Sanctum Theatre – Artists

As well as collaborating with many talented artists over the years, we have partnered with  individuals and companies to co-produce various projects – such as Gonzalo Varela from Magic Lantern Studio (The Man Who Cannot Sleep 2018, Bug Lab puppets 2017, Life is a Carousel 2017, Otto Learns to Fly 2014, Pearly Whites 2017 and various roving gigs), Lee Ramsayer-Bache from Little Projector Company (Trail of Lights 2019), Jasmine Powell from silent revolution (Look a Book! 2019), Tim Ratcliffe from Fenestra Productions (Wealth of Nations 2009) and Colleen Burke (flight 2009).

“I’ve been collaborating with Sanctum Theatre for many years, playing a host of characters, including Otto the intrepid bear in children’s puppet theatre show, Otto learns to Fly, the incorrigible Nanny and the flamboyant Tree of Life in Life is a Carousel.“

Chapple creates artistic projects which incorporate installations, theatre, storytelling and puppetry for festivals and schools. He is committed to connecting with people of all abilities and age groups, producing live experiences that entertain, inspire, challenge and amaze.

Born and raised in the inglorious outer suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, Julian creates works across various disciplines to distill life’s bounty into intimate, censorial and surreal art experiences. He has studied Zoology, Geography and Animation.

His performance background includes ongoing work with The Village Festival, Sanctum Theatre, Magic Lantern Studio and Snuff Puppets. He has performed in Lola, The Dancing Bear (2016-17), The Nutbar, numerous festivals and events (2015-19), Tink Tank, Adelaide Fringe Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Bunk Puppets (2016-17), Le Troll Vaincu (2014-15), Songs of the South Seas, Darebin Music Feast (2011-13), The Artist, Art After Dark, NGV (2010), In the Field, Sense of Place Productions (2008), 5 Angry Men (2004-05), Wild Moves (2005), Swivel Drivel Band (2000-03), Camel Magic Performance Troupe (1998-2000).

Stéphane is a multi disciplinary French/Australian performing artist based in Melbourne
Australia.

For the last 10 years Stéphane as been working very closely to Snuff Puppets, an anarchic giant puppet company that has reached millions of people worldwide. He’s been for Snuff Puppets performing, dancing, Choreographing, directing, designing and building puppets and sets, and teaching in Australia, Europe, Taiwan, Brazil, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Peru, Indonesia, Japan and Democratic Republic of Congo…

Stéphane as been Dramaturge for Nebahat Erpolat’s choreographies. They won the best dance at the Fringe Melbourne Festival in 2016. Stéphane as been commissioned by Fearghus O’Conchuir to choreograph Cure Created in Melbourne and perform in Ireland and France.

Stéphane choreographed Suis Generis and Vert de Gris with Barbara Amar in France. He has danced for numerous dance companies and choreographers in Europe, to cite few: Sasha Walz&guest, Felix Rucker, Larborgras in Germany, Fearghus O’Conchuir, Rionach Ni Neil, Daghdha, Rex Levitates in Ireland, Tomi Paasonen in Finland, Les Gens D’ Uterpan, Pierre Andre Petit, Serge Ricci in France and David Hernandez, Joanne Leighton, Michele Noiret, Olga de Soto in Belgium.

Ivan Masic is a Melbourne-based creative, who’s work explores the insoluble intimacy between music, light and the moving image. Through his studio practice, Ex Ponto Productions, Ivan has delivered a wide range of creative projects including music videos, short-form documentaries, live performances and site-specific projection art. In 2019, he released his debut album, Neka Neka, through General Purpose records and toured Europe (with Yolngu trio, Malawurr) as lead cinematographer on forthcoming feature documentary, Morning Star.

Other credits include opening night projection art for Melbourne Museum’s Revolutions: Records + Rebels exhibition and full-scale video productions for Warner Music, Barra-Westwind (Arnhem Land), Crown Ruler, RMIT Interior Design, Testing Grounds, Remuse Designs and Festival in Opposition (Serbia).

