ACTOR | Role of Maria Dronke

Jess graduated from the prestigious Conservatory Program at Atlantic Theatre Company in NYC in 2012. She has a long list of credits from Off-Broadway including: Rhinoceros (Atlantic Stage 2), Belgrade Trilogy (Whitelisted Theatre Company), The Comedy of Errors (EBE Ensemble),

Women and Wallace and Throwing Your Voice (Atlantic Black Box Theatre), Angry Young Women in Low Rise Jeans with High Class Issues (KADM Productions), This is for You (The Bower Group).

Her most recent Australian theatre credits include: The Works of William Shakespeare by Chicks (as producer and actor – Sydney Fringe Festival) Measure for Measure and The Servant of Two Masters (Sport For Jove), the National Tour of The Dream (Bell Shakespeare), The Players (Bell Shakespeare), Grin and Tonic Theatre Troupe Schools Tour, The Women (New Theatre), Vice (King St Theatre), The Big Funk (Suspicious Woman Productions), Youth Monologues (Digi Youth Arts), Machina (La Boite), The Taming of the Shrew (Brisbane Shakespeare Festival).

In 2018, Jess moved to Auckland to perform Shakespeare at Pop Up Globe and loved it so much she never left. Her New Zealand theatre credits include: Richard III and The Taming of the Shrew (Pop Up Globe); The Works of William Shakespeare (as producer and actor – Q Theatre); The Complete History of Palmerston North Abridged (Centrepoint Theatre).

ACTOR | Role of Yael Gezentsvey

Mel Dodge has an MA in Acting from Arts Ed, London. She starred in Prima Facie which played a sell-out season at Circa Theatre and is currently touring throughout New Zealand. With a 25 year career on stage, her credits include Uncle Vanya (Chapman Tripp Actress of the Year Award, The Listener Actress of the Year), Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Miss Brontë, Rabbit, Mammals, Blackbird, The Perfumed Garden, Emma, My Heart is Bathed in Blood, (The Listener Actress of the Year), The Country Wife, Shadows of Angels, Cosi, Waiting for Godot, The Female Factory and the verbatim work Motherlode.

For her company BRAVE Theatre, she has created and performed in work which has toured NZ, Australia and been to the Edinburgh Fringe. Miss Brontë toured throughout Victoria and New South Wales with support from RAV. She co-adapted the novel Rants in the Dark into a stage play which toured New Zealand. Mel has worked as an Arts Educator for Sydney Theatre Company, Bell Shakespeare, Awesome Arts, Creatives in Schools and The Songroom.

ACTOR | Role of Lölein

Julia Moore (nee Julia Harrison) is a long-standing supporter of Wellington theatre on and off the stage. She was an actor in the theatre company The Bacchanals from 2002-2004 and again 2011-2013, among other roles starring as Juliet in their 2004 national tour of Romeo and Juliet. She was stage manager for Kerryn Palmer’s STAB show Pandemic in 2013 and selected for the 2001 Shakespeare Globe Centre New Zealand (SGCNZ) Young Shakespeare Company, training and performing at London’s Globe Theatre. Julia was last cast as a German-speaking nanny in the 2003 inaugural production of Jean Bett’s The Collective.

Julia is a Wellington-based public servant focused on equity and inclusion in education. She studied German at Victoria University of Wellington and the Free University of Berlin, and for several years taught English at Humboldt University of Berlin while working as a freelance translator in the German film industry.

WRITER & DIRECTOR

Yael Gezentsvey is the Artistic Director of Kavanah Productions, and is passionate about creating works that nurture personal and community wellbeing. She is a Venezuelan-born, Eastern European, Jewish, Kiwi arts practitioner from Wellington.

Working across many disciplines and forms, her recent works include: Producer and Publicist of PRIMA FACIE by Suzie Miller - Sellout season at Circa Theatre 2023 and the New Zealand Tour 2024.

Yael has worked as an actor, writer, director, producer and publicist in theatre over the past two decades and has a BA in Performing and Screen Arts from Unitec and BA in Film & Theatre from Victoria University of Wellington.

www.yael.co.nz

CREATIVE CONSULTANT

Illana Stein (she/her) is an international director and dramaturg based in NYC. Directing credits include tour of Julius Caesar for Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival and co-writer and director of Hans and Sophie that premiered at Amphibian Stage in Texas, garnering five DFW Critic Awards including Outstanding Director and Outstanding New Play.

She is a Guest Director for New York University Tisch / Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute. Associate and Assistant directing credits include Theatre for a A New Audience (NYC), Signature Theatre (NYC), Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Repertory Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. She is the recipient of a Drama League First Stage Residency, member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab 2012, and won an Outstanding Director Award for Fringe NYC 2012.

