Outhouse Theatre Co in association with Red Line Productions present
How to Defend Yourself
By Liliana Padilla
Directed by Claudia Barrie
How to Defend Yourself
World Premiere Production in the 2019 Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville and at
Victory Gardens Theater
Developed By
UC San Diego, Wagner New Play Festival 2018
Production directed by Kim Rubinstein
Mentored by Naomi Iizuka, Deborah Stein, Allan Havis, Kim Rubinstein Dramaturgy: Gabe Greene, Script Consultants: Dylan Key, Ali Viterbi
Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago, Illinois
Chay Yew, Artistic Director Erica Daniels, Managing Director IGNITION Festival of New Plays 2018
Workshop directed by Marti Lyons
Developed at the Ojai Playwrights Conference Robert Egan, Artistic Director/Producer Workshop directed by Danya Taymor
How to Defend Yourself was supported by residences at the Blue Mountain Center and the Anderson Center at Tower View
Cast and Creatives
Principal Cast
Georgia Anderson - Diana
Madeline Marie Dona - Mojdeh
Brittany Santariga - Brandi
Jessica Spies - Kara
Jessica Paterson - Nikki
Michael Cameron - Andy
Saro Lepejian - Eggo
Swing/ Understudy Cast
Isabelle Nader - Diana
Sarah Nader - Mojdeh
Kian Pitman - Brandi
Chelsea Yarad - Kara
Ziggy Resnick - Nikki
Bayley Prendegast - Andy
Fraser Crane - Eggo
Naomi Kann- Susannah
Ruby Howe- Susannah
Mariah Sciacca- Susannah
Eden Rose Hough- Susannah
Playwright | Liliana Padilla
Director Claudia Barrie
Producer Jeremy Waters
Assistant/ Swing Director Sophia Bryant
Stage Manager Mollie Webb
ASM Jamie-Lee Ferguson
Set Designer Soham Apte
Lighting Designer Saint Clair
Sound Composition & Design Samantha Cheng
Costume Designer Emily Brayshaw
Dialect Coach Linda Nicolls-Gidley
Fight Choreography Scott Witt
Intimacy Coordinator Shondelle Pratt
Set Construction Tom Fahy
Promotional Photography Marnya Rothe
Production Photography Philip Erbacher
Rehearsal Photography Richard Farland
BIOGRAPHIES
Liliana Padilla - Playwright
Liliana Padilla’s work explores community, the body, power, and healing. How to Defend Yourself will be produced at NYTW as part of their 22/23 season, in a production co-directed by Liliana, Rachel Chavkin and Steph Paul. How to Defend Yourself won the Yale Drama Series Prize, was an international Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist, and was featured on The Kilroy’s list. Liliana’s work has been produced at the Humana Festival, Victory Gardens Theatre and the La Jolla Playhouse, and workshopped at the Playwright's Center, Hedgebrook, and the Ojai Playwrights Conference. Liliana teaches at the acclaimed Sewanee Writers Conference. Liliana is a theatre maker, performer, teacher and creative doula. MFA Playwriting: UCSD, BFA Theatre: NYU.
Claudia Barrie - Director
Claudia Barrie is a critically acclaimed actor, director and producer based in Sydney. As a director Claudia has worked extensively for venues and companies including: Belvoir, Griffin, National Theatre of Parramatta, Mad March Hare, Outhouse, Last One Standing, Old Fitz, Kings Cross Theatre, Rock Surfers, New Theatre and Loud Mouth Theatre Company. In 2017 her two productions, Dry Land and Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo received a total of 6 Sydney Theatre Award nominations including Best Production and Best Direction of an Independent Production. These two shows also received 7 STA Honourable Mentions. In 2019, her production of The Cripple of Inishmaan received 3 Glug nominations including Best Independent Production. As a producer, Claudia mounted many successful Australian and International plays under the names Bareskin Productions (2005-2007) and Mad March Hare Theatre Company (2010-2019). As an actor she has worked considerably across TV and Film and her Theatre credits include work for companies such as the Ensemble, Griffin, Old Fitz and Darlinghurst Theatre Company. Claudia also works extensively with Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting) students at esteemed institutions including NIDA, WAAPA and ACA directing their productions. She worked as a regular tutor for Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) and Brent Street School of Performing Arts. Claudia is a graduate of the University of Western Sydney's late Theatre Nepean where she acquired a Bachelor of Performance (Acting) in 2004.
