About Jigsaw Theatre Company

Jigsaw Theatre Company creates and stages innovative, quality theatre for young audiences aged from 4 to 18. We are committed to developing new and original works in both traditional and non-traditional performance spaces. We perform anywhere that presents creative possibilities and is accessible to the broad spectrum of people that make up our youth and family audiences.

We believe in the value of the arts for young people. We are focused on making theatre that expects an audience to be intelligent, curious, savvy and demanding when it comes to theatre experiences. We expect them to not only be able to engage with difficult and complex themes... we expect them to expect us to provide that engagement.

Jigsaw Theatre Company believes in engaging in rigorous developmental processes and working with highly skilled artists drawn from both Canberra and the wider arts industry to produce innovative, exciting new works that will perform locally, nationally and internationally.

Artistic Directorate

Sally Blackwood

Sally is a director, producer, writer and French stage interpreter. She holds a Post Graduate Degree in Directing (NIDA) and a Bachelor of Arts (Double Major Theatre/Film & French, UNSW). Sally was Assistant Producer / Producer at Sydney Opera House 2002-2007.

Between 2008-2010 Sally developed and worked as Creative Producer of KidsPlay new annual children’s and family program at Glen Street Theatre.

Sally’s production credits include: various theatrical productions, opera, live festival events, television commercials, short films and television drama.

Sally’s directing credits include: Macbeth (restudy for Opera Australia);
The Butcher and The Bear (The Edge Performing Arts Centre, Auckland);
Il Campanello di notte (Sydney Conservatorium of Music); Antigone (Atelier Théâtre); Colder Than Here (NT); One Good Beating (NIDA). Specifically for Sydney Opera House, Sally has created and directed: JACK! The Musical; Music Book ’09 & ’10; The Little Mermaid; The Royal Seed; Strings & Things.
As Assistant Director: Falstaff (Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona); Il Trovatore, Tannhäuser (Opera Australia); Shopping & F**king (NIDA).

Ben Laden

Ben is currently Festival Director of Little Big Shots: International Film Festival For Kids. Previously, he was Artistic Director of Courthouse Arts in Geelong, a position he has held from 2008 - 2011 after initially being appointed as the Creative Producer in 2006. He has an MA in Art Curatorship and was a recipient of the Margaret Lawrence Bequest in 2008. His directing credits include Master and Servant (Courthouse Arts), Going Out Tonight (The Butterfly Club), and Post/Man (2005) and The Golden Dawn Project (2002) for the Artrage Festival in Perth. He was Associate Director on Under Milk Wood for Deckchair Theatre, and was Producer for a number of projects including Medea (Courthouse Arts / Chapel off Chapel), Urgent for the Next Wave Festival. He has previously Lectured at WAAPA in the Aboriginal Theatre Course and was a teacher and Company member of KAOS Theatre in Perth.

Catherine Roach

Catherine is director, creative producer, and writer. A graduate of the Victorian College of Arts in Directing, over the past 18 years she has specialized in directing and performing in puppetry and visual theatre. For Jigsaw Theatre Company, Catherine worked with the company as Puppetry Director for Wendy, The Lost Thing, Long Time Till Tea and re-mount director for Kings Hall Nine and Arborio.

Main stage directing credits include Flotsam & Jetsam (Small Shows), Unspoken, Boston Marriage, Speaking In Tongues, Barmaids (The Street Theatre) Three Sisters, Hedda Gabler (FreeRain Theatre), She received a ‘Canberra Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Direction’ for Speaking In Tongues.

Catherine also participated in the Master class in Puppetry/Theatre Design with Petre Matasek part of UNIMA International Puppetry Festival, Perth, 2008. Catherine was a member of the puppetry and visual Company Skylark for 8 years as a performer and director in both adult and children’s shows, and contributed to the creative developments of new work for the company. She toured nationally several times Skylark and was the only female puppeteer in the critically acclaimed The Hobbit (Christine Anketell Productions). She performed as a puppeteer on the international stage in the USA and in China with Skylark on Wake Baby directed by Nigel Jamieson (Producer: Performing Lines).

Catherine is an experienced educator who spends time teaching acting, directing and puppetry in schools and the community. Catherine has tutored at Canberra Youth Theatre, adapting 3 children’s books for performances. Currently she is a member of The Hive Dramaturge Program at The Street Theatre.

