Mark was Born and raised in regional NSW in the City of Wagga Wagga. He has always been an active member of his community working as the coordinator of festivals such as the Re-generate Youth Festival, 10 Minute Play Festival and the Annual Street Theatre Festival. In 2005 he was named Young Wagga Citizen of the Year for his contributions to theatre and youth in his community. He began his theatrical career as a performer in numerous productions with the Riverina Theatre Company, notably The Gizmo, The Club, Les Miserable and Chicago.

Mark has been teaching drama since he was 17 years old and in 2004, he completed his Bachelor of Primary Education, specialising in the areas of drama and music. Mark was a tutor and coordinator for the Riverina Young Peoples Theatre and a tutor for Outback Theatre working on a diverse range of youth theatre projects throughout regional NSW. In 2005 Mark was invited to do a mentorship with the New York Theatre Workshop. He produced and directed award winning productions of Musicals such as RENT, Beauty and the Beast and High School Musical as well as a selection of award winning cabaret shows.

Click Here to download Mark’s Theatrical Resume

2009 has been a very active year for Mark. Since graduating from NIDA Mark began the year Directing an outdoor production of “Grease – on the Beach“. The production was in collaboration with the Sydney Vocal Arts Centre and the Olivia Newton John Foundation. All proceeds from the production were donated to the Olivia Newton John Cancer and Wellness Centre.

As Grease wrapped Mark begun a 5 week secondment with Arts Asia Pacific and Jonathon Biggins on the Australian production of Ave Q. This wonderful cast and crew went on to tour Australia to rave reviews and was one of the most unique and engaging experiences Mark encountered in 2009.

At the end of 2008 Mark began working with young up and coming Australian playwright Emily Calder on a project entitled “Flightfall“. Mark and Emily continued their collaboration into 2009 and the script has developed in leaps and bounds. After workshop readings at NIDA and continued development of the text the Mark and Emily were invited workshop the script at the  Sydney Theatre Company with the assistance of Literary Manager Polly Rowe and three delightfully talented actresses from the residents Alice Ansara, Sophie Ross and Zindzi Okenyo. This workshop created significant changes in the script and proved to be a wonderful professional development opportunity for both Mark and Emily.  The script has since continued to develop and plans are in place to workshop the new text again in 2010 with the aim of staging it upon completion.

Shortly after Ave Q Mark began work as Assistant Director to David Berthold for Tommy Murphy’s new play Saturn’s Return as part of the Sydney Theatre Company’s main stage season. After seconding on the first incarnation of the play whilst at NIDA in 2008 this was a unique opportunity to experience the continued development of this wonderful text and see it find a new and very different life almost exactly 12months on from its original staging as part of the Wharf2Loud season in 2008.

Towards the end of the Saturn’s Return season Mark was fortunate enough to be offered the position of Assistant Director to Geordie Brookman for the 2010 Sydney Theatre Company production of the musical Spring Awakening. It was a very intense initiation into proceedings with the enormous task of casting this award winning musical from a plethora of young and very talented performers. The Sydney Wharf was filled with talented performers all vying for a place in the cast. After auditioning almost 1500 people through open calls, auditions and callbacks in Sydney and Melbourne Geordie and the team ended up with a wonderfully talented and engaging group of your performers. The production commences rehearsals in late December 2009 and opens on February 7th at the Sydney Theatre.

During his studies at NIDA in 2008 Mark begun work on a screenplay entitled Backyard Ashes. An Australian comedy the uses the tradition of backyard cricket to explore themes of mateship, family bonds, the Australian obsession with sport and the age old rivalry between Australia and England. In mid 2009 the script was picked up by well know producer Anne Robinson (West, Crosslife). The script has continue a whirlwind development process through the end of 2009 and is in it’s late stages of final draft development in preparation for pre-production. The opportunity to have his first screenplay produced and made into a feature film is a very exciting prospect for mark that ensures exciting times ahead for 2010.

In September Mark and his fellow Theatre Forward members were invited by Griffin Theatre company to direct the 24hr play Generator. Mark was paired with talented young playwright Jessica Bellamy and together they were presented the challenge of collaborating on a project for only 24hrs. The word “Bill” was the only stimulus and two female actors supplied. Jessica began writing the script at approx. 8pm and handed it to Mark at 7am the following day in order to have it staged  by 7pm that night. What resulted from this was a wonderful and challenging experience that thrilled and excited audiences and showed what was capable of being achieved with collaboration under pressure.

In October and November 2009 Mark returned to his home town of Wagga Wagga to produce and direct a production of the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The opportunity to return home and work alongside the friends and colleagues who had crafted his knowledge and passion for theatre was far to big to resist. The production was recently nominated for 4 CAT Awards in the categories of Best Director of a Musical, Best Production of a Musical, Best Ensemble Cast in a Musical and Best Musical Direction in a Musical. The chance to work back at home with those who are completely responsible for Mark’s career thus far was certainly the highlight of a busy 2009.

At the beginning of the year Mark also begun writing a concept for a Children’s Television show entitle “The Fabulous Chandeliers“. The show is aimed at 4-7 years olds and follows the day to day happenings of The Fabulous Chandeliers. The Fabulous Chandeliers are four, all singing, all dancing, unique and bizarrely interesting characters that are based on the “Doo Woop” girl groups of the 1950’s and 1960’s. They are four singing sisters named Dixie, Shirelle, Crystal and Ronnette who love to shimmy and shake your troubles away. The “Chandies” each have very distinct, quirky and unique personalities and they all have their own individual way of helping others deal with all of life’s little challenges. The show has just recently been optioned by Galaxy Pop Productions (Rocket, Get Ace). The girls have just recorded their first demo single and the show will continue its development into 2010 with many exciting opportunities ahead.

2009 has been an incredibly busy year for Mark but by far it has been the one of the most creatively satisfying years of his life. 2010 holds exciting opportunities with the opening of Spring Awakening, the continued development of Backyard Ashes, The Fabulous Chandeliers and Flightfall. The opportunity to work on such a diverse range of projects in 2009 including musicals, plays, children’s television, screenplays and short plays is the kind of opportunity that doesn’t come along all that often. mark has well and truly embraced all  that has come his way in 2009 and looks forward to an equally satisfying 2010.