As co-director of Little Projector Company, Ivan has been creating and facilitating the development and exhibition of site-responsive installations, performances, and tours that combine projection art, storytelling, cinema, sound design, puppetry, dance, sculpture and more. In 2019, Little Projector Company collaborated with Sanctum Theatre to deliver the community-led Trail of Lights Festival and created a feature-length projection work for the Sunshine Silos Projection Festival, celebrating the Sunshines art, rich industrial history and cultural diversity.

Since childhood Lachlan has lived in other worlds, on different plains, navigating them via several mediums – performance, painting and the written word…

As artistic director of Sanctum Theatre, Lachlan has written, designed, directed, performed in and produced many plays, live art events, puppet shows, roving acts and a short film.

Sanctum Theatre’s most recent productions include two collaborations with Magic Lantern Studio, The Man Who Cannot Sleep (White Night Melbourne & Ballarat 2018, themanwhocannotsleep.com) and Life is a Carousel (Melbourne International Festival of Puppetry, Green Room Award for Puppetry 2017).

In 2018 Lachlan launched Sanctum Studio with his wife, Jasmine Powell.

Lachlan has also worked for the Snuff Puppets (snuffpuppets.com) since 2008, an irreverent and scatological giant puppet company, performing in their shows and directing their People Puppet Projects in Australia, Denmark, Sweden, South Korea, Thailand, Brazil and Chile.

Lachlan won the 2012 Impress Prize for The Lost Journals of Pedro Piscator and other Tales, an eclectic illustrated collection of tall tales published by Impress Books. He has also taken part in several solo and group exhibitions, as well as creating street art, public art and community art for business, government and community-based clients. The most notable of these being Life on Planet Daisyworld (2015), a 30 x 10m street art mural in Fitzroy.

Lachlan studied puppetry and theatre making at the Victorian College of the Arts.

Daniele Poidomani is one of Australia’s leading giant puppet artists. He is versatile and
ambitious with skills spanning design, construction, performance, facilitation and direction.
Founder and artistic director of the company Memetica, Daniele has created many giant puppets shows in Australia and overseas as well as led many giant puppets making projects, culminating in large-scale performances and involving broad community participation. Some of his most recent works include Macau’s Legend (Macau International Parade, 2017) and Bear with Us ( Macau Fringe Festival 2018), The Katumayan Elders (TECLAF – Taiwan), a Monkey’s Tale (Yunlin International Puppet Festival – Taiwan) and Street Skeeters (DSR Festival 2018, Melbourne).
Daniele has also led and directed international People Puppet Projects for Snuff Puppets, most recently in China (Xi’an international Art Festival 2018), Taiwan (Weiwuying Children Festival, 2017), Malaysia (George Town Festival, 2016) and South Korea (HiSeoul festival, 2014).

Daniele has been an integral collaborator on Woodford Folk Festival’s and its Fire Event for the past 5 years with his giant creations Viktor, Astrid and Naut and The Elders Festival. He is artist associate of Adelaide based company, Open Space and has had continuing involvement with the Village Festival as artist as well as management since its inception. He has led the creative team to build the animated floats that feature in the The Falls Festival’s annual Fiesta Parade in Lorne (2007-12).

Engaged as a designer he has collaborated with a vast array of theatre and music companies including Polyglot Theatre, Papermoon (Indonesia), Galerie Knap (Netherlands), Regurgitator, AAO, The Town Bikes, Aphid, Somebody’s Daughter, Tuida (S Korea), and Point of View (Macau), Puppet and Its Double (Taiwan).

Jasmine has worked with Sanctum Theatre since 2006 including as publicist for lament: candles & compost (2006); as curator of silent revolution: an exhibition (2007); as performer in bower: family portraitas part of the Zero Projects 2009 season; and as mask and puppet co-facilitator at Moomba Festival in 2015. She works as stage manager and puppet minder for Sanctum Theatre and Magic Lantern Studio puppet shows and roving puppets at festivals around Victoria.

