Dioni Butt
Dioni has been working as a Casting Director, Casting Associate, Company Manager and Children’s Manager on commercial musicals for the last 20 years.
Casting credits include: SIX The Musical, MAMMA MIA!, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella The Musical, Phantom Of The Opera, Matilda The Musical, Here Lies Love, Strictly Ballroom, Legally Blonde The Musical, Love Never Dies, King Kong The Musical, The Addams Family, How To Train Your Dragon, Mary Poppins, West Side Story, Jersey Boys, Hairspray, Dusty – The Original Pop Diva.
Company Management credits include: MAMMA MIA!, A Christmas Carol, Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella The Musical, West Side Story 2021, School Of Rock, Barry Humphries: The Man Behind The Mask, American Idiot Live, Legally Blonde The Musical, West Side Story 2010, Dusty – The Original Pop Diva.
Children’s Management credits include: Billy Elliot The Musical, Matilda The Musical
Natalie Gilholme
Natalie was most recently Casting Director for the Australian production of Back to the Future and The Lord of the Rings – A Musical Tale. She has been the Casting Director for A Christmas Carol playing at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne, Sunset Boulevard for GWB/Opera Australia and Groundhog Day The Musical at the Princess Theatre in 2024. She is also the Casting Director on the Australian production of Wicked the Musical. She has worked with GWB Entertainment casting Jagged Little Pill, An American In Paris (co-produced with The Australian Ballet) and Girl From the North Country. She also cast Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical School of Rock, and West Side Story (GWB Entertainment/BB Productions). Natalie was Associate Director on Sunset Boulevard in 2024, Assistant Director on Groundhog Day The Musical (Australia and London – The Old Vic), and Resident Director with the international production of Matilda the Musical (RSC/GWB). Additionally, she has been on the Resident/Associate Creative teams of Dream Lover (Melbourne season), the Australian tour of Ghost the Musical, West Side Story, La Cage Aux Folles, Gypsy and Jerry’s Girls for The Production Company, Anything Goes (GFO), Sweet Charity, Grease (GFO), and international productions of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Prior to this she performed in over 15 musicals.
Vicky Jacobs
Vicky Jacobs has developed a reputation for her ability to get anyone singing at their best – from Australia’s top music theatre stars to the most nervous new singers.
Vicky is currently musical director for “A Christmas Carol” at the Comedy Theatre. She was Musical Director for ‘Elegies’ for Clovelly Fox and ‘The Heartbreak Choir’ for Melbourne Theatre Company for which she received a Green Room Award nomination.
Vicky has been Associate Musical Director on some of this country’s biggest musicals including ‘Hairspray’, ‘Moulin Rouge’, ‘Come From Away’, ‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’, ‘Jersey Boys’, ‘Grease’ and ‘Singin’ in the Rain’.
As well as music theatre, Vicky loves working with choirs. Vicky is the founder and director of Glee Club, Melbourne’s original singalong choir. Glee Club hosts regular singalong events around Victoria and Tasmania and also runs weekly choirs, solo singing opportunities and workshops. In 2023 Vicky traveled to San Fransisco to work with Bobby McFerrin using his circle songs approach and is loving incorporating some of these ideas into her choir rehearsals.
Vicky writes and arranges choral music which you can find at www.sheetmusicplus.com and The Australian Music Vault Choir Project.
Vicky is proud to be part of the team that developed the Number 1 Vocal Warm Up app for smartphone, Warm Me Up which you can download on iPhone or Android.
Kaori Maeda-Judge
With a diploma in screen acting (Film and Television Institute) and a BFA in Music Theatre (Victorian College of the Arts), Kaori’s on-screen credits include a series regular on the Australian soap, Neighbours as Jasmine Udagawa, appearing alongside Nazeem Hussain on his comedy skit show, Orange Is The New Brown as well as playing Tessa on NBC series, La Brea.
Kaori’s on-stage credits include the original Australian cast of David Bowie’s musical, Lazarus playing Maemi (The Production Company), White Pearl, written by Anchuli Felicia King and directed by Priscilla Jackman, playing Ruki (Sydney Theatre Company), The Dismissal written by Laura Murphy, Blake Erickson and Jay James Moody covering Margaret Whitlam and Junie Morosi (Squabbalogic), The Hello Girls directed by Jason Langley, playing Bertha Hunt ( Hayes Theatre Co./Heart Strings Theatre Co), Little Women Directed by Amy Cambell, playing Meg March (Joshua Robson Productions/Hayes Theatre Co.) and Tony award winning, Old Vic production of A Christmas Carol, Directed by David Spencer (GWB Entertainment).
