BIOS | The Signal House

Kit Brookman

artistic directors

Melissa Chambers

KIT BROOKMAN is a playwright and director working between the UK and Australia. His plays have been performed in the UK, USA, Germany and Australia, where he is from. His plays include Mountain (Geelong Arts Centre), The Plant (Ensemble Theatre, Sydney), The Great Fire (Belvoir St Theatre), A Rabbit For Kim Jong-il (Griffin Theatre Company), Nora (co-writer, Belvoir), Small and Tired (Belvoir), Night Maybe (Stuck Pigs Squealing Theatre), and Heaven (Old 505 Theatre). Work for The Signal House includes The Stones, Close and Whalesong.

www.kitbrookman.com

MELISSA CHAMBERS is an ensemble director who works with new writing and the adaptation of literature and biography. She has created shows in Melbourne, the UK, Europe and New York City where she lived during the Obama years. Some projects include WHALESONG and CLOSE (the signal house) We Don’t Live Here Anymore, The Governor’s Island Trust, (NYC), The Secret History (East 15, BA CT), The Wild Finish, (The Living Theatre / Culture Project, NYC), and A Difference: The Ada Byron Project (Freight Project NYC). She has acted for The Melbourne Theatre Company, Red Stitch Actors's Theatre, Hot House Theatre and off- broadway for 59E59 Theatres. She has also been a core member of The International WOW Company in Brooklyn. She has toured to festivals in NYC and Europe and is a visiting lecturer at East 15 BA Contemporary Theatre and Rose Bruford College. She lives between South London and South Yorkshire. [Photo: Maria Baranova Suzuki]

www.melissachambers.net

associate artists

Claire Morgan

CLAIRE MORGAN is a Berlin based Australian composer and DJ. She began her musical life as a multi-instrumentalist and composer, performing her first original piano piece at age 11 at the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall in Taipei. Claire has written music for feature films, TV series and short films. Her compositions encompass a wide range of styles from full orchestral scores to minimalistic ambient works or Manga-inspired high tech breakbeats fine-tuned by seventeen years as a professional DJ.

Claire plays regularly at venues and festivals across Europe, including Berghain in Berlin, De School and Shelter in Amsterdam, Fuse in Brussels, Culture Box in Copenhagen and Awakenings Festival in Eindhoven. In 2018, Claire released her first solo track “Inexorably” on Berlin imprint The Zeitgeist, and she is currently completing her first solo album.

LUKE MULLINS is a performer and theatre maker who has worked extensively throughout Australia and the UK for major companies such as Belvoir, Sydney Theatre Company, The Old Vic, The Barbican, HOME Manchester, Melbourne Theatre Company and Malthouse Theatre. He has also created work with a number of independent and ensemble companies including Stuck Pigs Squealing, Sisters Grimm, Uninvited Guests, Uncle Semolina and Friends, Liminal, Little Death, Wrecked all Prods and Arts Radar.

His independent practice includes co-writing and performing the solo work 'Lake Disappointment' at Carriageworks, 'Autobiography of Red,' a solo work he created and performed at Malthouse Theatre, and 'Irony is not Enough: Essay on my Life as Catherine Deneuve' created with Fragment 31 at Arts House. Luke was a member of Sydney Theatre Company’s Actors Company from 07-09. Awards: George Fairfax Memorial Award for excellence in Theatre Practice. Green Room Award for The Season at Sarsaparilla. Sydney Theatre Award and Helpmann Award for Waiting for Godot.

IFTACH JEFFERY OPHIR is an actor, writer and director based in Tel-Aviv where he has worked for over a decade for the prestigious Cameri Theater among others. He has performed on stages throughout Europe, New York and the UK including at the Edinburgh Fringe in the sellout hit 'Reperatory Theatre' (2016) and more recently in 2022 in 'Hedda'. In film and TV he has appeared in shows in Israel, Germany and the US (Netflix). He co-wrote the screenplay for the upcoming film 'Apple' and 'The Tree' with Guy Adler. He is a co-founded of The Elephant and Mouse Company and his one man show 'Benchi’s Baby' received critical acclaim and won best new play for 2015 Tel Aviv Fringe Awards. Iftach is an alumni of the Yoram Lewinstein School for Dramatic Arts.

EREZ DRIGUES is an Israeli actor, writer and director. His work for Israel’s main stages includes directing and translating international plays such as 'The Pillowman' by Martin McDonagh and 'Gruesome Playground Injuries' by Rajiv Joseph, as well as directing / writing original plays such as 'The Dropout' and '1+1.' He has acted for Israel’s National Theater and the world renowned Gesher Theater and was co creator of 'Reperatory Theatre' (Edinburgh Fringe 2016) His screen performances include the award winning Israeli-German web project 'Confess', 'Pilars of Smoke' for Israeli cable television, and 'The Wedding Plan' for global cinemas. He is co-founder of The Elephant & Mouse company, alongside Iftach Ophir.

GAVIN RICHARDS is a creative producer from South Wales. He has worked as an associate with the David Glass Ensemble and is a current assistant producer at the Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru, Wales.

Gavin trained as an actor at the Arts University Bournemouth and has worked as an actor with, The London Improv Theatre, The David Glass Ensemble, Firehorse productions, Chameleon Productions (Ed Fringe) and Dartmoor Railways & Warner Brothers. He is also a season regular on ‘The Orphans’ audio podcast for the Light and Tragic Company.

Gavin has taught children and trained teachers in Drama Education, as well as directed 3 productions in (Chengdu, China); Ali Baba, Hansel and Gretel and Journey to the West (Marphy’s Playhouse).

CLOSE, 2018 L-R Kit, George, Gaby, Jack, Madison, Carissa, Will and Melissa