The StageLync Podcast

Erica McCalman (she/her) is a creative director, speaker and convenor working at the intersection of experimental art, climate and systems change.

She is interested in regenerative economies, opening opportunities for collaboration between different lived experiences, connecting people to deeper conversations and uplifting new models and narratives in service of people and planet.

Her producing credits include Darwin Festival, Sydney Festival, Next Wave, Performance Space, APAM, Melbourne Fringe and Sydney WorldPride. She has mentored and facilitated for organisations including A Climate for Art (ACFA), Vitalstatistix, Hyphenated Projects, Creative Australia, Performing Lines, Darwin Fringe and Artback NT.

For more than a decade Erica has been an advocate for the arts through grassroots efforts driven by the sector and her association with Theatre Network Australia. She has served on the boards of Theatre Network Australia, ILBIJERRI, La Mama Theatre Company and on the advisory group for the Arts Wellbeing Collective.

As a speaker she is known for balancing warmth and good humour with unflinching insight into the complexities we navigate in turbulent times.

A Ballardong Noongar woman with Irish convict, Scottish and Cornish heritage, she is also neurodivergent.

Erica is a graduate of Small Giants Academy’s Mastery of Business and Empathy and Climate Leadership Accelerator programs. In 2008 Erica attained her Bachelor of Fine Art (Production) from the University of Melbourne, Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts.

 

“ATTENTION SPOTIFY LISTENERS: IF you want to WATCH this with VIDEO, you can also subscribe to our video version:

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@stagelync

The StageLync Podcast is a branch of our larger StageLync Community. Come visit us at www.stagelync.com

 

Credits for the StageLync Podcast

Hosts: Anna Robb
Editor: Rose Anne Fermocil
Music: Jeremy Willi
Design: Roselle Bernardo
Production Coordinator: Roselle Bernardo and Alexandra Baxter
Producers: Anna Robb and Andrea Honis

Donna is an award winning thought leader, writer and strategist for community engagement, audience development and social justice. She is President of Walker International Communications Group, Inc., a 40 year old boutique marketing and audience development consulting agency for arts and culture. Her client base is global and she is an Adjunct Professor at New York University and Columbia University.  
 
 

“ATTENTION SPOTIFY LISTENERS: IF you want to WATCH this with VIDEO, you can also subscribe to our video version:

https://open.spotify.com/show/5e9KnBRZdjUTXTvCe6Nrqm?si=6639537c61044396”

 

@stagelync

The StageLync Podcast is a branch of our larger StageLync Community. Come visit us at www.stagelync.com

 

Credits for the StageLync Podcast

Hosts: Anna Robb
Editor: Rose Anne Fermocil
Music: Jeremy Willi
Design: Em Holt
Production Coordinator: Roselle Bernardo
Producers: Anna Robb and Andrea Honis

Aby Cohen is a Brazilian designer, curator, and educator working across theatre, exhibitions, cinema, and other live events. PhD in Theatre Practice and Theory. Awarded the Prague Quadrennial 2011 Golden Triga as curator and designer of the Brazil National Exhibition. Active member of OISTAT since 2003, currently serving as President, re-elected for a second term: 2015–2029. Shaped by a multicultural, multilingual, and religiously diverse family of immigrants from Europe and the Middle East who rebuilt their lives in Brazil in the 1950s, Aby has long explored the themes of borders and territories—both geographic and symbolic—through her artistic practice and personal journey.

 

“ATTENTION SPOTIFY LISTENERS: IF you want to WATCH this with VIDEO, you can also subscribe to our video version:

https://open.spotify.com/show/5e9KnBRZdjUTXTvCe6Nrqm?si=6639537c61044396”

 

@stagelync

The StageLync Podcast is a branch of our larger StageLync Community. Come visit us at www.stagelync.com

 

Credits for the StageLync Podcast

Hosts: Anna Robb
Editor: Rose Anne Fermocil
Music: Jeremy Willi
Design: Em Holt
Production Coordinator: Roselle Bernardo
Producers: Anna Robb and Andrea Honis

Imogen Ross is an Australian freelance theatre designer, researcher and maker whose practice spans over three decades of scenographic work for stage and site-specific performance. 
 
She writes and researches APDGreen Conversations, a national online platform to promote ecological approaches in Australian performance design for the Australian Production Design Guild, and in 2022 was appointed Sustainability Manager at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (N.I.D.A.). There she works closely with course leaders to embed eco-creative sustainable thinking processes and the Theatre Green Book into the curriculum, as well as helping the entire institution achieve its Net Zero de-carbonisation targets.
 
In 2025, Imogen presented her design-led research on SCOBY as a living material for ecoscenography at World Stage Design in Sharjah, UAE, where she also initiated and then hosted the Green Conversation Café - an opportunity for designers and performance makers to sit together and share ideas on the impact of climate change, and greener practices in their work. She has published on scenography, co writing Performance Design in Australia in 2001 with fellow designer Kristen Anderson, as well as contributing to international discourse on Australian performance practices with Dr Tanja Beer, the author of Ecoscenography.
 
She is currently studying at Griffith University, with previous degrees awarded by U.N.E.(Drama and Psychology) and W.A.A.P.A. ( Production Design). Her research and design projects focus on sustainability and material innovation, often incorporating upcycled, found and nature-sourced elements.
 

You can read more about Imogen’s work and research in this recent Arts Hub feature: https://www.artshub.com.au/news/features/from-set-design-to-touring-how-can-we-make-theatre-more-environmentally-sustainable-2851622/

Additional resources and writing on sustainable theatre and filmmaking can also be found via her APDG page: https://apdg.org.au/resources/apdgreen

 
 

“ATTENTION SPOTIFY LISTENERS: IF you want to WATCH this with VIDEO, you can also subscribe to our video version:

https://open.spotify.com/show/5e9KnBRZdjUTXTvCe6Nrqm?si=6639537c61044396”

 

@stagelync

The StageLync Podcast is a branch of our larger StageLync Community. Come visit us at www.stagelync.com

 

Credits for the StageLync Podcast

Hosts: Anna Robb
Editor: Rose Anne Fermocil
Music: Jeremy Willi
Design: Em Holt
Production Coordinator: Roselle Bernardo
Producers: Anna Robb and Andrea Honis

Zoie Golding MBE is a critically acclaimed dance pioneer and social innovator with over 25 years of impact across the UK and international dance and culture scene. An Artistic Director, Executive Producer, and CEO. She is the Founder of ZoieLogic, one of the UK’s leading companies challenging perceptions of who dance is for and how it is experienced.

From powerful touring productions and unforgettable mass dance events and opening ceremonies to grassroots social empowerment and getting hundreds of boys and men dancing, Zoie’s work is driven by one belief: human connection through movement matters and anywhere can be a dance floor. [email protected]

 

 

“ATTENTION SPOTIFY LISTENERS: IF you want to WATCH this with VIDEO, you can also subscribe to our video version:

https://open.spotify.com/show/5e9KnBRZdjUTXTvCe6Nrqm?si=6639537c61044396”

 

@stagelync

The StageLync Podcast is a branch of our larger StageLync Community. Come visit us at www.stagelync.com

 

Credits for the StageLync Podcast

Hosts: Anna Robb
Editor: Rose Anne Fermocil
Music: Jeremy Willi
Design: Em Holt
Production Coordinator: Roselle Bernardo
Producers: Anna Robb and Andrea Honis