Professional Theatre, Community Theatre and Musical Theatre

The judges on our Professional Theatre, Community Theatre and Musical Theatre panels bring a high level of skill and experience to their roles, gained over many years working within the performing arts sector. Our judges take on considerable responsibility, not only for the amount of time they volunteer in travelling around Tasmania to complete their assessments but also for the professional, considerate and ethical manner in which they undertake this role.

Each judging panel operates independently of the others and is responsible for the assessment of all productions registered within its particular Awards category. TCT policy requires that no member of a particular panel can be personally involved in, or connected to, any production which comes before that panel for assessment during that year’s judging period. Where any potential conflict of interest might occur, a judge will stand aside from the panel and all judging within that year.

Learn more about our Professional Theatre, Community Theatre and Musical Theatre judges below.

Best New Writing

TCT offers an Best New Writing award to recognise new, text-based works presented in the Professional Theatre or Community Theatre categories. A separate judging panel is appointed through TCT’s partnership with Australian Plays Transform to assess eligible works. Assessment is based on the script of each work rather than live performance.


Meet The Judges (2024)

Professional Theatre

LEIGH OSWIN (Convenor)

A dynamic and flexible theatre generalist with a Master of Fine Arts (Theatre) and a Bachelor of Contemporary Arts with First Class Honours, Leigh has been involved in the Tasmanian theatre sector for the past two decades, directing, designing and appearing in works with a variety of theatre organisations in both a professional and community theatre capacity.

Formally trained in acting, directing, design, script writing and acrobatics, Leigh is a qualified gymnastics coach, and former Olympic Selector for Gymnastics Australia, having judged and coached at the World Championship level. Leigh works to enhance physicality and physical comedy on stage through adapting gymnastic and acrobatic elements.

Leigh’s directing credits include Garden on the Moon, It Happened One Day (Mudlark), A Clockwork Orange, Bums on Seats, The Bridesmaid Must Die! (Launceston Players), Stressica (Happy Habits), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Launceston Musical Society), Things I Know to be True, Our Town, The Season at Sarsaparilla (Three River), The Goat, A Man with Five Children (CentrStage), Hamletmachine and his own Scripted, He and On the Death of Character (UTAS).

Leigh’s acting credits include The Dark Room, Red, Let the Right One In, Become the One, The Nether, Very Still & Hard to See, Anatomy of a Suicide (IO), Accidental Death of an Anarchist, Of Mice and Men (Three River), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Launceston Players), Savages (Per.sona/Mudlark), Art, The Monster’s Apprentice (CentrStage), and The Bridesmaid Must Die! (Ulverstone Repertory).

ANNE CORDINER

Anne trained at Flinders Uni and subsequently at NIDA, providing her with a broad theatrical grounding. Career opportunities enabled Anne to work in both the corporate and the theatre world. Early on she was retained by the SA government to develop a plan for Drama to be introduced as a component of the secondary syllabus.

Anne's theatre career started with the SATC and MTC, and regular roles in the series Bellbird, Skyways and The Sullivans. She also enjoyed some early forays into corporate training and went on to specialise in human resources. She worked in both corporate and consulting roles, including running her own HR consultancy for 12 years. During this time her love of performance kept calling and she returned to theatre, working for a number of Melbourne and regional companies, on TV in Neighbours and MDA, and the award winning feature films Sympathy For Lady Vengeance (Korea) and 41 (Australia).

Since moving to Hobart, Anne has performed in Tasmanian Theatre Company's White Rabbit, Red Rabbit and An Inconvenient Woman, LoudMouth's The Island of Dr Moreau and Hobart Rep's The Taming of the Shrew, In The Next Room and Calendar Girls, and Bijoux's Ladies In Black. She assisted TTC director Charles Parkinson on the set of The Berry Man and produced and co-directed e-baby for TTC as part of Ten Days on the Island. Anne was a voice and monologue coach, and a reader in the Actors' Equity Foundation project "Storyville". Recently she worked on the film Ancestry Road which will be released in 2024.

