The 10 rising South Australian theatre stars to watch in 2024 and beyond
When it comes to treading the boards, these are the young South Aussie actors and directors really worth making a song and dance about. Meet 10 next gen thespians.
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When it comes to theatrics South Australia has always been a hotbed of acting talent, with stars like Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Hugh Sheridan and Sarah Snook successfully forging the transition from stage to screen.
The state’s new generation of actors, directors and producers is no exception, with many already making – or about to make – their professional debuts on the national theatre circuit.
It’s time to raise the curtain on The Advertiser’s top thespians to watch in 2024 and beyond, plus the creatives, collectives and companies that make it all possible.
Jelena Nicdao
There’s nothing like making your professional stage debut in a world premiere show – which is exactly what Adelaide actor Jelena Nicdao will do in State Theatre Company’s production of Jack Maggs.
“This is my very first professional show, and first play as well,” Nicdao said.
She will play the dual roles of Lizzie Warriner, who is “young, kind, clever and vulnerable” and the cook Miss Mott.
“It’s a really ensemble heavy production … and a bit of a mystery.
“It’s really cool to build a new show from the ground up, as a completely new Australian piece of theatre.”
Jack Maggs is an adaptation of Australian author Peter Carey’s Miles Franklin Award winning novel, which itself was inspired by the Charles Dickens classic Great Expectations.
Nicdao, 21, from Sheidow Park, has previously appeared in university stage musicals as part of her Bachelor of Music Theatre degree, which she is completing at Elder Conservatorium. They included shows as diverse as Little Women, Jesus Christ Superstar, Shrek the Musical and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
She also recently sang in the chorus of the Candide, produced by State Theatre and State Opera.
Like many young Adelaide performers, Nicdao’s first experiences were through local youth theatre company Pelican Productions, and she also studied drama, dance and music at high school.
“I started singing when I was a little kid, and my parents got me to do lessons. That branched into signing up for community musical theatre, and that’s how I broke into acting.”
Nicdao hopes to break into commercial musicals, but also has broader ambitions.
“In the past three years, studying the course, I found a love for stage theatre as well, and voice acting. I’m open to anything the future holds,” she said.
“It just brings me so much joy to be on the stage … the audience is there with you, and you get to share that moment with them.”
Oscar Bridges
Rising star Oscar Bridges has been winning attention and cheers for his performance in the latest Australian tour of Grease the musical – even though he doesn’t play one of the lead speaking roles.
Bridges’ phenomenal dance moves and vocals on the number Shakin’ at the High School Hop redefine the expression “greased lighting” and have proved a winner with his hometown Adelaide audiences.
“It’s a thrill to perform. I get a little bit of a feature in that song, which is really cool every night,” the 18-year-old from Payneham said.
The actor, singer and dancer won the ensemble role when he was just 17 after flying to Melbourne to audition while completing Year 12 at Pulteney Grammar.
However, his professional career dates back to being cast as Kurt in the Adelaide season of The Sound of Music when he was just 10 years old.
He dates his passion for performing back to seeing a filmed performance of Cats at the age of three: “I used to perform it literally every day in my living room”.
Bridges also performed many shows with Adelaide Youth Theatre as a child, and in State Opera’s Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci in 2017.
Last year, he won the Australian Performing Arts Teachers Association’s national award for performing arts student of the year.
Bridges will continue with Grease for the show’s Brisbane season early next year, before deciding whether to further his studies.
“Whether it’s here or trying to do some classes in New York, I think that’s definitely on the cards,” he said.
“I would honestly love to be on the West End (in London) or on Broadway at some stage – I think that’s every performer’s dream.”
Ahunim Abebe
Roles in two successive State Theatre Company plays have brought Ahunim Abebe, 24, back to her Ethiopian parents’ home in Walkley Heights after four years in Sydney studying at NIDA, the National Institute of Dramatic Art.
Abebe recently made her professional Adelaide stage debut in The Puzzle by David Williamson, and will feature in another world premiere for the company, the stage adaptation of Peter Carey’s novel Jack Maggs, in November.
Abebe said she had been fascinated to rehearse and work alongside some of her inspirations, such as fellow SA actors Erik Thomson and Nathan O’Keefe.
“You learn so much just by sitting in a room with these actors,” she said.
Earlier this year, Abebe toured the eastern states and regional SA in a Bell Shakespeare production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Bonet Leate
Bonet Leate is a Singaporean-Australian performer and producer who is taking a different route to the stage and screen.
She has diverse experience across stage, screen, and creative industries and holds a Bachelor of Media from the University of Adelaide.
Leate has appeared on stage in Rumpus Theatre’s production of Coldhands and in the short film The Mourning After.
She aspires to tell stories that are both magnetic and poignant; exploring perspectives that are inclusive, intersectional and reflective of Australian experiences.
