_______________
Collaboration enriches us at our very special practice place in North Melbourne on Wurrendjeri Country—we pay our respects to First Nations elders past and present and acknowledge this land was never ceded.
Collaboration enriches us at our very special practice place in North Melbourne on Wurrendjeri Country—we pay our respects to First Nations elders past and present and acknowledge this land was never ceded.
Some new members, some old members who discuss, practice, experiment and make performance, we love sharing the process of theatre with peers, students and the wider theatre community. Come join the conversation🎈
Angelique Zhou
Tessa Marie Luminati
Diego Fajardo
Matthew Crosby
Alexandra Clouston
Damon Branecki
The Thursday Group in reverse alphabetical order… because...
Angelique Zhou, Tessa Marie Luminati, Diego Fajardo, Matthew Crosby, Alexandra Clouston, Damon Branecki… biogs
_______________
Co-Facilitators
Matthew Crosby, wrote and performed Corporare—Evan Task in Outer Space in 2024
Matthew Crosby
I have been acting, writing, directing and teaching theatre for decades. Influences received from training at NIDA in the 80’s, collaboration between Playbox/Malthouse and the Suzuki Company of Toga, Grotowski and Eugenio Barba training with IRAA (International Research into the Art of the Actor), work in tent theatre in Japan and Korea with Shinjuku Ryozanpaku in the 90’s and a decade co-creating with Yumi Umiumare and Ben Rogan the DasShoku butoh/cabarets in the 00’s have led me into a deep investigation into what Stanislavski first called “psychophysical” theatre. This practice informs my theatre-making, which has been developed in the context of groups—first in Actor’s Furniture Group and for the last fifteen years in The Thursday Group. So, my approach to direction, teaching and collaboration is dialogic—I seek to empower the skills and desire for theatrical expression that exist in performers and offer pathways for development and collaborative investigation.
Tessa Marie Luminati
I studied music theatre and acting at Federation University and have explored different forms of theatre. From Robert Reid’s classical adaptations and political theatre to award-winning comedy performance with colleagues in SpudPuppy. I've been a member of Thursday Group for four years and taken on the role of Co-Facilitator with Matt for the last year. Influenced by the culture at Thursday Group, empowering the group is a feature of my practice, in acting, directing and teaching. I encourage performers in impulse work and, following my time in Japan at the Suzuki Company of Toga in 2024, I am investigating precision in psychophysical expression as it relates to the organic inner life of acting.
_______________
Group Members
Group Members
Damon Branecki
Born in Naarm, Melbourne, Damon Branecki is an improviser and actor. He has trained in the Suzuki Method of Acting, Michael Chekhov technique and movement-based improvisation. He has been a regular participant in several Melbourne-based theatre ensembles including The Thursday Group, Alchemy Dance and Melbourne Actor’s Guild. Damon’s strengths lie in interpreting text for performance, image work and psychophysical theatre. He has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Melbourne and outside of theatre, works as a professional in audience development for arts and cultural organisations. He is currently performing as Tomasz in the Thursday Group’s 2024 production of Falling Heads.
Alexandra is a multidisciplinary artist whose work spans electronic music production, live performance, and theater. They hold a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from UNSW School of Art and Design and completed intensive training at The European Theatre Institute in Berlin. In 2022, Alex directed, composed, and performed in a sold out run of "Commune: A Gothic Eco Opera 2022," funded by the City of Melbourne. They are also the creative force behind multimedia music project "The Omega Point," described as the makers of 'a wild brand of apocalyptic art music' by Stuart Buchanan, Digital Curator of The Sydney Opera House. Additionally, Alexandra works as a Creative Learning Facilitator at Arts Centre Melbourne, inspiring the next generation of artists.