JANE HALEY

After graduating from the University of Tasmania, Jane began her arts career as a drama teacher in Canberra and Tasmania. She literally ran away to the theatre when she joined the nationally acclaimed theatre-in-education troupe Salamanca Theatre Company. Deeply infected with the theatre bug, Jane headed to the big smoke of Sydney where she worked as education officer for Sydney Theatre Company, The Marionette Theatre of Australia, Australian Theatre for Young People and Sidetrack Theatre.

With her theatre and education experience, Jane assumed responsibility for assessing and recommending hundreds of performances for schools for the NSW Department of Education for a couple of years before returning to theatre-making at the renowned multicultural theatre group, Sidetrack. This established a pattern of working in theatre and alternating with stints trying to effect arts policy changes in government agencies. While she was in Sydney she completed her MA in Theatre Studies at UNSW.

Jane then moved to Brisbane where she was senior policy officer at Arts Queensland before getting back into business as General Manager of the (then Royal) Queensland Theatre Company. Relocating to Melbourne, Jane worked over 15 years as the Director of Arts Access, the Senior Adviser to Mary Delahunty MP, Minister for the Arts, and as the CEO of the national Australia Business Arts Foundation.

Returning home to Tassie in 2015, Jane became CEO of Ten Days on the Island where she led the reinvention of the international arts festival until December 2021.

Jane's currently enjoying the joys and challenges of her role as CEO of Design Tasmania.

CHRISTOPHER HARRIS

Chris studied Fine Arts at the Tasmanian School of Art and holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Tasmania. He has worked for nearly three decades at the Theatre Royal in Hobart in a variety of roles, including Head of Lighting.

Chris has designed lighting for many successful productions including the Tasmanian premieres of Princess (Mature Artists Dance Experience - MADE), Monty Python’s Spamalot (Tasmanian Theatre Unit Trust) and Keating: The Musical (Old Nick Theatre Company), amongst others.

GILLIAN UNICOMB

Gillian spent her undergraduate years at UTAS involved in the Old Nick Company and studying. After being offered a job at the university and trying to become a sensible tutor, she found the theatre still had a firm grip on her and she moved to Sydney to become an actor.   

She worked for JC Williamsons, the leading Australian live performance company, in various drama productions and in the annual Sydney Christmas pantos.  Employed extensively by the ABC, she starred in several seasons of Reg Livermore’s weekly TV show Crackerjack and worked almost daily in radio including involvement in a variety of education broadcasts as an actor and writer. Theatre highlights included Eliza in Pygmalion, directed by Moffat Oxenbould and Ophelia in An Alternative Universe Production by Albie Thoms. Her fondest highlight is a musical version of Dion Boucicoult’s London Assurance, where she met and played opposite John Unicomb, soon to become her life partner. 

Relocating home to Tasmania, her husband John took up the position of General Manager at the Theatre Royal whilst Gillian played throughout the first season of the Tasmanian Theatre Company: starting the season with Lady Teasle opposite Sydney Conovere in School for Scandal, directed by Roger Hodgman. Retiring from the stage to start a family, she reinvented herself as costume designer for TTC, while continuing to work for the ABC in radio drama, and as producer, writer and interviewer for the Arts program. Occasionally lured into film, she acted in The Colonials and as the adult Amy in The Story of Amy Sherwin - the Tasmanian Nightingale. She took part in the 2020 Burning Desires Festival in a staged reading of Patricia Cornelius’ play Do Not Go Gentle as Maria, “a diva”. 


Community Theatre

NICHOLAS LAHEY (Convenor)

Nicholas is an enthusiastic arts consumer, director and educator. As a young performer he trained under Robyn Roylance studying AMEB (Drama) and performed regularly with Mummers Theatre Company and Hobart Repertory Theatre Society.

Inspired by his theatre experiences as a young person, Nick went on to complete a Bachelor of Education in Drama and English at the University of Tasmania and later, Masters in Educational Leadership.

Nick spent much of his early career teaching and directing in England, Sydney and Hobart prior to becoming a College Head of Performing and Visual Arts and instigating FUSION Arts Festival before following his current educational leadership pathway.

Nick was Co-president of Drama Tasmania Teachers Association, providing professional learning opportunities for drama practitioners as well as advising on state and national curriculum documentation and hosting state conferences. During this time, he was also a member of the Theatre Royal's Educational Advisory Committee.