Ms. Stein is the program director for the emerging artist program for the Alliance for Jewish Theatre, is an Artistic Producer for Jewish Plays Project, and serves on the board of the League of Professional Theatre Women.

www.illanastein.com

PRODUCTION MANAGER

Lyndee-Jane Rutherford has been a professional actor and director since 1992. She trained at Toi Whakaari/New Zealand Drama School and has a Bachelor of Performing Arts. She has performed in and directed close to eighty professional theatre productions across New Zealand, Australia and the US.

Lyndee-Jane is currently the Partnerships Manager at BATS Theatre. She is an award winning theatre director in New Zealand and her award winning directing credits include Midsummer (a play with songs), Hand to God, La Casa Azul - Inspired by the Writings of Frida Kahlo, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and New Zealand plays Ache, That Bloody Woman, LovePuke, The Atom Room and Rants in the Dark.

Lyndee-Jane is directing and co-producing the 2024 New Zealand tour of PRIMA FACIE, after it’s Circa Theatre season in 2023.

CHOREOGRAPHER

Sacha Copland is the artistic director of Java Dance Theatre & founded the company in 2003. She is a CNZ Choreographic Fellow, 2022 Wellingtonian of the Year in the Arts and a Distinguished Graduate of the NZ School of Dance

Sacha has choreographed prolifically for 20 years, developing Java's immersive cross disciplinary style in 23 full length dance works. Sacha works, including her sensory Artisan Series have garnered critical acclaim & international touring. She has been commissioned by Dance4 in Nottingham, Wellington Orchestra, NZ School of Dance, Capital E (7x) & STAB/BATS. Sacha is a CNZ Choreographic Fellow, a TEDx speaker, an alumni of the ASSITEJ International Next Generation Sacha has produced & performed the site-specific ‘Back of the Bus’ throughout NZ, Australia, the UK & Asia.

As a dancer and actress, Sacha has toured nationally to critical acclaim. Sacha is Pākehā (Polish, English, Scottish) & grew up in the South Island of Aotearoa

COMPOSER

An award winning composer, Tom McLeod's dynamic musical background spans many worlds, bringing a diverse range of influences to his work in film and television, theatre and orchestral projects.

After graduating, from the New Zealand School of Music in Wellington, where he majored in jazz piano, Tom spent several years performing at festivals around NZ with many acts – including his own comic persona Tommy Love, before going to work with composer/arranger Terry Gray – producing and arranging music for television.

Through this, Tom discovered a passion for narrative composing, and has since established a career composing music for numerous films and television shows, as well as stage musicals such as the large scale 2018 stage production City Of 100 Lovers, and his collaboration with composer Tim Finn for the opera project Ihitai ‘Avei’a – Star Navigator. Tom was the musical director of Ali Harper’s The Supper Club at Circa Theatre in 2024.

www.tommcleod.com

SET & COSTUME DESIGN

Ian Harman is an award-winning set and costume designer; he has designed professionally for 17 years creating costumes and stage sets for Centrepoint Theatre in the Manawatu, Capital E - National Theatre for Children and Circa Theatre in Wellington. In 2015 he was awarded a Wellington Theatre Award for Costume Designer of the Year for The Mystery of Edwin Drood and also Set Designer of the Year for Ache and in 2017 he was awarded Set Designer of the Year for Hand to God and A Doll’s House.

In 2023 & 2024 Ian designed the sets for PRIMA FACIE at Circa Theatre and Two Guitars at Centrepoint theatre. Both of these shows are touring New Zealand through 2024.

LIGHTING DESIGN

Marcus is one of New Zealand’s most prolific designers, having produced over 500 theatre designs and installation artworks since 2005. He has 22 awards spanning visual art and design, specifically in the areas of theatre, fine arts, architecture, and museum design.

In 2007 he designed Heat, the world’s first entirely zero-emissions piece of touring theatre, for which he had to construct his own led fittings and design and build a touring wind and solar power supply. In 2009 he premiered Nag, a self-powered artist studio entirely constructed from recycled and found materials where the artists have to pedal while working, spinning recycled washing machine motors that generate all the power they need. Nag has since had 34 gallery and festival seasons and is still touring, with three arts festival bookings in 2023.

In 2023 Marcus designed Prima Facie at Circa Theatre, and subsequently the 2024 New Zealand Tour.

www.marcusmcshane.co.nz

AV DESIGN

Rebekah de Roo (she/her) is a video and production designer for live performances based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She completed an MFA with distinction at Victoria University of Wellington. Alongside freelancing, she works as a Technician for the VUW Theatre programme and with Trick of the Light Theatre. Her recent credits include projection design for Prima Facie, ONO and Pinocchio: The Pantomime at Circa Theatre, production design for ratKing (NZ Fringe Grand Design Award), lighting for the national and international award-winning show Only Bones – Daniel Nodder and production design for Midnight Confessions. She has been nominated for Wellington Theatre Awards for Best Lighting Designer in 2023 and Most Promising Newcomer in 2022.