re:group performance collective is an independent theatre company comprised of dear friends who work together to make “live cinema” and contemporary performance. We are Mark Rogers, Solomon Thomas, Malcolm Whittaker, Steve Wilson-Alexander and Carly Young. We are based between Sydney and Wollongong and take inspiration from the highs and lows of pop culture to make our theatre projects. Our aim is to turn the typically comfortable and passive movie-going experience into something immersive, irreverent, sweaty and live. We are passionate about creating innovative work that questions the role and meaning of art in society, where the technology we use is core to the ideas in each work we make, which is typically ironic and sincere, and accessible and experimental, all in equal measure.

Our first work together of note was LOVELY (2014), which unearthed for us a foundation and form in which to base our practice. Using broadcast cameras underscored by driving electronica, we created a live film-set on stage that invoked a ritualistic mourning for the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. Guiding the audience through the tentative and risky process of summoning him back to the theatre, we performed a supercut of the actor’s work in real-time alongside the Hollywood originals. LOVELY was considered “seriously and delightfully ‘cinematic’...highly inventive, possessed of a fine sense of dramatic structure and the spatial and visual sensitivity with which to give life to [our] loving gaze” (RealTime). 

In 2016, Merrigong Theatre Company recognised re:group as an emerging Illawarra collective of note and commissioned Route Dash Niner. Expanding our live cinema practice, taking hold of the cliches of Hollywood’s cultural influence, and forging a new Australian contribution to the sci-fi cannon, the work was presented in two parts: Part 1 was a press conference for deep space exploration, launched with scale-models and special effects. Staged exactly one year later, Part 2 was a sci-fi film shot live on stage, described as “breathtakingly fast and very impressive..these are fresh and unafraid voices” (RealTime).

In 2019, Coil was commissioned by Next Wave Festival. Coil draws on our collective memories to pay tribute to the glory days of the video store and commemorate the communities we made within them. Coil uses custom coded video-DJing technology to shoot an entire film (with one actor performing all the parts) while the audience is watching the live show play out on stage. After multiple Covid- cancellations, Coil premiered in 2022 with sold out seasons at Sydney Opera House, Mona Foma (Hobart), Next Wave (Melbourne) and PACT (Sydney). In July 2023, with the support of Arts on Tour, Intimate Spectacle and the Australia Council, Coil embarked upon an ambitious 13 venue national tour. RealTime Magazine thought the show was “an astonishingly multi-layered, funny-sad eulogy…A must see live cinema event…miraculously manufactured before our eyes…Coil is always propulsive, great fun and engages frankly and intimately with its audience”. 

Across 2022 and 2023, re:group presented UFO at Merrigong Theatre Company in Wollongong and Griffin Theatre Company in Sydney. City Hub called the work “bold, imaginative and creative” and applauded the way it “shakes up conventional theatre”. Set on a miniature 1:8 scale model golf course, UFO is live-cinema sci-fi theatre work that documents the landing of an alien spaceship in a regional Australian town, exploring how bureaucratic protocols break down in the face of the unknown.

In 2024 re:group premiered two new works. The first premiere is POV, a solo show wherein a child makes a documentary film on stage with adult participants performing reenactments under her direction, which was presented at Belvoir St. Theatre in May, and described as “an extraordinarily inventive piece, one sure to send audiences out into the night with minds burning with questions about the theatrical form, and with hearts relit with compassion” TheatreRed.

AUTO-TUNE, our rock opera about a man in a wolf-mask with strange superpowers (with accompanying video clip surtitles), premiered at Sydney Opera House in September 2024, after being commissioned by Sydney Opera House in 2023.  “With AUTO-TUNE we have a reinvented form of musical theatre, gig-theatre. It’s brilliant. I can’t get enough of their work. re:group are easily the most creative and exciting theatre-makers I’ve seen in years. 5 STARS” Cultural Binge.