Some of Nick’s favourite productions he has directed for schools and community theatre companies include: Aftershocks, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Verdict, The Musicians, Copacabana, Mirror Mirror, Away, Bugsy Malone, Babe, Skate, Up For Grabs, Calendar Girls and Blithe Spirit.

ROSEMARY CANN

Rosemary Cann is a pākehā actor, writer, and musician based in nipaluna, lutruwita. She has toured professionally across New Zealand and Australia, and, since settling in Hobart six years ago, she has starred in Pinnochio (Big Monkey), The Campaign (Tasmanian Theatre Co./Blue Cow Theatre), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Directions Theatre), CRAVE by Sarah Kane (The Theatre Closet), and Romeo and Juliet (Bad Company Theatre).

As a playwright, she was shortlisted for Playmarket's 'b4 25' Award for her play Wellington Hill Drinking Society (2015) and nominated 'Best Newcomer' at the NZ International Comedy Festival for her debut solo show Chapstick (2016). She has participated in numerous residencies, including; Writing Place (Carclew/Country Arts SA), Future Proofing the Page (Blue Cow Theatre), Tarraleah Residency (Performing Lines Tasmania, Blue Cow Theatre) and National Studio and Fresh Ink Mentorship Programs (ATYP). Her short original work The Appointment recently won Best New Work at the 2023 OneFest short play festival.

Rosemary is a 2022 recipient of the Erin Thomas Playwriting Fund and the Salamanca Arts Centre 2023 Emergence Program. She is also a recipient of the 2023 all that we are Arts Tasmania Artist Residency, in support of research and development of a new verbatim work. She is passionate about representative, intelligent art that challenges and empowers audiences, championing queer and feminine narratives. She is also a proud member of sad girl pop band The Broken Girls Club, performs solo as Rose Trent, and features regularly with Hobart-based improvised theatre troupe PROTEA IMPRO. 

JENIFA DWYER

Jenifa has studied and created theatre since her school days, where her passion for performing was ignited by memorable Speech and Drama teacher Madam Hagney.

Upon leaving school, she began acting classes with another inspiring actor and teacher, Hayes Gordon, the founder of the Ensemble Theatre in Kirribilli, Sydney. His on Jenifa’s career as an actor and later as a teacher was immense. As a young actor she worked professionally in commercials, TV, Film and stage and performed with a number of amateur and community theatre groups in Sydney.

Jenifa realised her love of working with children and young people, undertaking a Bachelor of Teaching then a Masters of Creative Arts and began teaching Drama at Newtown High School of Performing Arts. She taught all years and directed ensembles and productions there for twenty years. Some favourites include Grand Hotel, The Women, Mindfields and Miniskirts, Here’s a Howdy Do! Playboy of the Western World, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll and The Children’s Hour. During these years she worked on the NSW Drama Committee, presented Gifted and Talented workshops at GERRIC, UNSW, was a member of the Bell Shakespeare Education Advisory Committee and was a HSC Marker for the NSW Board of Studies’ HSC Practical, Projects and Written examinations. Throughout these years also managed to ‘tread the boards’ occasionally in Community Theatre.

DR ROSE GABY  

Rose is a theatre scholar and enthusiast, and former Senior Lecturer at the University of Tasmania. During her years at Utas, Rose designed and coordinated a wide range of theatre-related units for the English programme, focussing particularly on Shakespeare and modern drama. She is a lifetime member of the Australian and New Zealand Shakespeare Association.

Rose completed her PhD at the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, a centre for postgraduate study that collaborates with the RSC to foster connections between theatre practice and scholarship. This experience generated a strong interest in the study of Shakespeare in performance and Rose has published widely in this field. Her publications include a history of open-air Shakespeare production in Australia, Open-Air Shakespeare: Under Australian Skies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and editions of Shakespeare’s Henry IV plays for the Internet Shakespeare Editions and Broadview Press.

KATHRYN GRAY

Kathryn (Kat) has an extensive background in dance, with her speciality genres being Contemporary, Broadway Jazz and Scottish Highland. She danced professionally in Melbourne, for most of the early 2000’s, when it was everyone’s dream to be Britney Spears’s backup dancer (a dream she may need to give up on). Kathryn graduated in 2000, with a Bachelor of Performing Arts (Utas) and complete a Bachelor of Teaching at Deakin University (2003).

