MISSION STATEMENT
Shock Therapy’s vision is to create Transformative Arts Experiences. We do this through telling stories that explore what it is to be human - provocative, challenging, uplifting, impactful.
Shock Therapy Arts is a Not for Profit Social Enterprise, founded on the Gold Coast in January 2015 by Sam Foster and Hayden Jones.
Shock Therapy is made up of a team of the arts industry’s most experienced artists, designers, accountants, lawyers, strategic advisors, administrators and producers who work together to achieve the company’s creative vision.
As a Company we are driven by our EPIC values that underpin everything we do. These values are:
· Engage
· Provoke
· Inspire
· Connect
We collaborate with others to create work that engages, provokes thought, inspires and creates impact.
Creatively Shock Therapy’s work covers a broad range of arts practices including; writing, directing and performance works that span conventional theatre spaces, site specific work, immersive experiences, performance art, installation, physical theatre, issue-based youth theatre, children's theatre, digital media, film and workshop facilitation.
AWARDS
WINNER 2025 MATILDA AWARD
BEST ENSEMBLE - CROSSING THE DIVIDE
LORD MAYOR’S AWARD FOR BEST NEW AUSTRALIAN WORK - CROSSING THE DIVIDE
WINNER 2017 MATILDA AWARD
BEST INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION - THE FORWARDS
WINNER 2016 MATILDA AWARD
BEST INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION-VIRAL
WINNER 2015 MATILDA AWARD
BEST INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION – THE PILLOWMAN
WINNER 2015 MATILDA AWARD
BEST DIRECTOR – SAM FOSTER,THE PILLOWMAN
MEET THE PEOPLE
SAM FOSTER
Founder & Artistic Director
Sam (he/him) is an award winning Actor, Director, Writer, Producer, Stunt Performer and Stunt Rigger as well as being a Physical Theatre Performer, Movement Director and workshop facilitator. He is the co-founder of Shock Therapy Arts.
Sam works in theatre, film and large scale events and has worked for a number of companies and festivals over the past 20 years. His career has taken him to New York, London, Namibia, South Africa, Denmark, Norway and India as well as all over Australia.
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Sam has co-created 12 original works with Shock Therapy Arts since founding the company with Hayden Jones in 2015. Shock Therapy has won several awards and been commissioned by major festivals across Australia and Internationally.
Sam has appeared in a number of film and TV projects including Mad Max – Fury Road which he won a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for his work as a Stunt Performer.
He was also awarded Best Director at the 2015 Matilda Awards for Shock Therapy’s production of Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman. Sam has also been nominated twice for the Best Actor in a Leading Role Matilda Award.
Sam was involved as a physical performer in the creative development of King Kong – The Musical by Global Creature. He was part of the creative team for further developments of the show in London and New York in preparation for the shows Broadway premiere in 2018.
He has worked extensively on large scale events as a director and movement director. In 2015, he was assistant to Gavin Robins on the Opening Ceremony of the Asia Cup. In 2016 Sam was the Movement Director on a major project for the 2016 Bleach Festival called Shifting Sands, Directed by Donna Jackson. He was Movement Director for the Woodford Folk Festival Opening Ceremony in 2016 and was Performance Director for the Fire Event at Woodford between 2017 - 2020
Sam also performed in and directed a section of the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Over the past 22 years Sam has toured extensively in secondary schools throughout Australia. He is also a highly-experienced workshop facilitator and has worked for Queensland Theatre, Qld Arts Council, Grin and Tonic, Soapbox Theatre Productions, Zeal Theatre, Backbone Youth Theatre, The Young Company (Cairns), ATYP (Australian Theatre for Young People), Empire Theatre (Toowoomba), NORPA (Northern Rivers Performing Arts), Drama Queensland and Griffith University. He has also worked as a facilitator with Qld Shakespeare Ensemble’s Shakespeare in Prison’s project in 2015.
Sam continues to perform and create work that is meaningful and thought provoking and enjoys exploring cross art form collaborations.
HAYDEN JONES
Founder & Artistic Director
Hayden (he/him) is a performer and contemporary performance maker, working across a range of forms including theatre, installation, immersive experiences and cross art-form collaborations. He has worked as an Actor, Director, Writer, Producer and workshop facilitator, for some of Australia’s most recognised and innovative arts organisations. He is also a co-founder of Shock Therapy Arts.
Hayden has an extensive background working in Youth Theatre, Children’s Theatre and Theatre In Education for over 15 years, writing and directing shows for young people, and touring nation-wide performing and teaching workshops.
