Announcing the National Producers Platform Participants 2025

Performing Lines is proud to announce the 2025 cohort for the National Producers Platform.

Selected from around the country, these 14 participants will undertake ten weeks of learning modules delivered online and in-person, facilitated by experienced producers and industry guest speakers.

Performing Lines Executive Producer and CEO, Simon Wellington is pleased to be running the initiative. “This investment in emerging producers is essential to cultivating a pipeline of skilled professionals who can support artists to continue taking risks and nurture the creativity and experimentation that fuels our performing arts sector.”

The Platform is generously supported by The Ian Potter Foundation. Paul Conroy, Foundation CEO commented, “We are delighted to support Performing Lines, a national producing company that seeks to strengthen the independent performing arts sector. While addressing the shortage of theatre producers across the country, the National Producers Platform program also champions producers in regional and remote communities ultimately increasing access to the arts.“

The emerging producers will also attend the week-long national arts market and professional development conference, the Australian Performing Arts Exchange (APAX), in Darwin, Larrakia Country, which coincides with Darwin Festival in August.

In 2026, select participants from this cohort will undertake a paid, 5-week full-time industry placement with a partner organisation to consolidate their skills, further extend their networks, and gain on-the-job experience.

This two-year format will then repeat, 2027-2028, enabling a new cohort to undertake this important skills development program.

Please meet the 2025 Producers Platform Cohort below.

Alira Mckenzie-Williams (She/Her) – SA

Alira McKenzie-Williams is a proud Bundjalung woman, currently residing on Kaurna Land in Adelaide. Alira has recently embarked on a freelance journey as a producer working with companies like ADT, Country Arts, and Sandpit. Recently, she served as the Project Manager for Indigenous Fashion projects at the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Foundation, coordinating the events Country to Couture, National Indigenous Fashion Awards and Australian Fashion Week. Her career began with the State Theatre Company of South Australia as a Stage Manager, followed by public programs for the Tarnanthi Contemporary Aboriginal Art Exhibition.

Photo credit: Saul Steed

Aisyah Sumito (They/Them) – NSW

Aisyah Sumito is a malay-anglo poet, sound artist, gallery technician and community organiser operating towards a provision of tools for collective liberation; which manifests in different ways from the dinner table, through the club and to the gallery. Their threads of research are woven slowly through contemporary and ancestral understandings of gender, disability justice, collective healing and embodied ritual. They perform under different monikers (such as aaqila or halalbutch), sometimes organise small solidarity fundraisers, write prolifically, experiment with sound and waft in other performative capacities. They grew up on Whadjuk Nyoongar country and now live and work across so-called sydney.

Photo credit: Emma Daisy

Annabel Matheson (She/Her) – SA

Annabel Matheson is a queer performer, director, and arts worker based on Kaurna Land. She completed her acting training at Flinders University, holds a Masters in Arts and Cultural Management, and studied with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators (USA). As an artist, she has worked with State Theatre Company SA, Sydney Theatre Company, Vitalstatistix, Theatre Republic, ArtPop, Windmill Theatre Company, Deus Ex Femina, AKA Productions, isthisyours?, and ActNow Theatre, and has won a couple of awards for shows she’s directed. Annabel has produced work for herself and other artists, and has sat behind desks for Windmill, ActNow, Theatre Republic, and Feast Festival.

Caitlin Comerford (She/Her) – TAS

Caitlin Comerford currently works as Creative Producer for Junction Arts Festival, as an independent producer, and sits on the Board of Directors for Theatre North (Lutruwita/Tasmania). Caitlin served as Artistic Director of Stompin Youth Dance Company (2016–2024), leading with a focus on building connection and artistic capacity for both the company and the young people involved. She was Co-Artistic Director of the Australian Youth Dance Festival (2021–2022) and is the Co-Convenor of the Youth Dance Australia Steering Committee. Across all her work, Caitlin aims to create authentic opportunities for connection.

Photo credit: Melanie Kate Photography

Esther Beixuan Geng (She/Her) – VIC

Esther Beixuan Geng is a multidisciplinary producer with a background in art history, film, cultural management, and education. She is dedicated to creating immersive, inclusive experiences grounded in access, care, and connection. In partnership with Bamboozle Theatre (UK), she directed pioneering, long-running immersive theatre projects for children with disabilities and co-led the development of China’s first sensory-friendly children’s theatre. At Shanghai Children’s Art Theatre, she delivered award-winning programs and curated major sector-facing initiatives, including the TYA Forum and Performing Arts Fair. Now based in Melbourne, she is exploring therapeutic, sensory-based work that supports wellbeing, expands access to the arts, and fosters belonging across cultures, abilities, and communities.

Jessica Kejun Xu (She/They) – QLD

Jessica Kejun Xu is a Cantonese settler-migrant learning to make community around care, chronic health conditions and creative play on Turrbal and Yuggera Country, and the Eora Nation. Jess believes in transformative possibilities of creatively connecting across cultures and generations, to (re)imagine and (re)structure work towards cultural safety and thriving communities. She has facilitated creative programs at Burra Learning Place and Pine Rivers Art Gallery, co-produced a community engagement initiative with Belvoir Theatre, and provided research support with the National Ethnic Disability Alliance and Diversity Arts. They also experiment with music, visual art, poetry, movement and creative collaborations to decolonise diasporic dreams on stolen land.

