Cast & Crew

Dubbed “the Dark Princeling of Melbourne cabaret”, Bradley Storer is a neo-Weimar and dark-indie enfant terrible, a musical theatre misfit with the voice of an angel, the soul of a demon and the mouth of a sailor. Since graduating from Patrick Studios Australia, where he played Moritz in their graduate production of Spring Awakening, Bradley has produced multiple seasons of his critically acclaimed show Trickster both locally and nationally.

Photo by Bodie Strain

Chelsea Byrne is a Melbourne based dance artist and teacher. Her performance credits include; Tangi Wai… The Cry of Water for Dance Massive 2017 (Victoria Hunt), Hypnagogia (Amanda Lever), Alterity (collaboration with Gem Clarke) and various works with Austinmer Dance Theatre. She recently completed a Master of Dance at VCA (2017), during which time she created multidisciplinary works Evolv, You Me Us Here Now, and Duets.

Chelsea has created dance works for The Space School of Performance Arts, Wollongong High School of the Performing Arts and works collaboratively on projects with Slow Twitch Collective and Root Synthesis.

Sonia Marcon has been a performing arts professional for 19 years in Perth and Melbourne as an actor, singer, writer, producer and director. She has appeared in a number of award-winning and award-nominated theatre productions including Cry Havoc (Best New Play, Perth Theatre Trust Guild Equity Awards), Serpentine, and Heartstring’s widely acclaimed all-female production of Coriolanus.

Sonia embraces new challenges, whether it is taking on musical composition for the Perth comedy show You Only Rent Twice, or learning Spanish dancing to play an interpretation of Death in Federico García Lorca’s Blood Wedding. In 2016 she wrote and performed in the Channel 31 sketch comedy series What’s Wrong with You and since 2015 she has continued to develop and perform self-devised monologues and movement works for the Melbourne-based Quippings performance group which have performed at numerous venues including the Malthouse Theatre and the Melba Spiegeltent.

Marc Ethan and Lynn Gordon have many years of experience with Auslan interpretation for performances and events, including Musicians 4 Hearing, Quippings, Melbourne Writers Festival, and many more. They will be interpreting the Melbourne Fringe run of Queer Lady Magician.

Photo of Marc by Xavier Fenel

Jaq Avery is an actor, producer, digital content creator, and graduate student at the University of Melbourne studying a Master of Arts and Cultural Management. As an actor, she has starred in short films such as SWIM (2017) and Bereavement (2015), national commercials for Coles and VicRoads, and has been seen on stage in Dragged (La Mama Courthouse), Breathing Corpses (One Little Room), Attempts on Her Life (NIDA Open), and Arsehole (Junior Space).

Jaq produced the Melbourne Premiere of Laura Wade's Breathing Corpses in 2016 and her production company, GPOY Productions, launches in November this year.

Mx Munro is a genderqueer chanteuse, a sharp mind, and an emerging producer. They recently worked with Melbourne jazz cabaret diva and community arts advocate Mama Alto on coproducing Queer Lady Magician's sold-out fundraiser cabaret Magic Happens.

Photo by Theodore Murray

Sharmini Kumar is a writer and director of film and theatre. She is particularly interested in finding fresh takes on familiar stories. She loves to collaborate with other artists and other art forms. She has written, directed and produced theatre pieces including: 2 Gentlemen, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Complete Works of Shakespeare, The Princess and the Glass Piano, Shakespeare in Therapy and The Margins of Persuasion. In her spare time, she practices medicine.

King of nothing, herder of cats and occasional writer.

Anthony De Masi has over 20 years’ of professional performance under his hat (and furry rabbits to boot), he has enchanted individuals and audiences worldwide - from the likes of Al Gore, David Beckham and Tim Burton to global giants such as Coca Cola, Porsche and Tiffany and Co. Anthony is also a proud inductee of the 2004 Guinness World Records for the longest running magic show – 73 hours of non-stop fun!

As well as being an in demand Magician across Australia, Anthony is one of the founding directors of the Australian Institute of Magic and a proud member of the Magic Circle of Victoria.

Zeb Direen is a Circus, Burlesque, Cabaret queen, Singer, Acrobat, Aerial, Dramaturg superstar - having starred, written, and produced many cabaret and theatre shows in their short ten years, using their ability to weave together narrative and dramatising performances into impacting live art. Starting in the Tasmania, they have performed in many musicals and stage productions including Oliver, Carousel, The Wizard Of Oz from 2008 - 2014 and almost instantly became a drag queen at the club Les Girls between 2010 - 2013. Learning burlesque with Miss Kitty’s Meow, and continuing to teach burlesque and choreograph group and solo performance with them for the next four years lead them into a world of circus aerials; Trapeze, Lyra, and silks -giving them the opportunity to work as part of Tasmanian Circus Festival, Falls Festival, and Mona.