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Hayden co-founded Shock Therapy Productions in 2015 and they since have staged original and existing works at various venues and festivals nationally and internationally. The company has been awarded the Matilda Award for Best Independent Production for three consecutive years for The Pillowman in 2015, Viral in 2016 and The Forwards in 2017.
Hayden is Co-Writer and Co-Director of Viral, which is published by Playlab and was also nominated for Best New Australian Work at the 2016 Matilda Awards. Viral had its premiere season at The Arts Centre Gold Coast and is programmed for a 2018 season at NORPA. A scaled down version of the show has toured throughout Queensland Secondary Schools. Hayden also performs in the show alongside Sam Foster. The rights to Viral have since been purchased by Oslo based company Akershus Teater. Hayden and Sam will be travelling to Norway in 2019 to direct the production, which will then tour the region extensively.
In 2017 Shock Therapy were Company In Residence at 2970 – The Boiling Point, a three day forum on arts, innovation and ideas curated by David Pledger, founder of not yet it’s difficult (NYID). For the event, Hayden and Sam collaborated with Sipat Lawin Ensemble (Philippines) on Gobyerno.
In 2016, Hayden was cast as the Shakespearean villain ‘Don John’ in the Queensland Theatre production of Much Ado About Nothing. The same year, Shock Therapy directed the Youth Theatre Project at The Arts Centre Gold Coast, directing a production of Flood, by Chris Isaacs.
Hayden also Co-Wrote and Co-Directed The Magic Garden, a site-specific promenade performance commissioned by Bleach Festival. Shock Therapy have since adapted the work into a school touring stage show for Primary Schools. Hayden also wrote Thicker Than Water, which the company will produce as a new work in 2018.
Hayden is Co-Writing, Co-Directing, Co-Producing and performing in Welcome to Sameville, a large scale immersive outdoor work by Shock Therapy Productions, which will have its World Premiere at Festival 2018, during the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Hayden has worked for other companies, venues and festivals such as Zeal Theatre (The Stones, The Apology, The Forwards), Jack Morton Worldwide (Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games), Godsbanen (Locked In, Denmark), Winterlysfestivalen (Locked In, Norway), Erth Visual and Physical inc. (Fish Out of Water), Not Yet It’s Difficult (Hotelling – Down the Rabbit Hole, Hotelling - Hightower), Urban Theatre Projects (Home Country), CIRCA and the Bell Shakespeare Company (The Tempest – creative development), The Grin and Tonic Theatre Troupe (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, As You Like it, The Winter’s Tale, Pericles, Timon of Athens, Taming of the Shrew, A Comedy of Errors, Two Gentleman of Verona, Walking Shadow, Complete Works, Livid, I Am Macbeth, Heartfail, Sunburn), pvi collective (Resist), Brainstorm Productions (CheapThrills, SticksandStones), Queensland Arts Council (FairPlay), The Arts Centre Gold Coast (TheZoo Story), Seeing Place Productions (TimeCapsule, Plunge), Showtime FMX (FreestyleMotocrossAnnouncer), Anywhere Festival, Varsity Winterfest, The Young Company, and more.
Hayden has an extensive background working in Youth Theatre and Theatre in Education, writing and directing shows for youth. He has toured schools nation-wide including remote communities, performing and teaching workshops on a range of theatrical styles with students of all ages. Hayden is a graduate of Griffith University where he studied Theatre and Writing.
SHARI INDRIANI IRWIN
Executive Producer
Shari (she/her) is an Australian theatre-maker of Indonesian-New Zealand heritage, with over 20 years of experience as a producer specialising in new Australian theatre having held positions at Queensland Theatre, La Boite Theatre Company, and currently as an Arts Queensland peer assessor. Shari also maintains a creative practice as a playwright, performer, visual artist, and director.
As executive producer, one of her responsibilities is to maintain the organisation’s compliance with Child Safety laws and our team’s Working with Children Checks.
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Her creative credits include: as Director: Shadow in a Dress (HWY Festival, La Boite Theatre Company), Sparks First Nations Playwrights Readings (Clancestry, QPAC), Bi Empat (HWY Festival, La Boite Theatre Company); as Assistant Director: City of Gold (Queensland Theatre/Griffith Theatre Company); as Writer/Director: The Bone People (QUT Virtual Production), Recipe (QUT Collab Works); Shari was Program Manager at La Boite Theatre Company 2009-2011, a participant of the CAAP’s Directors Initiative 2018-19; and Producer of New Work at Queensland Theatre 2012-2022.
