artists.
Adam Deusien
Artistic & Executive Director
Adam is a director and creative producer with over 15 years’ experience in creating original narrative driven performance, adaptations of canonical texts and contemporary performance, in Bathurst, regional NSW. He is a graduate of Charles Sturt University BA – Communication: Theatre/Media and MA - Directing for the Stage, and in 2018 graduated with distinction as part of NIDA’s inaugural cohort of the MFA – Cultural Leadership.
Adam is Artistic Director of Lingua Franca, working extensively with Local Stages, Bathurst’s Performing Arts Development Program, as a director, producer and dramaturg, presenting work in regional Australia, nationally and internationally. He has directed numerous works with the company including Right Behind You, Unsustainable Behaviour and Mighty. As a freelance artist, Adam has adapted and directed Lysistrata, The Bacchae, The Trojan Women and The Fox (CYCLE Productions) as well as working as assistant/rehearsal director for companies Ensemble Theatre, Griffin Theatre, Stalker Theatre and Siren Theatre Co.
In recognition of his work in regional Australia, in 2016 Adam was awarded the CreateNSW Regional Arts Fellowship, and in 2017 continued this work as Artistic Associate with the Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre. In 2018 he was appointed Artistic Director/Director of the Arts Program for Artstate, New South Wales regional arts festival and conference. In 2019 he was the recipient of a Sandra Bates Director’s Award with Ensemble Theatre. From 2019-23 he worked in programming roles with Events ACT and Canberra Theatre Centre as Manager of New Work, and since has returned to freelance making practice in the Hunter Region, regional NSW.
Alison Plevey
Co-Founder & Associate Artist
Originally from Dorrigo and Bathurst NSW, Alison is an award-winning dance and physical theatre artist, choreographer, teacher and arts advocate based in Canberra. She graduated from WAAPA with a first-class honours degree, BA - Dance, in 2009.
In her 12-year professional career, Alison has been a valued teacher, creator and leader of youth dance in regional NSW and with QL2 Dance since 2011. As a Founding Director of dance theatre company Lingua Franca with Adam Deusien, she created and presented youth projects and professional works ‘Right Behind You’ (BMEC, Canberra, Wirksworth UK), ‘Unsustainable Behaviour’ (BMEC and ArtLands Dubbo, 2016) and dance, theatre and aerial acrobatic work, ‘Mighty’ at BMEC in 2019. Alison has collaborated with The CORRIDOR Project across the Cabonne, Cowra and Weddin Shires in NSW. For Big Little Histories of Canowindra in 2018, she collaborated with all ages in the community to create the concept, choreography and music for a series of dance films entitled The Shearer’s Ballet. Her solo performance work 3 ply, reflecting on women’s roles in the wool shed and in agricultural life, accompanied the films which were projected on a wall of wool bales.
In 2016 Alison founded Australian Dance Party (ADP), with the aim to create powerful and playful new dance work in the political capital and establish careers for ACT based dance artists. As active citizens, and artists, ADP seeks to debate, educate and celebrate urgent issues of this contemporary time. ADP’s major works include Nervous (2016), ENERGEIA (2018) and Symbiosis (2021), with works Seamless (2018), Lake March (2020), LESS (2022) and From The Vault (2019) each receiving Critic’s Circle Awards, with the latter also short listed for an Australian Dance Award.
Becky Russell
Technical Creative & Production Manager
Becky is a theatre and events professional with extensive experience in artistic, technical and project direction. She has focused her career in regional Australia, working on countless productions, festivals and community projects in a variety of roles including; artistic director, project director, event mentor, as well as providing technical and production support for regional artists and communities. A focus on storytelling is core to how she continues to develop her creative practice - be it design, technical or artistic direction.
Becky has worked with Lingua Franca since the company’s inception on nearly all of its productions as a technical creative and production manager. She values the ground up collaborative way the work is made and the care and wholistic nature of the process. This style of making syncs with her belief that a big picture understanding of work allows for the smallest contribution to be more meaningful and embedded in a productions outcome.
Annemaree Dalziel
Associate Artist
Annemaree’s arts practice is deeply integrated into her daily life in the bush, her garden, her work across disciplines, places and communities, and the collaborations central to her work. Her work is grounded in extensive research into history, language, ecologies and the lived experience/lives of the people/cultures/artists she works with.
In 2020 Annemaree extended her collaborative work with communities in Wingecarribee to create a series of walks, textile, knitting and small building projects that extend social memory around themes of Gaelic speaking immigrants and changing Australian identity. With her Doctor of Creative Arts candidature at the University of Wollongong, she is researching cultural grief and embodied memory in regional communities. The principles of construction, deconstruction, recycling, recreation, close connection with people in their everyday lives and a lifelong investigation into how we occupy a fragile planet, continue to characterise Annemaree’s practice.
Kate Smith
Associate Artist
Kate’s rich arts practice has traversed acting, comedic performance, playwriting, academia, advocacy, and research in arts health with Arts OutWest. Her comedic plays with Drew Fairley toured nationally and internationally (2004-2017).
Recent works for stage/screen: Fast Cars a three-year performance project about Wahluu/Mt. Panorama (creator/ performer 2020-23 Local Stages Bathurst); Roast Night (TV Dir; Rick Donald 2023); Highway of Lost Hearts (Stage Dir; Adam Deusien, 2021- touring nationally 2024); Rich, Creative, Life (podcast 2023); Key note State of The Sector, (TNN 2022); Company member Lingua Franca Theatre, board member Theatre Network NSW. Create NSW Regional Arts Fellow (2019-2022)
Carolyn Eccles
Associate Artist
Carolyn Eccles is a performing artist and arts educator working across movement/performance, improvisation and film. She is one half of the collaborative arts practice, darkroom (Blue Mountains), a member of the performance collective LUCA’s Daughters (Canberra) and an Associate artist with physical theatre company Lingua Franca (Bathurst).