​

Katie began directing in 2002, producing work in Melbourne, Mexico, Darwin, Sydney and Canberra. In 2015 she completed her Masters of Fine Arts in Directing at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA), after previously qualifying at the University of Melbourne (Graduate Diploma of Education) and Flinders University (Bachelor of Arts).

​

Katie was the Artistic Director of Canberra Youth Theatre from January 2015 to December 2018 and directed SKIN, The 24 Hour Butoh Project, The Verbatim Project, The Greek Project – Antigone , poem every day and Filtered with the company. In 2016 Katie was awarded a Canberra Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Revitalising and Advancing Canberra Youth Theatre.

​

Since graduating from NIDA, Katie has also directed short works for Warehouse Circus, The Public Theatre (Design Canberra Festival), Aspen Island Theatre Company and playwrights Emily Sheehan and Tracy Bourne. Katie is co-founder of The Anchor theatre company, which produced its first show, How Are You? at The Public Theatre in 2015. The team presented a full length version of this work in Sydney in late 2018, and the third iteration of it at The Butterfly Club in Melbourne in February 2019. Katie will direct The Anchor's next project, The Three Graces at TheatrWorks in May 2019.

​

​

​

 

Playwright Laura Lethlean is a graduate of NIDA's Writing for Performance MFA, an alumni of the ATYP Fresh Ink program and a founding member of The Anchor. Laura directed her first play, ‘Plastic Pacific’ at The Substation in 2013, before being accepted into NIDAs Writing for Performance Masters of Fine Art. Since graduating, she formed a theatre company, The Anchor with directors Katie Cawthorne and Jessica Arthur. Following their founding, The Anchor swiftly produced Laura's ‘How Are You’ at the Public Theatre for the DESIGNcanberra Festival 2015, . 

​

Following this, Laura's play, ‘The Space Between the Fuel and the Fire’ was selected for production at NIDA 2016. Laura was then selected to be a part of Australian Theatre for Young People's (ATYP’s) Fresh Ink program, where she was mentored by leading playwright Ross Muller. Under Ross' mentorship, Laura wrote ‘Now is the Edge of the Universe’ and ‘Something Actually’. Both of these plays had staged readings at the Victorian Collage of the Arts in 2016. During this time, Laura also attended ATYP's National Studio at Bundanon.

​

In 2017, Laura worked as a script consultant for Screen Australia funded project ‘The Heros of Aus’, was artist in residence for the Maribyrnong City Council’s project ‘Memory Cycle’, and was a resident artist at Testing Grounds in Melbourne where a reading of her play ‘Where the Breath is Kept’ took place. Laura was also asked to be a featured guests during Play Writing Australia's live broadcast of Joanna Murray-Smith's Master Class on playwriting. Also during 2017, Laura's play ‘The Three Graces’ was selected by Play Writing Australia for long form development. An excerpt from this play was featured in Kings Cross Theatre’s Story Tellers Festival in August 2018. 

​

2018 brought Laura many highlights. She was commissioned by Canberra Youth Theatre, where her play ‘Fading’ was produced at the Canberra Theatre Centre. She was script consultant for the Screen Australia and YouTube Red funded short film ‘Rebooted’ by Michael Shanks. The Anchor’s project ‘Two Hearts', written by Laura and directed by Jessica Arthur, was staged at Kings Cross Theatre. Laura also co-wrote 'Strata Inc.' with Faran Martin, which was produced by North of Eight theatre company in November 2018.

​

2019 has seen Laura's play 'Two Hearts' was selected to be a part of the Butterfly Club's One Act Play Festival, and her play 'The Three Graces' was produced by The Anchor at Theatre Works as a part of their Chapter Two season. Laura was also selected to be a part of Play Writing Australia's 'Post Production' program, where she is being mentored by Robyn Archer.

​

‘The Space Between the Fuel and the Fire’ is Laura’s first play to be published.

​

​

 

 

Jessica Arthur is a theatre director who has worked in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and Frankfurt, Germany. Jess works in an open and devised manner and experiments with form and audience perception.

Jess is a co-founder of the theatre company The Anchor along with Katie Cawthorne and Laura Lethlean.​

Jessica is currently the Sydney Theatre Company's Resident Director. Besides STC she has also worked at NIDA, Melbourne Theatre Company, Riverside Theatre, Schauspiel Frankfurt, La Mama, The Old Fitz as well as with the production companies Redline Productions, Never Never and The Kings Collective.