Cast and Creatives:
Di Adams
(Susan)
Di appeared on stage in the 2020 production of Wicked Sisters for Griffin Theatre, Australian Open for Bub & the 2019 production of Trevor for Outhouse Theatre, both at KXT. Other stage credits include: for Apocalypse Theatre Company/Old 505: All My Sleep and Waking; for Bell Shakespeare: King Lear; for Ensemble Theatre: When Dad Married Fury; for Mophead Productions/Red Line Productions at the Old Fitz: The Humans; for New Theatre: Parramatta Girls; and for Sydney Theatre Company: The Crucible, Tartuffe. Di has worked extensively on screen, with her most recent film credits including: All God’s Creatures, Cherith, Help Me, Rust Bucket, The Turning, The War Room, The Water Diary; and on television, credits include: for BBC UKTV: Top of the Lake: China Girl; for Foxtel: Secret City; for Network Ten: Wake In Fright; for SBS: The Principal; for Stan: The Other Guy. Di has also voiced numerous characters in children’s television series: for ABC: Sally Bollywood: Super Detective; for Nine Network: Seaside Hotel; for Seven Network: Raggs; and for Stan: Alice Miranda Friends Forever. Di has been a proud member of Actors Equity since 1983.
Di Smith
(Jackie) & Producer
The second redheaded Di of ‘Wild Thing’ (and producer,) Di Smith has enjoyed a varied and highly visible career as an actor on screen and on stage for the Sydney Theatre Company, MTC, Malthouse, SATC, commercial productions and musical theatre. She travelled for ten years on The Great Outdoors for Network Seven and appeared in many of Australia's best-known television dramas, from The Restless Years to Redfern Now’s telemovie “Promise Me”, and most recently as “Dotty’ in Sony International /Playmaker series “Reckoning’ She is best known and well loved as Dr Alex Fraser in the series A Country Practice Recent theatre: 2017 Nurse Ratched - “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ (Sport for Jove) 2018 Leila - ‘The Shifting Heart’ (White Box @ Seymour) 2019 Jill-‘The Hope Song’ (Flight Path) Favourite earlier credits include: Joan -‘Love Song’ (Darlinghurst Theatre Co) Charlotte -‘A Little Night Music’, Lady Percy-‘Henry IV’, Ann Page-‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’, ‘Shorts at the Wharf’, ‘No Worries’ and ‘Two Weeks with the Queen’ (Sydney Theatre Company) Chorus/Mum ‘How I Learned to Drive’ (Ensemble) Brooke ‘Falling from Grace’, (MTC, QTC, STC) Titania ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ (outdoors in Sydney’s Botanic Gardens)
As producer, she has worked with writer /director Matt Day on his short films “The Mother Situation” (2017 Tropfest Winner, Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Actress ) Perry” (2016 St Kilda Film Festival, Palm Springs Film Festival) “Charlie’s Mum” (2015) and the TV Pilot “Subject to Change’ For stage, she produced and performed “Peeled” by Catherine Strickland at Adelaide Fringe 2014, River of Arts Festival NSW, and a season at Brown’s Mart, Darwin, and the children’s storytelling season “Stories for Grommets’ at Bondi Pavilion Theatre. Di has been a proud member of MEAA Actors Equity since 1976.
Helen O'Connor (Elizabeth)
A graduate from Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Helen has worked extensively in Australian film, TV and theatre. Her film credits include Kennedy Millers Wreck of the Stinson and Babe, Boys In the Island, Till There Was You, Out of the Body, The Beast, Frauds, Spider and Rose, Natalie Wood: Lost Child, Gingers, and the award winning docudrama Dr Bogle and Mrs Chandler.
For TV she has appeared in many Aussie series, including Flying Drs, A Country Practice, GP, Medivac, Police Rescue, Grim Pickings, Relative Merits, Loveless, The Girl From Tomorrow, Tomorrow’s End, Headstart, White Collar Blue, Outriders, Don’t Blame Me, Snobs, All Saints, Home and Away, Breakers, Crownies and Rake. Most recently she performed in the all girl comedy web-series Chan & Dee’s Drink Tank, which she co-wrote with Claire Haywood. Her theatre include credits Antigone, Great Expectations, On The Wallaby, No Worries, On Top of the World, Europe, I Hate Hamlet, Quartermaine’s Terms, Straight and Narrow, Milo, Women of Troy and Lipstick Dreams (which she co-wrote with Simon Hopkinson), Miss Reardon Drinks a Little and Catholic School Girls.
Helen is delighted to be sharing the stage with so many red heads.
Katrina Foster (Frances)
Since graduating from NIDA, Katrina has worked as an actor across all mediums including theatre, film and television. Most recently she completed a national tour of I Want to Know What Love Is with Queensland based The Good Room and will be performing again in the show at Sydney’s Darlinghurst Theatre later this year. Before that she appeared in Dream Home, directed by David Williamson, for Ensemble Theatre in Sydney in Mum’s the Word and Mum’s the Word II: Teenagers, both playing to audiences across Australia. She has worked across all states, for all major theatre companies, including Sydney Theatre Co, Melbourne Theatre Company, Ensemble Theatre, Griffin Theatre, Belvoir, Queensland Theatre and State Theatre Company of South Australia. Her television credits include Rake, Sea Change and All Saints. She has also worked as a television writer and script editor for many years. as well as a dramaturg and lecturer in scriptwriting, dramaturgy and storytelling.
