Dr Liza-Mare Syron

Liza-Mare has family ties to the Birrbay people from the Mid North Coast of NSW. A theatre maker and academic, she is a founding member of Moogahlin Performing Arts, and as a key member of the company’s Co-Artistic Directorate for over ten years has recently been appointed Senior Artistic Associate. Liza-Mare is currently a Co-Associate Dean Indigenous in the Faculty of Arts Design and Architecture and an Indigenous Scientia Senior Lecturer in the School of Arts and Media at UNSW. She is widely published in the field of Indigenous performing arts and has recently published a book on the Rehearsal Practices of Indigenous Women Theatre Makers: Australia, Aotearoa, and Turtle Island (Palgrave Macmillan 2021). Liza-Mare  lectures on First Peoples theatre practices at UNSW TPS and at the National Institute for Dramatic Arts NIDA. 

Her work history includes, Indigenous Research Lead (Macquarie University), Indigenous Research Fellow (Macquarie University) Senior Aboriginal Arts and Culture Officer (Arts NSW), and Head of Theatre (Eora College of Aboriginal Studies). Liza-Mare has sat on many boards and committees including, Australian Plays Transforms (2021), Australian Plays, The City of Sydney Aboriginal Advisory Committee (2013-2017), Performing Lines (2014-2018), and the Platform Papers Editorial Board (2018-2019). 

Her qualifications include Doctor of Arts (University of Sydney), Master of Creative Arts Research (University of Wollongong), Master of Adult Education (UTS), and Diploma of Dramatic Art (Victorian College of Arts). Liza-Mare has received the following academic awards from the Australasian Theatre and Performance Studies Association, the 2005 Phillip Parsons Prize for Performance as Research, the 2010 Marlis Thiersch Prize for research excellence in an English-language article, and a 2015 Rob Jordon award citation for a book chapter.

Liza-Mare’s creative outputs include: directorial roles, The Fox and the Freedom Fighters (Performance Space 2014), Broken Glass (Blacktown Arts/Sydney Festival/Moogahlin 2018), The Weekend (Sydney Festival/Moogahlin 2019), Rainbows End (Darlinghurst Theatre /Moogahlin), and Gods Country (NIDA). In the role of producer Liza-Mare has presented Koori Gras a celebration of Black queer performance (Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras/Moogahlin 2017-2020), The Visitors (Sydney Festival/Moogahlin 2020), and manuwi jam ya muron (MCA/Moogahlin 2017). Liza-Mare also works as a dramaturge on various independent projects across the country.