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
Matthew Agius, Elected Member
Matthew is a graduate and former teacher at the University of Adelaide and currently works for the Port Adelaide Football Clubs's Media Unit in addition to undertaking some radio broaccasting and writing. Matthew has been involved as a cast member of previous Guild productions including A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Merchant of Venice and he co-directed Last Time Out in 2011.
Alex Antoniou, Elected Student Member
Alex is a fourth year student at the University of Adelaide studying Law and Arts, majoring in Classics (with a passion for Archaeology). His Theatre Guild credits began with A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2010 and he has since appeared in The Malcontent, Faust Part One and The Merchant of Venice. He has also been extensively involved behind the scenes; as photographer for many Guild shows, co-director of Last Time Out, assistant director and production manager on Antigone and most recently, he took a foray into poster design for The Changeling.
Lisa Bartemucci, Elected Member
Lisa graduated from Flinders University (Bachelor of Education, major in Drama) in 1997. She created her own theatre company in 1996 (How About Theatre Company), and produced a stage adaptation of Shallow Grave. She has volunteered for lots of plays for the Drama Centre at Adelaide and started teaching Drama in 2003 in public schools around Adelaide. She is an avid lover of theatre, for adults and youth, and is currently Arts Coordinator at Paralowie R-12. She is in the middle of writing her first ever play.
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.
Mark Carroll, Elected Member
Professor Mark Carroll is a lecturer and researcher at the Elder Conservatorium and is Co-Director of the JM Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice. Mark has extensive experience3 as both a scholar and classical and pop music performer. His research activities range from music and politics (Music and Ideology in Cold War Europe - Cambridge: CUP, 2003) to Percy Grainger (Self-Portrait of Percy Grainger, with Malcolm Gillies and David Pear - New York: OUP, 2006), and studies in contemporary popular music. Mark is a noted authority on Jean-Paul Sartre's literary and political uses of music, which have appeared in OUP's flagship journal Music & Letters. He also works closely with The Australian Ballet and was Chief Investigator for a large Australian Research Council Linkage project that brought together the Elder Conservatorium, The Australian Ballet and the National Library, in order to trace the profound impact of tours to Australia by the acclaimed Ballets Russes (Russian Ballet) dance companies during the 1930s.
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!
Kate Husband, Elected Member
Kate is Communications Manager at the University of Adelaide.
Ben McCann, Elected Chair and Member of Board Executive
Ben is a Senior 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 Award in 1999 for his role as George Jones in David Hare's The Absence of War. He has appeared in the Theatre Guild's productions of The Real Inspector Hound in 2006, The Custom of the Country and Marat/Sade in 2007 and What The Butler Saw in 2008. In 2009 he directed Oleanna for the Guild.
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.