Jeremy Waters-Producer
Jeremy is the Artistic Director of Outhouse Theatre Co. For Outhouse, as producer/ actor: Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Ulster American, The Flick (Seymour Centre), The Aliens and Four Minutes Twelve Seconds (Old Fitz), BU21 (Old 505) & Four Places (Tap Gallery). In NYC: Ride, Mercy Thieves & The Boys. For Outhouse, as producer: John, Gloria (Seymour), Trevor, Dry Land (KXT). Other theatre credits: The Big Time (Ensemble) Dresden (Bakehouse), A Man With 5 Children (Darlinghurst Theatre Co), A Girl With Sun In Her Eyes (Red Line), 5 Properties Of Chainmale (Griffin Independent), Bondi Dreaming (10 Alphas), Lobby Hero (Dudley St Prods), Harvest; Jerusalem; The Pillowman (The New Theatre). Screen credits include Young Rock (NBC Universal), Pieces of Her (Netflix), Total Control (BB Prods), Janet King (Screentime), the acclaimed web series, Jade Of Death (Last Frame) and the feature films Sweet River (ACM Films), The Combination Redemption (Pinnacle) and I Am Woman (Goalpost).
Sophia Bryant - Assistant Director
Sophia is an emerging director in Sydney’s Independent theatre scene. She graduated from The University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Media and Communications and a Bachelor of Arts, in which she majored in Theatre Production (2020). Throughout her degree she was awarded the First Prize for First Year Theatre Studies in 2017 and 2018. Sophia has also trained with NIDA in their Advanced Actor’s Residency (2017) and Young Actors Studio (2015). Sophia was selected to be a part of the 2021/2022 Kings Cross Theatre Step Up program. She was also a co-producer of King’s Cross Theatre’s Panimo Pandemonium Festival (2022).
Sophia’s directing highlights include; Dumb Kids (KXT, 2022), Mr Theatre (KXT, 2022) and Assistant directing; Tell Me Before The Sun Explodes (KXT 2022) and Significant Other (New Theatre, 2021). Prior to this she directed Jodi Rabinowitz’s original work SAMO is Dead which was awarded the Sydney University Bright Idea’s Grant of 2019, and was later performed as part of King’s Cross Theatre’s Step Up Festival (2019). As well as Red ( Sydney University Dramatic Society’s Summer Season, 2019).
Sophia has worked with Sport For Jove, Stage Managing in their 2019/2020 Summer Season of Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night, as well as their 2019 Education Season production of Othello, and performing in their 2021 Henry IV Symposiums. Sophia has performed in a variety of productions with University of Sydney’s Dramatic Society, including; Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Annie Baker’s The Aliens and Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Macbeth. Sophia has also performed in the New Theatre’s Production of Neighbourhood Watch (2021).
Mollie Webb - Stage Manager
Mollie Webb is an artist from Sydney, Australia. She is a 2021 graduate from Actors Centre Australia with a BA in Performing Arts (Stage and Screen). During her time at ACA, Mollie worked with several directors including Adam Cook, Richard Carroll, Shaun Rennie, Liam Mcilwain and Troy Harrsion. Mollie loves storytelling across all performing disciplines, and made her Sydney theatre debut earlier this year in CHORUS (Q THEATRE), directed by Ninefold's Shy Magsalin. Mollie is ecstatic to now be working with Outhouse Theatre Company as Stage Manager in their Production of How to Defend Yourself
Soham Apte - Set Designer
Soham Apte (he/him) is an Indian multi-disciplinary artist and designer creating work on unceded Gadigal land.
He is passionate about designing for films, music videos, and theatre, and a recent graduate from NIDA with a BFA in Design for Performance.
Since graduating from NIDA, he has designed ‘End of Winter’ (dir. Kate Gaul at Griffin Theatre), ‘Heroes of the Fourth Turning’ (dir. Craig Baldwin at Seymour Centre) ‘Tell Me Before The Sun Explodes’ (dir. Hayden Tonazzi at KXT) and ‘The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee’ (dir. Douglas Wilson at Sydney Grammar School).
