ROSA CAMPAGNARO is a graduate of NIDA’s MFA in Directing, a recipient of the ISS Institute Fellowship, and the founding Artistic Director of Make A Scene. Since 2004, she has shared her distinctive theatre style, performance techniques, and training with educators and actors through Drama Australia, La Mama Theatre, Deakin University, MTC, and NIDA. Her practice is shaped by Commedia dell’Arte training at Venezia InScena (Venice, Italy), Jacques Lecoq techniques, and Giovanni Fusetti (Helikos Studios, Italy). Rosa has written and directed several works for Make A Scene, including a translation and adaptation of Goldoni’s The Servant of Two Masters and an adaptation of Collodi’s Pinocchio, both published by Currency Press and performed at La Mama. Fascinated by the intersection of tragedy and absurdity in theatre, she shares her idol Dario Fo’s belief that “laughter is sacred” and is driven to create theatre that evokes both sublime and ridiculous experiences for audiences. 

LAURENCE STRANGIO is an independent director, dramaturg, theatre-maker and stageadaptor. Previous co-translations include La Medea + Lo Stupro (Dario Fo & Franca Rame), Stefano Benni’s I Beatrici monologues and Bodas de Sangre/Blood Wedding (Lorca). He has created stage adaptations of Alias Grace (Margaret Atwood), La Douleur, The Lover and Destroy, She Said (Marguerite Duras) and most recently The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (VCE Playlist 2019). An established director, Laurence has worked for La Mama Theatre, Malthouse Theatre, Red Stitch, fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne Festival, Castlemaine State Festival and Instant Café Theatre (Kuala Lumpur). Other recent productions include Ellida (VCE Playlist 2018), Hotel Bonegilla, L’amante anglaise, Krapp’s Last Tape, Savannah Bay and The Year of Magical Thinking. Laurence has received Green Room Awards for his direction of Portrait of [Dora] and Six characters in search of an author (VCE Playlist 2011).

ANNIE THOROLD is a Swedish actor who delights in physical theatre, devised work such as Killjoy (Imprint Theatre Co), as well as alternative approaches to classical texts such as The Yellow Wallpaper. Annie has a Bachelor of Performance, Dramatic Arts from the Australian Institute of Music in Sydney. She completed her degree playing the lead in Anna Karenina (2016, dir. Peta Downes) and with an internship at La Mama Theatre, Melbourne. Last year Annie played the title role in the VCE Playlist production Ellida (dir. Laurence Strangio, La Mama Theatre). Other 2018 productions include Duras: The Lover + Destroy, She Said (dir. Laurence Strangio, La Mama Theatre), the feature film Song without words (by Bramwell Noah) and the short films Nature (by Elizabeth Fermanis) and A Song for You (by Taysha McFarland, Toprock Productions).

CHRISTIAN BAGIN is a graduate of the John Bolton Theatre School. He has been working with Make A Scene since 2013. He loves performing in and collaborating to create the company’s commedia shows, because not only are they playful, interactive and fun, but due to the Italian component he is slowly learning the language! Christian is also an improviser, clown, and puppeteer and has co-devised many of the productions in which he has performed. He has worked with several independent theatre companies, including Make A Scene, Company13, Bunk Puppets, Spindly Figures, Lemony S, Black Hole Theatre, Jessica Wilson, Short Attention Span, and has been a regular member of Polyglot Theatre for over a decade. Christian has collaborated to create Venice in Love and The Servant of Two Masters (La Mama, VCE Playlist 2016), in which he played Truffaldino. Most recently he lent his creative and directing talents to develop Make A Scene’s Pinocchio.

JASPER FOLEY began his performance career in circus, studying at the National Institute of Circus Arts. He followed this with a Bachelor of Fine Arts: Acting at QUT in Brisbane. Since graduating he has performed consistently in theatre, television and comedy. He played Kevin Fitzpatrick in ABC’s The Doctor Blake Mysteries, and performs in the sell-out shows Completely Improvised Potter and Completely Improvised Shakespeare with the company Soothplayers. Jasper has been involved with several improvised theatre and comedy groups, including Original Cast: The Completely Improvised Musical, performing all over Australia. Jasper has worked with Make A Scene since 2016 and in that time has performed in Venice in Love and The Servant of Two Masters (La Mama, VCE Playlist 2016). He also assisted in developing Fooling in Love and most recently Pinocchio, before jet-setting to France to study at École Philippe Gaulier.