In 2025 we continue development of KEEP YOUR HEAD UP, an experiment in making a jailbreak movie with our friend Mirielle Gabriel who is homebound with Cerebral Palsy, with the support of Creative Australia and Sydney Theatre Company, after work in progress showings as part of Festival of Dangerous Ideas at Carriageworks in August 2024. In 2025 we will also commence development on two entirely new works. Firstly, THE MILAN CONFERENCE, which will be made collaboratively between re:group and members of the d/Deaf and hard of hearing community and performed in Auslan and interpreted live. Secondly, we will work with acclaimed director Hannah Goodwin to reinvestigate what we lost when silent movies went loud by beginning development of our new work 1927, for staging in the year 2027, 100 years after the first ‘talkie’ dramatically reshaped cinema history.

re:group company member biographies:

MARK ROGERS is a multi-award-winning playwright, screenwriter and theatre-maker who lives on Dharawal Land. In 2019, he won both Sydney Theatre Company’s Patrick White Award and the Griffin Award for New Australian Writing for his play Superheroes. His play Naked & Screaming won Best Production at the 2022 Matilda Awards. He was awarded Screen NSW’s Short To Feature Fast Track Initiative for a new project with director and co-writer Aaron Lucas which premiered at SXSW Sydney and screened at the Adelaide Film Festival in 2024. He has feature length projects in development with Closer Productions and Cosmic Scream, supported by Screen Australia. His work as a playwright includes: Naked & Screaming (La Boite Theatre), Superheroes (Griffin Theatre Company), Tom William Mitchell (Merrigong-X), Plastic (Old 505 Theatre), Soothsayers (Brisbane Festival: Under The Radar), Blood Pressure (Rock Surfers, Old Fitzroy Theatre) and Gobbledygook (PACT, AC Arts Adelaide). His work with the independent companies re:group performance collective and Applespiel has been staged at Belvoir, Darwin Festival, MONA:FOMA, Next Wave, PACT, Performance Space, Metro Arts, Malthouse Theatre, La Mama, Merrigong Theatre Company, Shopfront Arts Co-Op, Arts House and the Sydney Opera House. He holds a PHD from the University of Wollongong.

SOLOMON THOMAS is a theatre maker and video artist. His work explores the intersection between the physical and digital in theatre, experimenting with how theatre and film can co-exist in a live context. He works as a director, performer, puppeteer, and video designer and is driven by how these practices meet formally. His recent works include AUTO-TUNE (Opera House 2024), POV (Belvoir 2024), Oh Deer! (Rising, 2023), Sex Magic (Griffin 2023), UFO (Griffin 2023), The Sucker (Brand X, 2021) and What the Ocean Said (Opera House, 2022). Solomon is a core member of re:group performance collective, who’s work Coil was presented at the Opera House, Mona Foma, PACT and Next Wave. Solomon has also worked with Branch Nebula, My Darling Patricia, Nick Cave, Applespiel, Studio A, Chiara Guidi, and Erth. Solomon is currently artistic associate with Erth Visual & Physical Inc (2014-24) and has toured with them throughout the UK, UAE, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and Japan.

STEVE WILSON-ALEXANDER is a theatre-maker living on Dharawal land. He is a founding member of re:group performance collective and FAST PRINCESS, the latter being the resident film-making collective at Cerebral Palsy Alliance 2016-18. He was Youth Artist in Residence at Wollongong Youth Centre 2012, a member of PACT Collective 2015, a part of International Visiting Artists Week at Back to Back 2017, and a participant of the Artist Farm residency at The Theatre Practice, Singapore in 2018. He worked on Ben Tre Festival of the Coconut and Hue Festival in 2012, and Santiago A Mil International Theatre Festival in 2019. He assistant directed/video designed Something that Happened with Strangeways Ensemble (2023). Theatre work with re:group include Route Dash Niner at Merrigong Theatre Company (2016-2017) and the national tour of Coil (2022-2023), POV at Downstairs Belvoir (2024), KEEP YOUR HEAD UP for Festival of Dangerous Ideas at Carriageworks (2024) and AUTO-TUNE at Sydney Opera House (2024). 

