JB Theatre Co

GIA OPHELIA for SYDNEY FRINGE FESTIVAL 2025
(WORLD PREMIERE)

WRITER Grace Wilson

DIRECTOR/PRODUCER/DRAMATURG Jo Bradley

PERFORMER Annie Stafford

SOUND & LIGHTING DESIGNER Otto Zagala

STAGE MANAGER Luke McGilvray

ASSISTANT PRODUCER Bianca Watkins

Writer’s Note

GIA OPHELIA is a play about young women in Australian theatre. It’s a play about typecasting, longingly walking along Pier ¾, it’s about experiencing rejection after rejection and spending thousands to be tossed away. GIA OPHELIA is both a love letter and a death note to the experiences young women go through to make it in the scene here in this country, and the emotional turmoil they must undertake to experience and play a role. But most importantly, GIA OPHELIA is about growing old and fearing for your passions, fearing that you missed your chance. The answer is you haven’t, you never will. The human spirit is undeniable, passion is a fire that never ceases. This is my love letter to the people out there who never let that flame go out.

Director’s Note
7 months ago I said to Grace “Do you have a play I could do for Sydney Fringe?” and she said “No but I’d love to write you one”, and Gia Ophelia was born. The initial pitch was “You know how Tom Felton never got over Harry Potter? What about that, but with Ophelia?” and I was hooked. I’m so grateful to the whole team for coming aboard on this journey with me and Grace. Annie, Otto, Luke and Bianca have worked so hard, and been absolute troopers with juggling constantly updating drafts. This work is Fringe at its best: really talented people coming together to make theatre under tight deadlines and budgetary constraints. Thank you to Randwick City Council for supporting this work and allowing me to pay my artists. Special thanks also to: Alana Shootingstar, Dom Mercer, Ariadne Sgouros, Maddie Flood, Zoe Hollyoak, Lucy Clements. We hope this production will be the first of many iterations, and we can’t wait to continue to develop this script and story, and bring it to you again in 2026.

Production Photography by Robert Miniter:

Grace Wilson | PLAYWRIGHT

Grace Wilson (she/her) is an emerging playwright living on Yuggera and Turrbal land in Meanjin. At the age of 17, she was shortlisted for the Queensland Theatre Young Playwrights’ Award and won the award in the following year with her work, GOODBYE, ELI ANDERSON. Grace has gone on to be a finalist in several other major awards including Sydney Theatre Company’s Patrick White Playwrights’ Award, Griffin Award, Queensland Writers Centre’s Stageable, and shortlisted for the Martin-Lysicrates Prize and the Queensland Theatre Premier’s Drama Award, all of which Grace is the youngest in history to be on the list. She has also been published by Regional Arts Australia, Queensland Writers’ Centre, ATAR Notes Australia, highly commended for the ABC Heywire Competition and longlisted for two commissions (ATYP Foundation Commission and Griffin Award 2024). Grace has also undertaken several playwrighting training programs including JUTE WriteSparks, Queensland Theatre’s Young Writers’ Ensemble, ATYP Fresh Ink Mentoring and National Studio, La Boite Assembly and Playlab Incubator. She is currently under commission with Observatory Theatre and is programmed with Queensland Theatre’s Door 3 Season for 2025.

Jo Bradley | DIRECTOR PRODUCER DRAMATURG

Jo (she/her) is a director, dramaturg and producer who is passionate about new and contemporary playwriting. In 2024, she graduated from the NIDA Directing course and founded her own theatre company, JB Theatre Co (@JBTheatreCo). JB Theatre Co’s inaugural production was the Australian premiere of SNOWFLAKE by Mike Bartlett at the Old Fitz, directed by Jo Bradley. SNOWFLAKE sold out, received rave reviews, and won a Sydney Theatre Award. In 2026, SNOWFLAKE will transfer to Ensemble Theatre in Kirribilli, and Jo will make her professional directing debut.

Jo’s directing practice has a strong literary focus, and she loves collaborating with new writers as a director and dramaturg. GIA OPHELIA will be her fourth collaboration with Grace Wilson after staged readings at ATYP, KXT Storytellers, and the Old Fitz New Work Festival. 

Jo works as a freelance theatre critic, writing for Limelight Arts, and her blog Scribbles of Stage and Screen (@ScribblesOStageAndScreen ). She also is a script reader for a range of playwriting awards and commissions, and is currently doing a dramaturgy internship at Belvoir st Theatre. 

Her full bio can be found at Jo-Bradley.com and her website JBTheatreCo.com

Annie Stafford | GIA

Annie (she/her) has completed the Musical Theatre Foundation Course at VCA, the BFA (acting) at NIDA and the Acting Shakespeare at RADA. She received the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Female Performance in an Independent Production for her performance in Stupid Fucking Bird and for the last 3 years has been touring Australia with multiple children theatre productions with CDP including a tour to Singapore. Annie has also produced with Little Eggs Collective and Legit Theatre Co, productions including ‘Moon Rabbit Rising’ (25a) and ‘Dumb Kids’ (KXT).

Luke McGilvray | STAGE MANAGER

Luke McGilvray (he/him) is an emerging stage manager with a Diploma of Live Production and Technical Services from the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA). He has worked on productions including The Wizard of Oz (Northshore Theatre Company), Sister Act the Musical (Crossroads Live), Ordinary Days (Company of Dramatic Arts), Spider’s Web (Pymble Players) and August: Osage County (Belvoir Street Theatre). He has supported new work development with Sydney Theatre Company and Sydney Actors Studio, and is passionate about collaboration, organisation, and cultivating a supportive, professional atmosphere.

Otto Zagala | SOUND & LIGHTING DESIGNER

Otto Zagala (he/she/they) is a composer and designer based between Tarndanya, Adelaide and Eora, Sydney. Their practice is deeply research-driven, blending experimental production, text, and pedagogy, and where they might overlap and coincide.

They have collaborated with galleries, musicians, theatre companies, and visual artists, and currently study at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA), undertaking a BfA Technical Theatre and Stage Management.

Otto loves The Muppets, chilled red wine, making art, and helping other people make art.

Bianca Watkins | ASSISTANT PRODUCER

Bianca (she/they) is an emerging writer, theatremaker and graduate of NIDA’s MFA in Writing for Performance (2024). Most recently, her comedy-horror play Have A Safe Trip was staged as part of KXT Storytellers Festival 2025. Earlier this year they directed William Duke’s short play, Alas, Poor Mummy! for Short+Sweet Festival 2025. In 2023, she co-wrote and assistant directed Amadeus for NIDA’s Festival of Emerging Artists, and wrote a libretto for composer Aija Draguns, In Cosmic Utero, which was nominated as a finalist at the 2025 Art Music Awards (Work of the Year: Dramatic). Currently, Bianca continues to write dark comedy for stage and screen, and wants to produce stories that are equal parts silly, equal parts scary.

Production Photography by Robert Miniter:

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Special thanks: Lucy Clements, Hayden Tonazzi, Robert Miniter, Robert Hoang, Maddie Flood, Ebony Tucker, Ariadne Sgouros, Dom Mercer, Patrick Phillips

This production was supported by Randwick City Council’s Community Investment Program.

Poster image: Patrick Phillips

Production images: Robert Miniter

Rehearsal images: Robert Hoang