Improvement Club

Jeffrey Jay Fowler is a playwright, dramaturg, director and actor. He wrote and acted in award winning shows A History of Drinking and ELEPHENTS. He has performed in and co-created FAG/STAG (winner Scotsman Fringe First 2017), BALI, THE ADVISORS, PERPETUAL WAKE, ALL THAT GLITTERS and LÉ NØR [THE RAIN] with The Last Great Hunt, of which he is a founding artist.

His other plays include MINNIE AND MONA PLAY DEAD, PRICE TAG, THE ONE, Second Hands, Hope is the saddest, and IMPROVEMENT CLUB.

Among the shows he has directed are Girl Shut Your Mouth, Blithe Spirit, The Eisteddfod (winner 2017 PAWA Best Director and Best Mainstage Play), and In The Next Room, or The Vibrator Play for Black Swan State Theatre Company.

Jeffrey Jay was Associate Director of Black Swan from 2014 to 2017, and then he was their Director of New Writing for 2018 and 19. His postgraduate studies were in directing at NIDA in 2010. In 2020 Jeffrey Jay was awarded the NT Literary Award for The Hypotheticals which he co-wrote with Sarah Reuben.

Gita Bezard is a playwright, devisor, director and performer. She’s a founding member of The Last Great Hunt and mother to a tiny artist in the making.

For The Last Great Hunt: As a Writer/Director - PERPETUAL WAKE, THE TALK, THE ADVISORS, YOSHIS CASTLE and ALL THAT GLITTERS. As a co-devisor/performer - WHISTLEBLOWER (Perth Festival, 2021), LÉ NØR (Perth Festival, 2019), STAY WITH US, MINNIE AND MONA PLAY DEAD (Fringe World 2013 Martin Sims Award for Best New WA Work; Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Brisbane International Festival) and ELEPHENTS.

In 2016 her play GIRL SHUT YOUR MOUTH debuted at Black Swan State Theatre Company and was nominated for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award.

Playwriting Comissions - THE PAPER ESCAPER (Terrapin Puppet Theatre), THE PERFECT BOY (Black Swan State Theatre Company, LEMON and IN A BONY EMBRACE (Curtin University), REMARKABLE (WAAPA).

Arielle Gray is a performer, theatre-maker, director, puppeteer, voice-over artist, improviser and founding artist of The Last Great Hunt.

She has a passion for creating and performing in inventive, original and engaging theatre. Roles include – As Adaptor/performer: Cicada (Barking Gecko). As performer: Cloudstreet (Malthouse/Black Swan), Picnic At Hanging Rock (Malthouse/Black Swan): including at the Barbican Centre, London, My Robot (Barking Gecko) and Laika: A Staged Radio Play (Second Chance Theatre).

For The Last Great Hunt - As co-creator and Director: Whistleblower (Winner ‘Outstanding Direction of a Mainstage show’ Performing Arts WA Awards), Stay With Us. As co-creator/performer: Helpmann nominated Lé Nør [The Rain], Helpmann nominated New Owner, The Advisors, All That Glitters, Falling Through Clouds and Helpmann nominated It’s Dark Outside (ArtsHub critics’ choice ‘innovation’ award). As performer: Bite the Hand, Monroe & Associates, Perpetual Wake and Improvement Club.

Chris Isaacs is a writer, devisor, performer, and founding core artist of The Last Great Hunt. As a playwright he has had his works performed nationally and internationally.

Credits include Bite The Hand, York (Co-written with Ian Michael for Black Swan State Theatre Company); the multiple award winning The Great Ridolphi (Blaz Award for New Writing Perth FRINGEWORLD); the multiple award-winning FAG/STAG (co-written with Jeffrey Jay Fowler); award winvning Old Love (Audience Development Award – The Blue Room Theatre); and award winning Flood (PAWA best new play), Bali (co-written with Jeffrey Jay Fowler), and The 1s, The 0s, and Everything In Between (RIPTIDE and ATYP).

As a co-devisor/performer Chris' work includes Lé Nør [The Rain] (Perth Festival) Stay With Us ; All That Glitters; Falling Through Clouds; and the award winning It’s Dark Outside (ArtsHub Innovation Award – 2013 and Helpmann-nominated) for The Last Great Hunt.

Outside of The Last Great Hunt, Chris is a resident artist for Black Swan State Theatre Company and a sessional tutor at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA).

SALLY PHIPPS is a Production Designer responsible for the design and creation of Sets, Costumes and Props. Practicing in Perth, her work spans across multiple disciplines including Theatre, Film, Event Styling and Visual Merchandising. Sally is a graduate of WAAPA and the recipient of the prestigious David Hough Award for Outstanding Achievement in Design during her time as the Academy. In 2014 she received the Design Institute of Australia’s West Australian Graduate of the Year Award based on two of her stage designs. Since graduating, Sally has designed extensively for a number of Perth’s independent theatre companies including The Last Great Hunt, Lost and Found Opera, Maiden Voyage Theatre Company, Fugue and Renegade Productions. Her short film credits include Production Design for the Screenwest-funded, ‘Featherweight’.

Joe Lui is a founding member of Renegade Productions. Within its aegis he creates, writes, directs, designs and composes theatre and performance works. His most recent work was ‘Unveiling’, presented at the Blue Room Theatre in 2017 and nominated for Best Production. Joe Lui is the Spirit of the Fringe World. Joe Lui is also a regular and contributing part of the professional and independent theatre industry in Perth as a director, writer, and a sound and lighting designer. In these capacities he has worked with most Perth based companies including Black Swan State Theatre Company, Perth Theatre Company, Yirra Yaakin Theatre Company and the vast majority of independent companies

STEPHANIE THACKRAY has recently finished studying stage management at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, completing a Bachelor of Performing Arts. Whilst at WAAPA, Stephanie was given the opportunity to production manage ‘42nd Street’ at the Regal Theatre and to call ‘Bring it on the Musical’ and ‘Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson’. She has recently returned from Sydney and Melbourne working on ‘Carmen Live or Dead’ at the Hayes Theatre as Stage Manager and board operator. Stephanie has also been working at the University of Western Australia in their University Theatres Department as a Stage Manager, Projectionist and Lighting Technician.

ZACHARY SHERIDAN is an emerging performance maker currently undertaking WAAPA’s Bachelor of Performing Arts course, majoring in Performance Making. His first play, Head Case, was shortlisted for the New Plot award and performed at 107 Projects in conjunction with Actors Centre Australia in April, 2017. His second play, The Cockburn Incident, received the 2018 Fringe World Ready to Tour Award. WAAPA credits include Solo Stage: Moments of Being and The Secret Project: Dispatch. In 2017, Zach also performed in the interactive and tactile For The Lonely, and walked for 24 hours straight to raise money for beyondblue