Emil and the Detectives

Andy is an award-winning director of theatre, music theatre and opera. He has also worked as creative producer of multidisciplinary arts programs, creative director of large-scale events and festival director. In 2007 Andy co-founded Adelaide based theatre company Slingsby. The company is now well-established as a leading international immersive theatre company, having toured to more than 170 venues, with over 1,000 performances across 13 countries and counting.

Andy is renowned for creating original live performance moments that are emotionally powerful and visually bold. His work across theatre for young audiences, opera, cabaret, music theatre and symphonic concerts has pushed him to develop a distinctive theatrical aesthetic that is at once personal and epic.

Andy has directed productions and events for Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, State Opera South Australia, State Theatre Company South Australia, Adelaide Festival of Arts, Adelaide Fringe, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide Chamber Singers, Australian String Quartet, Windmill Theatre, Restless Dance, Tutti Ensemble, Rundle Mall Management Authority and the International Astronautical Federation. In 2019 Andy was Show Director for the World of Wearable Art Awards Show in Wellington, New Zealand.

Her plays include TENDER, LAND & SEA, BLOODWOOD, THE SUN AND THE OTHER STARS, A CATHEDRAL, LITTLE BIRD and VALE. Her adaptations for the stage include Henrik Ibsen’s GHOSTS, Oscar Wilde’s THE YOUNG KING and Erich Kästner’s EMIL AND THE DETECTIVES.

Her work has been produced by companies all over Australia and the world including Belvoir, Griffin, Hothouse, Summer Play Festival/Public Theatre NYC (TENDER); State Theatre Company of South Australia (GHOSTS, LITTLE BIRD, VALE); NIDA (VALE); Adelaide Cabaret Festival (LITTLE BIRD); Brink Productions (LAND & SEA) and Slingsby (THE YOUNG KING, EMIL AND THE DETECTIVES).

Her work has toured to theatres and festivals all over Australia, NZ, the UK, Ireland, the USA, Canada, China and India.

She has been a writer in residence at the Donmar Warehouse in London, at Griffin Theatre in Sydney and is a double recipient of Goethe-Institut Scholarships, including as an invited member of the Theatertreffen International Forum in Berlin.

She has won a Helpmann Award for EMIL AND THE DETECTIVES and an AWGIE Award for LITTLE BIRD. Her many other awards include the Adrian Consett Stephen Memorial Prize (TENDER); the Inscription Chairman’s Award for Best Play (TENDER); the Patrick White Playwrights’ Award (BLOODWOOD); the Inscription Playwriting Award (BLOODWOOD); the Jill Blewett Playwrights’ Award (A CATHEDRAL); the Barbara Hanrahan Fellowship (THE SUN AND THE OTHER STARS); a Ruby Award for THE YOUNG KING; and the Henry Lawson Prize for Prose.

She is currently working on a television project with Matchbox Pictures as well as her debut novel, ANCHOR & ALP.

Geoff has worked as an Event Producer, Production Manager, Lighting Designer, Set Designer, Public Artist and Venue Designer. His work has ranged from many smaller innovative productions at the Performance Space, Queens Theatre, Belvoir, Red Shed, non-theatre venues (tents, warehouses and more) to large-scale theatre/dance productions, festivals, art exhibitions, events, museums and venue creation. His love of light and dance has led him to work with many of Australia’s top choreographers and allowed him to explore the endless combinations of colour, angle, intensity, and movement, of light. With his company Bluebottle he has designed many lighting installations and lit public artworks, buildings, landscapes and freeways. Geoff received a Churchill Fellowship in 2010 to study Outdoor Theatre in Europe. This led to the creation of Barrio, inspired by the “participatory theatre” movement currently sweeping Europe. Finding innovative ways to involve community and other industry in Events was at the heart of Barrio. Its success was in the unique way it gave its audience ownership of the event. Geoff has been working on Festivals since the late 80s when he began working for Sydney Festival. He subsequently went on to become an integral part of the senior management teams of the Sydney Festival, Adelaide Festival and Womadelaide Festival. Recent Awards include: 2015 Helpmann Award for Best Scenic Design for Little Bird; Ruby Award for Sustained Contribution; Green Room Award Best lighting Design for Night Letters; Sydney Theatre Award Best Lighting Design for Never Did Me Any Harm. Geoff is Slingsby’s Artistic Associate (Design).

Wendy’s Set & Costume Design credits include Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Tim Overton/Wickedly Good Productions), The Thing That Matters and Touch & Go (Sally Chance Dance), Seashore (Sally Chance Dance/Dream Big), Vaudeville (Brink Productions/Rory Walker), Land + Sea (Brink Productions), Supernature and North/South (Australian Dance Theatre), The Lighthouse (Patch Theatre), Picaresque (Robyn Archer, Adelaide Festival), Long Tan (Brink Productions/State Theatre Company South Australia), Babyteeth, Blastedand Pornography (State Theatre Company South Australia). Wendy also designed the Adelaide Cabaret Festival’s opening, closing and family galas from 2016 to 2018 (Adelaide Festival Centre).