Leate was recently selected to expand her creative and professional practice through the Australian Plays Transform program Developing the Dramaturg, in which she was paired with the team at ActNow Theatre for an intensive workshop with leading dramaturges and creatives, followed by four weeks placement with the company.
Juanita Navas-Nguyen
Since graduating from Adelaide College of the Arts in 2020, Juanita Navas-Nguyen has made her mark on the local and national stage, in both mainstream and independent theatre.
Notable productions include State Theatre Company’s Eureka Day, its racially diverse co-production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Queensland Theatre, and starring as Zoe in Single Asian Female.
Her first independently self-written and produced show Confessions of a Boba Liberalist debuted at this year’s Adelaide Fringe and was a deeply personal work that explored her Colombian and Vietnamese heritage, and the notion of identity as a person of colour in a predominantly white society.
Navas-Nguyen has also toured nationally with Windmill Theatre’s Grug and in Bluey’s Big Play, and is further exploring her puppetry skills in The Story of Chi, a new work by Tasmania’s Terrapin company at this year’s OzAsia Festival.
She hopes to create art that represents the diverse reality that we live in and champions Australian voices and stories.
Emily Liu
Actor and storyteller Emily Liu divides her time between Adelaide and Brisbane, where she graduated with distinction in acting at the Queensland University of Technology in 2021.
Liu won great acclaim with her first leading role in Theatre Republic’s recent Adelaide premiere of Australian playwright Kendall Feaver’s award-winning play The Almighty Sometimes, which she hoped would be a conversation starter about mental health.
In 2022, she made her professional theatre debut with Debase Productions’ show Death in a Statesman.
Liu also co-starred in Windmill Theatre’s Hans + Gret, which premiered at the 2023 Adelaide Festival, after first working with Windmill in 2015 on its film adaptation of Girl Asleep.
Kathryn Adams
Kathryn “Kitty” Adams showed off her comedic chops – and sang beautifully – in musician and author Anna Goldsworthy’s play with songs Welcome to Your New Life, taking on multiple character roles from a hypnotist and a grumpy sonographer to a beloved grandma. Her other State Theatre performances include Single Asian Female and Antigone.
A Flinders Drama Centre graduate, Adams also has a passion for music, and continued to train in classical singing, performing with the Adelaide Conservatorium’s Chorale for four years, performing as part of the choir with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Elder Conservatorium Symphony.
lso a puppeteer with a flair for physical theatre, Adams has a passion for improving her craft through project collaboration and devising.
During her training she became part of the ensemble at Restless Dance Theatre – a company which features performers with and without disabilities – and performed in their show Intimate Space at the Adelaide Festival.
Other credits include Dido and Aeneas for State Opera of SA, The Kanziss Trials at Adelaide Fringe, and Erth’s Dino Zoo.
Dylan Miller
Young audiences may recognise Dylan Miller as one of the two funny scientists in Windmill Theatre’s recent family production Moss Piglet – but screen viewers are more likely to know him from the Go a Moe’s hotdog commercials.
A graduate of Adelaide College of the Arts, he has worked with State Theatre Company – including its version of Jasper Jones – as well as, Windmill Theatre and Sydney Theatre Company.
Miller toured internationally with former Adelaide Festival director Neil Armfield’s acclaimed 2017 production of The Secret River.
He’s also become something of a regular Windmill collaborator, co-starring in its dystopian fairytale update Hans + Gret and touring with its popular puppet show Grug.
Connor Reidy
One of the four co-founders of CRAM Collective, Connor Reidy is a South Australian director and theatre maker.
Reidy recently directed Emily Steel’s The Worst for Theatre Republic, and Proud for the company Famous Last Words.
Professional assistant directing credits include Lines and The Bleeding Tree (Theatre Republic), Oleanna (Flying Penguin Productions) and Hibernation, The Normal Heart and Prima Facie for State Theatre Company.
He studied Performing Arts and Creative Writing at the University of South Australia and graduated with first class honours in directing at the Flinders University Drama Centre, with productions including Pool (no water), BC, Control, Iphigenia in Orem, The Seagull, and Lungs.
In 2016, Connor completed a playwriting mentorship with Australian Theatre for Young People, before co-founding CRAM Collective in 2021, where he has directed New World Coming, Something Big and The Future Is You.
Alana Iannace
Having just completed her music theatre degree at Elder Conservatorium, Alana Iannace will make her professional debut as a character in the hit Tony Award winning musical Kimberly Akimbo, alongside superstars Marina Prior and Casey Donovan, in Adelaide and Melbourne next year.
The Australian production will premiere for State Theatre Company of SA at Her Majesty’s Theatre in July, followed by a season with Melbourne Theatre Company.
As a child, Iannace was a member of Pelican Productions and when she was in Year 9, the former Loreto College student was among children from around Australia chosen to pilot a new musical with New York producers in Newcastle, NSW.
Among her roles in the Elder Conservatorium’s musical productions, Iannace played Jo in Little Women and Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar, and she was also involved in this year’s State Theatre production of Candide.
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