THE COMMITTEE

The Living Room Theatre is led by a Board of Directors who contribute a diverse range of skills, experience, and interests for ensuring the efficient, effective and accountable governance of The Living Room Theatre.

Billy Cotsis
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Billy  is an experienced economic development and diversity specialist focused on stakeholder engagement, media relations, community development, event management, and strategy implementation. He recently managed economic development and place management at Inner West Council for nearly six years and has international experience.

As a prolific writer, he has published over 350 articles and is currently working on his eighth book. He has also written and directed documentaries, a miniseries, and short films.

In addition to his work in media, he was a presenter for five years on the award-winning Meraki TV on Foxtel. Billy has received several international film festival awards and was a finalist for the Cultural Diversity Story at the NSW Premier’s Multicultural Media Awards and Best Journalist of the Year at the NSW Multicultural and Indigenous Awards.

ADVISORS

Ray Parslow – Brand Director

Ray is the founder and executive creative director of Extrablack with 30 years of design industry experience.

He has worked across a wide range of sectors, including cultural and non-profit organisations, as well as commercial and financial institutions for national and global organisations.

OUR TEAM

Jo Elliott
Jo’s journey in lighting design began after graduating with a Bachelor of Dramatic Arts (Technical Production) from NIDA. Driven by her interest in integrating architectural lighting with theatrical design, she pursued a Master of Design Science (Illumination Design) at the University of Sydney and is currently a PhD candidate researching the perceptual effects of theatrical lighting techniques in architectural spaces.

Her portfolio encompasses a range of significant architectural and theatrical lighting design projects across Australia. With Steensen Varming, she contributed to high-profile projects including the Sydney Opera House Western Shell and Lighting Master Plan, Belvoir St Theatre, and Port Macquarie Glass House. Her work with Basset (AECOM) includes St Barnabas Church, Broadway, and Newcastle University Theatre.

As an independent freelancer, she has designed lighting for diverse theatrical companies including Theatre of Image and Sydney Festival productions. She is currently working on the Newcastle Civic Theatre Complex architectural lighting upgrade.

Dan Mercer is LRT’s Technical and Production Manager.

Although touring the world with large scale projects, Dan returns to Australia to help LRT deliver extraordinary projects in unusual spaces.

The Living Room Theatre (LRT) was born back in 2000 with the frustration of the prevailing arts scene. Dissatisfied with the sector’s expectation of the stories that imbued St Anne’s body, LRT soon became a home for her unique voice and methodology that she has pioneered for over twenty years.

Through LRT, St Anne’s early works explored personal trauma which developed into the investigation of violence within homes, landscapes, and systems where she pioneered the artistic pedagogy ‘composing self’. Composing self is an embodied approach to collaboration that prioritises constructing safe and self-determined spaces where artists can take risks, extend their practice and reckon with their own methodologies with care and comfort. Justice or rather injustice underpins LRT’s work as St Anne and her diverse collaborators forge new ways, give voice to the vulnerable and speak truth to power by shedding light on systemic patriarchal structures.

LRT draws on the principles of ‘Composed Theatre’ (methodology coined by David Roesner and Matthias Rebstock) where theatrical stage and its elements are approached as ‘musical’ material. Extensive development stages, focus on sensorial, and putting the emphasis on collaboration across disciplines are the usual staples of the LRT productions.

“My work is not about the straight narrative, nor the theatrical arc but rather what is heart driven, illogical with the narrative meted out through image, light, sound and language.” – Michelle St Anne.

Over the last decade LRT has forged partners with international scholars who are fascinated in our approach and aesthetic that has filtered into their publications.

With sell-out shows and high audience engagement, LRT produces ambitious and powerful site-responsive performance. The organisation has a strong sense of integrity, artistic excellence, and innovation, and creates unexpected, poetic experiences that captivate audiences, unleash emotions, and give voice to the most vulnerable. LRT’s work strives to change systemic attitudes towards violence, trauma, and the female body by shifting audience perception, so these insights create small changes within themselves, community, and society.

As the journey continues, LRT remains committed to creating inclusive and experiential contemporary performance works that transcend time, explore space and frame images in hurt and abandoned spaces. We tell stories about women by women to support and develop female voices within the arts, cultural and academic sectors.