UNDERARTS is a place for young people to create art together in a supportive and encouraging environment. They don’t need to worry about being graded, tested or judged. It is a place for them to speak freely and be encouraged to find themselves, new friends and the potential of their creativity. 

We see our role as teachers to facilitate and support young people to devise work that reflects their experiences, ideas and concerns. To do this, we use a range of kinaesthetic, intellectual and creative practices that tap into their intuitive, sensory and playful selves. We play, we talk, we move, we dance, we question, we listen. We throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks. 

UNDERARTS is for everyone: young people of all genders, sexualities, cultures, abilities and neurodiversity levels are welcomed and valued in our space. 

UNDERARTS was founded in Naarm/Melbourne in 2025 by Anna McCarthy and Allison Wiltshire, longtime collaborators and friends, with extensive experience in theatre and youth arts.


Programs are facilitated by a small team of artists who work together to create playful, supportive and imaginative performance spaces for young people.

  • Allison Wiltshire (she/her) is a writer, director and dramaturg from Naarm/Melbourne, with an extensive career across Australian and international performance scenes.

    In 2007, she founded SPILL Collective, creating bold multidisciplinary works for venues including Federation Square, fortyfivedownstairs and underground sites across Melbourne. Two years later, she co-founded the acclaimed collective I’m Trying to Kiss You with Anna McCarthy and Zoey Dawson, co-writing and directing works presented at Melbourne Fringe Festival, Next Wave Festival and Arts House.

    In 2016, Allison relocated to Berlin, where she immersed herself in the city’s independent theatre and dance scene. She worked as a writer, director and dramaturg with artists including Jeremy Wade, Olympia Bukakis and Maika Knoblich, with projects presented across Europe at venues and festivals including HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Gessnerallee, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, UferStudios, Sophiensaele, Berliner Festspiele and Mousonturm.

    Allison returned to Melbourne in 2023 with her partner and three young children, and now focuses on creating ambitious, inclusive performance-making with children and young people. She holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts (University of Melbourne) and is currently undertaking a Master of Creative Arts Therapy (Drama Therapy).

  • Noemie Huttner-Koros (they/them) is a performance-maker, writer, dramaturg and community organiser based on Wurundjeri country in Melbourne, Australia. Noemie’s work often engages with sites and histories where queer culture, ecological crisis and composting occur. Some of their shows include: Mother of Compost (M1 Singapore Fringe Festival, Melbourne Fringe nominee Best Theatre 2023), The Lion Never Sleeps (Australian Book Review’s Arts Highlights of 2019, Performing Arts WA awards 2021), & Democracy Repair Services (The Blue Room Theatre Best Writing Award 2023, Melbourne Fringe 2025).

    They’ve been a dramaturg on: Burning (by Amy Sole), Trash Pop Butterflies Dance Dance Paradise (by Maki Morita), Numa & Karl: The Extraordinary Man That He Was (by Em Chandler), Meet My Granddies (La Mama Seniors Festival 2023), Shhh (by Clare Barron, directed by Emma Valente Red Stitch Actors Theatre 2023) & Transmission (Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, 2020).

    Noemie’s writing has been published in Best of Australian Poetry 2020-2021, Rabbit Poetry Journal, Cordite, Australia Poetry & Westerly Journal. Noemie has a Bachelor of Performing Arts (Performance Making) and Master of Theatre (Dramaturgy) from the Victorian College of the Arts. They were previously Creative Director of KickstART Youth Arts Festival 2022 (a multi-arts festival across Perth for Youth Week) and have been touring with Mammalian Diving Reflex since 2023 on All The Sex I’ve Ever Had and Nightwalks with Teenagers. 

    They are a co-founder of the group Arts and Cultural Workers for Climate Action in Western Australia and an advocate for fossil fuel divestment in the arts. Noemie was the winner of the 2020 Venie Holmgren Environmental Poetry Prize, 2021 Western Australian Young Environmentalist of the Year and 2025 Deep Dive Mentee at Chamber Made.

