Laura Murphy
Book, Music, Lyrics, Arrangements & Orchestrations
Laura Murphy is a writer, composer and lyricist whose passion for musical theatre has led her to the forefront of creating new Australian work.
Laura is thrilled to join Shake & Stir in creating a brand new production of her very first original musical, The Lovers. After enjoying a successful world premiere season at the Sydney Opera House in 2022, The Lovers received multiple nominations at the 2022 Sydney Theatre Awards including“Best Production of a Musical. With its infectious original score packed with “Bonafide Bangers” (TimeOut), The Lovers original cast recording was released in July 2024 and has reached over 170,000 streams on Spotify.
Laura is the writer, composer and lyricist behind the critically acclaimed original Australian musical Zombie! The Musical which premiered at the Hayes Theatre in 2024 to great critical and commercial success. Zombie! The Musical won Best Musical at the Time Out Sydney Arts and Culture Awards as well as three Sydney Theatre Awards including Best Production of a Musical. The cast recording for Zombie! The Musical is coming soon!
Laura is the composer and lyricist for the critically acclaimed new original musical The Dismissal: An Extremely Serious Musical Comedy which was celebrated as “The best Australian musical of the century“ by Jason Blake at Audrey Journal and “Australia’s answer to Hamilton“ by Peter FitzSimons at Sydney Morning Herald. The Dismissal won the 57th AWGIE Award for Musical Theatre and the prestigious David Williamson Prize for Australian Theatre.
Laura is also a performer of both stage and screen. Roles include Tania in Muriel’s Wedding, Lenora in Cry Baby, Sally Brown in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Jan in Grease. Laura has received multiple awards and nominations for her work in theatre including receiving the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical.
For screen, Laura starred as Sparkles the Fairy in William and Sparkle’s Magical Tales and its spin-off series Magical Tales: Surprises as well as writing original songs across seven seasons. Other songwriting credits for screen include Imagination Train and I Am Me with Ambience Entertainment.
Nick Skubij
Director
For Shake & Stir Theatre Co: As director: Fourteen, Fourthcoming, Wuthering Heights (2014, 2016), Statespeare (2009), La Bohème (for Opera Queensland), FiZZ! (for Opera Queensland). As actor: The Twits, Fantastic Mr Fox (Sydney Theatre Company), A Christmas Carol, George’s Marvellous Medicine (2016, 2018 national tour), Dracula (2015, 2017 national tour), Revolting Rhymes & Dirty Beasts (2014, 2015 and 2019 national tours), Tequila Mockingbird (2013, 2016), 1984 (2012, 2014 national tour), Animal Farm (2011, 2013 national tour), Statespeare (2009, 2011 national tour), Out Damn Snot (La Boite Theatre). As adaptor / writer: Fourteen, Jane Eyre, Fantastic Mr Fox, George’s Marvellous Medicine, Dracula, Wuthering Heights, 1984, Animal Farm, Out Damn Snot. Other Theatre: Romeo & Juliet (Queensland Theatre), Eurobeat (QPAC), Citizen Jane (JUTE), Crackle, Snap, Pop (JUTE/ Queensland Theatre), Surviving Jonah Salt (KEDT/ JUTE), The Fiveways (Brisbane Festival), Macbeth, Franz Kafka’s The Trial, As You Like it, Titus Andronicus (Grin and Tonic). Film and TV: Toybox season 2 (Channel 7). Positions: Nick is a founding member and Co-Artistic Director of Shake & Stir Theatre Co (2006 – present). Awards: Numerous Matilda Awards including Gold Matilda Award in recognition of Shake & Stir’s national touring work (2020), Best Musical or Cabaret for Green Day’s American Idiot (2017), Best Mainstage Production and Gold Matilda Award Tequila Mockingbird (2014), Best Production for Animal Farm (2012). Matilda Award nomination for Best Mainstage (Fourteen – 2021) Best Director (Fourteen – 2021), Lead Actor (Dracula – 2015). Helpmann Award nominations include Best Presentation for Children (2012, 2016) and Best Regional Touring Production (2016).
Heidi Maguire
Music Director
Heidi has always been one to push the boundaries and find her own path. Growing up in country Tasmania, she studied classical piano and trumpet from a very young age and eventually found a great passion for contemporary music in wanting to play what she heard on the radio.
Heidi graduated with honours from University of Tasmania’s Bachelor of Contemporary Arts (Music) in 2005. Her 20 year long career has seen her effortlessly move through a huge array of contemporary genres; rock, acoustic, roots, soul, funk, ska, reggae, jazz, synth rock, pop and more. In these bands, she has worked as a professional keyboard, trumpet and trombone player, as well as a backing vocalist. She has played on festival stages across the country, including Falls Festival, Party In The Paddock, Dark Mofo, MONA, Taste of Tasmania and Junction Festival. Heidi’s original band Heloise also had the honour of playing at Melbourne Cricket Ground for Sleep At The G. Heidi’s bands have supported the likes of Kate Ceberano, Katie Noonan, Darryl Braithwaite, Taxi Ride, Phil Jamieson and You Am I, to name a few.
