I have worked in tertiary education, as a lecturer and academic manager in the field of communication, for over twenty years. Prior, I was an actor, working in Sydney, New York and Adelaide. And in my life before theatre, I was one of the founding members of Women’s Place, the first refuge for drug and alcohol affected women in Kings Cross, Sydney and Detour House, a halfway house for women leaving detox units and wanting to stay sober.  

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Care, people’s stories and performance have always mattered to me.

 

When my mother, Barbara, was diagnosed with dementia at the end of the first year of my PhD in theatre and performance studies, in2008, I became fascinated with the fact that the story we were living out did not match those popularly available. Our relationship improved rather than deteriorated. 

 

My PhD,  and the book based on it, is an investigation into how theatre and performance approaches to dementia have a vital role to play in colouring and celebrating the lives of people living with one of the many diseases of dementia. 

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I have a  PhD from Macquarie University Sydney, am a  Certified TimeSlips facilitator and have competed many modules from Dementia Training Australia.