Our Resident Artists Program provide artists within specific areas of expertise, sustained engagement with Black Swan across the year. Working alongside Artistic Director Clare Watson, these artists will develop leadership skills, collaborate on developing future programs, take on key creative positions throughout the season and become advocates for the company in the broader community. Our resident artists will regularly attend rehearsals, company runs and specific events and activities in the year. Read more about each of our resident artists for 2020 below.
CHRIS ISSACS PERFORMER/WRITER
Chris Isaacs is a multiple award-winning writer, devisor, performer and founding artists of The Last Great Hunt. He has had works performed nationally and internationally. Chris co-wrote (with Jeffrey Jay Fowler) and performed in companion pieces Bali and Fag/Stag. Fag/Stag went on to award winning seasons in Melbourne, Adelaide and Edinburgh, winning the prestigious Fringe First award in 2017. His play The Great Ridolphi was a hit of Perth Fringe World 2016, taking home three awards, including Best New WA Script and The Martin Simms Award. In 2012 he was a member of Griffin Theatre Company’s inaugural StoryLab group and is a graduate of The Black Swan Emerging Writer’s Program. He is co-writing the world premiere York with fellow Resident Artist Ian Michael presented by Black Swan in a collaboration with WA Youth Theatre Company from 15 Aug to 6 Set in the Heath Ledger Theatre. Chris has also written the monologue The Remarkable and Ordinary Life of Carmela Caterina Tassone as part of Unsung Heroes presented in June at the Studio Underground.
SUKHJIT KAUR KHALSA PERFORMER/WRITER
Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa is a first-generation Australian Sikh spoken word poet, performer and playwright based in Perth. She is passionate about diversity and the importance of visibility in the performing arts and inherently merges her advocacy background with the arts. Her work predominantly provokes conversations around Australian identity, feminism and the power of uncomfortable conversations. Her debut theatre show with Barking Gecko Theatre Company and Black Swan Theatre Company is titled Fully Sikh and premiered in 2019.
JULIA HALES PERFORMER/WRITER
Julia Hales is a performer and writer with a 20-year history of working with DADAA to develop and realise her artistic goals. She is active in the WA Down syndrome community, volunteering to work with babies and toddlers with Down syndrome and regularly speaking at Down syndrome events locally and nationally. Julia is a dedicated performer who creates works focused on universal desires of identity, fame and love. She is in constant pursuit of performance opportunities and skill development and has since co-devised her own work and performed at the State Theatre Centre of WA, The Blue Room Theatre, PICA and on ABC radio. Julia’s deeply personal account of her experiences as a daughter, actor, dreamer and person with Down syndrome was captured in the play You Know We Belong Together, which premiered to a sold - out season at Perth Festival in 2018 and was part of Black Swan’s 2019 season.
IAN MICHAEL PERFORMER/WRITER
Ian is a proud Wilman Noongar man born in Darwin and raised in Bunbury. He is a graduate from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. As actor and theatre maker, Ian’s theatre and creative development highlights include Let the Right One In (Black Swan), HART (She Said Theatre), Big Day Out, Black Writers Lab (Ilbijerri Theatre Company); Blak Cabaret (Malthouse Theatre); The Kid (Melbourne Theatre Company). Film credits include: Where are the Warriors (Wirrim Films); Needle (Nexus 6 Films). In 2013 and 2015, Ian was awarded the Most Outstanding Indigenous Artist for his roles in Laika and Wills and HART at the Melbourne Fringe Festival. In 2015, HART won two awards to tour New Zealand and Adelaide Fringe Festivals and Best Emerging Artist for Ian at Adelaide Fringe. In 2016, HART was nominated for Best Independent Production at the Green Room Awards.
CHLOE OGILVIE LIGHTING DESIGNER
Chloe Ogilvie is an Indigenous, Lighting Designer based in Perth where she graduated from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (2015). Chloe works mostly as a designer but has crossed over into other areas such as Production Management and Event Coordination. Chloe was a resident Artist with Black Swan for two years and assisted on many productions (Assassins, The Events, Xenedies) and even designed her own show (Our Town). Chloe Ogilvie is also a member of the arts collective The Farm where she has designed and production managed a range of shows including Throttle (Matilda Award Nominee), Cockfight (Drover Award Winner), Ninth Wave, Tide (Helpmann Award Winner) and Depthless. Other highlights of hers include, Spinifex Gum (LD/ALD), Winyan Boga Yurringa (Belvoir, ALD), Fever and the Fret (Yirra Yaakin, LD), Bayala (Sydney Festival, Event Coordinator) and Toast (Maiden Voyage Theater Company, LD).
Black Swan's Resident Artists' Program is supported by
Foundation Partner