Kathryn is the Senior Drama, Theatre and Dance teacher at Scotch Oakburn College in Launceston, and spends her days mentoring, choreographing with and directing the next generation of performers. Over her time as a secondary school teacher, she has choreographed multiple musicals and directed copious amounts of plays. Some of these include; Away (Michael Gow), Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time (Simon Stephens), No Exit (Jean-Paul Sartre), Blithe Spirit (Noel Coward), Secret Bridesmaids Business (Elizabeth Coleman), Agnes of God (John Pielmeire), Numbers (Kieron Barry), The Proposal (Chekhov), The God of Carnage (Yasmina Reza), Play on! (Rick Abbot), Murder by Poe (Jeffrey Hatcher), The Dining Room (A.R.Gurney), Metamorphoses (Mary Zimmerman), Seussical the Musical, Shrek, Bye Bye Birdie and Pirates of Penzance.

Kathryn is a Tasmanian Assessment Standards Certification Examiner for Drama and Theatre Performance and is a member, and past board member, of Drama Tasmania. Kathryn has been actively involved in community theatre on and off stage for the last three years. She enjoys going to the theatre and supporting all creatives and performers as an audience member. Kathryn is very honoured to have been appointed a judge for 2024 and looks forward to this new and exciting endeavour.

ROSS HAY

Ross is an actor, writer and director residing in Burnie. Since his arrival from Scotland in 2008, Ross has been involved in amateur community theatre and musical theatre. He came to the attention of the wider state when he received Tasmanian Theatre Awards for his roles in the Ulverstone Repertory Theatre production of The Vicar of Dibley in 2016 and in Devonport Choral Society's Little Voice in 2020. This led to roles in professional theatre with Blue Cow Theatre in Hobart and Mudlark theatre in Launceston. He received a TCT nomination for his role in Blue Cow Theatre's successful production of Hamlet in 2018.

Ross is keen to encourage and support participation and collaboration in local theatre in North West Tasmania. He has run workshops for aspiring and established actors and has been the adjudicator in the Burnie Eistedfodd in 2021 and 2023.

As a writer, Ross has produced his own works such as Multiplegia (Independently and with the assistance of DoMaur productions). He wrote his first play The Road That Cuts The Rivers through Blue Cow Theatre's 'Cowshed' program. The play was produced with the assistance of Arts Tasmania funding in 2021.

Ross is currently the director of theatre company The National Theatre of North West Tasmania.

AMANDA PHILLIPS 

Amanda has always had a love of theatre and performing. She grew up at the ABC studios in Elsternwick sitting in the sound booth watching Adventure Island being filmed in colour while the rest of Australia were seeing it in black and white; these experiences of rich and vivid storytelling during her childhood fuelled her passion for the Arts and the desire to create, and it was inevitable that she would go on to carve out a career in Theatre as an Actress, Director, and Youth Theatre Facilitator.  

Since graduating from BCA at UTAS in 2000 Amanda has taught Theatre at Launceston Youth Theatre Ensemble. Over the past 21 years she has taught thousands of young Tasmanians and directed over 50 shows, including the world premiere of a bespoke local script in 10 Days on the Island (Tasmania) and the Gros Morne Theatre Festival (Newfoundland, Canada). 

Amanda has worked with a number of Tasmanian arts organisations including Launceston Youth Theatre Ensemble, Mudlark Theatre, Theatre North, Centr Stage, Launceston Players and Three River Theatre. Her acting credits includeThe Boys, The Bridesmaid Must Die, The Photo, Bengal Tiger at the Bagdad Gate (Centre Stage), The Bridesmaids Must Die, Bums on Seats (Launceston Players), an ensemble member in Oedipus Schmoedipus (Theatre North) and in countless play readings and corporate theatre events. 

Amanda has directed for Mudlark Theatre’s One Day Projects, recorded voice overs for audio books, freelanced as an adjudicator for the Launceston Competitions (Drama Section), and designed and installed sets for themed events. Amanda was the 2022 recipient of the Tasmanian Theatre Award for Outstanding Female Supporting Performance Community Theatre for The Bridesmaids Must Die (Launceston Players). 