While at NIDA, he designed the set for a live-cinema adaptation of Frans Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’ (dir. Ben Schostakowski), which opened at NIDA in June 2021. In addition to theatre, Soham has also been production and costume designing for music videos and short films such as Kafana, (dir. Marko Cvijanovic), which was selected for Oz Film Festival 2021.
Saint Clair - Lighting Designer
Saint Clair is a Sydney-based lighting designer, producer, and writer, and a recent graduate of NIDA. Her credits this year include Ghosting the Party and A is for Apple at Griffin Theatre Company as Lighting Associate, and Destroy She Said at Belvoir 25a. She has also been touring with John Bell on his Words&Music regional tour as Lighting Designer and Stage Manager.
She was the producer and designer for Lilac, a new Australian play presented at Kings X Theatre.
Samantha Cheng - Sound Designer
Sam Cheng is an emerging Asian-Australian composer, sound designer, instrumentalist, and graduate from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She is a flautist and saxophonist, and has written for theatre, film, podcasts, animation, concert, and more, working with both acoustic instruments and electronic sound design in all genres. She has been involved in sound/music for theatre productions for the Sydney University Dramatic Society (Orlando, Kill Climate Deniers, Constellations, Rice), Slanted Theatre (Ching Chong Chinaman), Seymour Centre (Albion), New Theatre (The Park), Eye Contact Theatre (Breathing Corpses), and KXT Panimo Creatives (Dumb Kids, Misc, Tough Titties).
Emily Brayshaw - Costume Designer
Dr Emily Brayshaw is a Sydney-based costume designer and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney who also lectures and tutors at NIDA. Her research interests and publications focus on fashion, textile and costume designs in France and America between 1890 and 1930, specialising in dress and costume during World War I, the aesthetics of Kitsch, fashion and crafting in times of crisis, and dressing to perform classical music. Emily also presents her research internationally, including topics generated by her costume design practice. Her theatre credits include, Time Stands Still (2017), You Got Older (2018), Eurydice (2018) and The Cripple of Inishmaan (2019). In addition to her costume and publishing work, Emily has an active practice as a viola player, visible mender and knitter in Sydney and is a regular guest speaker on ABC Radio across Australia about fashion and costume history.
CAST
Georgia Anderson - Diana
Georgia is a dynamic & energetic Dancer/Singer/Actor from Perth, WA. She trained professionally at The Next Step Performing Arts & Brent Street receiving a Cert. IV in The Performing Arts. Georgia had her first big-break playing Estella in Handa Opera’s “West Side Story”. She also performed in their most-recent production of “La Traviata” on Sydney Harbour. She’s had the wonderful opportunity to work with many independent, Australian dance & theatre companies including Girls On Tap, The Blackguard, Phly Crew, The Forge Tap Company, Tap For All, Dance Editorial, One Dance Collective & Junkyard Beats. Georgia’s featured in TVC’s for Hungry Jacks, Kit-Kat, Apple, Telstra and an activewear campaign for Supre. She has appeared on The Disney Channel’s “Hanging With” and featured in music videos for Australian artists including Emma Louise. Georgia most recently toured with DrummerQueens playing “Bey-B” and starred in ATYP’s “The Deb” originating the role of “Chantelle/Dance Captain”.
Madeline Marie Dona - Mojdeh
A five-foot firecracker. Madeline Marie Dona is a Uruguayan-Lebanese actor, proudly born and bred in Western Sydney. Madeline graduated in 2021 from the BA in Acting at WAAPA. Her three years training in Perth saw her take on lead roles in plays such as Gloria, Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. and Ellida. Having extensively trained in dance and movement, Madeline is interested in storytelling through bodies in space. She is particularly inspired by the devised works of Frantic Assembly, SITI Company and Pina Bausch. Passionate about the arts in Western Sydney, Madeline hopes to be a part of the growing investment in stories of under-represented Australians.
Britany Santariga- Brandi
Brittany is an actor and graduate of Waapa’s Bachelor of Arts, Acting. She grew up in Townsville, where she trained and studied for many years with Theatre iNQ in their Bridge Project. Recent theatre credits include: Orphans (Theatre iNQ/Stacks On), As you like it (Bard Work), Othello (Theatre iNQ), Two’s a company (JackRabbit Productions)
Screen credits: Latecomers (SBS On Demand), Fighting Season (Foxtel), Home and Away (Seven Networks). This year, Brittany and two fellow actors formed their theatre company Stacks On Theatre, in which she produced and performed in Dennis Kelly’s Orphans. She is currently directing her first show with Stacks On, A Pinter Revue.