CARLY YOUNG is a theatre-maker and producer living on Dharawal land. As a founding member and artist in re:group performance collective, she has created film, video, and performance works across Australia and internationally. Key projects include Coil national tour (2022 - 2023), Route Dash Niner: Part 1 and Route Dash Niner: Part 2 for Merrigong Theatre Company, Wollongong (2016-2017), Hotel Obscura with Triage, Die Fabrikanten, Mezzanine Spectacles & Ohi Pezoume at FAI AR, Marseille (2015); LOVELY at PACT, Sydney (2014), Carly and Troy do ‘A Doll’s House’ at Crack Theatre Festival, Newcastle (2013), Adelaide Fringe Festival (2014), You Are Here Festival, Canberra (2014), La Mama Theatre, Melbourne (2016); and durational performance work YOWZA YOWZA YOWZA with Deborah Pollard for Performance Space at the University of Wollongong (2014). Carly works as a creative producer across visual arts, music and theatre, and was an inaugural participant in All The Things We Couldn’t Say, a three-year collaboration between Salamanca Arts Centre in Australia, and Checkpoint Theatre in Singapore.

MALCOLM WHITTAKER (b. xxxx) works as an artist, writer, researcher, performer, producer and teacher. He does this in solo pursuits, as a member of re:group performance collective and Shammgods, and in collaboration with other artists and non-artists on a project by project basis. His work as an artist is mostly made and executed through the engagement of participants and collaborators in the framing of play spaces that adopt social forms and rituals from popular culture and the everyday. His projects have taken the form of theatre and gallery situations, site-specific and public interventions, performance lectures, film shoots, phone calls, support groups, radio programs, elevator rides, teeth-brushing services, walks in the park, games of chess, gift shops, handshakes, newspapers, fashion labels, letters in the mail, digging holes in the dirt and the borrowing of books from the library.He has made and presented work extensively across Australia, as well as in the UK, Finland and Europe. He has done so through a range of initiatives and organisations, including Performance Space (Sydney), Arts House (Melbourne), Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney), State Library of NSW, Art Gallery of NSW, The Wheeler Centre (Melbourne), Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney Biennale, Vitalstatistix (Adelaide), Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney Opera House, Mona Foma (Hobart), ANTI Festival (Kuopio), Next Wave Festival (Melbourne), Proximity Festival (Perth), World Theatre Festival (Brisbane), Junction Arts Festival (Launceston), Field Theory (Melbourne), Griffin Theatre Company, Belvoir St. Theatre, Merrigong Theatre Company (Wollongong), Belvoir St. Theatre, Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Urban Theatre Projects (Western Sydney), University of Technology Sydney, Berlin Performing Arts Festival, Prague Quadrennial, Punctum (Castlemaine), Country Arts SA, Salamanca Arts Centre (Hobart), Mona Foma (Tasmania), Bleach Festival (Gold Coast), Big Anxiety Festival (Sydney), Brand X (Sydney) and Cementa (Kandos). Malcolm holds a PhD from The University of Wollongong, where he has also worked as a sessional teacher of art theory and practice since 2014. He has been a member of the Artistic Directorate of PACT Centre for Emerging Arts since 2020.

re:group collaborator biographies:

MIRIELLE GABRIEL (KEEP YOUR HEAD UP Collaborator and Performer) lives in South Granville and loves coca-cola. She was a founding member of FAST PRINCESS, the theatre and filmmaking collective active at Cerebral Palsy Alliance in Parkview and Prairiewood Community Access Services between 2016 and 2018. Previous theatre credits include The News at Margot Hardy Gallery, Bankstown (2017) and We Are All Robots at Cerebral Palsy Alliance, Prairiewood (2018). Filmmaking credits include You’re Handsome and I’m Pretty (2017), Mirielle’s Story (2017), Neverending Story (2017), Priscilla: Queen of the Desert (2016), and In the Dreams of Anastasia (2018).