Jasmine completed her Bachelor of Creative Arts at The University of Melbourne/Victorian College of the Arts in 2003 where she met Lachlan Plain, artistic director of Sanctum Theatre. Jasmine was assistant producer for Melbourne Fringe Festival’s Furniture and Inventions programs in 2004, and co-ordinated the Kew Community Festival in 2006 and 2007.

Jasmine completed her Masters of Social Work at RMIT in 2013 and did her final Social Work Placement at Borderlands Cooperative. She was published in New Community Quarterly for her article on her community practice in her Local Energy Transfer System (LETS). Jasmine worked in the mental health sector for many years before taking time off to be a mum. She now works on cultural community development programs through her business silent revolution as well as Sanctum Theatre.

Lee Ramseyer-Bache is a projection artist and filmmaker. He loves to share and celebrate stories. Lee passionately believes in the power of storytelling to foster solidarity amongst humanity. Lee is Co-founder of Little Projector Company (Projector Bike). He has led their innovations in mobile projection and site-responsive storytelling, through immersive walking tours and public art performances. He is also co-founded film production company Lightworks Studios.

Lee is interested in technological mediation of the living world, the inertia of industrial action in our technological epoch, and site responsive performances that challenge the conventional roles of performer and spectator.

Little Projector co-produced the community-led Trail of Lights Festival (2019). Lee created the video art for The Man Who Cannot Sleep, Sanctum Theatre’s collaboration with Magic Lantern Studio for White Night (2018).

His other credits include works for Gertrude Street Projection Festival, Geelong After Dark, Shorts Place in Geelong,  Kew Festival, Vivid in Sydney, Testing Grounds in Melbourne, The Substation in Newport, Port Fairy Winter Weekends, Environmental Film Festival Australia, Parramatta Lanes Festival, City of Melbourne Christmas, Perth National Youth Week.  His film credits have been screened at EFFA 2018, Sheffield Doc Fest 2013, BBC, Williamstown Centenary Festival, Mapping Melbourne.

Tim has worked in many and varying roles over the years in production and performance, working with differing makers over the years, including – Punctum Theatre, Such as They Are, Sanctum Theatre, Castlemaine State Festivals RKM and The Freda Experience, The Village, National Trust of Victoria, Castlemaine Theatre Company  and Humour Foundation.

 El Schmiedte is an artist, designer and maker based in Melbourne, Australia. They have an experience in a wide array of mediums, including costume design for dance and musical theatre, costume making, puppetry, creature creation, and fine art. They have spent much of 2019 working for the Tony Award-winning Creature Technology Company, and recently held their first solo fine art exhibition, Fuck This, which explored questions of identity and mental illness through mixed media, sculpture and collage. During 2018 they interned with Sanctum Theatre and Magic Lantern Studio, helping to build and manage their show The Man Who Could Not Sleep for White Night in both Melbourne and Ballarat.

Nick Wilson is a Melbourne-based giant puppet designer-builder, performer and arts facilitator. His work combines theatre, spectacle, music, narrative and engineering into lively and audacious comments on myth, history, community and the natural world. He is drawn to work that is engaging, fearless and fun – intent on strong images, big themes, high energy, and massive impact.

As a core member of Snuff Puppets since 2006, he has developed and toured both mainstage and roaming works, as well as leading People’s Puppet Projects, throughout Asia, Australia, Europe and South America. He’s been with The Village Festival for 13 years as parade artist, crew member, workshop leader and performer. In recent years he has also worked with Creature Technology Company as a sculptural fabricator and with A Blanck Canvas as both Performer and Puppet Builder.

Other work includes current musical project Soundfossil;The Mechanical Variety Hour, a mechanical meta-puppet roving act; Convict Paradise, a research-based songwriting collaboration at the Old Melbourne Gaol; Lola the Dancing Bear, a darkly comic street show combining live music, dance and giant puppetry; and a string of original theatrical soundtracks for The Laudanum Project, Think Blink Theatre, We are Nothing and Marcel Luconte.

He has collaborated with Sanctum Theatre / Magic Lantern in the production and performance of Bug Lab for the Melbourne Museum and Moomba Parade, and as a builder on The Man Who Cannot Sleep for White Night 2018.