Role of the Board of Management

The Theatre Guild Board is responsible for the ongoing health and viability of the Theatre Guild. It is the Guild's highest-level decision-making body, and has legal responsibility for the Guild's resources and activities. The Board has ultimate responsibility for establishing the Guild's purpose, mission and vision. It oversees the management and implementation of the Guild's affairs. It fosters the Guild's progress and development, secures the support of members and friends, and promotes the identity of the Guild in the community. The Board is a working Board, and Board members have practical input into the Guild's progress towards achieving its goals.

Members of the Board of Management

Cassandra Backler, Elected Member
Cassandra has designed sets, costumes and lighting for a range of companies for the past twelve years. Highlights include Cosi and The Truce at Bakehouse Theatre, Much Ado about Nothing, Equus, Julius Caesar, The Real inspector Hound and Saturday, Sunday, Monday at the University of Adelaide Theatre Guild, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Much Ado about Nothing with Lightning Strike, and I Know What You Want with Chalk Farm Theatre. She has also worked with Mainstreet Theatre, Urban Myth, No Strings Attached, Jumbuck Youth Theatre and the MS Society. She has also directed productions, including The Visit by Friedrich Durrenmatt, The Memorandum by Vaclav Havel and In Cahoots by Melissa Reeves.  As a visual and performing arts secondary teacher for the past six years, Cassandra has worked regularly with school and youth theatre groups and moderates for SSABSA and the IB. She was awarded a grant by ArtsSA and the Government of South Australia to take up a Design Secondment with STC's Adelaide Festival production Honk if you are Jesus, and an Assistant Directorship on the project from State Theatre and NRG Australia.  Cassandra has recently started working as a Lecturer in Design at AC Arts, while completing her Master in Education at  Flinders University.  She was a member of the Theatre Guild Board in 2002/2003.

Jennie Blackwood, Elected Member
Jennie has come to the Board after three solid years of stage management with REDchilli Theatre Company and the Guild under the directorships of Geoff Brittain and also June Barnes. Her heritage is from dramatic and musical theatre as well as landscape painting and  ...  accountancy. However, Jennie’s artistic world includes years of classical ballet, choirs, theatre, poetry and also graduating with what was earlier known as an Associate Diploma Photography (Creative Photography) from UniSA. Her Flinders Uni grad. and post grad. studies led her to the day to day world of managing and developing one of Adelaide’s large housing associations for people with disabilities. In her ‘spare’ time Jennie sings with women’s a cappella choir, ‘Allegria’, and is the Music Librarian for the Norwood Symphony Orchestra.

Matthew Dowdall, Elected Student Member
Thanks to a brush with Dionysus at age seven, Matthew has been involved in theatre for what turns out to be the vast majority of his cognitive life.  He has performed with companies both in the UK and here in terra incognita, with some particular hightlights having been Alice in Wonderland, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Jack and Jill: The Truth Behind The Hill, Romeo and Juliet, The Custom of the Country, Antony and Cleopatra and Richard II (the latter three having been for the Guild).  In reality Matthew is a Classics student at Adelaide University (hence the Latin and Dionysus reference), consistently being accused by friends and family of spending most of his time with dead people.

Patrick Alan Feeney, Elected Member, Deputy Chair and Member of Board Executive
Patrick Alan completed an Arts degree majoring in English Literature at the University of Western Australia. he later undertook studies in art history at Flinders University. Currently he is completing a Master of Arts in art history at the University of Adelaide.  He became involved in theatre at university in Perth, building and designing sets.  A teacher by profession, one aspect included involvement with drama in the areas of directing, designing and stage management.  His design work with the Guild includes La Mandragola, King Lear, Electra, Hedda Gabler, Tartuffe, The Threepenny Opera and Oh What A Lovely War!  Patrick Alan is also actively involved with front of house management for the Guild. He is a member of the Executive of the Board.