Chris Thompson

Chris is a graduate of Victoria College Rusden with a BEd in Drama & Media Studies. A former Artistic Director of St Martins Youth Arts Centre and Union House Theatre, he was a founding member of the HotHouse Theatre Artistic Directorate in Albury-Wodonga. He was director of MUDfest at Melbourne Uni, the Biting Dog Theatre Festival in Albury and the Monash Uni Schools Theatre Festival (winner of the Drama Victoria Award). His plays for young people have been nominated for four AWGIE awards, winning twice for Shady Characters and The Bridge. His screenplay for the feature film The Tumbler was nominated for the QLD Premier’s Literary Awards and won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. Chris was co-creator of Shock Jock on TV1-Foxtell and With Tim Ferguson on Channel 31 and wrote the digital dome-show, Problem With Pluto for the Melbourne Planetarium. His work with the Victorian Arts Centre includes adapting and directing Sonya Hartnett’s Wilful Blue, writing Lily Lasseter and the Floating Zoo for the 2002 Chookas Children’s Festival and writing and directing the workshop-performance project Spinout which was recently shortlisted for the inaugural ArtsHub Awards and will return for a season in the Famous Spiegeltent in 2012. Currently he is working on POSTi, an interactive internet play for primary schools produced by the Victorian Arts Centre and the Education Department. Chris reviews teenage fiction for Viewpoint Magazine, lectures at ACU in theatre and playwriting and is on the Board of Theatre Network Victoria.

Jigsaw Theatre Company Ambassadors

Jigsaw Theatre Company is immensely proud of its heritage and its achievements over the past 36 years. These have been possible only through the efforts of professional and independent artists and creatives, educators, dedicated staff, and members of the Canberra community who have served on its board.

We are delighted to announce the following as our inaugural Jigsaw Ambassadors, recognising their valuable contribution to the life and work of Jigsaw Theatre Company:

• Andrew Lu OAM - Board Member (2006 - 2010)
• Glenda Naughten - Board Member (2007 - 2009)
• Vasilikis Nihas - Board Member (2000 - 2006)
• Kate Rose - Board Member (2006 - 2010)
• Jamila Rizvi - Board Member (2008 - 2010)
• Glenda Smith - Board Member (2007 - 2009)
• Sally Wilson - Board Member (2006 - 2008)

Our History

Jigsaw Theatre Company was established in 1974 as a producer of professional theatre for young audiences with a focus on touring into schools. For almost four decades, Jigsaw Theatre has maintained a key role in the national youth arts landscape through its commitment to high quality work and its recognition of the need to change in response to the changing demands of both its audience and the industry.

‘The Jigsaws’ as the company was originally known, emerged during a period of intense interest in and exploration of the relatively new form of Theatre In Education inspired by the work of English drama educator Dorothy Heathcote. It was founded by Carol Woodrow who established both Canberra Youth Theatre and Jigsaw Theatre under the auspices of Reid House Theatre Workshop where she was Artistic Director.

Starting as a three month pilot project with funds from the Australia Council, the new Jigsaw Theatre Company soon saw that grant grow into operational funding augmented by the ACT Schools Authority which, as was often the practice in those times, seconded two teachers to form part of the ensemble of five performers.

In the late seventies the company’s work focused very much on combining performances with workshop based activities and it was not unusual for a forty minute performance to lead into a two and a half hour actor-led workshop.

Over the next several years, the company was well supported with both arts and education funding consolidating its educational based theatre in schools. In the early eighties, Jigsaw Theatre Company formally separated from Canberra Youth Theatre enabling each company to form its own entity. In the late nineties, again in response to changing demands, Jigsaw moved more into text based performance commissioning original works from well established and high profile writers and creative artists.

In the early 2000’s, the Company extended its work to include at least one in-theatre season of work each year and began touring nationally, presenting works at many festivals including Come Out in South Australia, Chookas! at the Victorian Arts Centre, Awesome in WA and the Sydney Festival.

Towards the end of that decade, changes within the Education Department saw an end to education sector funding for the company. Around the same time, Jigsaw entered into a five year funding agreement with artsACT that will support the company through to 2013.

In 2010, the Company changed again, restructuring its creative leadership and adopting an Artistic Directorate model bringing together four highly experienced artistic directors from Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne to develop and implement the Company’s programme.

As one of artsACT’s Key Arts Organisations, Jigsaw remains the only funded professional theatre company in the ACT.