If you had to make a list, where would you start?
#1 Ice cream
#2 Water fights
#5 Things with stripes
#25 Wearing a cape
#319 Laughing so hard you shoot milk out of your nose
#9998 Watching someone watch your favourite film
Every Brilliant Thing tells the story of a child who, in an effort to help their depressed mother, starts compiling a list of everything that makes life worth living. This play celebrates the small joys and moments of beauty that make life truly brilliant.
Duncan Macmillan’s poignant and uplifting interactive theatrical experience about family, love, loss and hope is directed by Timothy Wynn (Yielding, Kill Climate Deniers, Seawall) and starring Jason Klarwein (Once in Royal David’s City, Macbeth).
Timothy Wynn is the Artistic Director of THAT Production Company. Since 2009 Timothy has fashioned diverse and imaginative seasons of theatrical experiences as the Artistic Director of THAT Production Company. He has directed over 20 productions, including the Australian premier of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Ruined by Lynn Nottage, Saved by Edward Bond, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Spring’s Awakening.
Timothy studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York, and trained at the JUTE Theatre Company’s Director Development Program facilitated by Dr David Fenton. Timothy has also worked as an Assistant Director with Backbone Youth Arts, JUTE Theatre Company, Spotlight Theatre, and Fractal Theatre Company. In 2017 his production of Cosi with Beenleigh Theatre Company was nominated for seven Gold Coast Theatre Awards, winning Best Supporting Actress and Best Magic Moment of Theatre. Recently Timothy was nominated for a Matilda Award for his direction of Sea Wall by Simon Stephens.
Jason Klarwein is a producer, director and actor who works nationally and internationally with Australia’s leading theatre companies. Jason has worked for include the Bell Shakespeare Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir St Theatre, Melbourne’s Malthouse, La Boite Theatre, Black Swan, Adelaide Festival Centre and The Queensland Theatre Company, which Jason has had a thirteen year association with.
In 2007 Jason was one of five Australian artists invited by London’s Almeida Theatre and the Sydney Theatre Company to participate in an International Shakespeare Laboratory led by Cicely Berry of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Almeida Theatre’s Artistic Director Michael Attenborough. In 2009 Jason toured the United States alongside Cate Blanchett in the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of A Streetcar Named Desire, directed by Norwegian screen and stage legend Liv Ullmann.
Jason starred as Macbeth in the highest grossing show in 21 years at the Queensland Theatre Company directed by Michael Attenborough CBE and Co-produced with The Grin and Tonic Theatre Troupe. In 2017 Jason was nominated for a Helpmann Award for Best Actor in a Play for Sam Strong’s production
Tom Yaxley graduated from Queensland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Acting) in 2016. In 2021, Tom made his mainstage debut in Boy Swallows Universe (Queensland Theatre / Brisbane Festival). His other stage credits include Anatomy of a Suicide (Metro Arts and BC Productions); Chroma Town (Queensland Theatre), The Sublime (No Interval and Brisbane Powerhouse); Flood (Anywhere Theatre Festival) Hoods, Romeo and Juliet Must Die, Hamlet / Macbeth and The Complete Deaths, The Lunatics, the Lover and the Loon, Our Place (Grin and Tonic); The Government Inspector, Waiting for Godot, and Angels in America (QUT). Film and web series credits include Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan and F*ck Everything.
Voice over work includes both seasons of podcast Six Cold Feet by Brisbane author Josh Donnellan. Tom continues to work as a teaching artist at Queensland Theatre, NIDA Open and the Grin and Tonic Theatre Troupe. Tom has done further training in improvisation with The Groundlings and voice work with Patsy Rodenburg through 16th Street Studios.
Eva is an Australian-based artist, illustrator and writer residing in Ipswich, Queensland. She has been exhibiting since 2003, from Brisbane to New York, with purchases from the UK, USA and Japan. She works as scenic artist on movies and theatre, and is regularly commissioned to provide public art in the community as well as deliver creative youth workshops.
With an academic background in psychology and public health, through her art she has been a keen supporter of organisations that represent mental health, youth homelessness, and child protection. She has worked as an illustrator of children’s mental health resources endorsed by the World Health Organisation and provided material for the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth. Her first published illustrated children’s book, Little Things Big Things, is a pictorial introduction to issues of the environment and social justice.
Nathaniel Knight is a highly skilled lighting designer and theatre technician based in Brisbane. He holds a BFA in Technical Production from QUT, Certificate III in Live Production, and a Certificate II in Creative Industries with extensive experience working on professional productions across Queensland.
While completing his Bachelor’s degree Nathaniel worked as an independent lighting designer and technician offering him experience in designing, installing, and operating across a range of live performance forms. His notable credits include serving as Technical Director for BILUM MAMMA, directed by Lisa Fa’alafi, Lighting Designer for BLACKROCK, directed by Johanna Wallace; THRONE, directed by Virgo Nash; CONTROL, directed by Timothy Wynn; and ALGORITHM, directed by Daniel Evans, as well as Associate Lighting Designer for OUR BLOOD RUNS IN THE STREETS, directed by Shane Anthony. Nathaniel’s approach to lighting design focuses on framing the performance by sculpting with holistic intention.
Wil Hughes is an internationally award-winning composer, songwriter, sound designer and theatre professional from Meanjin, Australia. He has created music and weird sounds for plays, ballet, musicals, films, advertising and a whole host of other fun projects.
Charleen is a mother, daughter, partner, sister, aunty and a New Zealand born, Brisbane raised, Cook Island Maori woman. Charleen is a Social Worker, Applied Theatre Practitioner, Actor and Sessional University Academic Tutor. She has 10 years’ experience working with children, young people, and adults in areas of youth arts, child protection and mental health. Charleen holds a Diploma of Community welfare and Development, Bachelor of Fine Arts (Applied Theatre) and Master of Social Work (Qualifying).
Charleen is drawn to storytelling and has 17 years in performing arts/theatre making. She is interested in the different ways of knowing and doing, learning and sharing. Charleen utilises narrative critical approaches in practice with both social work and theatre making. She is excited to witness when these worlds come together.
Since having studied a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Theatre at Griffith University in 2013, there aren’t many positions in a theatre Aimee hasn’t been able to fill. Finding her niche in stage management, Aimee has worked on musicals to festivals, live music to comedy across Brisbane’s Independent Arts sector.
Aimee believes in providing a detailed and tailored approach to every piece work she is apart of. A people person at heart, Aimee also began to invest in her interest of the mind by studying Psychology in 2020. She will be receiving her mental first aid qualification toward the end of March.
THAT Production Company is supported by Ipswich City Council through the Regional Arts Development Fund.
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Acknowledgement of Country
Metro Arts acknowledge the Jagera and Turrbal peoples, as the custodians of the land we work on, recognising their connection to land, waters and community. We honour the story-telling and art-making at the heart of First Nations’ cultures, and the enrichment it gives to the lives of all Australians.
Metro Arts accepts the invitation of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and supports a First Nations Voice to Parliament enshrined in the Australian Constitution.