2017 House Programs Caravan | Page 5

CAST & CREATIVE BIOS Melissa Reeves is a Melbourne playwright. Her most recent play The Zen of Table Tennis won the Griffin Award in 2017. Other plays include Happy Ending, which premiered at the Melbourne Theatre Company, and was short-listed for three Premier’s Awards, Furious Mattress, The Spook, awarded the 2005 Louis Esson prize for drama in the Victorian Premiers awards, and two AWGIE Awards for best new play, and Sweetown, awarded the Jill Blewitt memorial playwrights award in 1993, In Cahoots, Storming Heaven, Great Day, Road Movie and Salt Creek Murders. She has co-written a number of plays including Magpie, (with Richard Frankland) and Who’s Afraid of the Working Class? and Fever (both with Andrew Bovell, Patricia Cornelius, Christos Tsiolkas and Irine Vela). The former won Best Play in the Queensland Literary Awards, two AWGIEs for best new play, and the Jill Blewitt Playwright’s Award in 1999. Melissa also co- wrote the screenplay for the film Blessed, based on Who’s Afraid of the Working Class? Susie Dee Nicci Wilks CREATOR & PERFORMER CREATOR & PERFORMER Susie has worked extensively in the theatre as a performer, devisor and director in Australia and overseas for the past thirty years. She has been the Artistic Director of three theatre companies: Melbourne Workers Theatre (MWT), Union House Theatre (UHT) and Institute Of Complex Entertainment (ICE). ICE’s projects went on to win various awards and received many accolades for their ground- breaking site-specific work. In 2011, Susie was the recipient of the Australia Council residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. Susie has directed works for MTC, Malthouse Theatre, Hothouse Theatre and many independent theatre companies and has performed in numerous productions over many years, including theatre, cabaret and circus. She has developed a strong working relationship over the past ten years with her fellow Caravan performer Nicci Wilks, and has directed and/or performed in the works of the four Caravan writers: Angus Cerini, Patricia Cornelius, Wayne Macauley and Melissa Reeves. She has been nominated for and won numerous awards, including most recently a Helpmann Best Director nomination for SHIT. Animal, which she directed and co-devised, garnered four Green Room Awards in 2016, including Best Director. Nicci has been working in the performing arts for over 30 years performing at festivals and theatres around the world, from the Pitjantjatjara lands to 42nd Street. She has created many new works of various art forms as a performer, creator/devisor and director with numerous companies and independent artists throughout Australia. Companies she has worked with include: Circus Oz, Melbourne Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre, KAGE, Melbourne Workers Theatre, CIRCA, Hothouse Theatre, The Flying Fruit Fly Circus, The Nanjing Acrobatic Troupe, Dislocate, Legs On The Wall and Dee & Cornelius. She also works as a Clown Doctor for The Humour Foundation. She is a performer in the multi award winning show SHIT by Patricia Cornelius, Assistant Director and performer for the Green Room Award winning show Taxi by Dee & Cornelius and co-creator and performer of the highly acclaimed show The Long Pigs. Most recently she was a co-creator and performer for the Green Room Award winning show ANIMAL. Nicci has had a close working relationship with Susie for many years now, creating and devising many new works. 5 Melissa Reeves WRITER