Meet the Team
BJ Anyos: Founder & Artistic Director
BJ Anyos is the Founder and Artistic Director of Child Players ACT, BJ is also the Early Childhood Coordinator at Questacon, where she has been working for 20 years and is responsible for creating the well-loved science workshops for young children called ‘Science Time’. She completed her Bachelor of Education (Primary) at University of Canberra and has a passion for teaching children of all ages. She is an award-winning director, writer, performer and designer of theatre programs for children and young people. She has loved drama and performing since she was a child and enjoys both creating and watching theatre. She thanks her mother Kathy for giving her a love of theatre and supporting all of her theatre dreams. BJ and Kathy founded Child Players ACT in 2005. Running this youth theatre company allows BJ to combine her passions of education and theatre, and dedicate herself to educational youth theatre. She loves watching children achieve their theatre dreams and potential. Her goals include passing on her love of theatre to the next generation; creating a positive and supportive environment where children can grow creatively and develop a life-long enjoyment and appreciation of theatre; and helping guide tomorrow’s theatre practitioners and performers.
Kathy Thomas: Founder & Production Manager
Kathy always loved the theatre and was a well-loved member of Canberra’s amateur theatre community! She worked with many amateur theatre companies around Canberra, including being on the board and production managing for Phoenix Players. She loved to travel and visited over 120 countries around the world. She worked in many embassies in different countries, including Iraq and Algeria. She passed on her love of theatre to her daughter BJ. One amazing holiday she took the teenage BJ to London for a ‘theatre holiday’, where they saw 7 professional theatre shows in 5 days, including original London productions of CATS, Les Misérables (one of Kathy’s favourite shows), Starlight Express and Chess (it blew young BJ’s mind and ignited her theatre dreams!). Kathy founded Child Players ACT with her daughter BJ in 2005. She supported BJ’s theatre education dreams and enjoyed seeing the children who come through our programs develop their theatre skills and confidence, and grow into wonderful adults. She was proud that many of our children came back as valued mentors after they graduated and always valued the work and effort that our amazing parent helpers put into our productions. Kathy passed away in 2020. She left her incredible Production Manager hat to her mentee Ange, who always impressed her. Kathy is greatly missed by BJ and all of the Child Players ACT family, who will never forget her big smile and endless support and encouragement! We love you and miss you, Kathy!
Ange Fewtrell: Production Manager
Ange was 4 years old when her parents took her to see her first live show, a performance of CATS in Melbourne. This is one of her earliest memories and a love of theatre and performing was born. Growing up Ange was involved in numerous school productions as well as being a member of Canberra Gang Show for many years. She joined the Child Players ACT family in 2012 as a parent helper working on costumes and has since taken on the role of Production Manager. Ange was part of a working group established by the Canberra and Queanbeyan performing arts community in 2020 to develop an awards recognition system for community and independent based performing arts, the outcome of which was The Ovations – Canberra/Queanbeyan Performing Arts Awards. She has been part of The Ovations Committee since. Ange is passionate about the importance of the performing arts and believes live theatre is a wonderful form of storytelling as it is immersive and can be used for important social commentary as well as pure entertainment.
Dr Georgia Pike-Rowney: Musical Director & Educator
Dr Georgia Pike-Rowney has collaborated with BJ Anyos and Child Players ACT as a music director, director, actor, and educator for over 15 years. She is a practitioner and researcher focused on enhancing human potential and wellbeing through the arts from a historical perspective. A singer, educator, community outreach facilitator and trans-disciplinary researcher, she splits her time between co-Directing the Music Engagement Program (along with long-term colleague Dr Susan West), and her academic position as Friends' Lecturer and Curator of the Classics Museum at the Australian National University (ANU). An experienced and award-winning performer in her own right, Georgia's key passion is providing arts education and engagement for all, a philosophy embedded within the musicals and programs Georgia co-develops with BJ. All their work is designed to provide every child with an audition-free, fun, yet artistically and musically satisfying educational and performance experience, with the aim of promoting healthy, joyful, life-long engagement in theatre, music and the arts in general.
