BIOGRAPHIES
CREATIVES
Tobias Manderson-Galvin (he/him)
Kerith Manderson-Galvin (they/them)
Dr Tom Payne (he/him)
Chelsea Hickman (she/her)
Pat Fielding (they/them)
Aquilla Sorensen (she/her)
Oscar Hales (he/him)
Millie Mara Shanks (she/they)
TOBIAS MANDERSON-GALVIN
PROJECT LEAD / LEAD ARTIST / PERFORMER
Tobias Manderson-Galvin (he/him) is a performance maker, writer, and producer. He is Co-Director General of climate & class crises-responsive performance company Doppelgangster (2015-); was founder of Melbourne’s MKA (2010-2024); and recent co-founder of experimental hauntological collaboration The Midnight Horrors.
Tobias’ work has been presented across the UK, Europe, Australia, and further abroad. Over last few years has held Visiting Artist positions at Sheffield Hallam University (Sheffield). His works include ‘TITANIC’, a site-specific performance about global climate emergency, and The Economist’ (2011), an agitprop response to the Utoya Island massacre.
In 2024 Tobias appeared in ‘To Die Will Be An Awfully Big Adventure’ (Theatre Works); Requardt & Rosenberg’s contemporary dance work ‘Future Cargo’ (Realscape Productions), ‘Everything Might Go’ (Doppelgangster, Strange Perth), and co-presented ‘1800 Climate Emergency’ a summer chat program on radio station RRR.
First up in 2025 Tobias is directing and producing Chelsea Hickman’s ‘DEAD STOCK’ for MOD. and the National Sustainability Festival.
KERITH MANDERSON-GALVIN
LEAD ARTIST / PERFORMER
Kerith Manderson-Galvin (they/them) is a Queer Femme non-binary artist who creates unconventional works of theatre and performance art. Their work explores Queer femininity and soft performance that plays with time, reality and feelings.
Kerith has performed across Australia in theatres, galleries, gigs, clubs, and art and music festivals including: RISING, Winter Wild, Dark Mofo, Art Gallery of NSW. Their recent solo work “Perpetual Horror” was a Judges Pick at Melbourne Fringe 2023 with a sold-out season, and toured to In-ARI (QLD), Festival of Australian Queer Theatre (VIC), and presented at Annual Critical Femininities Conference (York University, CA). Their show Being Dead (Don Quixote) played across Australia (2015-2020) at PICA (WA) , Melba Spiegeltent (VIC) , KXT (NSW) and RCC (SA). Recent performances include “To Die Will Be An Awfully Big Adventure” (Theatre Works 2024); the controversial RISING show “THIS” (2021, 2023); and performance for one audience at a time “Nobody Special” (KXT 2023).
Kerith has worked with artists and companies including: Ridiculusmus, David Woods, Women’s Circus, MKA, Nicola Gunn, Sandra Fiona Long, Queenie Bon Bon, Tenfingerz (Teneille Clerke) and The Midnight Horrors. They were one third of the now disbanded live art collaboration and pop sensation Expen$$$ive with performance artists Casey Jenkins and Emilia Gonzalez, and create and perform with their sibling, Tobias Manderson-Galvin. They perform with Darby Dupe as Queer punk nuisance performance art + DJ Duo Outlaw Princess and were recently published in SW Anthology “I want it I need it I make it” and literary zine Plagiarism / Sticky Fingers (London).
They have a Masters in Writing for Performance from University of Melbourne’s Victorian College of the Arts (VCA).
DR TOM PAYNE
DRAMATURG
Dr. Tom Payne (he/him) is Co-Director General of internationally acclaimed UK/Australian performance company Doppelgangster (2015-). He is Senior Lecturer in Performance Studies within the College of Social Sciences and Arts at Sheffield Hallam University, and Course Leader on the BA (Hons) Acting and Performance.
He specialises in site-specific, participatory, relational, and digital performance practices. His research expertise includes contemporary English language theatre in Wales, 21st century national theatre, site-specific performance, and political and activist responses to climate change and the Anthropocene.
His PhD ‘Locating National Theatre Wales: A Practice Based Enquiry into the Theatre Map of Wales and Practices of Location’ (Aberystwyth University 2010-2015). His post-doctoral research was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council as part of the large grant project: Towards Hydrocitizenship (Bath Spa University 2014-17).
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (FRSA), and has taught acting, theatre, performance, and media communication and production in Further and Higher Education since 2001. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). He is currently the Chair of Forced Entertainment. He’s trained with Mike Pearson, Eddie Ladd, Simon Whitehead, Dead Good Guides, and Fern Smith.