Lewis Fitz-Gerald
(Geoff / and everybody else)
Lewis Fitz-Gerald’s long career began in Bruce Beresford’s acclaimed feature film Breaker Morant. More recently seen in Janet King, Pine Gap, The Secrets She Keeps and many more, Lewis has been nominated for both his work as actor and documentary maker. He has also directed television drama for every Australian network. Lewis has worked for most major Australian theatre companies including Nimrod, Belvoir, the STC and MTC and has appeared in London’s West End. As its inaugural chair, Lewis helped found Belvoir Street Theatre’s acclaimed Company B. He has served in various capacities as board member, assessor or jury member for many arts organisations including Actors Centre Australia, the AFC, ADG, AFI and NSWFTO, and lectures in Screen Studies at the University of New England.
Wild Thing marks a reunion with NIDA colleagues Diane Smith and Katrina Foster,
whose last collaboration, Shorts at The Wharf, marked the first opening of the Sydney Theatre Company’s Walsh Bay venue.
Tony Poli (Marco/Michael)
Tony is a NIDA Acting graduate. His film and television credits include Underbelly II: Tale of Two Cities, Teenage Kicks, Devils Dust, Carla Cametti PD, Satisfaction, All Saints, Stingers, Home and Away, Phoenix, Secrets, Murder Call, G.P. and Two Fists One Heart. He has worked for the many theatre companies across Australia with productions including most recently The Italians at downstairs Belvoir. Other productions include Sirens, Pentecost, Rome & Juliet, The White Devil, for The Sydney Theatre Company. As You Like It, Romeo & Juliet for The Melbourne Theatre Company. Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer’s Night Dream for Bell Shakespeare, The Club, Emma- Celebrazionne and Taming of the Shrew for The State Theatre Company of South Australia. Mano Nera for the Queensland Theatre Company. A Little Like Drowning, Bang at Belvoir St, The Kid, The Heartbreak Kid for the Griffin Theatre Company. Etta Jenks at the Darlinghurst Theatre. The God of Hell at The Old Fitz. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest for Sport For Jove and The Shifting Heart for White Box
Kim Hardwick (Director)
Most recently, Kim has directed ‘The Table” and “The Shifting Heart” (Seymour Centre /White Box),I Love You Now (Darlinghurst Theatre Company), and produced and directed the Blackrock (Seymour Centre) and Hurt (Old 505), which was nominated for the 2016 Sydney Theatre Award for Best Independent Production. In 2015, she was the Resident Studio Artist for Griffin Theatre Company and directed the lauded production of The House on the Lake. Kim’s other credits include The Shadow Box (The Old Fitz), Unholy Ghosts (Griffin Independent), BANG (B Sharp), Time Stands Still and Love Song (both at Darlinghurst Theatre Company), Love Bites (Seymour Centre), The Hatpin (Seymour Centre, which then played at the New York Music Theatre Festival), The Memory of Water (Darlinghurst Theatre Company & NSW regional tour), A Moment on the Lips (Darlinghurst Theatre Company, The Old Fitz and The Stables in NSW, and the Old Council Chamber in Carlton, VIC), Sprung! (National tour), and A Day In The Death of Joe and Dinner With Friends (both at Darlinghurst Theatre Company).
She is a graduate of VCA and WAAPA.
Tom Bannerman (Set design)
Tom Bannerman is a Sydney-based set-designer. His body of- work is considerable, this being his 271st production. Despite the pandemic interrupting the 2020 season, he managed to stage three productions last year: New Theatre’s Neighbourhood Watch, Genesian Theatre’s Sherlock Holmes & the Death on Thor Bridge - which received a 2020 Broadway World Sydney award for Best Scenic Design: Play, Amateur/Community - and St Aloysius’ College’s Twelve Angry Men. Other recent works are New Theatre’s The Grapes of Wrath, Pygmalion, My Night with Reg, The Elements of an Offence, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, HIV Monologues, The Little Dog Laughed, Marat/Sade, That Eye/The Sky, The Ritz, When the Rain Stops Falling, Dying for It and Jerusalem. For other theatres: Amadeus (Saint Aloysius’ College), Boy out of the Country (Pioneer Play Festival, Castle Hill), Mark Colvin’s Kidney (Drill Hall Mullumbimby), Season’s Greetings (Hunters Hill Theatre), BU 21 and Rats (Old 505 Newtown), Endgame and Charley’s Aunt (Playhouse Theatre Newcastle), Penelope (TAP Gallery),The New Electric Ballroom (Stables) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Ballina Players Theatre). Tom is also a set-builder and scenic artist.
