Our Staff
Phil Thomson – Director
Phil trained as an actor and director at the Victorian College of the Arts. He was Artistic Director of the Murray River Performing Group (NSW) and Deck Chair Theatre (WA). Other highly regarded directorial works include Jack Davis plays for the WATC (Our Town and Honey Spot) and Solid with Ningali Lawford and Kelton Pell.
Phil wrote the libretto of the opera … into the Shimmer Heat for Nova Ensemble and Spare Parts Theatre, The Last Sanctuary and Wrecked Dreams for Spare Parts, and Wantok and Yagan for ABC radio. He has also written for Children’s TV dramas Pig’s Breakfast and The Sleep Over Club. He won the inaugural Swan Gold Award for Theatre Development for his trilogy of maritime plays Paddy, Home Port, & Fleets of Fortune which he wrote and directed.
He established Malabo Theatre Company in PNG and in 1998 he was awarded a Senior Artists Fellowship from the Australia Council. In 2001 he published Whitefella Wandering with the Fremantle Arts Centre Press and wrote and directed One Destiny for Black Swan Theatre. More recently he wrote the libretto for, and directed, The Drummers of Gilgamesh for the Nova Ensemble and Perth International Arts Festival, and was dramaturge, workshop director and actor for Black Swan’s Yandy (2004). He is currently that company’s project leader for the Pilbara Drama Project and the Artistic Director of the WA Youth Theatre Company.