He has worked with National Theatre Wales (ARK), Pearson/Brookes (The Persians, Coriolan/Us), MKA Theatre of New Writing (Hot!Hot!Hot!), Bryan McCormack (Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow); Rimini Protokoll (Outdoors); Miranda Whall (The Proposal); Volcano Theatre Company / Emergence (Doin’ Dirt Time); Cape Farewell (ArtCOP21); Good Cop Bad Cop (The Occupation); and Sam Christie (Notes from the Edge of the East).
CHELSEA HICKMAN
COSTUME DESIGNER / PERFORMER
Chelsea Hickman (she/her) is a contemporary artist and fashion designer – from lutruwita/Tasmania, currently based in Naarm/Melbourne on Wurundjeri County – focussing on consumerism, found objects, and textile waste.
She works professionally as a fashion designer, and has a creative practice in fashion runways, visual arts, projection, contemporary performance, and live art.
She was the Winner of the Victorian Premier’s Design Award for Fashion (2021); for MPavillion upcycled uniforms. In 2023 she facilitated NGV’s ‘Student Summer School’, for ‘Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse’ Exhibition program. She’s also an Ambassador for Good Design Australia.
Her textile work ‘Danger Danger Danger Danger Danger’ was the Open Category Winner ‘Woods Street Youth Art Prize’ (2020), and was shown at The Substation, and Collingwood Yards. She’s received funding from Merri-bek and Darebin City Councils. She was Yarra Youth Services ‘Artist in Residence’ (2020-21); and co-curator for Yarra City Council’s ‘International Women’s Day’ exhibition (Brunswick St. Gallery).
She holds a Bachelor of Fashion Design (Honours) from RMIT (2017), and Graduate Certificate in Visual Art (VCA, 2022).
Her current studio practice is based at Studio Hall (South Melbourne).
RELEVANT MEDIA mpavilion.org/qa-chelsea-hickman/ fashionjournal.com.au/fashion/chelsea-hickman-designer/
PAT FIELDING
MUSICIAN / COMPOSER
Pat (they/them) is a professional Sound Engineer, Musician, and Composer/Arranger.
They design for stage, screen, and their live musical projects currently include:
Great Australian Bank – greataustralianbank.bandcamp.com
Forcefeeder – forcefeeder.bandcamp.com/music
SLOWTALK – fanlink.to/slowtalk-failure-to-launch
They have previously worked with the artists from this project on: ‘To Die Will Be An Awfully Big Adventure’ (The Midnight Horrors + TheatreWorks, 2024) ‘Everything Might Go’ (Doppelgangster, Strange Festival, 2024) ‘DEAD STOCK’ (Chelsea Hickman, 2023-25) ‘Doppelgangster’s ATLANTIS’ (Doppelgangster, 2022)
AQUILA SORENSEN
DEVISER / PERFORMER
Aquilla Sorensen (she/her) is a Melbourne-based actor and performer. Freshly graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) Aquilla has worked on numerous theatre, anti-theatre, and performance art projects. Through exposure to different walks and territories of “Australian life”, Aquilla’s inspiration for actioning work is to make noise, take up space, and chomp down on the patriarchy.
She performed in Doppelgangster + RCC Adelaide’s season of COLD WAR (2020) and recently appeared in THE MIDNIGHT HORROR’s To Die Will Be An Awfully Big Adventure (Theatre Works, 2024).
In 2025 she is collaborating with Sarah Fitzgerald and Kerith Manderson-Galvin to present ‘HELL ON EARTH’ for Perth and Adelaide Fringes.
OSCAR HALES
RESEARCHER
Oscar Hales (he/him) is a sketch writer, theatre director and performer based in Naarm/Melbourne. With a passion for history and dramaturgy, in 2024 he has been the historical consultant for ProEnglish Theatre Ukraine, Ukraine Fringe Festival, and MKA, and for this project for Doppelgangster. He studied a Bachelor of Arts (History) at the University of Melbourne and is undertaking an honours project in 2024. His knowledge of late mediaeval and early modern history is complemented by his desire to find new pathways and alternative ways to engage the public and spread historical information.
Oscar was co-director and an ensemble performer of the 2024 Melbourne University Law Revuew. He performed in the MudCrabs show “Inspector Sydney Catchlove” (2022), his own sellout one man show “A Real Boy?” (Motley Bauhaus, Melbourne Fringe, 2022), the 2023 Law Revue “Yeahahaha”. He has also hosted the Warrandyte Film Festival twice (2023 and 2024).
In addition to his neurotic love for history and fanatic consumption of dull books, Oscar is also a ventriloquist which he says is most likely a cry for help. In 2025 Oscar has begun starting Law at the University of Melbourne and hopes to work for the unions.
