Company Members
Bryony Geeves
Bryony has been a busy girl since stepping out of Alice’s lovely red shoes and stripey socks – neither of which she can deny or confirm still having in her possession.
She has been working for the Tasmanian Theatre Company, Old Nick and The Port Arthur Historic site this year and is currently training with Terrapin Puppet Theatre, where she hopes to be led down all sorts of exciting new paths including the garden one if necessary.
Bryony is also learning several musical instruments and is studying the biological traits of the Babel fish, hoping to substantially increase her knowledge in a multitude of foreign languages including German, French, Vogon, Klingon and Yak.
- Ryk Goddard
Ryk is a presenter for ABC Local Radio, MC, writer, comedian actor and corporate coach.
He has just completed a Tasmanian tour of Helena and the Journey of the Hello for Terrapin theatre which tours next year to Adelaide and the Sydney Opera House. Ryk’s online comedy series Sneaking Of To My Shed (diyfather.com) is the vastly popular follow-on to his 20 part radio series Blogdaddy that was commissioned by Radio National.
He most recently MC’d the TSO Gala Ball, and has coached businesses in presentation skills, storytelling and teambuilding. Ryk was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2005 for his artistic directorship of Is Theatre where he grew a Tasmanian schools touring company into a trienially funded theatre company making work for adults that played to great reviews and sold out houses in the Ten Days Festival.
He performs middle aged middle class comedy hip hop as Cecil Brown and is proud to call bingo at the Alley Cat Bar half the Tuesdays of the year.
Chris Hamley
Chris is a well known face on the Hobart Theatre scene, as an actor, director, adjudicator and teacher.
He currently teaches drama at Elizabeth College and has been a tutor at REACT Drama school since its creation.
He previously appeared in Pinocchio for Big Monkey in 2007-08 and is really looking forward to directing Back to the 80’s, for the THIRD time, in 2010!
Mel King
Since graduating from Theatre Nepean in 1991 Mel has worked in theatre film and TV. She joined Terrapin Puppet Theatre in 1994 and has toured nationally and internationally in many productions: Freedom of the Heart, Little Red, Yolla, Heroes, Unearthed, The BFG, Frankenstein and Explosion Therapy and most recently Helena and The Journey of the Hello.
In 2000 she worked with Henson puppets on the Australian production of Pan and performed in the opening and closing ceremonies of the Sydney Para-Olympic Games with French company Plasticien Volants.
In 2003 Mel joined Big Monkey and has been seen in productions of Treasure Island, Robin Hood and Alice in Wonderland. Last year she appeared in the Tasmanian Theatre Companies premiere production of Bomshells.
Her short film credits include The Promising, Sound Blocks Pain and this year appeared in the feature Artic Blast. She puppeteered on the TV series Farscape, Wiggles TV and the Wiggles Movie. She was also part of the successful ABC produced radio series of Blogdaddy.
Carmen Falk
A relative newcomer to the theatre world, Carmen completed a performer’s degree specialising in Opera at Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
She also studied ballet at the University of Cape Town. She has been teaching music, dance and performance art at various schools throughout the UK and Australia.
In 2008 she made her first public appearance in just over a decade as an actor and musical director in Big Monkey’s Pinocchio. Her other appearances include Mary O’Donnell in Bombshells (TTC) and multiple roles in The Laramie Project (ACT).
Jeff Michel
Jeff is originally from Cleveland, Ohio.
He appeared in amateur and professional theatre in New York City before moving to Hobart where he performs and teaches.
Production credits include Aladdin, A Slice of Saturday Night, Wind in the Willows, Pinocchio, Boats (Terrapin), and Beauty and the Beast.
Jeff sings bass for the barbershop quartet “Close Shave” and performs with Andrew Colrain as the “Red Hot Cols”.
Kiah Davey
Into her 4th season as Production Manager for Big Monkey, Kiah still enjoys the opportunity to work with firm friends, new faces and being part of a team that creates such fun and iconic shows in the RTBG.
The best part – spending summery days in the Botanical Gardens. The worst part – trying to figure out how to fit everything into storage at the end of the season!
Kiah also keeps busy the rest of the year working with The Round Earth Company in Strahan and teaching swimming.
- Les Winspear
As an experienced practitioner in the entertainment industry Les has established a broad based career as a playwright, actor and director. He has been instrumental in the establishment of four theatre companies and has written twenty something plays including those for Salamanca Theatre Company, Port Arthur Historic Site, the National Maritime Museum and the Australian Wooden Boat Festival.
With Theatre Alfresco and Big Monkey Inc. he has been principally responsible for the creative input of family theatre in the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens for the past 16 years. He also has voice-over credits in animation, radio serials, commercials and documentaries.
- Robert Jarman
Robert has performed and/or directed for all major Tasmanian performance companies, and in Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Melbourne and elsewhere.’
His work has featured regularly in Ten Days on the Island, and in 2001 he was awarded the Centenary of Federation Medal for services to the performing arts.