About
Benjamin is a freelance Circus, Film and Theatre Director based between Sydney and Melbourne. A graduate of the NIDA MFA (Directing) course in 2015 and Bachelor of Comm (Media) at RMIT in Melbourne. He co-founded Periscope Productions, and directed and designed Chatroom (2012), The Dice House (2013) and Attempts on Her Life (2014). Benjamin also directed and designed independent productions: Sugar Sugar for MKA and The Pillowman for Four Letter Word Theatre. In 2016, Benjamin undertook Directing Secondments at MTC and Opera Australia. In September 2017 he directed Fraternal by Jake Stewart for NIDA. In February/March he directed A Little Bit of Pain Never Hurt Anyone for Periscope which performed in Melbourne and Holden St Theatres for Adelaide Fringe. He was Assistant Director to Kip Williams for A Cheery Soul at Sydney Theatre Company in 2018. He directed Disparate Scenes for Millennial Dreams and The Human Voice for Periscope in 2019 and was a winner of a Mike Walsh Fellowship for travel and secondment to Montreal Completement Cirque and Avignon Festival.
Recently he was an onstage Steadicam operator for The Picture of Dorian Gray (2020 and 2024 West End Season) and Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde (2022-2023 tour) at Sydney Theatre Company
Benjamin was the Performance Studies Coordinator for the National Institute of Circus Arts (NICA) 2021-22 in Melbourne and has directed 4 student productions for the school including Eclipse and Onism. In 2023 he attended the Embodied Poetics intensive in Vilnius, Lithuania and directed Go/No Go (La Mama) and Comet Boombox (Bluestone Arts Church) and was an associate director with Na Djinang Circus.
Current Projects
Ø Assistant Video Director - Dracula directed by Kip Williams. Sydney Theatre Company July 2024
Ø Steadicam Operator - The Picture of Dorian Gray directed by Kip Williams. Theatre Royal Haymarket, London Jan-May 2024
Past Projects
2023
Ø Associate Director for Na Djinang Circus - Of the Land on Which We Meet Directed by Harley Mann. Melbourne Fringe/Regional Tour 2023
Ø Director - Go/No Go by Natalie Frija for La Mama Explorations September 2023
Ø Director - Astonishing Comet Boombox By Vivian Nguyen and Chenturan Aran. Melbourne Fringe 2023
Ø Director - Eclipse Re-Development Circus WA, August 2023
2022
Ø Director – Can You Hear Us? for NICA 1st Year Students. November 2022
Ø Steadicam Operator - Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde directed by Kip Williams. Sydney Theatre Company July 2022
Ø Director – Eclipse for NICA 3rd Year Students, June 2022
Ø Creator/Dramaturg - Reigen for Periscope. Stables Meat Market, March 2022
2021
Ø Director – Onism for NICA 2nd Year Students. December 2021
Ø Director – The Human Voice for Periscope. Stables Meat Market, March 2021
2020
Ø Steadicam Operator - The Picture of Dorian Gray directed by Kip Williams. Sydney Theatre Company November 2020
2019
Ø Winner of a 2019 Mike Walsh Fellowship - for travel to Montréal Complètement Cirque and Avignon Festival. July 2019
Ø Director – Disparate Scenes for Millennial Dreams by Ang Collins, Lewis Treston and Fiona Spitzkowsky. Periscope Productions, June 2018
Ø Director – DFTM (Music Video) by Cry Club. March 2019
2018
Ø Assistant Director – A Cheery Soul by Patrick White. Directed by Kip Williams. Sydney Theatre Company, November 2018
Ø Artistic Associate – Perpetual Frustration Machine Directed by Zebastian Hunter. Theatreworks , December 2018
Ø Audio Visual Designer – RUR_2020 by Rohan Byrne. For PlayReactive/National Science Week. BioFab3D, St Vincents Hospital, August 2018
Ø Director – High School Hero (Music Video) for WHARVES. April 2018
Ø Director – A Little Bit of Pain Never Hurt Anyone by Brendan McDougall. Holden St Theatres, Adelaide. February-March 2018
2017
Ø Director – Fraternal by Jake Stewart. NIDA Acting Graduation Production. October 2017
Ø Director – Fire Place by Harold Pinter and Caryl Churchill. Fitzroy Apartment. July 2017
Ø Coordinator – NIDA/ACO Video Portrait Project for the NIDA MFA (Directing) program. April/May 2017
Ø Dramaturg - Perpetual Frustration Machine by Stephen Sewell. In Creative development for Theatreworks in 2018
Ø Associate Designer - Angels in America by Tony Kushner. Fortyfive Downstairs. September 2017
Ø Lighting Designer - A Dog Called Monkey by Laura Collins. Tallulah Theatre. Northcote Town Hall. June 2017