Kyron Weetra (He/Him) – SA

Kyron Weetra is a proud Narungga/Saxon clan artist who was born and raised on Kaurna Country and is now living on Ngarrindjeri country. He is a writer, actor, musician, producer and moonlighter in many creative worlds. Kyron has worked with many Kaurna based arts companies including the State Theatre Company of South Australia as their 2024 resident artist and with ActNow over the past ten years and currently, as a participant in ActNows’ 2025 Cultural Leaders Program. He is incredibly excited about the future of First Nations art and the championing of untold stories.

Photo credit: Sia Duff

Lillie Paton (She/Her) – NSW

Lillie Paton is a proud Ngunawal descendant, multidisciplinary artist and emerging First Nations Producer at Merrigong Theatre. She amplifies Blak, female and LGBTIQA+ voices and creates safe spaces for storytelling and connection. In 2025, she produced Yandha Djanbay, a new play written and performed by Kirli Saunders. Lillie co-founded The Unsupported Group, curating events for women in the Illawarra to share their stories and art. She co-delivered Lonely Hearts – Femmes to the Front with Jesse-Laila Management. As a photographer, Lillie captures bands, concerts, cultural events and First Nations projects. Her poetry and short fiction explore mental health and women’s rights.

Luke Daniel Peacock (He/Him) – QLD

Luke Daniel Peacock is a multi-award-winning singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and emerging producer. He is a descendant of the Meriam people of Erub and based in Magandjin. He’s worked with celebrated artists across Australia and beyond. He founded the historic Painted Ladies project, released a critically acclaimed solo LP, and has been involved in a large range of projects, tours and bands. His work has earned him an ARIA nomination and the Billy Thorpe Scholarship. Luke is also a producer, collaborator, and curator, recently joining BlakDance as Associate Producer. Deeply committed to community, he mentors and supports emerging First Nations artists in the music industry.

Moale James-Proud (She/Her) – QLD

Moale James-Proud is an emerging creative producer, writer and storyteller. Moale is a second-generation migrant with lineage back to Gaba Gaba village, Papua New Guinea (on her mother’s side) and Scotland (on her father’s side). She has been raised by educators and artists (musicians, dancers, weavers, performers and storytellers) and it was this community that fostered her passion for community-led storytelling and celebration. Her first passion comes back to storytelling and empowering and captivating her community in the stories she shares, which she hopes to bring throughout her life and career.

Ngaire Pigram (Thana/They/Them) – WA

A proud queer, Wajarri & Yawuru storyteller from Rubibi, Ngaire Pigram has been active in film, television and theatre for over twenty-five years as a multidisciplinary artist and conspirator for change, with their passion for truth telling and supporting the voices of their communities remaining staunch and at the forefront of their life’s work and creativity. Ngaire strives to collaborate with their communities and the broader industry to create safe spaces for stories that empower and elevate representation of First Nations’ and queer voices to educate and inspire generations of today and beyond.

Rueben Mongoo (He/Him) – WA

Rueben Mongoo is a Yamatji and Nyoongar multidisciplinary artist grounded in raw storytelling, cultural truth, and collaborative creation. His work explores identity, challenges stereotypes, and amplifies First Nations voices through emotionally honest and culturally rich storytelling. Innovation and vulnerability guide his evolving practice, allowing space for both personal reflection and collective truth-telling. He leads with performance, shaped by lived experience and connection to culture and Country. As he steps into producing, Rueben is passionate about creating space for powerful stories—his own and those of others—to be heard, shared, and celebrated.

Sean Guy (He/Him) – NT

Sean Guy is a writer and producer whose favourite plays to write are ensemble comedies, often with a queer twist, which he has produced for theatre companies and festivals all over Australia. Sean has worked on major projects alongside groups such as Darwin Theatre Company, Brown’s Mart Theatre, Screen Territory, and Big Dog Salad, while his training to date has come from many mentors and organisations, including JUTE, NIDA, AFTRS, and PAC Australia. He is ready to take the next step of his journey and looks forward to sharing what he learns with his friends in the Top End!

Photo credit: George Fragopoulos

Remi Roehrs (They/Them) – VIC

Remi Roehrs is an arts manager and producer based on unceded Wurundjeri Country, working at the intersection of performance, visual art, and participatory projects. Their practice centres artist care, community building, queer and trans modes of artmaking, with a focus on interdisciplinary and experimental approaches. Over the past decade, they have contributed to evolving models of artist support, festival practice, and participatory models of event-making. Remi is currently Associate Producer at Asia TOPA, and works amongst other festivals, galleries, artist-run initiatives and public spaces. They hold a Master of Arts and Cultural Management from the University of Melbourne.

Photo credit: Ella Maximillion Studio

Thanks to our supporters:

The National Producers Platform is made possible through support from the Ian Potter Foundation, the Lansdowne Foundation, the NSW Government through Create NSW, CircuitWest, and the Department of the Premier and Cabinet through Arts South Australia.