Musical Theatre

CHRIS HAMLEY (Convenor)

Chris is an actor, singer, director, producer and voice-over artist, and has been involved in theatre in Tasmania for over 25 years, across both the community and professional theatre sectors. He holds a Master of Teaching and a Bachelor of Performing Arts from the University of Tasmania. He has directed numerous dramatic and musical theatre productions for most local theatre companies around Hobart, as well as at Elizabeth College and Guilford Young College where he taught senior theatre performance, drama and theatre tech for a combined eight years.

His most notable productions as director include: The Music Man (GYC), Black Rock, Back to the 80s (Old Nick), The Witches of Eastwick, Rent, Chicago (Elizabeth College), Away, Waiting in the Wings, Macbeth (REP) and The Gift (Hamley Productions); and as performer in Mamma Mia (The Show Company), Born From Animals (Tasmanian Theatre Company), Grease (Pierrot Productions), Twelfth Night (Zootango), Keating! (Old Nick), Richard the Third (REP), The Ship That Never Was (Round Earth Company), Pinocchio (2008 and 2023), Once A Jolly Jumbuck (Big Monkey) and Amos in Chicago, in which he won the Best Supporting Actor (Musical) Award for TCT in 2018. He was also a featured voice actor in Blue Rocket productions, Buzz Bumble and Fanshaw & Crudnut, both screening on Channel 9Go!

Chris, and his wife, Kath co-created Hamley Productions in 2016 which is now known as Pepperberry Productions, staging their first show, Twelve Angry Jurors in 2024. They have produced and staged show seasons in both Hobart and Launceston, including Freud's Last Session, Alice's Adventures Underground, Winnie the Pooh, their annual Shakespearean mash-up production A Midsummer's Much Ado and The Gift.

JULIENNE COLMAN

Julienne has had over forty-six years’ experience as an Arts educator and leader in Tasmania. She studied at the University of Tasmania, majoring In Drama, Music, Dance, Visual Arts and English. During her tertiary years Julienne performed in many performance projects, and in 2010 she gained her Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership. 

Julienne has taught in a range of schools and colleges in the Department of Education and more recently in Catholic Education. During her time in schools and colleges, she produced and directed over twenty musical productions including Oliver!, We Will Rock You, and The King and I. Her direction in Rock Eisteddfods saw her schools win state finals. Entries in the National Wakakirri Story Dance, Story Singing and Story Telling events won three National finals. 

As a life member of Centr Stage Theatre Company, Julienne was chair of the Launceston based theatre company for fifteen years. Julienne has mentored and taught many students who have gone on to perform in local, national and international drama, dance and musical theatre genres. Her community involvement in the arts is now focussed on musical theatre and local Eisteddfods. 

BIL HEIT

Bil is a versatile performer, with regular voice-over work and experience on stage, on camera and as a workshop leader, acting coach and director.

Her musical theatre credits include Guys & Dolls, The Wiz, The Full Monty, The Sound of Music, High School Musical, Minefields and Miniskirts, DIVAS, Into The Woods, Grease, The Wizard of Oz, and Vocal Direction for Children of Eden. Other featured roles include Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, Tinkerbell in Peter Pan, Mrs Claus in the MYER Christmas Pantomime and Kate in The Taming of the Shrew. Other Shakespearian trots across the stage include Twelfth Night, Romeo & Juliet, The Comedy of Errors, Romeo & Juliet, and the original cast of The Works of William Shakespeare (by chicks).

Bil was a soprano in The Australian Voices, touring Australia and internationally for four years. As a flautist her skills have featured in several musical productions. Bil has had the good fortune to be involved in the creative development and performance of a number of new works over the years, including Fort Lytton At Night (a promenade theatre piece based on site in QLD), Any Moment (Bradley McCaw) and The Tuckshop Kid (THAT Production Company).

With various qualifications – a Bachelor of Arts (Drama) from QUT in Brisbane, an A.T.C.L. (Teacher’s Certificate) and a Master of Human Services (Childhood Studies) from Griffith University – Bil enjoys working as a Children’s Librarian (currently studying) and coordinates the Little Learners program at Channel Christian School.