  • Oriana Morris-Johnson (they/she) is a performer and collaborator based in Naarm/Melbourne. A 2024 graduate of the VCA with a BFA-Acting, their creative practice lies predominantly in the development and performance of new scripts across stage and screen. They’re particularly passionate about theatre as a space for collaboration and understanding, for asking questions and telling stories in a communal, accessible, and playful setting. 

    Select stage credits include ‘Democracy Repair Services’ (dir. Martha Latham, Melbourne Fringe), ‘Alice in Wonderland’ (dir. Glenn Elston, Australian Shakespeare Company), ‘The Wilde Kind’ (dir. Sabina Donato, TheatreWorks), ‘Marriage’ (Unspooled Theatre Collective, Midsumma), and ‘Our Town’ (dir. Clare Watson, Black Swan State Theatre Co.). Recent screen credits include ‘Neighbours’ (Fremantle Media) and the upcoming short ‘HOPE’ (dir. Ada Tzinis & Izzi Harris). 

  • Taylor Reece (she/her) is a theatre maker and collaborator raised on Awabakal, Worimi and Wonnarua country in NSW and now based in Naarm/Melbourne. She is a graduate of the VCA with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre. Her work centres play, joy, and accessibility; with strong influences from queer and feminist dramaturgies and physical theatre.

    Taylor facilitates collaborative work by and for young people with a focus on community development and wellbeing. She is interested in making ensemble-based work which responds to the world around it including place, audience and politics. In Muloobinba/Newcastle Taylor was a founding member of youth-led, queer theatre company Bearfoot Theatre and she has an ongoing commitment to facilitating devised theatre in regional and rural areas.

    Recent credits include;Poems of a Transsexual Nature- Melbourne Fringe and Greenroom award nominee [dramaturg];Rainbow Cubs[facilitator, director];RECESS[co-creator, performer, producer]. VCA credits includeThe Painter is In, Electra, Surge, BeeboosandMy Rotting Body(for muse 2022). She was Artistic Director of VCA’s muse879 student performing arts festival in 2023. Taylor is a proud member of MEAA.

  • Ahmarnya (she/her) is a visual artist and performance maker who draws, animates, writes, facilitates and performs. For over two decades she has exhibited and performed both locally and internationally.

    From 2008 to 2016, while working at Footscray Community Arts Centre (FCAC), she was the creative director of THE CHAOTIC ORDER - a performance ensemble made up of neurodiverse artists. Their show THE WAITING PLACE won Best Original Australian Work at the 2011 Melbourne Fringe Festival.

    Her first multidisciplinary solo performance, RUMPUS, debuted at FCAC in 2016 as part of the Festival of Live Art. 

    Since 2015, Ahmarnya has been a teaching artist at St Martins Youth Arts, and from 2019 to 2020 she was Acting Artistic Associate at Back to Back Theatre, directing and co-writing the animation series FIRST RESPONDERS (currently screening on ABC iView).

    In 2021, she performed her short solo work RIDE ON TIME at La Mama Theatre’s War-Rak Festival, and in 2023 completed a Masters of Theatre (Writing) at VCA/Melbourne University. 

    During 2018, as part of Arts House’s Culture Lab residency, Ahmarnya began developing The Splendid Anomaly (TSA) - her second solo performance using live drawing, animation and sound to explore how both astronomical and cellular life have adapted to disruption and change. TSA premiered at Arts House in August 2024, receiving five stars in The Age and three Green Room Award nominations.

  • Anna (she/her) is an actor, writer and educator based in Naarm/Melbourne. As well as her work with Allison in I’m Trying to Kiss You, Anna has performed extensively with a range of independent theatre companies including Sisters Grimm, Little Ones Theatre, Forty Forty Home, Dee and Associates, The Last Tuesday Society for Malthouse. Anna has studied at 16th Street Actor's Studio in Melbourne, and T. Schreiber Studio in New York. She holds a Masters in Education and  Bachelor of Arts (hons) in Theatre Studies, and taught theatre writing and performance in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. UNDERARTS is her newest venue with long-time collaborator Allison Wilshire, and brings together her experience as an actor, writer and educator.