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 is facilited and run by Anna McCarthy and Allison Wiltshire, who have worked together for almost two decades.

UNDERARTS is their newest venture, and brings together their vast experience as theatre makers and educators.

  • Anna 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.

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

    In 2007, she founded SPILL Collective, creating bold, multidisciplinary works for venues including Federation Square, fortyfivedownstairs, and various underground spaces around Melbourne. Two years later, she co-founded the acclaimed collective I’m Trying to Kiss You alongside Anna McCarthy and Zoey Dawson, co-writing and directing works that were featured 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. As a writer, director, and dramaturg, she collaborated with a range of internationally renowned artists including Jeremy Wade, Olympia Bukakis, and Maika Knoblich. Her creative projects were presented at major venues and festivals across Europe, 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, bringing with her a wealth of global experience and a renewed passion for sharing her knowledge and love of theatre with children and young people.

Guest artists for 2025

Sarah Aiken

  • Sarah Aiken is a dancer, teacher and choreographer working and living on Wurundjeri land in Melbourne, Australia. Her work investigates assemblage, authorship, scale and the self, looking at the roles of audience, performer, subject and object and connecting tangibly with audiences, to consider performance as a site for empathy & exchange. Her award winning work has been presented extensively, touring nationally and internationally. 

    Sarah is co-director of Deep Soulful Sweats, working with Rebecca Jensen to create work that engages rigorously with participation, waste and a reckless formalism, recycling content to consider materiality and how we come together. Their cult classic, zodiac themed participatory dance events have been running for 10 years across the world, inviting audiences into cathartic and thoughtful performative experiences. Their projects for children and families include Stage School (Federation Square, Benalla Art Gallery), Fountain of Youth (Artplay) and Collage Kids (Abbotsford Convent) 

    Sarah has created work on the students at the Victorian Collage of the Arts, and has taught students from pre primary, teenagers through to over 60’s. She was artist in residence at HIAP Suomenlinna, Finland, Dancenorth, Townsville and  Centre for Projection Art and is a grateful recipient of the Creators Fund and the Chloe Munro Fellowship and is developing new works for stage, screen, gallery and site responsive contexts. www.sarahaiken.net

Zoey Dawson

  • Zoey Dawson is a dramaturg, playwright, screenwriter and educator based in Naarm with over 15 years’ experience in script development and performance making. She has recently worked as dramaturg with award-winning theatre makers such as Mish Grigor and Marcus McKenzie, as well as facilitating dramaturgy workshops with Arts Centre Melbourne and Theatre Works. She taught script and screen writing at Melbourne University for 7 years, as well as supervising multiple Honours thesis in creative writing and theatre practices. For screen, she has worked in scripted development for companies such as Fremantle Media and Matchbox Pictures. She holds both a Master of Screenwriting and a Master of Performance Writing from VCA and has been lecturing and tutoring in Script Writing and Performance Studies at Melbourne University for the past six years. 

    Her playwriting credits include Darkness (NewTheatricals), CAESAR (La Boite), Australian Realness (Malthouse Theatre), Conviction (Darebin Arts), Calamity (MTC NEON), Madonna Arms (Next Wave/Artshouse) and I Know There's a Lot of Noise Outside (I'm Trying To Kiss You/LaMama). She received the inaugural Melbourne Festival Discovery Award for The Unspoken Word is Joe (LaMama/Griffin Theatre/ Brisbane Festival) and her work has been nominated for 10 Greenroom awards, including Best New Writing for Conviction. 

  • Susie Dee has worked extensively in theatre as a performer, deviser and director both in Australia and overseas for the past forty years. She has created many site-specific works and was Artistic Director of three companies: Melbourne Workers Theatre (MWT), Union House Theatre (UHT) and Institute of Complex Entertainment (ICE). She has a long history of directing plays by Patricia Cornelius which include Savages, Big Heart, Taxi, SHIT and Love, both of which toured to the 2019 Venice Biennale Theatre Festival. Other directing highlights include: Animal (Theatreworks & Dark Mofo); Anthem (Melbourne, Sydney & Perth Festivals); RUNT (fortyfivedownstairs, La Boite Theatre and Sydney Opera House) She often works with Fat Fruit: Fuck Fabulous, Fart Fabulous, Queen Kong and the Homosapiens. In 2022 she received the prestigious Australia Council Award for Theatre. Susie has won numerous Green Room Awards for Directing, and most recently for My Sister Jill (Melbourne Theatre Company) winning the Green Room Award for ‘Best Director’ most ‘Outstanding Production’.

Ash Flanders

  • Ash Flanders is a multi-award winning playwright and performer from sunny Melbourne. In 2006, he and Declan Greene formed theatre company Sisters Grimm and together wrote over a dozen shows including Summertime in the Garden of Eden (Griffin Theatre), Little Mercy (STC), The Sovereign Wife (MTC), Calpurnia Descending (Malthouse/STC), and Lilith: The Jungle Girl (MTC). As a solo writer/performer Ash created Meme Girls (Malthouse), Special Victim (Feast Festival), Playing to Win (Arts Centre Melbourne) and Ash Flanders is NOTHING, all directed by Stephen Nicolazzo. Their last solo show together, End Of. (Griffin Theatre), was optioned for television in 2022. Recently, Ash also wrote both the cabaret-farce SS Metaphor and naturalistic drama This Is Living for Malthouse Theatre. In 2024 he premiered his latest solo work, A Brief Episode, at Melbourne Fringe and was selected by the Athenaeum Group to be their playwright-in-residence where he completed his latest play, Commentary.

  • Stephen is currently the Artistic Director at Brink Productions. He was Co-Artistic Director of Western Edge 2022-2023 and a member of the Associate Artist Advisory Panel at Melbourne Theatre Company 2022-2024. He was the founder and Artistic Director of Little Ones Theatre, an independent company focused on innovative queer theatre-making and studied at The University of Melbourne (2008) and NIDA (Directing, 2010). He has directed for theatre companies and festivals on all of the main stages across Australia and his works have been critically acclaimed and toured to sold out houses. 

    He is a Green Room Award winner for Best Direction (The Happy Prince) and has been nominated a further four times (Loaded, Psycho Beach Party, Dracula, and The Moors). His works have won 13 Green Room Awards and been nominated for a total of 45. His works have also won a Sydney Theatre Award and been nominated for a Victorian Premiers Literary Award and an AWGIE. 

    His recent credits include: Loaded (Malthouse Theatre), Looking for Alibrandi (Malthouse Theatre, Belvoir), Considerable Sexual License (YIRRAMBOI), Daddy (YIRRAMBOI, Arts House), Merciless Gods (Arts Centre Melbourne, Griffin Theatre Company), and Abigail’s Party (Melbourne Theatre Company).