CharleY sanders
Charley is a performer, director & theatre maker, and Co Artistic Director of House of Sand. She holds an Adv. Dip. Arts in Acting from the Adelaide College of The Arts and a Master of Fine Arts in Directing from NIDA.
Charley has worked extensively as a freelance director including for State Theatre Company SA (Welcome The Bright World; assistant director, Maggie Stone) ActNow (co-director, Zero Feet Away) Lambert House Enterprises (Flood), as a teaching director at AC Arts (Titus Andronicus; Mother Courage; O Go My Man; Slavs; 5 Years) Sydney Theatre Company (Assistant Director, Julia) Opera Australia (2nd Assistant Director, Cosi Fan Tutte) and for Paul Lucas Productions (NYC) as director & dramaturge on Trans Scripts. Charley’s graduate work from her MFA was a new play, Infected, written by and with renowned playwright Stephen Sewell.
From 2010 to ’13 Charley was artistic director of Adelaide theatre collective Early Worx, and directed works including Love Child (Joanna Murray-Smith), Seven Jewish Children (Caryl Churchill), The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later (Moises Kaufmann) and Like A Fishbone (Anthony Weigh). Their numerous awards included Charley’s 2011 receipt of the Adelaide Critics Circle Emerging Artist of the Year.
With House of Sand, where Charley has served since 2015 as Co Artistic Director, with choreographer (and sister) Eliza Sanders, Charley has directed three contemporary performance works — Pedal, Castles and all hOurs — three dance works — Knitting While Sleeping, Feet.Us and Fear of Eggs — and three plays — REVOLT. SHE SAID. REVOLT AGAIN. by Alice Birch Welcome The Bright World by Stephen Sewell (with STCSA) and The Split by Sarah Hamilton. All have been presented to critical and popular acclaim in a variety of cities around Australia and NZ, earning the company numerous awards including an Adelaide Fringe ‘18 weekly award for Best Dance, the NZ Fringe ’16 Most Promising Emerging Company, and runner up for the Best Directed Chaos direction award ’18 and two nominations for 2019 Adelaide Critics’ Circle Awards. In November 2022 House of Sand premiered That Was Friday, an epic new work of dance, theatre, and documentary penned by Charley and Eliza alongside New York playwright Jack Sulliva and Armenian Alevi-Zaza performance maker Su Seç.
As a performer Charley has appeared in King Lear (STCSA), Sweeney Todd (ACArts), RENT (Catchy Title) and Angels In America (Papermoon), created and performed two sellout-award winning solo cabaret’s A Modest Exhibit and Queer, and most recently understudied the role of Dexie in Triple X by Glace Chase for the Sydney Theatre Company.
In Addition to her core practice, Charley has experience as a teacher of acting and directing, musical theatre and cabaret performer, drag artist, dramaturge, producer and tour manager.She is qualified and regularly works as an audio describer for blind and low vision audiences and works as a business consultant to creative entrepreneurs through Creative+Business. Among many producing and management roles, Charley has held positions including Programs Producer for the Sydney Fringe Festival (2019 - 2021), Program Manager, Pride Amplified for Sydney World Pride (2022 - 2023), and is the Co-Chair (LGBTQIA+ Identified) of the MEAA Equity Diversity Committee (2023-4 term).
selected resume of projects
Julia by Joanna Murray-Smith - Assistant Director (presented by STC) - 2023
That Was Friday - Co-Author & Director - 2022
Talk of Angels by Terence Crawford (STCSA State Resident in Development) - 2020
The Split by Sarah Hamilton - Director - 2019
all h0urs - Director & Producer (presented by The Sydney Fringe) - 2019
Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare (presented by AC Arts) - 2019
Welcome the Bright World by Stephen Sewell - Director (presented by State Theatre Company South Australia and House of Sand) - 2018
REVOLT SHE SAID REVOLT AGAIN by Alice Birch - Director - 2018
Fear of Eggs - Director - 2018
Feet.Us - Dramaturge - 2017
Pedal & Castles - Director, Dramaturge & Producer - 2016 - 17
Flood by Chris Issacs - Director (presented by Lambert House Enterprises) - 2016
Mother Courage by Bertrolt Brecht - Director (presented by AC Arts) - 2016
Cosi Fan Tutte by W A Mozart - 2nd Assistant Director (presented by Opera Australia) - 2016
Knitting While Sleeping - Dramaturge & Producer - 2016
Infected by Stephen Sewell - Director (presented by NIDA) - 2015
Pyramid (Twin Caverns) - Director (presented by NIDA) - 2015
Tender by Nicki Bloom - Director (presented by NIDA) - 2015
Hang With You (Mio) - Director (presented by House of Sand & NIDA) - 2015
O Go My Man by Stella Feehilly - Director (presented by AC Arts) - 2014
Zero Feet Away - Co-Director (presented by ActNow) - 2014
Trans Scripts by Paul Lucas - Development Director & Dramaturge (presented by Paul Lucas Prod) - 2013/14
Maggie Stone by Caleb Lewis - Assistant Director (presented by STCSA) - 2013
5 Years - Director (presented by AC Arts) - 2013
Like A Fishbone by Anthony Weigh - Director (presented by Early Worx) - 2013
Slavs! by Tony Kushner - Director (presented by AC Arts) - 2012
The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later by Moises Kaufmann - Director (presented by Early Worx) - 2012
Love Child by Joanna Murray-Smith - Director (presented by Early Worx) - 2012
Ladies In Waiting - Director (presented by Early Worx) - 2012
Queer: The Wicked Webs We Weave - Creator / Performer (presented by Early Worx) - 2012
121, devised from Shakespeare - Director (presented by Early Worx) - 2011
Seven Jewish Children by Caryl Churchill - Director (presented by Early Worx) - 2011
Modern American Masters: LaBute, Mamet, Durang - Director (presented by Early Worx) - 2011
A Modest Exhibit - Creator /Performer (presented by Early Worx) - 2011
Headshot & Photo 1: Lorna Sim
Photo 2: Prudence Upton
CHARLey'S OCCASIONAL BLOG
LIKE AN OCCASIONAL TABLE, BUT WITH WORDS
BONUS! Congratulations on getting this far down the page. You get extra content.
I wouldn't call myself a regular blogger, but sometimes I think things, and slightly less frequently I write them down. Slightly less frequently again than that I post them here, for those of you who're interested to have a gander at.
Things I tend to write about:
theatre & the arts (funnily enough)
the never-ending zoo-monkey shit-fight that is Australian politics
gender, sexuality and queer thinking things