Facilitating accessibility for arts lovers with blindness and low vision, Shari has been an Audio Describer (AD) for live performance since 2012 through her volunteering with Vision Australia, and from 2020 in her private consultancy Vantagepoint Audio Description, providing AD services for arts organisations such as The Little Red Company, Dance North, and Access Arts for events including The Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Christmas Carols and the biennial Undercover Artist Festival.
Al V CAEIRO
Education Manager
Al V Caeiro has been educating and learning alongside young people since 2006. From general classroom teacher to specialist Drama teacher, she has taught for both the Queensland and WA Department of Education. Al’s other passion is photography, specialising in rehearsal and production photos.
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A graduate from the BA (Theatre Studies) program at QUT in 2000, Al went on to complete an Honours degree, the focus of which was Theatre of the Absurd. She wrote and directed an absurd play Virtuosi, which was performed at QUT. After some overseas travel, Al completed the education component of her Theatre Degree and went on to teach Primary School.
Spanning 2010 – 2013 Al was employed by La Boite Theatre Company to take rehearsal and production photos. Most notably Julius Caesar, Edward Gant’s Amazing Feats of Loneliness, Ruben Guthrie and As You Like It.
In 2014, Al was an educational facilitator for renowned WA multi-disciplinary visual artist Kyle Hughes-Odgers. Together they worked in four schools, with upper primary aged children, preparing an artwork for (PIAF) Perth International Arts Festival and the arrival of “The Giants”, brought to Perth by French street theatre company, Royal de Luxe.
MEET THE BOARD
PAUL BISHOP
Chairman
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A professional actor, facilitator and creative innovator, Paul Bishop is a husband and father to four children.
Public Service: Paul is currently serving his second term as an elected Redland City Councillor (Division 10: Birkdale/Thorneside) Elected 2012; re-elected 2016-2020. He serves on SEQ Council of Mayors Economic Development Working Group.
He is currently Chair of Redland City/Arts Qld Regional Arts Development Fund and has been on RADF committee since 2012.
Paul has served on MEAA (Actors Equity) National Performer’s Committee: 2002-2006; and as an Associate Artist for Queensland Theatre Company: 2004-2008.
Professional Development: Paul has trained as a Cluster Facilitator; completed AICD Councillor Training; Assed Based Community Development Training; Process Facilitator (including ‘Art of Hosting’; Art of BEiNG a Facilitator & MG Taylor’s DesignShop® Process.
As an applied ethnographer, Paul has documented thousands of hours of interviews and workshops with change makers and design thinkers committed to better futures.
Professional Actor, Paul graduated from QUT Drama in 1986 and has worked in lead roles with every Major Performing Arts Theatre company in Australia.
He has appeared in telemovies, feature films and many television series. Paul received two TV Week Logie Award Nominations, while filming over 260 episodes as regular character Sgt. Ben Stewart in Police Drama ‘Blue Heelers’ (1998-2004). He has twice received Matilda Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (‘Poison’, 2018 and ‘Edward Gant’ 2011).
A skilled MC and Presenter, Paul was mentor/MC for Education Queensland’s ‘Creative Generation - State Schools on Stage’ from 2007-2011
Company Director: Paul became founder of Arts Evolution Pty Ltd in 2007. Æ is committed to an ‘evolution of the arts’ and ‘the arts of evolution’ toward ecologically sustainable human futures.
Between 2013 -2018, Arts Evolution was trading as ‘The Red Place’. Through this vehicle Paul hosted a co-working space and innovation hub for a range of start-up entrepreneurs, creatives and community/commercial events, classes, training and product launch projects based in Cleveland CBD.hly-experienced workshop facilitator and has worked for Queensland Theatre, Qld Arts Council, Grin and Tonic, Soapbox Theatre Productions, Zeal Theatre, Backbone Youth Theatre, The Young Company (Cairns), ATYP (Australian Theatre for Young People), Empire Theatre (Toowoomba), NORPA (Northern Rivers Performing Arts), Drama Queensland and Griffith University (Gold Coast Campus). He has also worked as a facilitator with Qld Shakespeare Ensemble’s Shakespeare in Prison’s project in 2015.
ANDREW LARDER
Secretary
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Andrew is an experienced finance professional with a diverse background in finance business partnering, corporate finance, corporate taxation and chartered consulting. He has a demonstrated history of establishing positive working relationships with clients and stakeholders, identifying opportunities to streamline business processes and service offerings and providing value adding commercial advice.
Currently, Andrew is the Manager Finance Business Partnership at BHP. In this role Andrew manages a team delivering on all financial matters for two of BHP's premium coal assets, including planning/forecasting/reporting processes and performing financial and commercial analysis of operational and capital opportunities.