Dr Susan West: Musical Educator & Composer
Dr Susan West is an award-winning educator, musician, composer and arranger with over forty years’ experience developing pre-tertiary music programs and post-graduate teacher-training. Susan collaborates with Georgia to develop musical accompaniment for all Child Players ACT musicals, including pre-recorded backing tracks and arrangements designed for easy use by teachers and the community. A skilled flute player, piano player and arranger, she is also musical director and arranger for Child Players ACT Musical Theatre Training Program. She embeds knowledge of historical forms of music practice in order to enhance students' understanding of their own social and cultural history, further encouraging active and prolonged engagement. Susan developed the Music Outreach Principle, a philosophy of shared altruistic music making, which formed the foundation of her Music Engagement Program established in Canberra, Australia. Her philosophy and approaches are now used across the globe, particularly in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and New York State.
Theatre Educators
We have a large team of enthusiastic young adults who mentor and educate our children in all of our different programs and productions. Most of our educators have been through our programs and know exactly what the children are experiencing. They are all passionate about theatre education and are keen to give back to community theatre and share their theatre experience with the next generation of students. The mentors teach theatre skills during classes, direct and teach dance to children during rehearsals, and work backstage during productions (I.e. stage managing, running lights and sound or assisting cast). Their goal is to ensure that every student has a positive and enjoyable experience in a supportive environment. They also act onstage when required to support the younger, less experienced children and help them gain confidence. We have had many wonderful educators over the years who have dedicated a lot of time and love to the company (Thank you!). While many of our current young participants look forward to becoming educators when they get older!
We also offer work experience to youth who are looking at careers in childcare, education or theatre. If you are interested in joining us, please email contact@childplayersact.net
Katie Lee Kavanagh: Writer (and Mentor)
Katie has been involved in Child Players ACT for 12 years. When she began the Drama School Holiday Program in 2010, she was a shy, nervous eight-year-old with trouble making friends. As she experienced the welcoming and inclusive environment of Child Players ACT, she began to come out of her shell and discover a love of theatre. In the Child Players Theatre Training program, Katie began to explore the role of Stage Manager and found a love of supporting the child actors as a Mentor. From 2018, she has been co-writing scripts with BJ Anyos and Dr Georgia Pike-Rowney. What initially started as Katie bringing a youthful insight into scripts became a collaboration with her ideas at the forefront. Recently, Katie independently wrote the praised The Velveteen Rabbit for the Teen Players program and The Mayor of Munchkin Land for the Primary Players program. Additionally, she writes informative guides for youth actors to encourage critical thinking and analysis of characterisation and themes. Katie has completed a Cert III in Early Childhood Education, a Cert IV in Education Support, and is currently completing a Bachelor of Film, Television and Animation at Deakin University and working as an Assistant Educator in Early Childhood Education. Katie is passionate about supporting childhood development and wishes to invoke a meaningful learning experience for the youth audience.
Mel McDonald: Props Master and Photographer
Mel has been part of the Child Play family for 6 years. Mel has a Bachelor of Art (Visual Arts) with a major in Photography and loves photographing the kids as they perform onstage, capturing their creativity with their characters and joy of being part of such amazing shows. Mel relishes the creativity and challenge involved in making or finding the perfect prop (especially last minute ones!) for a production. More recently, Mel has built larger set pieces and is currently enjoying collaborating with the set construction team. Over the last 2 years, Mel has also been involved in a number of Primary and High School musical productions as well as adult productions.
Rebecca Setnicar: Artist in Residence
Rebecca is Child Players ACT's ‘artist in residence’, and designs and paints the huge, colourful backdrops and set pieces seen across the company’s productions. She also designs all of the company's show posters and social media adverts. Rebecca has worked with Child Players ACT since 2015, and holds a Bachelor of Visual Art with Honours from the ANU School of Art. She loves getting messy whilst painting the company’s 40 square meter backdrop!