Melanie Hibberd, Administrator, Member ex officio
In her former life, Melanie ran her own theatrical administration business in London, and worked in various roles such as Production Co-ordinator, Casting Director, Marketing Manager and Publicist on numerous West End productions, Broadway transfers, national and international tours. She toured as General Manager with comedy acts such as Dave Allen and Smith & Jones before eventually leaving her base in the big smoke to become Marketing Director at a regional repertory theatre. She was convinced she would remain working in professional theatre in the UK but love is a weird and wonderful thing and she now finds herself happily married and working in amateur theatre in the other hemisphere!

Stephen Lawrence, Elected Member
Stephen has four published collections of poetry and is currently working towards a PhD in Creative Writing.  He has been a speechwriter, media, project and publications officer for the SA Government, and was a poetry editor for Wet Ink magazine.  He has edited eight anthologies, including co-editing Small City Tales of Strangeness and Beauty (2009) and has been a judge for the Adelaide Festival Literary Awards since 2002. 

Ben McCann, Elected Chair and Member of Board Executive
Ben is a Lecturer in French at the University of Adelaide.  He arrived from the UK in 2006 with a long history of  theatre directing and acting.  He was awarded the Sunday Times Student Actor of the Year in 1999 for his role as George Jones in David Hare's The Absence of War.  Whilst at Adelaide, he has appeared in the Theatre Guild's productions of The Real Inspector Hound in 2006, and The Custom of the Country and Marat/Sade in 2007.

Matt Scales, Elected Member
Matt has been addicted to performing since first stepping on stage as the wicked stepmother in a year 7 production of Cinderella.  A regular on Adelaide's theatre scene since the early 90s, Matt appeared as an actor in acclaimed productions such as Biloxi Blues, Freedom of the City and Psycho Beach Party.  As one half of the production company  Impact Ink, Matt was involved in delivering a range of theatre, radio and television productions including sketch comedy for SA-FMs breakfast show and as a host, writer and producer for the highly awarded community tv show Way Chillin'.  As well as being the producer and lead actor in Impact Ink's production of Dracula, Matt directed their award winning childrens' show Top Carrot & El Pinko.  He appeared for the Guild in 2008 in Antony & Cleopatra and in the 2009 production of The Underpants.  By day Matt works in communications for the South Australian Government at Zero Waste SA.   

Paul Wilkins, University Council Nominee and Member of Board Executive
Paul did his undergraduate degree at Kings College London (BD Hons 1977), which is located in the Strand opposite Australia House and right in the middle of theatre land.  Some of his most memorable London theatrical experiences are Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud on stage together in Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkmann at the National Theatre; the original production of Peter Shaffer's Equus by the Royal National Theatre at The Old Vic in 1973, with Alex McGowan as Dysart and Peter Firth as Alan Strang; and Ben Kingsley as Hamlet at the Roundhouse.  Paul came to Australia in 1982 and held a number of positions in the University of New South Wales Library. He also enjoyed the theatrical life of Sydney, including many NIDA performances.  While at UNSW he studied in the School of Librarianship and Information Studies to gain the MLib (Management) qualification.  In 1994 he was appointed to a senior position at Monash University Library.  While at Monash he gained a Post Graduate Diploma in Computing. In 2001 Paul was appointed Deputy University Librarian at the University of Adelaide, where one of his interests has been to develop a strong Friends of the Library Chapter of Development and Alumni.  Paul also had a founding role in the Walkerville Residents Association and was elected to the Walkerville Council in 2006.  Paul is frequently assisting with front of house at Guild productions.

Vickyanne Williams, Elected Student Member
Since becoming involved with theatre as an angel in her Year 2 Christmas play, Vicky's theatrical highlights have included writing a stage version of Picnic at Hanging Rock and overseeing its production by her Year 12 drama class, stage managing The Merry Wives of Windsor, Cloud Nine, Saturday Sunday Monday and Marat/Sade for the Theatre Guild, playing Carol in Opus Performing Arts' Black Comedy, and co-directing two plays in Hungarian during a year working in Hungary!  In the "real world", Vicky studies Medicine at the University of Adelaide.