2018-2024.  His LIFT milestones include steering LIFT through the pandemic, leading the biennale to two festival editions in 2022 and 2024, with presentations of Sun & Sea, The Second Woman, and UK-international collaborations leading to world premieres with artists from Taiwan, Iran and Brazil. Kris launched the Concept Touring initiative, a new commissioning programme for international collaboration with little to no travel. He was Festival Director of Dublin Fringe Festival, Ireland’s largest multi-disciplinary arts festival, from 2013-2017, guiding hundreds of artists towards world premieres. He founded the innovative Canadian performing arts touring agency, Antonym, securing tours and co-productions in over 45 cities on 4 continents for Canadian artists and initiated curatorial platforms like PushOFF with Joyce Rosario (Vancouver) and Spark with Miriam Ginestier (Montreal) connecting artists to international touring opportunities. He is a Clore Leadership Fellow and a graduate of Studio 58.

Wesley Enoch has written and directed iconic Indigenous productions The 7 Stages Of Grieving, Black Medea and The Story Of The Miracles At Cookie’s Table. He has directed productions of The Sapphires, Black Diggers, I Am Eora, The Man From Mukinupin, Yibiyung, Parramatta Girls, Black Cockatoo and Appropriate. He was the Artistic Director of the Sydney Festival from 2017 to 2020 and was previously the Artistic Director at Kooemba Jdarra Indigenous Performing Arts and the Ilbijerri Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Theatre Co-operative. Wesley’s other residencies include Resident Director at Sydney Theatre Company; Associate Artistic Director at Belvoir Street Theatre; the 2002 Australia Council Cite Internationale des Arts Residency in Paris and the Australia Council Artistic Director for the Australian Delegation to the 2008 Festival of Pacific Arts. He was creative consultant, segment director and indigenous consultant for the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. Wesley is currently serving as the QUT Indigenous Chair of Creative Industries.

CEO Black Swan State Theatre Company

Ian has worked in the creative industries in Western Australia for over 20 years, principally in the Australian film and television industry.

Ian started his working career as a lawyer, and after a variety of legal and film industry roles including working as Business Affairs Manager for Drama and Comedy at the ABC in Melbourne, Ian served as CEO of Screenwest from 2007-2017, the Western Australian peak film financing body.

In a period of strong growth for the sector, Ian led the Screenwest team that financed hundreds of film and television projects, with some highlights including Red Dog, Satellite Boy, Looking for Grace, Paper Planes, Bran Nue Dae, Australia, Breath, Cloudstreet, Mystery Road, Outback Truckers, SAS: The Search for Warriors, Who Do You Think You Are, and many more.

During this period, the screen industry in Western Australia significantly diversified and expanded from its base in documentaries and children’s television, to regularly producing critically and commercially successful international feature films and television series. WA films have now screened at all the biggest film festivals in the world on multiple occasions, including Cannes, Sundance, Venice, Toronto, Busan and Berlin.

After leaving Screenwest, Ian has worked as a consultant and executive producer, and also returned to practice law. Ian is currently a director of a number of companies in the film and television sector, including production company Indian Pacific Pictures Pty Ltd, and Home Fire Creative Industries Pty Ltd.

 Ian’s recent credits as Executive Producer include the feature films RAMS, Star Dreaming, Ningaloo: Australia’s Other Great Reef, and Whale Super Highway.

Ian is currently a Commonwealth Government appointment to the board of the Australian Children’s Television Foundation, and has previously been a Board member of national screen agency Ausfilm, Awesome Arts Festival, and the Spare Parts Puppet Theatre.

CO-ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Why Not Theatre

Miriam is a Toronto-based artist who has worked as an actor, director, and theatre-maker around the world.  Acting credits include Jungle Book (WYRD/Kidoons), Animal Farm (Soulpepper Theatre), Prince Hamlet (Why Not Theatre), Dinner with the Gods (Wolf and Wallflower, Sydney AU), The Snow Queen and A Sunday Affair (Theatre New Brunswick),  The Living (Summerworks Performance Festival), and Soliciting Temptation (Tarragon Theatre).  She has trained with the SITI Company, and is a graduate of Ecole Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris.  Directing and creation credits include Nesen, (MiniMidiMaxi Festival, Norway) The First Time I Saw the Sea (YVA Company, Norway).  She is currently in development for a few new pieces that she is co-creating including an adaptation of the Mahabharata, Three Pigs, and a new play called Partition.  Miriam is the recipient of the JBC Watkins Award and was nominated for the inaugural Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize.