The Rob Guest Endowment debacle is a missed opportunity for change, says Sonya Suares
Author
Sonya Suares
Sonya Suares
Sonya is a multidisciplinary performer, dramaturg, director, producer and arts activist who made her screen debut in Ocean Girl in the 90s. Feature films include Wil, Knowing, My Year Without Sex and The Last Ride;television highlights are Rush, Very Small Business, East West 101, Lowdown, It's A Date, Legally Brown, Romper Stomper, Next Generation and Five Bedrooms. In 2012, she founded Watch This, producing (and sometimes performing in) Assassins (2013/14),Pacific Overtures (2014), Company (2015/16), Merrily We Roll Along (2017) and A Little Night Music (2018) to critical acclaim and a total of 18 Green Room nominations and 2 wins. Sonya has also served as GM of Red Stitch, Artistic Coordinator at Monash Academy of Performing Arts, and was a founding director of Poppy Seed Festival. Since 2015, she's performed Elbow Room’s We Get It at MTC Neon and Brisbane Powerhouse; toured Polyglot/ Papermoon Puppet Theatre's Helpmann and GRA-nominated Cerita Anak across Australia and the world; and premiered MTC’s Melbourne Talam (GRA nomination, Best Ensemble), Emilie Collyer's 'netball fantasia' Contest and Fleur Kilpatrick's award-winning Whale. Last year, she co-directed Sunday in the Park with George with Dean Drieberg for Watch This, sharing a GRA nomination for Best Direction of a Musical. Sonya is frequently invited to collaborate on the development of new Australian writing; she also works tirelessly to change the face of our live performance sector through her (largely voluntary) work on panels, committees, in forums and via campaigns like the #justnotthatmany national visibility initiative, which she led in 2019