Stay With Us

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).

Tim Watts is a performer, deviser, director, puppeteer, improvisor and animator from Perth, Western Australia. He is a founding member of The Last Great Hunt and a Sidney Myer Fellowship recipient. He has a passion for creating and performing original, imaginatively engaging theatrical experiences born from improvisation and experimentation.

Since graduating from Notre Dame University, Fremantle with a Bachelor of Performing Arts in 2005, he has participated in international workshops, including studying clown and physical comedy with Dell’Arte International in Blue Lake California, as well as Puppetry workshops with Spare Parts Puppet Theatre in Fremantle, Western Australia, and Blind Summit in the UK. He has co-created and performed in a plethora of shows, some of which won awards and toured all over the world.

These include: The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer (2009), It’s Dark Outside (2012), BRUCE (2014), Monroe and Associates (2015), New Owner (2016), The Irresistible (2017), Stay With Us (2018), Lé Nør [The Rain] (2019), and Whistleblower (2021).

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).

Jo is so proud to be a performer and theatre-maker on Whadjuk Noongar Boodjar, and to celebrate in the rich tradition of storytelling on this land.  Most recently she appeared in the world premiere of Barracking for the Umpire by Andrea Gibbs for Black Swan Theatre Company and The Last Great Hunt’s production of Dick Pics in the Garden of Eden. She has also worked and collaborated with companies such as Barking Gecko, Yirra Yaakin and Griffin Independent, and won multiple awards including the 2014 Blue Room Awards for Best Production and Member’s Choice, and the 2016 PAWA Award for Best Independent Production for Those who fall in love like anchors dropped upon the ocean floor which she performed in and produced, the 2015 PAWA Award for Best Actress for A Streetcar Named Desire, and was the recipient of the Fringe World 2017 ECU Performing Arts Award for her work as a performer in Price Tag, The Book of Life and Alone Outside.

CLARE TESTONI is a writer, puppeteer, and theatre designer. Her design practise in based in an approach of visual dramaturgy and often involves puppets, shadows, and light. Recent works include TALE OF TALES, THE BEAST AND THE BRIDE, WEST OF THE MOON, and INTERRUPTING A CRISIS. Clare has trained as a puppeteer with Spare Part Puppet Theatre, and at the International Shadow Puppetry Institute in Bamberg, Germany. She also designed and directed shows for WAYTCo, The Espresso Chorus, The State Library of NSW, and created shadow puppetry sequences for Sam Longley and Iona Girls School. Clare founded Bow & Dagger in 2018 with Finn O’Branagáin.

ARRYN GILL is a WA based multidisciplinary artist who makes artworks spanning the mediums of sculpture, photography, film, drawing, set/costume design and performance. Through her solo and collaborative practices, Tarryn has exhibited works and undertaken residency projects across Australia, in Argentina, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. Notably, she has exhibited works in the 2016 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Magic Object; in the 17th Biennial of Sydney; at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; the Art Gallery of Western Australia; the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane and Akademie der Künste, Berlin. In Australia, Tarryn’s works are held in numerous public and private collections nationally. She is represented by Sophie Gannon Gallery, Melbourne

EMILY STOKOE’S great love for Performing Arts has been her driving force since a young age, this appreciation led to an Advanced Diploma of Stage Management fromWAAPA (2011) and a Bachelor of Arts Screen Studies-Producing and Production Design from The WA Screen Academy (2012), where she won the Design Award for her year. Emily has worked in Stage and Production Management with such companies as STRUT Dance, Strut & Fret, Barking Gecko Theatre, Artrage-Fringe World, Perth Festival, Perth Theatre Company, Black Swan State Theatre Company and Co3. 2018 highlights include producing acclaimed production MINUS ONE SISTER, presented at the State Theatre Centre as part of Fringe World and Summer Nights, working as Company Manager with Strut & Fret on the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Festival and touring regional Western Australia with Barking Gecko Theatre’s production BAMBERT’S BOOK OF LOST STORIES. Emily just returned from Melbourne where she premiered Barking Gecko Theatre's A GHOST IN MY SUITCASE at the Melbourne Festival. She's delighted to be making her Stage Management Debut with The Last GreatHunt.

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

SCOTT McARDLE is a theatre maker, publicist, and lighting designer, as well as the founder of Second Chance Theatre. He has worked for organisations such as The Blue Room Theatre, The Last Great Hunt, Rorschach Beast, and The Big HOO HAA.

WRITER-DIRECTOR: LAIKA: A STAGED RADIO PLAY, JOSEPHINE!, BETWEEN SOLAR SYSTEMS, COINCIDENCES AT THE END OF TIME.

LIGHTING DESIGNER: HIVE MIND, FIND THE LADY, BALI, LAIKA: A STAGED RADIO PLAY.

PUBLICIST: TALE OF TALES, INTERRUPTING A CRISIS, TAMAGOTCHI RESET, BUS BOY.

AWARDS: Best Independent Production – Performing Arts WA (LAIKA: A STAGED RADIO PLAY), Judge’s Choice for Excellence and Vision – Blue Room Theatre Awards (LAIKA: A STAGED RADIO PLAY), Member’s Choice – Blue Room Theatre Awards (LAIKA: A STAGED RADIO PLAY), Best Production Team – Blue Room Theatre Awards (BETWEEN SOLAR SYSTEMS)

NOEMIE HUTTNER-KOROS is an emerging performance maker, writer, director and interdisciplinary artist. Noemie’s work is driven by a passionate belief in the social role of art and in creating encounters for people to laugh, be moved, vulnerable and hope. They have recently graduated from WAAPA’s Performance Making course and trained at the Intercultural Theatre Institute (Singapore), the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski (Italy) and Song of the Goat Theatre (Poland). Noemie is a co-founder of KAN Collective, a group exploring the creation of immersive and interdisciplinary performance. In 2018, they created and performed a 16-hour performance installation at Spectrum called Borders, wrote and directed ADA for WAAPA’s TILT season, performed at PICA in HOWL by Aphids and was part of the 2018 Perth Festival Emerging Artists Lab.