Martin Kinnane (Lighting design)
Martin has designed for theatre and events both nationally and internationally. He has lit many for the Ensemble Theatre including Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, End of the Rainbow and Kids Stuff; Love Loss, and What I Wore and Celebrity Autobiography at the Sydney Opera House; Shakespeare’s R & J and Just Macbeth for the Bell Shakespeare Company; The Hatpin, Love Song, LoveBITES, Bang, Belongings and Unholy Ghosts for White Box Theatre; Fairy’s Wings, Worry Worts, Bugalugs Bum Thief and Sprung for Monkey Baa; Next To Normal for Doorstep Arts; Satango and The House On The Lake for the Griffin Theatre Company; Sunset Boulevard and Promises, Promises for The Production Company; and Letter To Larry for CheepUk in the Theatre Nesle, Paris.
Work beyond the theatrical includes the Hamer Hall Opening Celebrations in 2012; East Timor’s Independence Day Celebrations for the United Nations; Absinthe, Desir and Empire for Spiegelworld in New York, Las Vegas, Miami, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Japan; and the Papal Ceremonies at World Youth Day 2008.
Martin is possibly best known for his spectacularly theatrical lighting of the Sydney
Harbour Bridge (the Bridge Effect) from 2000 to 2007 for New Years Eve, which has
brought him international renown.
Patrick Howard (Sound design)
Patrick is a freelance theatre artist with a passion for queer, political, devised, musical and documentary theatre. A graduate of AIM Dramatic Arts (formerly AADA), Patrick has performed, directed, production, company and stage managed, sound designed, composed and dramaturged for a number of different companies, including PYT Fairfield, Force Majeure, Performance Space, Sydney Opera House, ATYP, Contemporary Asian Australian Performance, The Last Great Hunt, Little Triangle, Red Line Productions and New Theatre. He also makes and produces his own work, and has conducted various teaching and mentoring engagements. Patrick has been a play assessor for New Theatre for the past six years, holds a Bachelor of Music with Honours from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with principal study of classical voice performance, and is a proud member of MEAA Equity.
Robert Bayliss (Costume)
Robert commenced his career in 1981 in the opera arena, the eighties were spent working on productions in set, costume, prop, scenic art and make-up departments. Specialising in Costume he spent the next ten plus years working for theatre and film companies such as Kennedy Miller, The Australian Ballet, The Australian Opera, Lamont Cranston productions, Anthill Theatre, The Griffin Theatre Company, Cameron Mackintosh, The Victorian State Opera, The Sydney Theatre Company, Harry .M. Miller, The Gordon and Frost Organisation, S.O.G.O.C and Belvoir Street Theatre; in various job roles including Costume designer, Wardrobe Master, Designers assistant, Wardrobe assistant / Art finisher, Stand-by wardrobe, Dresser, Make-up artist, and scenic artist. He is also an educator, working for TAFE NSW, Robert has welcomed reconnecting to the theatre.
Suzanne Hawley (Playwright)
Suzanne is an experienced and award winning writer, having penned a feature film, many works for television, several plays and two novels. Suzanne has an AFI award for Best Screenplay for the mini series Bodysurfer, which was also a finalist at the 33rd Annual Film and Television Awards, New York. Her feature film Wendy Cracked A Walnut (released in America as 'Almost...') received two AFI nominations, including best screenplay and her miniseries Ring of Scorpio was also nominated for Best Miniseries at the AFI Awards.
Her TV writing credits include Headland, All Saints, Something In The Air, Heartbreak High, A Country Practice, Let the blood run free, The Ferals. She also worked as a script editor on A Country Practice for Channel Nine and All Saints and Headlands for Channel Seven.
Her play Hitler had a Mummy Too was performed at the Sailor's Home Theatre in Sydney and La Mama in Melbourne. Mummy loves you Betty Ann Jewel has been performed at SWY Theatre in Perth, La Boite Theatre Queensland, The Stables Darlinghurst, and was published by Currency Press. Another play, Concrete Palaces, won the Sydney Theatre Company award for Best Short Play at the opening of the Wharf theatre – Shorts at the Wharf.
In a brief sojourn as an actress, Suzanne performed at the Ensemble Theatre in the Australian premiere of Neil Simon's Chapter Two and in Jakes Women, both directed by Hayes Gordon. Also Ibsen's Pillar's of Society at the STC. She was a featured guest in various television shows including Mother and Son, Menotti, A Country Practice, Young Doctors, Home Sweet Home. Suzanne wrote Molly and Brendan the Untold Story for A Country Practice published by Fairfax Press and the darkly humorous novel Alison Says (published by Random House March 2005). Also published in the Czech Republic.
She has a new novel soon to be published called 'Swimming with Snakes'
Her play 'Wild Thing' had its premiere season in Sydney in 2021
Leonardo Bosi
(Composer & videographer)
Leonardo Bosi is an emerging composer for theatre and short film. His piano compositions and scores include Stories for Grommets (childrens theatre @ Bondi Pavilion), Our Town (Guild Theatre Rockdale), Hitchcock Syndrome (short film Flickerfest 2017) as well as for Wild Thing. He was MD (with Mia Morrissey) and pianist on Hope Song, directed by Socrates Otto, at Flight Path Theatre 2017.
Leonardo plays piano, keyboard, guitar, accordion and drums , as well as digital instruments . He mixes and records his own work, when not completing his Honours in Bio Chemistry.