Most recently, Bil has worked as Director and Assistant Director for school productions Hoodwinked (2019), Peter Pan (2021), The Fall of Robin Hood, The Road Home and The Greatest Show (all 2023). On stage she was last seen as the Old Woman in The Old Man and the Old Moon, Mrs Potter (and others) in The Adventures of Peter Rabbit and as Peta Quince in Roger Hodgman’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

JEFF HOCKLEY

Jeff has been an active member of the theatre arts community since arriving in Tasmania in 1972, and has acted in 39 productions, directed 36 productions – mostly musicals – and lit 46 productions.

He was Musical Director and conductor for Guys and Dolls, My Fair Lady and Cabaret (Launceston Players), as well as the world’s first community production of Evita. He has also played keyboard in the orchestra for five musicals, including Les Misérables, The Boy from Oz and The Sound of Music.

His workshops and summer school classes in directing or voice studies have been held state-wide, and he has also taught at the Modena Theatre Company in Italy. He is a graduate of Indiana University (directing and stage lighting), and NIDA, with a post-graduate degree in voice studies.

He directed the Tasmanian premiere’s of Deathtrap, Dimboola, As Long as You’re Happy, Lipstick Dreams and Eurobeat, and has directed other big and small musicals ranging from Les Misérables, Rent, Spamalot, Avenue Q and Into the Woods to works like I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Assassins and intimate revues, while dramas range from Amadeus to Dad’s Army.

At a management level, he has been on the boards and committees as a member, secretary, Vice-President or President of the Launceston Arts Council, Regional Arts Tasmania, the Arts Council of Australia, the Launceston Community FM Group, and the Launceston Players. He was also on the board of the Theatre Council of Tasmania as a member, and as a judge in the professional theatre awards team.

The arts and civic community have honoured him with a Life Membership to the Launceston Players; the 2000 Citizen Award for Community Service, through the National Australia Day Council; the Paul Harris Fellowship medal for community engagement through the arts, and he is one of the 21 Living Icons of Launceston. In 2023 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the King’s Birthday Honors list for services to the arts and community theatre.

JOHN SAUNDERS

Recently retired, John was a theatre director, actor and writer and worked in the professional stage, film and television industries for over thirty years. He began his career as a Company Actor with the State Theatre Company of South Australia and then later the Q Theatre in Sydney and also performed in and toured nationally with the original Australian musical theatre productions of Barnum and the Little Shop Of Horrors.

John has been the Artistic Director of three theatre companies Acting Out (Young Peoples’ Theatre Company – now Barking Gecko W.A.), the Western Australian Theatre Company and the Riverina Theatre Company. During that time he directed numerous productions of classical and contemporary dramas and comedies, new Australian works, cabaret, musicals and large-scale community events.

John has been involved professionally with music and musicals for most of his life in the theatre as a director, performer and composer. He has directed well over 30 musicals, both new and extant. He has performed leading and ensemble roles in many musicals and has also composed musical works and songs for plays and cabarets. Over the years, he has been: the Executive Director of the Riverina Conservatorium of Music (NSW), an Executive Member of the WA Orchestral Foundation, a member of the Musical Theatre Advisory Committee at WAAPA (Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts). Also for WAAPA, John was a sessional Lecturer in the History of Musical Theatre, Performance Practice and Script Analysis and a Cabaret Director.

John is the director of The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare Abridged, which has had three sell-out seasons at the Sydney Opera House and has performed frequently throughout Australia and Asia since 1999. From 2003 to 2007 John Saunders was the inaugural Head of Performance Studies at N.I.C.A. (the National Institute of Circus Arts) where he directed several shows including My Secret Circus and Inferno.


Judges 2023

Professional Theatre: Anne Cordiner (Convener), Jane Haley, Chris Harris, John Saunders, Gillian Unicomb

Community Theatre: Ross Hay (Convenor), Rosemary Cann, Dr Rose Gaby, Kerri Gay, Nicholas Lahey, Amanda Phillips, Rae Smith

Musical Theatre: Chris Hamley (Convenor), Jules Coleman, Petr Diviš, Angela Ireson, Leigh Oswin

Best New Writing:  Thomas Campbell, Nicola Ingram, Maeve MacGregor