Kaori has also had the pleasure of being invited to workshop new works with acclaimed productions companies such as Sydney Theatre Company (Top Coat 2021), Melbourne Theatre Company (The Elegant Woman 2024), Antipodes Theatre Company (By the Grace Of 2020, Ribbons in Their Hair 2022, The Year Without Summer 2023).
Liam McIlwain
Liam McIlwain is a theatre maker passionate about interdisciplinary storytelling. Most recently, he was Resident Director for the Original Australian production of Dear Evan Hansen.
A graduate of NIDA with a Master of Fine Arts (Directing), Liam has built an impressive directorial career. Credits include Groundhog Day (Resident Director), Rent (Associate Director), Mary Poppins (Resident Director), and Come From Away (Resident Director & Choreographer) in Australia.
Liam has worked extensively with Cameron Mackintosh’s Les Misérables, serving as Resident Director for productions across the USA, Canada, UAE, Singapore, and the Philippines, as well as staging productions in the UK, Japan, and Brazil. He also acted as the Australian Auditions Director for the ongoing Les Misérables – Arena Spectacular world tour. Recently he travelled to Tokyo to cast the upcoming Japanese production of Mary Poppins.
His other directing credits include And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens (NIDA), Me and the Sky (NY Times Music Video), Catch Me If You Can (CQU), the Les Misérables 30th Anniversary Gala (Toho, Tokyo), and Moving On – Telescreen (Triple J Music Video). He was also Assistant Choreographer for Shakespeare in Love (MTC).
Beyond directing, Liam is a strong advocate for mental health awareness in the arts. He co-produced the benefit concert Out From Under and co-founded the Equity Wellness Committee at MEAA, where he served as co-chair for four years.
Before transitioning to directing, Liam enjoyed a successful career as a performer, appearing in numerous productions including Mary Poppins, Les Misérables, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Pirates of Penzance, Gypsy, Bye Bye Birdie, Grease – The Arena Spectacular, Sunset Boulevard, Saturday Night, Dusty, Cats, Shout! and High School Musical. In addition to his stage work, he has contributed to arts education as a guest teacher at several institutions including WAAPA, UNSW, Brent Street, and PSA.
Rhys Velasquez
Rhys Velasquez (they/them/she) is an artist, advocate and award-winning casting director, known for their passion and expertise in creating a more inclusive and equitable performing arts industry. Rhys began their professional journey studying musical theatre at the Arts Academy in Ballarat, graduating in 2013.
Starting their career as a performer and choreographer, Rhys has worked around the globe, performing in major commercial productions through to independent theatre, cabaret and live music. Career highlights include Swing/Dance Captain in Shrek the Musical (GFO), Agwe in Once on This Island (Altitude Theatre); Swing/Dance Captain & Associate Choreographer for Paw Patrol Live (Nickelodeon/Life Like Touring) as well as credits with The Production Company, StageArt and many more.
Their enthusiasm for casting began at a young age when they spent countless hours scrapbooking images of their favourite musicals and television shows and casting their friends in roles that best suited their talents. It was during their studies they discovered casting was a real profession. They knew then that casting was where they would eventually end up.
Rhys founded Evolution Casting in 2021 to become a positive force of change in the performing arts industry and beyond. Since its launch, Evolution Casting has fast become a celebrated industry-shaker, known for creating exciting and contemporary casting designs. In 2023, Rhys won the CGA Award for Best Casting in a Theatre Production for their work on Choir Boy (NTofP). Rhys’ other casting credits include work with Belvoir, Hayes Theatre Co, Griffin Theatre Company, Darlinghurst Theatre Company, Antipodes Theatre Company, Joshua Robson Productions and many more.
Rhys is also the Casting Manager for Malthouse Theatre and is a proud member of the Casting Guild of Australia (CGA). They are a founding board member of Stage A Change and passionate about mentoring and fostering the next generation of performers and creatives.
Rhys is passionate about creating an industry that is a source of pride for all and hopes to one day expand their expertise into education, programming and artistic direction.