DEMON DERRIERE (THE MILAN CONFERENCE Collaborator and Performer) is a revolutionary artist and activist championing body liberation, accessibility, and disability advocacy through bold and boundary-breaking performances. As the visionary behind Big Thick Energy, a transformative movement celebrating diverse bodies and challenging societal norms, Demon has redefined the stage as a platform for radical inclusion and empowerment. Her work earned a nomination for Artistic National Disability Leader for DLI Awards 2024, Best Arts Program at the FBi SMAC Awards 2022 and continues to ignite conversations about fat liberation, queerness, and disability pride. A queer, POC, and Hard-of-Hearing artist, Demon’s practice integrates her lived experiences to dismantle ableism and fatphobia, advocating for accessible spaces and authentic representation. In 2024, her groundbreaking film FA(C)TS screened at the Sydney Opera House, MCA and Queer Screen Film Festival 2023. From coordinating accessible performances like Mardi Gras floats to mesmerising audiences with neo-burlesque, Egyptian Belly Dance, and Auslan-infused storytelling, Demon Derriere is a fearless advocate for reshaping cultural narratives. Her work creates spaces where all bodies can thrive unapologetically, redefining liberation as a collective journey.

DION GALEA (THE MILAN CONFERENCE Collaborator and Consultant) is a trans non-binary Deaf person who works in many different capacities, all related to their first language of Auslan, spanning teaching, interpreting, researching and advocacy. They grew up in the Deaf community with support from their mum, who believed in access to sign language through education. They are an advocate for the Deaf and hard-of-hearing community to live without barriers. They have consulted with Auslan Interpreters on countless theatre productions at Sydney Opera House, including Coil, Cinderella, 52 Story Treehouse and Moulin Rouge. The favourite part of their work is seeing people grow to love Auslan.

BEDELIA LOWRENCEV (THE MILAN CONFERENCE Collaborator and Performer) is a groovy disabled actor, dancer, singer, agitator, theatre maker, producer and Access Coordinator, living and working on Wategoro and Wangal Land. Bedelia frequently collaborates with their Deaf twin Jeremy, as facilitators and explorers of queerness, disability and deafness. Bedelia has a keen interest in communal care, story sovereignty, reciprocity and advocacy in their arts practice. In particular, challenging the Western gaze on body, community and identity, and the reclamation of CALD queerness and relation to land. Most recently, Bedelia performed SOFT PLACES at the Sydney Biennale, acted in the new short film With Love, Lottie, Assistant Produced Raghav Handa’s THE ASSEMBLY at Campbelltown Arts Centre, Access Coordinator at Performance Space for Liveworks and Griffin Studio Residency in 2023. Currently, Bedelia is cracking into their disabled musical spenanza with Wear It Purple, and previously with Griffin Theatre through the Next Level Creative Mentorship, working as a Program Coordinator at Accessible Arts, and Co-Program Coordinator- Access at Sydney Fringe Festival. 

ANA MARIA BELO (THE MILAN CONFERENCE Collaborator and Performer) is one of Australia’s most versatile performers. She is deaf, wears hearing aids and communicates in speech and Auslan. She graduated as an actor from NIDA in 1998, training through her deafness and entering the industry without anyone suspecting a thing. She is the first deaf Australian performer to be cast in commercial musicals. Her short film, Things To Do won her a TROPFEST award. The AACTA nominated series It's Fine, I'm Fine, which Ana Maria starred in and was additional series writer, premiered at CanneSeries in 2022 and can be viewed on SBS On Demand. She made her splash into the industry by starring in hit musicals such as Fame and Hair. She has also appeared in the musicals Mame, In A Pink Tutu, In the Heights at the Hayes Theatre and then at the Opera House. Her theatre credits include The Listmaker for Bell Shakespeare Company; Noises Off for Ensemble Theatre Company, Dr Akars’ Women for Griffin Theatre Company; Company B’s Snugglepot & Cuddlepie, the Australian tour of Steel Magnolias, Tribes for Ensemble Theatre, and the world premiere of Fawlty Towers Live. Australian television credits include All Saints, Home & Away, White Collar Blue, House Husbands, Doctor Doctor, Secret City 2, Frayed, Bump, Mikki vs the World, Appetite, Apples Never Fall, and the recently released Last Days of the Space Age for Disney Plus.