Previously, Andrew was the Engineering and Projects Finance Partner at Aurizon Holdings Limited (ASX:AZJ), Australia’s largest rail freight operator and a top 50 ASX company. There, Andrew was responsible for partnering with the VP Engineering & Projects where, in additional to general financial services, he delivered on significant outsourcing and procurement strategies.
KERRIN BENSON AM
Director
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Kerrin Benson AM has been committed to building more inclusive and just communities over the last 40 years of her career.
Her passion is the Arts and its transformational ability to build human connection and change hearts and minds.
Kerrin graduated in social work from University of QLD in 1984 and has since worked for government and in the not for profit sector in child protection, domestic violence, homelessness and the settlement of refugees.
She has held senior executive roles in Australia and the UK.
In 2021 Kerrin was made a member of the order of Australia (AM) for her significant service to refugee settlement. She served for 17 years as CEO of Multicultural Australia working with refugees and asylum seekers. Kerrin is passionate about value led leadership that focuses on clarity of purpose. Her purpose has always been to build inclusive welcoming communities.
Kerrin oversaw significant organizational growth at Multicultural Australia with the organisations turnover growing from $1.6m to $72m of government contracts and grants. She is committed to good governance as a cornerstone of being able to be boldly ambitious in achieving impact.
Much of her work has been policy advocacy and changing the conversation about refugees and asylum seekers. To that end she has served on advisory councils at all three levels of government.
Some of her proudest work has been collaborating with Todd McDonald resulting in The Village and The Neighbourhood at La Boite. These works introduced broad audiences to the lived experiences of migration and forced displacement.
Most recently she has pursued her love of the arts in an unexpected and rewarding role as Executive Producer of Brothers Book Club. She is a director of the KBAM Foundation a small philanthropic trust that funds local new work.
AMANDA LEAR
Director
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Amanda has spent her career using collaborative, community-driven arts and storytelling strategy as a lever for meaningful social impact. As Co-Founder and Managing Director of Strategy at the award-winning creative agency Gilimbaa for 13 years, and now as Executive Director of The Fullness – Collaborative Creative Strategy, she has worked across Australia with communities, businesses, and corporate and government organisations to place community knowledge, cultural insight and lived experience at the heart of creative practice. Her work focuses on communication-led arts, design, brand and campaign strategy that begins with listening and builds connection, trust and shared authorship.
Recognised as a model of best practice by the UN Global Compact, Amanda developed the bespoke community-centred creative framework The Fish Trap, embedding cultural and community protocols, best-practice arts processes, wellbeing models and international human rights and race relations frameworks into creative work. She is also the co-creator of the award-winning Design Tracks program, a career pathway initiative introducing First Nations young people to the design and arts industries. Her practice has received national and international recognition for frontline impact across youth mental health, domestic violence, child safety and national race relations, using the arts as a vehicle for dialogue, truth-telling, reconciliation and change. Amanda is a mentor to businesses and leaders, a public speaker, and a passionate advocate for the power and process of storytelling to create connection across design, brand, arts and campaign strategy. She was the 2013 Telstra Businesswoman of the Year (Private Corporate Sector QLD) and is a member of UN Women Australia.
SAM FOSTER
Director/ Public Officer
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Sam has co-created 12 original works with Shock Therapy Arts since founding the company with Hayden Jones in 2015. Shock Therapy has won several awards and been commissioned by major festivals across Australia and Internationally.
Sam has appeared in a number of film and TV projects including Mad Max – Fury Road which he won a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for his work as a Stunt Performer.
He was also awarded Best Director at the 2015 Matilda Awards for Shock Therapy’s production of Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman. Sam has also been nominated twice for the Best Actor in a Leading Role Matilda Award.
Sam was involved as a physical performer in the creative development of King Kong – The Musical by Global Creature. He was part of the creative team for further developments of the show in London and New York in preparation for the shows Broadway premiere in 2018.
He has worked extensively on large scale events as a director and movement director. In 2015, he was assistant to Gavin Robins on the Opening Ceremony of the Asia Cup. In 2016 Sam was the Movement Director on a major project for the 2016 Bleach Festival called Shifting Sands, Directed by Donna Jackson. He was Movement Director for the Woodford Folk Festival Opening Ceremony in 2016 and was Performance Director for the Fire Event at Woodford between 2017 - 2020
Sam also performed in and directed a section of the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Over the past 22 years Sam has toured extensively in secondary schools throughout Australia. He is also a highly-experienced workshop facilitator and has worked for Queensland Theatre, Qld Arts Council, Grin and Tonic, Soapbox Theatre Productions, Zeal Theatre, Backbone Youth Theatre, The Young Company (Cairns), ATYP (Australian Theatre for Young People), Empire Theatre (Toowoomba), NORPA (Northern Rivers Performing Arts), Drama Queensland and Griffith University. He has also worked as a facilitator with Qld Shakespeare Ensemble’s Shakespeare in Prison’s project in 2015.
