Workshop Artists

Caitlin Baker is a director, dramaturg and theatre maker living and working on Ngunnawal/Ngambri land. With a focus on feminist narratives, and reinvented classics, her work seeks to interrogate the intersections of politics, sex, and adaptation in contemporary Australia. Her recent credits include Joanna Richard’s philosophical thriller You Can’t Tell Anyone, Sophie McIntosh’s biting black comedy macbitches, William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Karen Vickery’s new translation of Chekhov’s Seagull, and Nigel William’s Lord of the Flies (co-directed with Lachlan Houen). In 2025 she will be directing Joanna Richard’s Lifeboat, as well as Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. As an assistant director, Caitlin has worked on Chaika’s Collected Stories and Canberra Youth Theatre’s Soul Trading, and The Initiation. As a dramaturg, Caitlin most recently worked on You Can’t Tell Anyone’s development, as well as Julian Lanarch’s AWGIE nominated How to Vote. She received First Class Honours for her 2023 English Honours Thesis on Sarah Kane under Dr Rebecca Clode. Her performance history encompasses companies such as Canberra Youth Theatre, Canberra Rep, Echo Theatre, Lakespeare and ACT Hub. Caitlin is thrilled to be returning to Canberra Youth Theatre as a Workshop Artist, after starting her journey as a participant nearly eight years ago.

Jade is a proud nonbinary creative living on Ngunnawal country. Since graduating highschool last year they spend their time putting off the looming threat of adulthood by writing plays highlighting the lived experience of young people. Their debut work Happy Meals, Happy Kids made its professional debut at The Q this year, a brave new piece exploring the expectations of teenagers amidst a raging climate crisis. They were incredibly fortunate to be a participant in ATYP’s National Studio, developing their craft as a playwright over a week with 19 other emerging writers. Jade’s work has an urgent focus on social justice and they hope to inspire the next generations of theatre makers to continue creating challenging and intersectional work.

Christopher is a professional actor, writer and director from Ireland, trained at The Samuel Beckett Centre, Dublin, and Ecole Jacques Lecoq, Paris. Since moving to Canberra in 2016, he has become one of the city’s most prolific and celebrated performers, winning the inaugural Helen Tsongas Award for Excellence in Acting in 2019 for roles in Twelfth Night, Icarus, Howie the Rookie, and Metamorphosis. As artistic director of Bare Witness Theatre Co., he has produced ten shows to date, in Ireland, the U.K., France and Australia, winning a reputation for raw, physical theatre with a political edge. Recent work has included directing Sympathetic Resonance for Canberra Youth Theatre’s Emerge Company; the surveillance epic I Have No Enemies in Canberra and Melbourne; Crime and Punishment at The Street Theatre; and the multi-award-winning physical fable Plenty of Fish in the Sea with Clockfire Theatre Company at Sydney Fringe, Adelaide Fringe, and Edinburgh Fringe.

Anna spent nearly nine years in the United Kingdom where she worked for the Theatre Royal Bath and The Egg, Children’s Theatre, in a variety of roles from youth theatre tutor to director. In 2009 she was appointed the position of Trainee Theatre and Education Practitioner a full time Arts Council funded position that saw her work alongside and in collaboration with UK’s award-winning theatre companies, such as The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), Pins and Needles Productions and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. 2015 saw her gaining the position of Associate Artist at The Egg Theatre, where she learned about and practised the devising process, working alongside and under the instruction of many award-winning theatre makers such as Sally Cookson, Amy Leech, and Emma Earle. For Canberra Youth Theatre she: created and directed a site-specific piece for I’m Me Festival (2017); co-directed Filtered (2018) for the young company; created and presented another original work for I’m Me Festival (2019) at Gorman Arts Centre; and co-directed Possibility (2019) for the teen ensemble.