LAUREN-TONI PATRICK (THE MILAN CONFERENCE Collaborator and Performer) is a proud Deaf disability advocate, who wants to challenge perceptions and improve accessibility and inclusion for those with a disability. Growing up constantly misunderstood in a predominantly hearing world, she found her true voice and sense of identity when she embraced the Deaf community at 26. Learning Auslan not only transformed her personal life but ignited a lifelong passion for acting and theatre. Over the years, Lauren-Toni has been involved in numerous local theatre productions, short films, commercials, and acting workshops, each experience shaping her skills and deepening her craft. In 2024, she took a significant step forward in her acting journey by enrolling at Screenwise in Surry Hills, eager to continue developing her craft and reconnecting with her love of theatre. Lauren-Toni is excited to expand her artistic horizon and bring her distinctive perspective as a Deaf artist to the stage, with a focus on creating inclusive, dynamic performances that reflect the richness of diverse lived experiences. She is deeply committed to fostering inclusivity in the arts and is looking forward to the next chapter in her acting career.

JOSH SEALY (THE MILAN CONFERENCE Collaborator and Performer) is a profoundly deaf actor from Sydney, Australia. He is best known for appearing in Davo Hardy films, most notably A Silent Agreement (2017), in which he was able to utilize his fluency in Auslan. As well as acting, Josh is a talented writer and educator. He holds a Bachelor Arts in Philosophy and Bachelor of Psychology (Hon.), with a career in psychology and counseling, specialising in services for the profoundly deaf. He has recently completed a PhD thesis on phenomenological congruence and flexibility and how it relates to the wellbeing of disabled people. In addition to his acting and academic work, Josh is passionate about learning new languages and fostering cross-cultural communication.

HANNAH GOODWIN (Director 1927) is a director and dramaturg who lives and works on Gadigal land. She is currently Resident Director at Belvoir St Theatre. Her work includes The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time adapted by Simon Stephens (Belvoir), Never Closer by Grace Chapple (Belvoir), The Almighty Sometimes by Kendall Feaver (Melbourne Theatre Company), Blessed Union by Maeve Marsden (Belvoir), Wayside Bride by Alana Valentine (Belvoir), Light Shining in Buckinghamshire by Caryl Churchill (Belvoir), A Very Expensive Poison by Lucy Prebble (NIDA), The Sorry Mum Project by Pippa Ellams (National Theatre of Parramatta, Bondi Feast), A Girl in School Uniform (Walks into a Bar) by Lulu Raczka (Kings Cross Theatre), and The Carousel by Pippa Ellams (Kings Cross Theatre, Merrigong, Downstairs Belvoir, Shopfront Arts Co-op). As an Associate Director: A Midsummer Night's Dream with Simone Young adapted by Eamon Flack (Sydney Opera House), Fangirls by Yve Blake (Sydney Opera House). As an Assistant Director: Black Brass by Mararo Wangai (Belvoir), Stop Girl by Sally Sara (Belvoir), My Brilliant Career adapted by Kendall Feaver (Belvoir), Packer and Sons by Tommy Murphy (Belvoir), and Love by Patricia Cornelius (Darlinghurst Theatre Company). Hannah was the Andrew Cameron Fellow at Belvoir from 2020 to 2022, and the recipient of ATYP’s Rose Byrne Leadership Scholarship in 2019.

LIAM HALLIWELL (AUTO-TUNE Musician and Performer) is a sound designer and musician living in Naarm/Melbourne. For the past decade he has written and recorded prolifically under the ‘Snowy’ moniker, as well as performing with live ensemble Snowy Band, who were name-checked by The Guardian as some of 2020’s “best new music”. The group has released two critically lauded albums that Liam has toured across Australia and internationally. He has also played/plays in countless other local indie groups, including The Ocean Party, Cool Sounds, Emma Russack, Good Morning and many more. Outside of his own performance and composition, Liam works as a freelance audio engineer, having recorded, mixed and mastered hundreds of bands, artists and films, locally and internationally. As a designer, he has worked with Bodysnatchers Theatre on Plastic, Soothsayers and Gobbledygook. Other work includes re:group’s Tom William Mitchell and Coil. Snowy Band on Bandcamp: https://snowynasdaq.bandcamp.com/