Wendy’s Set, Costume & Lighting Design credits include Symphonie de la Bicyclette (Brink Productions/Hew Parham) and The World Is Looking For You (Control Party).

For Adelaide Festival Centre, Wendy’s event designs include Adelaide Cabaret Festival (Co-Designer 2015-2019) and Adelaide Guitar Festival (2016). Late-night club designs for Adelaide Festival include Blinc Bar(Designer, 2015), Lola’s Pergola (Design Assistant/Coordinator 2014), Barrio (Design Coordinator 2012-2013), Persian Garden (Assistant Designer 2006, 2008). Wendy also designed the biannual Bowerbird Design Markets from 2013 to 2017.

For Slingsby, Wendy’s work has included The Young King, Man Covets Bird, and The Tragical Life of Cheeseboy (Set & Costume Design), The Boy Who Talked to Dogs and Emil & The Detectives (Set Design) and, most recently, A Concise Compendium of Wonder – The Tree of Light (Environment Design).

Ailsa completed the Bachelor of Dramatic Art in Design (NIDA) in 2003. Recent design credits include Jack Maggs and The Puzzle (State Theatre Company South Australia), Watershed (Opera Australia), The Marriage of Figaro (State Opera South Australia), Marrow (ADT, costume design) and The Tree of Light (Slingsby).

Design credits for State Theatre Company South Australia include: The Dictionary of Lost Words (costume design), Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill, Girls and Boys, Single Asian Female, Chalkface, The Goat, or Who is Sylvia (costume design), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Ripcord (set design), Gaslight, Jasper Jones, End of the Rainbow, Sense and Sensibility, Switzerland, The 39 Steps, Beckett Triptych, The Importance of Being Earnest, In the Next Room, or The Vibrator Play, The Ham Funeral, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), The Price and The Cripple of Inishmaan.

Other design credits include Tracker (ADT, costume design), Dido and Aeneas (State Opera South Australia), A Christmas Carol (Ensemble), Boxing Day BBQ (Ensemble), The Boy Who Talked to Dogs (Slingsby, costume design), Emil and The Detectives (Slingsby, costume design), Cloudstreet! (State Opera South Australia, costume design), Yo Diddle Diddle (Patch), Cranky Bear (Patch), Debut 5 (Restless), Naturally (Restless). Ailsa worked in costume on The Straits, LAID, Undertbelly – A Tale of Two Cities, Underbelly – The Golden Mile, Blue Water High, The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce, Ten Empty, The Boy from Oz Area Spectacular, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert – The Musical and High School Musical. Ailsa was the recipient of the 2011 Mike Walsh Fellowship.

Stacey brings more than a decade of diverse arts management experience, vibrant enthusiasm and a passion for establishing efficient organisational systems to her role as General Manager & Producer at Slingsby.

Stacey relocated from Melbourne in February 2017 to take on the role of General Manager/Producer for Slingsby. She has worked with leading Victorian arts organisations such as Back to Back Theatre, Melbourne Festival, Insite Arts, Big West and Jodee Mundy Collaborations.

As well as producing projects, Stacey is a self confessed systems nerd, working with organisations to support them through periods of change and implement structures to find better ways of working. In 2018 Stacey was recognised as a Future Makers Fellow with the Centre of Sustainability Leadership.

In June 2019, Stacey was appointed as Deputy Chair of Access2Arts.

Chris is a lighting and video designer from Adelaide, South Australia. Following his completion of the Technical Production course at the Adelaide Centre of the Arts, Chris has continued to develop his experience across theatre, dance, and other live events in Australia and internationally.

Chris worked on the inaugural Illuminate Adelaide Festival to deliver their flagship project Light Cycles in the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, crafted by the world-leading Montreal-based studio Moment Factory. Chris has since been working on a number of large outdoor lighting installations with Illuminate Adelaide, Moment Factory and others.

Chris has worked with State Theatre Company South Australia on Single Asian Female, A View from the Bridge, Brothers Wreck, In The Club, Terrestrial, Mr Burns, Red Cross Letters, Eh Joe for the Beckett Triptych, Gorgon, Masquerade, The Kreutzer Sonata, Maggie Stone and Little Bird. Chris has completed designs for Gravity and Other Myths’ Ten Thousand Hours and Playbook. Carla Lippis’ Mondo Psycho live at WOMADelaide 2022. Theatre Republic’s The Garden, How Not To Make It In America, The Bleeding Tree and Lines. Australian Dance Theatre’s The Third, Objekt, Of All Things, The Beginning of Nature Part 1 and Ignition 2016. Restless Dance Theatre’s Zizanie and Touched. Slingsby’s The Tree of Light, The Boy Who Talked to Dogs, Songs for Those Who’ve Come Across the Seas, Emil and the Detectives and The Mouse, The Bird and The Sausage. Windmill Theatre Company’s Moss Piglet, Rella, Creation Creation, Hiccup!, Beep, Grug and the Rainbow, Big Bad Wolf and Story Thieves. Vitalstatistix’ The Photo Box, Cher and Quiet Faith. Flying Penguin’s Oleanna, Bitch Boxer and Seawall.