Sam continues to perform and create work that is meaningful and thought provoking and enjoys exploring cross art form collaborations.
HAYDEN JONES
Director
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Hayden (he/him) is a performer and contemporary performance maker, working across a range of forms including theatre, installation, immersive experiences and cross art-form collaborations. He has worked as an Actor, Director, Writer, Producer and workshop facilitator, for some of Australia’s most recognised and innovative arts organisations. He is also a co-founder of Shock Therapy Arts.
Hayden has an extensive background working in Youth Theatre, Children’s Theatre and Theatre In Education for over 15 years, writing and directing shows for young people, and touring nation-wide performing and teaching workshops.
Hayden co-founded Shock Therapy Productions in 2015 and they since have staged original and existing works at various venues and festivals nationally and internationally. The company has been awarded the Matilda Award for Best Independent Production for three consecutive years for The Pillowman in 2015, Viral in 2016 and The Forwards in 2017.
Hayden is Co-Writer and Co-Director of Viral, which is published by Playlab and was also nominated for Best New Australian Work at the 2016 Matilda Awards. Viral had its premiere season at The Arts Centre Gold Coast and is programmed for a 2018 season at NORPA. A scaled down version of the show has toured throughout Queensland Secondary Schools. Hayden also performs in the show alongside Sam Foster. The rights to Viral have since been purchased by Oslo based company Akershus Teater. Hayden and Sam will be travelling to Norway in 2019 to direct the production, which will then tour the region extensively.
In 2017 Shock Therapy were Company In Residence at 2970 – The Boiling Point, a three day forum on arts, innovation and ideas curated by David Pledger, founder of not yet it’s difficult (NYID). For the event, Hayden and Sam collaborated with Sipat Lawin Ensemble (Philippines) on Gobyerno.
In 2016, Hayden was cast as the Shakespearean villain ‘Don John’ in the Queensland Theatre production of Much Ado About Nothing. The same year, Shock Therapy directed the Youth Theatre Project at The Arts Centre Gold Coast, directing a production of Flood, by Chris Isaacs.
Hayden also Co-Wrote and Co-Directed The Magic Garden, a site-specific promenade performance commissioned by Bleach Festival. Shock Therapy have since adapted the work into a school touring stage show for Primary Schools. Hayden also wrote Thicker Than Water, which the company will produce as a new work in 2018.
Hayden is Co-Writing, Co-Directing, Co-Producing and performing in Welcome to Sameville, a large scale immersive outdoor work by Shock Therapy Productions, which will have its World Premiere at Festival 2018, during the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Hayden has worked for other companies, venues and festivals such as Zeal Theatre (The Stones, The Apology, The Forwards), Jack Morton Worldwide (Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games), Godsbanen (Locked In, Denmark), Winterlysfestivalen (Locked In, Norway), Erth Visual and Physical inc. (Fish Out of Water), Not Yet It’s Difficult (Hotelling – Down the Rabbit Hole, Hotelling - Hightower), Urban Theatre Projects (Home Country), CIRCA and the Bell Shakespeare Company (The Tempest – creative development), The Grin and Tonic Theatre Troupe (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Macbeth, As You Like it, The Winter’s Tale, Pericles, Timon of Athens, Taming of the Shrew, A Comedy of Errors, Two Gentleman of Verona, Walking Shadow, Complete Works, Livid, I Am Macbeth, Heartfail, Sunburn), pvi collective (Resist), Brainstorm Productions (CheapThrills, SticksandStones), Queensland Arts Council (FairPlay), The Arts Centre Gold Coast (TheZoo Story), Seeing Place Productions (TimeCapsule, Plunge), Showtime FMX (FreestyleMotocrossAnnouncer), Anywhere Festival, Varsity Winterfest, The Young Company, and more.
Hayden has an extensive background working in Youth Theatre and Theatre in Education, writing and directing shows for youth. He has toured schools nation-wide including remote communities, performing and teaching workshops on a range of theatrical styles with students of all ages. Hayden is a graduate of Griffith University where he studied Theatre and Writing.
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