Ø Assistant Producer – This, This is Mine by Duncan Ragg. A Corinthian Food Store production. April 2017
Ø Director – Man You Want Me To Be Music Video for WHARVES. March 2017
Ø Director – Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons by Sam Steiner. Workshop Performance, Newtown. February 2017
2016
Ø Director and Editor – Music Video: Judy by Castlecomer September 2016
Ø Assistant Director – The Olympians by Stephen Sewell. Directed by Jeff Janishenski. May-June 2016
Ø Director – Time and the Room by Botho Strauss with Translation by Jeremy Sams. In association with Periscope Productions. April 2016
Ø Secondment (Directing) – Miss Julie by August Strindberg. Directed (and adaptation by) Kip Williams. Melbourne Theatre Company. March-April 2016
Ø Rehearsal Observer – Luisa Miller by Verdi. Opera Australia. January -February 2016
2015
Ø Director – Request Programme by Franz Xaver Kroetz. NIDA Director's Graduation Production. November 2015
Ø Director – One for the Road by Harold Pinter. Workshop production with NIDA graduating acting students. August 2015
Ø Director – Music Video: Did Somebody Tell Me? by Polish Club. NIDA and Triple J Unearthed, August 2015
Ø Director - Ghost Stories Devised work created with students from the Aboriginal Centre for Performing Arts in Brisbane. June 2015
Ø Director – The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh. Scenework with Actors Centre Australia. April 2015
2014
Ø Director and Designer – The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh. Four Letter Word Theatre for Melbourne Fringe 2014
Ø Director and Designer – Sugar Sugar by Yve Blake. MKA: Theatre of New Writing, HYPRTXT Festival, Tuxedo Cat
Ø Actor – Fish on Europa (as Bill) by Natasha and Felicia King. Cryptophasia Theatre Company
Ø Co-Director – Attempts on Her Life by Martin Crimp. Touring Production (Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane) Co-Produced by Sydney University Dramatic Society and Periscope Productions
2013
Ø Director and Set Designer – The Dice House by Paul Lucas (Periscope Productions).
o Winner of Production of the Year 2013 at Melbourne University.
Ø Director and Participant – At the End of the Day (Short Documentary)
‘Shot over three weeks at the infamous Greyhound Hotel, drag queen ‘Connie Lingus’ (Tim Burgess) shares his life and work while creating a drag persona for the director.’
Ø Director – About a Dog (Short Film)
‘A man returns to his home to find a bald thug yielding a knife. He also has a dog’
Ø Director and Set Designer – Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Stephen Sondheim (Queen’s College)
Ø Guest Director – Hotel (Until Monstrous)
Ø Actor – Equus (as Alan Strang) by Peter Shaffer. Presented by Four Letter Word Theatre
2012
Ø Director and Set Designer – Chatroom by Enda Walsh (Periscope Productions)
o Worked with Orygen Youth Health to create education package promoting safe online practices and positive mental health. Attended by 80 secondary school students as well as students of Melbourne University.
o Toured the production to Festival of Australian Student Theatre (FAST) in Brisbane, September 2013.
Ø Director – Fawlty Towers (Queen’s College)
Ø Assistant Director – A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (FLW Theatre)
Ø Actor – The History Boys (as Posner) by Alan Bennett. Presented by FLW Theatre.
2011
Ø Actor – Twelfth Night (as Feste) by William Shakespeare. Presented by Melbourne University Shakespeare Society (MUSC)
Ø Actor – No Place Like (as Trick) by Chris Summers. Presented by Union House Theatre
Ø Assistant Director – RENT (Queen’s College)
Positions
Ø Performcne Studies Coordinator at NICA (2021-2022)
Ø Co-Founder of Periscope Productions
Ø Resident Director at Four Letter Word Theatre 2014
Ø Working Party Member – NAAUC Conference July 2014
Ø President of Music and Drama Society 2012 (Queen’s College)
Ø Arts Representative on General Committee 2013 (Queen’s College)
Ø Coordinator of Queen’s College O’week Program 2013
Education
National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Sydney
Attended 2015-2016
Master of Fine Art (Directing)
RMIT University, Melbourne
Attended 2012-2014
Bachelor of Communications: Media
Certificate IV in Training and Assessment
Through Plenty Training 2020
Embodied Poetics
Lecoq Intensive, Vilnius June 2023