Heidi began working in commercial musical theatre in 2018, playing keys on the national tour of Green Day’s American Idiot. In 2020 she was invited to be Assistant Music Director on the sellout sensation SIX: The Musical, which she toured with until February 2023. She then orchestrated Vidya Makan’s critically acclaimed new musical The Lucky Country, for which she was also Music Director. Heidi then worked on the national tour of Mamma Mia! as Assistant Music Director.
The year 2020 saw the birth of Heidi’s current original band Laphrodisiac. After performing at various festivals (between musical theatre shows) Laphro released their Debut single ‘Do you not know’ in 2023 and are working on releasing more in 2024.
Heidi is also a proud educator, with fifteen years of experience as a highly sought after music teacher. Having taught students from the ages of eight to eighty, she has a keen interest in inspiring people to find themselves in music and a great passion for working in team settings. Heidi has taught piano, voice, percussion, trumpet, trombone, guitar and bass, and has extensive experience conducting school bands. She owes a great deal of her skills she now utilizes working in musical theatre to her time working with the incredible young talent in Tasmanian schools.
Isabel Hudson
Designer
Isabel Hudson is an award-winning set and costume designer. Isabel holds a Bachelor of Design from NIDA and a Bachelor of Arts (Screen and Sound) from the University of New South Wales. She is a lecturer at NIDA in Design for Performance.
Her design credits include A Fool In Love, Constellations, Hubris And Humiliation (Sydney Theatre Company), Dear Evan Hansen costumes (Michael Cassel Group), The Mousetrap costume design (Crossroads Live), Nucleus, Jailbaby, Pony (Griffin Theatre Company), set for Torch the Place (Melbourne Theatre Company), Blessed Union, Winyanboga Yurringa, Every Brilliant Thing (Belvoir), Master Class (Ensemble Theatre), Maureen: Harbinger Of Death (Sydney Festival/ Rising Festival), sets for Young Frankenstein, American Psycho, Cry-Baby (Hayes Theatre Co), La Bohème (Opera Australia), Farnace (Pinchgut Opera), Son (Circa), Rise And Fall Of Little Voice (Darlinghurst Theatre Co.), The Shifting Heart, Blackrock (Seymour Centre), Edward The Emu (Monkey Baa Theatre), Dry Land set, She Rode Horses Like The Stock Exchange (Kings Cross Theatre), King Of Pigs, Eurydice (Old Fitz), Jess & Joe Forever (Belvoir 25a), Little Borders costume (Old 505 Theatre), Chamber Pot Opera (Sydney Opera House, Edinburgh Festival, St Petersburg Season), Intersection, Journey’s End (ATYP), The Rolling Stone (Outhouse Theatre Co) and Hurt (Hothouse Theatre & Downstairs Belvoir).
For Global Creatures Isabel is Associate Set Designer For Moulin Rouge! The Musical (Australia, Korea, Japan), for Opera Australia, Isabel was Assistant Designer for The Merry Widow and My Fair Lady, and for Sydney Theatre Company, she was Associate Designer on Fun Home.
Isabel has won four Sydney Theatre Awards for her outstanding designs, Best Set Design for Constellations, American Psycho and Cry-Baby, and Best Costume Design for Hubris and Humiliation. She also won an APDG Award for Best Set Design for American Psycho. Nominations include an APDG Award for Best Set Design and two more Sydney Theatre Award nominations for best set design. She was awarded the Kristian Fredrikson Scholarship in 2022 and the Thelma Afford Award for Costume Design in Stage and Screen in 2022.
Trent Suidgeest
Lighting Designer
Trent was lighting designer Frankenstein, Tae Tae in the Land of Yaaas! and Fourteen for Shake & Stir Theatre Co. His other theatre credits include Muriel’s Wedding The Musical (Global Creatures/STC), The Eighth Wonder, Carmen, The Rabbits (Opera Australia), Stolen, The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall, Appropriate, Hay Fever, Accidental Death Of An Anarchist, Talk (Sydney Theatre Company), Miss Peony, The Sapphires (Belvoir St Theatre), Prima Facie, Kill Climate Deniers, The Homosexuals or Faggots (Griffin Theatre), Dubbo Championship Wrestling, Young Frankenstein, Calamity Jane, Gypsy, Darlinghurst Nights, The View UpStairs (Hayes Theatre Co), Jesus Christ Superstar, Dusty, The Boy From Oz (The Production Company), GASP!, Other Desert Cities, Managing Carmen (QT/BSSTC) and Rent (Sugary Rum/LPD/Sydney Opera House). At Sydney Festival he lit Betty Blokk-Buster Reimagined (Red Line Productions), I Am Eora (Performing Lines), 44 Sex Acts In One Week (Club House Productions) and Black Cockatoo (Ensemble Theatre). Events/Installations include Night Mass: Exstasia (Dark Mofo 2023) and A Mirrored City (Vivid Sydney).
