Gin O'Brien
President
Benj Beatty
Vice President
Ruby Abbott
Secretary
Hayden Collins
Treasurer
Evelyn Zeven
Marketing Manager
Daria Ledovski
Front of House Manager
Peter Nethercote
Board Member
Jack Brown
Jack signalled his intention to join the board at the 2024 AGM. With his significant contributions to the set construction in Wyrd Sisters, his expertise was most appreciated by the board. Unfortunately due to other committments Jack had to resign, however he would be most welcome should he decide to reapply.
Megan J Riedl
Picking up the role of President out of the 2024 AGM, Megan J Riedl threw herself into the job with gusto. A well established wordsmith and poet, Megan loved to get involved in every level of show production.
Taking the one act play The Death of Ellen Moore and expanding it to a multi play production was no easy feat, and her creative directing skills paid off as BNT went outside the comfort zone and delivered a memorable show with a huge cast and crew at a new venue, all keeping close to budget.
Our 2025 season relies on a partnership with the BMI that Megan initiated. Unfortunately she was unable to continue her position due to personal committments.
Megan continues her performing arts work as The Ballarat Poetess.
Laura Hudson
Laura joined the BNT Board at the AGM in 2023, taking on the role of Membership Manager with her excellent communication skills and enthusiam for the theatre community. This extended into becoming the Secretary in the later half of 2023 and well into 2024.
During her time on the board she also assistant directed Wyrd Sisters, and helped out considerably with bump-in and bump-out for Caesar, as well as Front of House.
When someone needed to pick up the treasury mantle while Liana was on leave, she went and learned Xero so that she could manage the finances until a new Treasurer was found. Her wealth of knowledge and ability to follow bureaucratic processes is exemplary, along with many soft support skills, and she will be missed.
Liana Emmerson
Liana has been a board member since 2020 and has fulfilled roles as both Marketing Manager and Treasurer, as well as 3 years as BNT President. During her time on the board, she set up multiple social theatre events including Monologue Karaoke, Theatre Club and the End of Year Theatre Party. She researched and established the company’s move to a digital membership platform (Hello Club), including writing the processes board members would use in the migration of our membership records to make us compliant with Consumer Affairs Victoria. Liana established free access to professional digital tools for the company which has included Google Workspace with unlimited digital storage and a custom domain company email, as well as Canva Pro for professional graphic design tools.
One of the many big contributions from her design experience, was all of the branding and signage that BNT still uses to this day on the banners, Front of House placards, and A frames. More examples of her work can be found in the poster designs from the last four years.
Peter Nethercote
Peter has been part of BNT for 50 of its 80 years, playing his first role with BNT in For Better, For Worse in 1968. Many others followed.
He has directed and designed often for the company, including his own plays -
The Unsuspecting Bachelor, A Clanging Cymbal and Quarters. Also two of his musicals - Trifle in the early 70s, and Barchester in 2009. He co-wrote and co-directed Who Remembers the Great War? and Honourable Mentions. His most recent plays - The Premier’s Husband, With Spectacles on Nose, Dinner with the Family, What’s in a Name? and Upstaged! - have had readings with BNT actors.
Other productions directed and designed for BNT include The Mousetrap, The Staffroom, Alphabetical Order, The Best Man, Falling from Grace, Penelope, Sylvia’s Wedding, In Duty Bound, The Perfectionist, Improbable Fiction, Theft and Natural Causes.