Jessica Spies - Kara
Jess holds a Bachelor of Acting from NIDA (2020). Since graduating, Jess has appeared in The Power of Love (created by Lucia Mastrantone and Amber McMahon) and Sydney Theatre Buses (dir. Alexander Berlage and Antoinette Barbouttis, The Old Fitz). Most recently, Jess co-produced and performed in Much Stuff as part of the Panimo Pandemonium Festival (KXT). Screen credits include Mr. Inbetween (Fox), Heartbreak High (Netflix) and short film Cut (Physical TV Company). Jess will also appear in the forthcoming web series The Five Minute Call (written by Simon Burke and Helen Dallimore).
Jessica Paterson - Nikki
Jessica is a graduate of the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (Acting). Theatre credits include; HOTEL (NIDA), LA TRAVIATA (Opera Australia), THE PLAYERS (Bell Shakespeare), THE ROVER (Belvoir), GIRL SHUT YOUR MOUTH (Black Swan State Theatre Company) and THE LADEN TABLE (kxt/bAKEHOUSE). For television; A PLACE TO CALL HOME (Foxtel/Seven Network). Jessica is also a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, is a teaching artist and dramaturg, and is soon to complete her Masters of English Studies at the University of Sydney.
Michael Cameron- Andy
Following his first professional theatre show in 2014 (Sugarland, ATYP), Michael Cameron subsequently auditioned for and trained at Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA, Acting). In his final year, he enjoyed a great variety of roles, including Johnny Dowd (Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Black Swan State Theatre Company) and John Proctor (The Crucible, WAAPA). Following his move back to Sydney in 2019, Michael's theatre credits include two iterations of This Bitter Earth (Presented by Bub, 2019/2020) and Unperturbed (Nevus Productions, 2022). He has acted in a multitude of short films, most notably Yesterday, My Dead Boyfriend Messaged Me on Grindr (Familee Productions, 2020) , which won Best LGBTQ Film at the Los Angeles Film Awards. Michael has enjoyed a range of smaller roles across various Australian TV and film projects, including Amazing Grace (2020), Evicted! A Modern Romance (2021) and The Secret She Keeps (2022).
Saro Lepejian - Eggo
Made in Syria, partly assembled in Armenia, and sent via express post to Sydney, Australia. Saro is a recent graduate of Actors Centre Australia. His most recent project was in Channel 7’s docudrama Crime Investigation Australia (Shadow Productions). Within the walls of ACA, Saro relished the opportunity to play a range of characters, such as Tommy in The Dreamer Examines His Pillow, (dir. Johann Walraven), Gibbet in The Beaux’ Stratagem (dir. Claudia Barrie), Joe Pitt in Angels in America (dir. Troy Harrison), Skin Lad in ROAD (dir. John O’Hare), Simeon in The Seagull (dir. Camila Ah Kin), Flute in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (dir. Jonathan Mill), Winston in 1984 (dir. Will Mears), and Lewis in Summer of the Aliens (dir. Troy Harrison)
SWING/ UNDERSTUDY CAST
Isabelle Nader - Diana
Isabelle Nader has been active in musical theatre since her childhood. She was a chorus member in Wizard of Oz (Castle Hill Theatre) Cinderella (Castle Hill Theatre) and Beauty and the Beast (Castle Hill Theatre). After graduating UTS she volunteered at New Theatre, Newtown as FOH member. In 2019 she volunteered as Stage Manager for The Angry Brigade (New Theatre). After behind-the-scenes work, she wanted to pursue acting, and is a recent graduate of NIDA. This is her first theatre show since graduation.
Sarah Nader - Mojdeh
Sarah Nader is an Iranian-Australian actor with prior performances in independent films, such as Beasts and Anamnesis. Having recently moved to Sydney from Perth, Sarah is fluent in Farsi and has trained with coaches from WAAPA, Acting Mastery, and at AMAW. She joins Outhouse Theatre Co in her debut performance on stage.