ASHLEY BUNDANG (AUTO-TUNE Musician and Performer) is a musician, composer and multi-instrumentalist based in Dharawal Country, on the south coast of NSW. In the last decade, Ashley has been actively composing, recording and collaborating with bands such as Totally Mild, Sui Zhen, Zone Out and The Ocean Party. With an abundance of experience in music performance, Ashley has toured Australia and beyond, at some of the largest festivals in the country such as Splendour in the Grass, Meredith Music Festival and the major international music conference, South by Southwest (SXSW), Austin, Texas, USA. She has also participated in a number of promotional tours around Europe, United States and Japan. Over the years, Ashley has also been drawn to developing her practice overseas, having completed Artist Residencies in Cadiz, Spain and Tokyo, Japan. More recently, Ashley founded the south coast-based indie pop band, Classic. They released their debut album in March 2023, Classic’s music is framed by a sonic backdrop that emanates influences from 80’s post punk, dream pop and indie rock.

KELSEY LEE (AUTO-TUNE & POV Lighting Designer) is a Sydney-based lighting, set and costume designer. Her work is primarily created for live performance, including theatre, dance and events, for mainstage and independent companies. Her designs that fuse lighting, set and costumes, aim to explore scenography through the sculpting of architecture and space to tell a story. She is highly collaborative as a designer, working closely with the creative team to develop the vision of the show. Kelsey is a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (Design for Performance), and is the first person to have solely designed the set, lighting, props and costume for her graduating show. Kelsey has received a Sydney Theatre Award for her work as the Co-Designer on "Destroy, She Said", and has been nominated for another two for lighting design. Recent credits: Somos | Set & Costume Designer | Sydney Dance Company | Chor. Rafael Bonachela; Memory of Water | Lighting Designer | Ensemble Theatre | Dir. Rachel Chant; An Ox Stand On My Tongue | Set & Lighting Designer | 25A Belvoir | Dir. Abbie-Lee Lewis; Mutiara | Lighting Designer | Marrugeku | Co-created by Amin Farid, Dalisa Pigram, and Zee Zunnur; At What Cost? National Tour | Associate Lighting Designer | Belvoir St Theatre | Lighting Designer Chloe Ogilvie | Dir. Isaac Drandic; Skyduck | Lighting Designer | Auckland Arts FEstival & Tour | Dir. Aileen Huynh; Sex Magick | Lighting Designer | Griffin Theatre Company | Dir. Declan Greene  & Nicholas Brown; blue | associate lighting designer | belvoir St Theatre | Lighting Designer Chloe Ogilvie | Dir. Deborah Thomas.

Mabelle Rose (POV Child Performer) is a young actor and devisor. She has been performing in the arts for 9 years, aka since 2015. Mabelle has performed at many theatre organisations such as Blacktown Arts, Shopfront Arts, Arts Unit, Sydney Festival, PACT, Performance Space and Belvoir St Theatre. Mabelle performed in The Drawing (Natalie Rose and Chris Dunstan, 2015) and The Hungry Games (Natalie Rose and Chris Dunstan, 2016) by Blacktown and Shopfront Arts. She has been in every Junior Ensemble show since 2018 at Shopfront Arts Co-op. Some of these shows include The Pecking Order (Mark Rogers and Kevin Ng, 2018), Mums Tell Dad Jokes Too (Nicole Pingon and Tasha O’Brien, 2022) and Tender (Lana Filies and Lucy Heffernan, 2023. Mabelle helped with the creation of the 2022 Arts Unit State Drama show Consumerama by Sue Musgrove. She has also performed in Sydney Festival with Ten Minute Dance Parties (2018) and Nighttime Righttime Liveworks Festival for POST with Natalie Rose and Zoë Coombs Marr in 2023. Her most recent performances have been POV (re:group performance collective. 2024) at Belvoir St Theatre, 25A and Heebie Jeebies (Jessica Melchert and Mina Bradshaw. 2024) at Shopfront Arts Co-op.