Get to know Palmerston's first Creative Residency! A group of 10 dynamic artists check out their bios! 

The group consists of Rachel Chisholm, Ciella Williams, Bryn Wackett, Brent Watkinson, Harrison Port, Cat Hart, Venaska Cheliah, Betty Sweetlove, Kyle Walmsley & Brad Fawcett

Rachel Chisholm

Rachael Chisholm is a First Nations actor, playwright and broadcaster from Darwin. Since graduating from drama school, she has worked mostly in broadcasting as a presenter, voiceover artist and editor at First Nations Broadcasting Australia.

Ciella Williams 

Ciella is a writer, dramaturg, performer, emerging director and mother of two living on Larrakia Country. Her writing is embedded in the NT and concerned with underrepresented voices and stories. She is a member of the IGNITE Collective, an initiative of New Ghosts Theatre, creating new work for women aged 20-30. Ciella is currently shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Award.

Bryn Wackett 

Bryn Wackett is a versatile performer and animateur, who has been working and collaborating with Tracks in various projects and roles since 2012. Her dedicated, light-hearted approach to dance, and enthusiasm and appreciation for all forms of creative and cultural movement have resulted in strong collaborative links with fellow NT artists and arts organisations.

Bryn has been a long term performer with Gary Langs 'NT Dance Company', annually coordinates over 40 dance groups as part of the Nightcliff Seabreeze Festival and has had many adventures regionally and remotely throughout the Territory sharing dance workshops and practices with schools and communities through projects organised by NT Music School, Artback NT, Corrugated Iron Youth Arts and alongside fellow dancer and teacher, Rachael Wallis.

Brent Watkinson 

Brent Watkinson is an award winning Comedian and has hosted number 1 rated breakfast radio programs across Australia. Brent started his career as a national finalist class clown. He has toured the country and recently had a sold out run of shows locally for Darwin Fringe. He regularly hosts workshops locally and interstate mentoring on comedy, mc skills and various audio skills.

Harrison Port

Harrison Port is an emerging artist who has performed in professional and amateur venues across Queensland and the Northern Territory for almost a decade. Through undertaking training from drama practitioners and industry professionals, Harrison has gained a rich and adept variety of disciplinary skills, which he plans to utilize to actively broaden his creative practice and scope of achievement in the contemporary arts sector.

Whilst in the Northern Territory, not only was Harrison an ongoing contributor within the performing arts scene, but also an active advocate for the arts for young people. As a Youth Advisor and Drama Tutor for Corrugated Iron Youth Arts, Harrison not only helped steer the company’s strategic vision, having direct input and planning sessions with the Executive Director of the company but also fostered and facilitated quality arts experiences for young people in regional and remote communities.

Cat Hart

Cat is a professional artist living and working in the NT. Their latest credits have included roles such as Vic, Away (Browns Mart Productions), Henrietta, The Hollow (Darwin Theatre Company), Yala, Frackety Frack (Nat Kelly Films Production), Ruth, Cosi (Brown's Mart Productions) and Elizabeth, The Crucible (Brown's Mart Productions). Cat has also worked behind the scenes on multiple locally grown productions, including producing both short films and theatre shows. Recent production credits include Worth, (SPARK Short Films, 2020), Flirt (S.Archer Short Films, 2019), Robin Hood (taiNTed Theatre Company, 2020) and The Palmerston Tree Pantomime (taiNTed Theatre Company, 2019). Cat also works as a teaching artist for Top End Arts Organisations.

Venaska Cheliah 

Venaska comes from a Bharatanatyam traditional Indian dance background and is also trained in contemporary Indian Styles. She has found an additional Western contemporary dance voice through her work with Tracks. In 2014 Venaska graduated in her Arangetram, her debut on-stage performance as a student of Indian classical dance and music. She was invited to perform for the opening of Sydney Dance Company’s season in Darwin.

Throughout her time with Tracks, Venaska has performed, choreographed, completed the Choreographic Development Course, presented as a youth leader at the Cultural Mapping forums, taught dance classes, been part of the Space-Time Studio Residency Program.

Betty Sweetlove 

Betty Sweetlove (she/her) is a writer and emerging theatre maker living in Northern Territroy, Arrernte land. She is developing a place-based practice of walking and performance, interested particularly in the making and maintenance of official histories and local heritage. Before moving to the NT in 2015, Betty lived in London and south-east England where she grew up. Betty has written and directed original theatre pieces for Alice Desert Festival (2017), Totem Theatre (2019), and Carclew (2020). Her monologue for young actors 'Swallows' is published in the anthology 'This Was Urgent yesterday' (Currency Press, 2020). In 2019, she created an original walking tour as the inaugural artist in residence at the Women’s Museum of Australia, Alice Springs. Betty is an upcoming intern at the Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre company in Brisbane, and a writer in the 2020 Fresh Ink cohort with Australian Theatre For Young People.

Kyle Walmsley 

Kyle Walmsley is a director, performer and theatre maker having created work with companies around Australia including Queensland Arts Council/ArtsLink, Darwin Community Arts, Brown's Mart, Polyglot, Canberra Youth Theatre, Corrugated Iron Youth Arts (where he was Artistic Program Manager), The Flying Fruit Fly Circus (where he was Associate Artist), and HotHouse Theatre (where he was Creative Learning Producer). Kyle was a national finalist in ABC's Raw Comedy Competition. Kyle has trained at Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris, with the Upright Citizen’s Brigade (UCB), the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and the University of Southern Queensland.

Brad Fawcett 

Brad has worked in a diverse range of roles in entertainment events across the Territory, including rigging, live and studio audio-visual and production management. Within these varied roles Brad has worked on a variety of projects in both creative and technical capacities in theatre, contemporary and classical music, community arts, Indigenous music and cultural festivals, and corporate events. He was a student of music and audio at CDU and graduated with Honours. Brad has a passion for community arts in all shapes and sizes and thoroughly enjoys the diversity of tasks and challenges these projects throw at him and has a healthy love of rock ‘n’ roll.