Kian Pitman - Brandi
Kian is the epitome of a third culture kid, from being born in Australia, to growing up in the multicultural nation of Malaysia. After spending a year in London attending classes at the Actors Centre and RADA, as well as becoming an Actor of the Tower Theatre Company, Kian returned to Australia completing her Acting training at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Throughout her time there she explored many roles both on screen and on stage and was also the recipient of the 2018 Shakespeare Award, in which she played Romeo in “Romeo and Juliet”. Kian’s stage credits include, “Nicky” in Shakers dir. Orna Joseph (London), “Priest” and Swing/Instrumentalist in Twelfth Night Bar’d Work, Sydney (Touring), “Tybalt” and “Paris” in Romeo and Juliet- She Shakespeare (The Factory Theatre), “Name Withheld on Advice of Council” in the award nominated and sell out season of Yellow Face (dir. Tasnim Hossain)- KXT and “Mattilda Blackwell” in Theatre Travels’ Sweet Science of Bruising (Flight Path Theatre). Kian is thrilled to be the “Brandi” swing in Outhouse Theatre Co & Red Line’s co production of “How to Defend Yourself”.
Chelsea Yarad - Kara
Since graduating from the Actors Centre Australia in May this year where she played roles such as Juliet in Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo & Juliet’ directed by Craig Baldwin and Nora Helmer in Ibsen’s ‘A Doll’s House’ directed by Francesca Savige, Chelsea has begun to find her feet in the industry. Taking on the role of KARA (swing) for this production is the first step to this exciting new adventure as she jumps eagerly into the pool of professional actors. With a passion for connecting and sharing stories with others she is thrilled to deliver a work with such relevance alongside a young and energetic cast.
Ziggy Resnick - Nikki
Ziggy is an attention seeker with a passion for making people laugh and making theatre with the weirdos who speak her language. A queer, Jewish, Greek, first generation “Australian” clown, Ziggy comes from a long line of the too-much too-loud type. Refusing to leave the world of make believe until she had no choice but to make it her career, Ziggy graduated from NIDA with a BFA (acting) in 2020. During this time she collaborated with Leticia Caceres on SIX, Priscilla Jackman on Ibsen’s Ghosts and Jim Sharman on Twelfth Night. She also debuted the role of Amélie in the first Australian stage adaptation of the film Amélie, directed byMiranda Middleton.
Since 2020, Ziggy debuted the role of Shoshana in A is for Apple by Jessica Bellamy with Griffin Theatre, worked as a clown on Opera Australia’s Ernani, starred in a new Australian show Trash Pop Butterflies Dance Dance Paradise apart of Midsumma Festival and toured with the Bell Shakespeare Players in 2022. She also co-wrote a new play; Pear-Shaped, which she will act in, to be staged in 2023 at TheatreWorks Melbourne. Ziggy is proud to be apart of the 2022/ 23 SheWrites Collective at TheatreWorks.
Bayley Prendegast - Andy
Bayley started performing in the Blue Mountains with the ‘Glenbrook Players’. He then moved to Sydney, obtaining a bachelor’s degree in performance from ACA. Since graduating he was cast in The New Theatre’s production of ‘Beautiful Thing’ as Ste and then as ‘Mr. Theatre’ with Panimo Creative at KXT. He has also recently started working in television appearing in the Stan series ‘Bump' and the fox showcase series ‘The Twelve’.
Fraser Crane - Eggo
At 21 years of age, Fraser has 14 years of dance, singing, voice and acting experience. His theatre highlights are as follows: his professional theatre debut in Remembering Pirates (Darlinghurst Theatre Company), Natives (Kings Cross Theatre), Bad Smoke (Jipprock Productions), understudying for this year's production of M Rock (ATYP), Reagan Kelly (Metro Arts) and the lead role in Darren Yapp’s Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat alongside Rachel Beck. Screen credits include The Last Days of the Space Age (Disney+), The Family Law (SBS), and San Andreas (Warner Bros.).
THANK YOU
Dino Dimitriadis and the team at Red Line, Josh Anderson, Tim Edmonds at the Seymour, Charlie Vaux, Matt Neto, Mitch Latham, The Genesian Theatre, NIDA, Marnya Rothe, Richard Farland, Philip Erbacher, Richard Broughton, Suzanne Millar at KXT, Joe Peady, Clint & Gaynor Kann, Kate Skinner, Chantal & Raymond Sciacca, Nicole & Darren Hough. And special thanks to Ains, Jasper and Milo for putting up with it all.