In the last three years Zeb has committed to creating and assisting to create queer live art, producing their own Circus Cabaret The Super Secret Circus Show to sell out performances, and writing Zeb: A Gender Odyssey, being staged at The Theatre Royal Backspace later this year.

With her grandmother in the theatre and circus, Miss Fairchild grew up backstage playing with costumes, exotic animals and living on a steady diet of 1950s musicals. It is no surprise that she ended up working in the industry she has always loved. Completing her Certificate III in millinery at the Kangan Institute and becoming a fully qualified milliner, Miss Fairchild studied under Rose Hudson (former head milliner of the Melbourne Theatre Company, award winning stage and screen milliner & Head of the Millinery Association) and was encouraged to pursue her dream of working in period costume millinery.

In 2017 she travelled to Europe to study some of the most iconic historical hats in the textile archive of the Victoria & Albert Museum before going on to Paris to undertake an haute couture embroidery and embellishment course at the world-renowned Ecole Lesage. Most recently she has provided costume millinery for a theatre adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion.

Natasha O'Brien is a Melbourne based costume designer. Her first collection was a collaboration with the artist Judy Antill titled Walking Art for the label Gichuhi. She also collaborated with Emma Kidd to run CaveMan Productions’s fashion shows A Higher Ground and ID events from 2013 to 2014. These events, traditional runway shows with local designers that were also performance art shows, involved garments constructed from medical supplies and bizzare objects to create a fashion experience with a focus on entertainment.

In 2017 Natasha created the looks for James Halloran (Matitza Silver) as part of Taylor Mac's 24 Decade History of Popular Music at the Melbourne Festival. Josh Thomas comissioned her to make his Halloween costume.

Photo by Theodore Murray

Bryony Stringer is continually seeking ways to combine immersive installation art and entertainment-led social change, particularly on pieces whose core values explore challenging themes, narratives, and provide opportunities for minority groups to disrupt oppressive social structures. She assisted as a maker on VCA’s production of Spring Awakening (2016) and completed the set design for the 2017 full length ensemble contemporary dance, There’s No Changing Yesterday and enjoyed wonderful internship opportunities with production company Mongrel Mouth and prop and set designer Nick Pledge.

Ashleigh Barnett is a Melbourne based lighting designer and technical manager with a particular interest in exploring contemporary forms of dance, music theatre and other movement based performance arts. Some of her recent credits include Lighting Designer for There’s No Changing Yesterday (VCA. Chor. Kate Denborough 2017) and Company (VCA. Dir. Roger Hodgman 2017).

Mama Alto is a gender transcendent diva, cabaret artiste, jazz singer & community activist; a non-binary trans femme person of colour who works with the radical potential of storytelling, strength in softness & power in vulnerability. Drawing on legacies of vintage torch singers & her own identity as a queer person of colour, Mama Alto’s vocal & visual aesthetic transcend gender, disrupting & discomforting societal constructions of dichotomous boundaries.

Photo by Danny Fitch

Asha Gill rose to fame in Asia and beyond as a star VJ, host, radio DJ, interviewer, and media personality, including being the face for music television station Channel [V] International and co-host for Lonely Planet’s flagship TV show Lonely Planet Six Degrees. After working on Mindvalley’s online spiritual learning platform Soulvana, Asha has now moved from media to life coaching and hypnotherapy. The common denominator for everything she has done over her varied career is deeply rooted in connection & laughter.

In her voiceover she is joined by a group of kids consisting of Jaan (11), Nikita (12), Andrew (12), Charlotte (10), Xavier (7), Will (11), Olivia (10), Emily (8), and Isabella (7).

Photo by Esquire Malaysia

After an undistinguished high school drama career, Hailey Cooperrider’s main creative performance outlets are Dungeons and Dragons and working as a consultant. She occasionally gets called in for bit parts playing herself, most recently as “the consultant” in La Basta theatre company’s Bartleby. For Queer Lady Magician, her main qualification was being an older American trans woman.

Blake Maxam grew up in Southern California within walking distance of four major studios. Gender issues have been part of her life for mumblemumble years and she has done considerable speaking to organizations for those who provide medical, psychological, social or legal services to trans people and their families. She has also spoken extensively to Colleges, Universities, The Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, and The Gorilla Grotto.

As children’s magician "The Wizard of Ahhhhs", Blake astounds and amazes children of all ages in Oakland with a full show of laughter and surprises. Her story is a big part of Queer Lady Magician, both in content and in sparking Tiara’s love for magic again.