Matthew Crosby
Matthew Crosby has worked professionally in all areas of the performing arts since he was a child. He graduated from NIDA in 1981. In 1991 he participated in the SCOT/Playbox Chronicles of Macbeth Tokyo/Adelaide International Arts Festivals. He received a Japan Foundation Fellowship in 1995, two Asialink residencies, 2000/2011, and DFAT, The Japan Foundation, the Australia Council, Creative Victoria, City of Melbourne and the Playking Foundation have supported his facilitation of practice and performance development in local Melbourne theatre and collaborative projects between Japan, Australia and other Asian centres. He has performed in mainstage Australian theatre festivals as well as in Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore, Thessaloniki and Helsinki. In 2024 he completed an MFA at FOFA University Melbourne, VCA, First Class Honours analyzing power dynamics in theatre collaboration. He is a founding member and co-facilitator at Thursday Group. In 2024 he wrote and performed Corporare—Evan Task in Outer Space, and is writer/director of Falling Heads, a co-devised international collaboration with Denmark in 2025.
Diego Fajardo
Diego is an actor and performance artist from Bogotá, Colombia. He holds a Bachelor's in Performing Arts from Bogota’s Teatro Libre in a joint agreement with the Central University of Bogota. Along his artistic journey, he has trained and been involved with the work and methods of Stanislaviski, Grotowski, Barba, and Michael Chekhov, among others. Team member of a national tour of over 75 shows within Colombia in 2018 as part of his graduation project that also involved researching Actor’s Dramaturgy throughout the creative process. Former member of the Research Laboratory of Theatre and Dance (2017-2019) from the Central University of Bogota led by Juan Pablo Gonzalez. Participant of the first two editions of ‘Anthropology Theatre Encounter: Teatro a la Mar’ (2018, 2020) held in Rosario’s Islands, Colombia, with the Afro-Colombian communities, led by Sofia Monsalve (Teatro de la Memoria) and Ana Woolf (Magdalena Second Generation). Former artist of Teatro Estudio 87 (2018-2022), performing, producing and assisting over seven theatrical productions, with whom participated in various festivals across France and Spain in 2019. Winner of the seedbed project from Varasanta’s Theatre in 2022 “Guanabana Projects” aimed to support and collaborate incubation of creative projects. Third-year Bachelor of Arts Therapy student at Ikon Institute in Naarm, Australia. Joined the Thursday Group in late 2024.
Angelique 烨 Zhou
Angelique is an actress and theatre-maker born in Naarm (Melbourne) and a resident in Odense, Denmark. Her practice explores the Suzuki Method and honest storytelling. Angelique trained under Matthew Crosby and is a member of The Thursday Group. In 2023, she received her BFA (Theatre) from the Victorian College of the Arts and was awarded the Lionel Gell Foundation Scholarship (2022) and Paul & Donna Dainty VCA Award (2023). Professionally, she has performed with Born in a Taxi, Brunswick East Entertainment Festival, and collaborated with Taka Takiguchi. Her solo works include The Poet, shadow puppets exploring Chang E, and Rising Son. Since 2022, she has worked closely with The Thursday Group's laboratory practice and in 2023 taught workshops at Suzuki Training at Camberwell Girls. Angelique is developing shadow puppets with Andrea Albernaz, artistic director of Isla Collective Odense Thursday Group’s play Falling Heads. In 2024 she attended the winter and summer international workshops at Suzuki Company of Toga.
Angelique is an actress and theatre-maker born in Naarm (Melbourne) and a resident in Odense, Denmark. Her practice explores the Suzuki Method and honest storytelling. Angelique trained under Matthew Crosby and is a member of The Thursday Group. In 2023, she received her BFA (Theatre) from the Victorian College of the Arts and was awarded the Lionel Gell Foundation Scholarship (2022) and Paul & Donna Dainty VCA Award (2023). Professionally, she has performed with Born in a Taxi, Brunswick East Entertainment Festival, and collaborated with Taka Takiguchi. Her solo works include The Poet, shadow puppets exploring Chang E, and Rising Son. Since 2022, she has worked closely with The Thursday Group's laboratory practice and in 2023 taught workshops at Suzuki Training at Camberwell Girls. Angelique is developing shadow puppets with Andrea Albernaz, artistic director of Isla Collective Odense Thursday Group’s play Falling Heads. In 2024 she attended the winter and summer international workshops at Suzuki Company of Toga.
_______________
A retrospective of training, experimentation and performance-making.
