New Ensemble Of Sydney Theatre Co Performers Begin Work At The Wharf

Sydney Theatre Company's new permanent ensemble of performers will shortly commence work at the Company's home base, The Wharf on Sydney Harbour. The Residents, formed as an evolution of the original STC Actors Company, are nine actors employed full time by Sydney Theatre Company with a particular focus on the development of theatre while working across all aspects of the Company's program.

Audiences will have the opportunity to enjoy the work of the new ensemble in a variety of ways. The Residents will occasionally be seen in their own Main Stage shows and just as importantly they will work in the Company's Next Stage, Back Stage and Education streams, moving regularly between these different areas. In their initial weeks the actors will start development of the script for their Main Stage outing later this year, The Mysteries, working with the directors to find ways to assemble the show from a selection of texts. They will then commence early work with a number of writers in devising a play based on Sydney's criminal history. Some will then peel off to work
on one of the company's new ‘Rough Drafts', quickly rehearsing a new play and presenting it to an audience in the same week. Others will begin rehearsing an STC Education production, Dario Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist, to be performed in September. Once that has opened they will begin rehearsals for The Mysteries. All the while they'll be engaged in explorations and readings of new works from Australia and abroad.

With the exploration, shaping and fine-tuning of new works as a guiding objective, it is anticipated that The Residents will provide an invaluable resource to playwrights and directors and that the results of their pioneering work will benefit the whole Australian theatre scene.

The Residents will occupy a central role in the day-to-day operations of the Company and will work very closely with Associate Director Tom Wright as well as Artistic Directors Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett. The actors were chosen after a lengthy round of auditions and interviews, and were selected for their range of skills, their history of devising new work, their abilities to collaborate with writers and directors, and their innate curiosity.

The Residents:

Alice Ansara comes from Bellingen and trained at WAAPA. She was nominated for an AFI award for her performance in La Spagnola and recently performed in a Sydney Theatre Company ‘Rough Draft' of The Magic Flute.

Cameron Goodall is from Adelaide. He was a founding member of the band The Audreys as well as independent theatre company The Border Project. He played Hamlet in STCSA and QTC productions and last year was seen in The Clockwork Forest at Sydney Theatre as well Highway Rock ‘n' Roll Disaster in Wharf 2.

Ursula Mills went to school in Sydney but was born and spent her childhood in Papua New Guinea, where her family is part of the PNG Chinese community. She worked as a dancer before training at WAAPA.

Julia Ohannessian is originally from Adelaide and trained at NIDA. She has worked with Sydney Theatre Company on education shows, workshops and readings.

Zindzi Okenyo trained at NIDA. She grew up in outback Australia where her mother was an English teacher in remote communities. She appeared at Sydney Theatre Company in 2008 in The Vertical Hour and in STC Education's recent production of The Crucible.

Richard Pyros grew up in Melbourne but returns from Glasgow to be part of The Residents. Credits include Bell Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona and Sydney Theatre Company's Woman in Mind. He trained at VCA.

Sophie Ross is from Melbourne and trained at WAAPA. She has been a regular fixture in Sydney theatre in the last few years, most recently in Stoning Mary and Ladybird. She played Juliet in STC Education's Romeo and Juliet in 2008.

Tahki Saul is from Sydney and has been seen in a number of productions around Sydney, most recently Baghdad Wedding. When a student at NIDA he was in The Lost Echo for Sydney Theatre Company.

Brett Stiller appeared as a teenager in Sydney Theatre Company's 1994 Falsettoes and trained at Theatre Nepean. He has been seen regularly on Sydney stages in productions such as Holding the Man, Strangers in Between and Don't Say the Words. He has previously performed with Sydney Theatre Company in The Miser.