Trent gained a Bachelor of Performing Arts (Production and Design) from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.
trentsuidgeest.com
David Bergman
Sound & Video Designer
David is an award-winning composer, video and sound designer for theatre, dance, opera, installation and film. His recent theatre credits include the role of video designer for the ground-breaking productions of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde and The Picture Of Dorian Gray for Sydney Theatre Company for which he won a Sydney Theatre Award for best Stage Design of a Mainstage Production (with Marg Horwell) and has been nominated for a Tony Award for the Broadway production. David was video designer for Sydney Chamber Opera’s Breaking Glass and Musica Viva’s national tour of Winter’s Journey.
Other work for Sydney Theatre Company includes sound design for Playing Beatie Bow, video and sound design for A Cheery Soul and The Wharf Revue (from 2009-2018), and video design for Julius Caesar, Muriel’s Wedding: The Musical, The Hanging, The Effect and The Long Way Home. For Griffin, David was sound designer for Green Park for which he won a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Sound Design of a Mainstage Production, composer and sound designer for Superheroes, and composer, sound and video designer for First Love Is The Revolution for which he was nominated for a Sydney Theatre Award. For Bell Shakespeare, David was the sound designer for The Lovers. For Belvoir, he was composer and sound designer for Scenes From The Climate Era, sound designer for Into The Woods, video designer for Blue, sound designer on At What Cost? and co-sound designer for Packer and Sons. David designed video and sound for Soft Tread’s national tour of The Gospel According To Paul including for State Theatre Company of South Australia. For the Sydney Opera House, David was the sound designer for Rent, for Bangarra Dance Company, he was video designer for Sandsong, Spirit and Knowledge Ground, and for Monkey Baa Theatre, David was video designer for Possum Magic and The Peasant Prince and sound designer for Josephine Wants To Dance.
His other credits include for Seymour Centre, composer, sound and video designer for Museum Of Modern Love, and composer and sound designer for Made To Measure, for Darlinghurst Theatre Co, composer and sound designer for Maggie Stone, for NIDA, composer and sound designer for Salem and Another Country, sound and video designer for Spring Awakening at ATYP, and for Hayes Theatre Co, sound and video designer for Merrily We Roll Along, sound designer for Dubbo Championship Wrestling, The Rise And Disguise Of Elizabeth R. and Catch Me If You Can. David is a National Institute of Dramatic Art graduate and now teaches at NIDA.
Yvette Lee
Choreographer
With a career spanning over 20 years in various areas of entertainment and style, Yvette has worked across all genres and industries. From film, television, live events, musical theatre, video clips, artist development, ceremonies and stadium shows, Yvette is extremely accomplished.
While Yvette continues to demonstrate a strong foundation in choreography, she is as versed in building performances and experiences from the ground up. Her skills extend far beyond dance and include show design and theming, stage direction, stage design, screen content design, lighting direction, casting, costuming, music synchronization and placement, camera direction, and specializing in performance for the camera.
Yvette has a unique talent for harnessing all elements of a production to make sure the event has a strong framework, and each element is cohesive and works as one. She understands how to take an audience on a journey or immerse them in a world, placing high importance on cohesion in creation.
With her vast experience and skill set, it is clear why Yvette Lee is a sought-after creative talent in the entertainment industry. Her ability to bring together different artistic elements into an interconnected whole has made her a trusted collaborator for some of the biggest names in the business. She is a true master of her craft and continues to push boundaries in the world of performance. Whether working on a live event or a film, Yvette is committed to creating unforgettable experiences for audiences around the world.
Nigel Poulton
Fight & Intimacy Director
For Shake & Stir Theatre Co: 1984 (2025 national tour), Frankenstein, Dracula. Choreography: Sydney Theatre Company, Bell Shakespeare, the Finnish National Ballet (2021), The Australian Ballet (2018), the New York City Ballet (2007-2018), The Metropolitan Opera (2009-2015), Washington Opera (2002), TEG Dainty (Tina), Cameron Mackintosh (Les Misérables), Broad Encounters, Opera Australia, Circus Oz, Melbourne Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre, Belvoir, La Boite, Ensemble, Strut & Fret, Red Line, ATYP, Darlinghurst, Kings X Theatre, Playbox and Kooemba Jdarra. Film & TV: Deadloch, Nautilus, Poker Face, Thor: Love and Thunder, Escape from Spiderhead, Ding Dong You’re Gay, Occupation 2, Pirates of the Caribbean V, Deadline Gallipoli, The Water Diviner, The Bourne Legacy, Vikingdom and Winter’s Tale. Through Weapons Specialists Ltd creative team in New York: The Good Wife (Scott Free Productions), Person of Interest (Kilter Films), One Shot (Paramount Pictures), Boardwalk Empire (HBO), Salt (Columbia Pictures), I Am Legend (Warner Bros. Pictures), Sopranos – 1997 Season (HBO), The Ministers (Collective), 30 Rock (Broadway Video) and Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Wolf Films). Training: Fight Master with the Society of American Fight Directors; a Fight Director and past President of the Society of Australian Fight Directors Inc; an Honorary Fight Director with Fight Directors Canada; and a certified Intimacy Director and Coordinator with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators (IDC). Awards: Melbourne Green Room Awards for outstanding contribution to the Melbourne stage (2012).