_______________
The group that was to become The Thursday Group was founded in 2009. Over the years we have investigated Suzuki Training exericses in concert with other disciplines such as Grotowski, Stanislavski, Chekhov and variations that the group has developed. During the Covid lockdowns in Melbourne in 2020-2021 Thursday Group co-facilitator Matthew Crosby created a programme of co-devising prompts arising from psychologist Lev Vygotsky's notion that the inner thought is completed in its social expression[1]. What were called 'musing' exercises assisted in developing communication across what was then a new performative online apparatus (Zoom). That practice has led to investigations within the Suzuki Training vocabulary of attending to the intention of verbal and gestural communication.
_______________
The group that was to become The Thursday Group was founded in 2009. Over the years we have investigated Suzuki Training exericses in concert with other disciplines such as Grotowski, Stanislavski, Chekhov and variations that the group has developed. During the Covid lockdowns in Melbourne in 2020-2021 Thursday Group co-facilitator Matthew Crosby created a programme of co-devising prompts arising from psychologist Lev Vygotsky's notion that the inner thought is completed in its social expression[1]. What were called 'musing' exercises assisted in developing communication across what was then a new performative online apparatus (Zoom). That practice has led to investigations within the Suzuki Training vocabulary of attending to the intention of verbal and gestural communication.
_______________
Silent Forest, 2019, Matthew Crosby, Rodrigo Calderón, Eidann Glover, Lorna Mcleod and Alana Hoggart. Photo: Oscar Socias
Associate Members: Kathleen Doyle, Lorna McLeod
Many have worked with us since 2009
Glynis Angell, Elise Britton, Rodrigo Calderón, Joshinder Kaur Chaggar, Molly Farquharson, Caitlin George, Eidann Glover, Alana Hoggart, Kate Hunter, Keira Lyon, Tulipa Rodriquez Quin, Gabrielle Quinn, Tamara Saulwick, Oliver Skryzypczynski, Helen Smith, Brendan Snow, Nilees Suhasini, Tanabe Keisuke, Taka Takiguchi, Gareth Trew, Yamasaki Tomoko.
Glynis Angell, Elise Britton, Rodrigo Calderón, Joshinder Kaur Chaggar, Molly Farquharson, Caitlin George, Eidann Glover, Alana Hoggart, Kate Hunter, Keira Lyon, Tulipa Rodriquez Quin, Gabrielle Quinn, Tamara Saulwick, Oliver Skryzypczynski, Helen Smith, Brendan Snow, Nilees Suhasini, Tanabe Keisuke, Taka Takiguchi, Gareth Trew, Yamasaki Tomoko.
Our group has a history of durational and intense training aimed at crossing into next-level performance-making. In speaking to then new collaborator Tessa Marie Luminati in 2020, Kathleen Doyle said:
[…] it was very much a led-by-nobody… just actors trying to keep the craft, just trying to keep themselves fit and ready to perform, and it was like that for about three or four years, wouldn't it be Matt? […] It started to morph into more improvised territory […] and I think it was from there that [we tried to] put all of what we're working on into a show, that is specifically wanting to capitalise on these skills that we had from the training. So, then Matt was inspired by an improvisation he saw with myself and another member [Yoka Jones], and went ahead and wrote that play [Silent Forest…]. I think different people came in and out, so the group has been this constantly fluid thing. It’s hard to know how to contain it, except that we've got that great commonality of using the Suzuki Method of training. […] I don't know, I think we're still trying to find our identity.[2]
_______________
Check the Works page to find out about our slate of projects under development and our past works.
Check the Works page to find out about our slate of projects under development and our past works.
[1] Vygotskiĭ, L. S. Thought and Language. Translated by Eugenia Hanfmann, Gertruda Vakar, and Alex Kozulin. Revised and Expanded edition. The MIT Press, 2012.
[2] 20200325, Transcript Zoom.
_______________
Damon Branecki, Em Kimber, Angelique Zhou. Photo: Matthew Crosby
_______________
Monday Sessions: come join our dialogue on Suzuki Method Actor Training, Grotowski, improvisation and co-devising practice. Mondays, 6-9pm, North Melbourne.
Thanks to all who participated in the 2024 Psychophysical Theatre Intensive. Our investigations will continue in the Monday sessions, next intensive workshop slated for August 2024… stay tuned!
North Melbourne Small Hall
Book here for the Monday Sessions
North Melbourne Small Hall
Book here for the Monday Sessions