Aarne started his professional theatre career in 1962, as a dancer in a Christmas pantomime at Melbourne's Tivoli Theatre. 

He has worked mainly as a director and a lecturer in both vocational and academic institutions, throughout Australia and in New Zealand and Singapore.

He has been the Artistic Director of a number of organisations, and has been the recipient of a number of awards and fellowships.

In recent years, he has also turned his hand to television directing.

Aarne has a 30 year history with Rep, having directed a number of plays, from Tom Stoppard's Enter a Free Man in 1983, with Peter Robinson; to most recently, John Doyle's The Pig Iron People in 2011 with Judi Crane and Sam Hannan-Morrow. 

He has also had long term associations with Helen Vaughan-Roberts, Liz St Clair Long, Russell Brown, Jeanette Brown, Mandy Brown, Quentin Mitchell and Joyce Gore, to name but a few.

And he is delighted to rejoin the Rep family once again.

Judi has worked throughout Australia and in the USA as an actor, director, dramaturg, adjudicator, voice coach and drama teacher. Judi’s most recent appearances for Rep were as Marie, in Calendar Girls and as Janette Howard in Pig Iron People. Other roles for Rep include Mrs Bennett in Pride and Prejudice, Mrs Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer, Lady Markby in An Ideal Husband, Mrs Malaprop in The Rivals, Isobel Sorodin in Nude with Violin, Clairee in Steel Magnolias, Violet in Steaming, Dot Cook in The One Day of the Year, and Mrs Eynesford-Hill in Pygmalion.

Appearances for other companies include Lady Bracknell (The Importance of Being Earnest) and Mrs Jennings (Sense and Sensibility), for Free-Rain, Mama Morton (Chicago for Canberra Philharmonic) Guildenstern in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Irene Ruddock in A Lady of Letters (UNE/Armidale Playhouse), Äsa in Peer Gynt (New England Theatre Company), Molly Ralston in The Mousetrap (Williamsburg Players) and Queen Eleanor (Lion in Winter) for Peninsula Community Theatre. 

Since cutting her directing teeth on student productions of The Drunkard, Antigone and Lysistrata at Copland College, and le médecin malgré lui for Armidale’s Stage One Theatre School,  she has worked as Assistant Director on Rep’s productions of One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, with Walter Learning, Black Comedy, with Aarne Neeme, and Proof with Tony Llewellyn-Jones, and as Director on Marsha Norman’s Pulitzer Prize winner, ’night, Mother for Rep, and The Pink Panther Strikes Again for Free-Rain.

Judi has been seen most recently as Big Mamma, in the ABC TV miniseries, The Boffin, The Builder and The Bombardier.

Judi has been Convenor and Member of Rep’s Play Selection Advisory Committee, has served on Rep’s Council as a Council Member and Vice-President and President. She is currently Rep’s Vice-President.

Training; The Independent Theatre School (Sydney), University of New England (Armidale), Trinity College (London), The Australian National University (ACT).

Helen is a multi-award winning actor with more than 50 years’ experience in Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra as both an amateur and professional performer, appearing in almost one hundred plays.

Her television credits include All Saints and Comedy Inc. She has worked on radio in Brisbane and Canberra, has done voice-overs for documentaries and has appeared in both corporate videos and television commercials.

Some of her most notable roles have been Helene Hanff in  84 Charing Cross Road; Queen Gertrude in Hamlet; Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest;  Queenie Ayre in The Golden Age; Arkadina in The Seagull; Queen Eleanor in The Lion in Winter; Hermione in The Winter’s Tale; and, Queen Elizabeth I in Elizabeth Rex.

She was last seen at REP as Grandma Kurnitz in Lost in Yonkers. This is the sixth play in which Helen has worked with Aarne Neeme, her favourite Director, and it is a privilege and a pleasure to be joining him again in this production.

Prior to coming to Canberra, Len played a variety of roles in Adelaide such as Che Guevara in Macrune’s Guevara, King O’Malley in The Legend Of King O’Malley and Lenny in Harold Pinter's The Homecoming.  He also appeared in The Devils, Anastasia, David Williamson's What If You Died Tomorrow?, Mary Of Scotland and Pygmalion.

He has played in many musicals including Jack the Ripper  and The London Blitz Show  in Adelaide and, in Canberra, Guys And Dolls, Canterbury Tales, Hello, Dolly!, Sweeney Todd, Chicago, Titanic, The Boy Friend and A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to the Forum.

His most recent appearances were in Moliere’s The Learned Ladies at Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Lady Windermere’s Fan for Canberra Rep and Supa Productions’ 2012 revival of Titanic.

When not performing, Len is supposed to be retired but is a theatre critic for Canberra City News, Canberra Critics Circle and Artsound FM’s ‘Dress Circle’ program as well as being involved in far too many other things.

Pat returns to the Theatre 3 stage after taking a sabbatical to work behind the camera on several local film projects. He has previously appeared with Rep in their productions of Deathtrap, Cosi, Noises Off and Wait Until Dark, as well as appearing in various musical productions.

Working as a cameraman at Parliament House for the past fifteen years, he feels a particular affinity with the events that form the background of Don Parties On, and looks forward to playing an older but not necessarily wiser Mal.

For a complete change of pace, he'll next be playing the all-American Buffalo Bill in Annie Get Your Gun.

Sam has most recently appeared in Rep’s productions of Calendar Girls directed by Catherine Hill, Speaking in Tongues directed by Ross McGregor, Pride and Prejudice directed by Duncan Ley and Pig Iron People directed by Aarne Neeme.

Sam’s involvement with Rep goes back many years, starting with The Madness of George III and Communicating Doors. In between he has appeared in numerous Rep productions including Arcadia, Life x3 and Moon Over Buffalo.

He has also appeared in various ANU, Free-Rain and Looking Glass productions, as well as last year’s Short and Sweet in The Bret I Haven’t Met by Rep’s own Simon Tolhurst.

Sam has, as always, found it a pleasure to work with the talented people of the Canberra Repertory Society, and a particular pleasure to be working with Aarne again.

For anyone who counts these things this is now Sam’s ninth play since quitting theatre.

Isha Menon has had a diverse experience in performance having lived in India, the Netherlands and in Australia.

Her first professional theatrical experience was at the age of seven when she was part of a large production for the opening of the renowned Cadance Festival in The Hague in 2004. In 2007, Isha acted in an award winning Indian film during her stay in India. 

In Australia, she has acted in a Canberra Youth Theatre production and in In Our Own Skin, a cross cultural theatre production for its season at the National Gallery of Australia in 2009. 

She scripted and directed A Curious Case of Friend which was in the 2011 finals of the Canberra Short and Sweet schools and colleges competition.

Isha continues her interest in drama through her courses at college and through other avenues such as the NIDA summer schools. 

Apart from acting, she also studies and performs the harp and has trained in classical Indian singing.

Anne is delighted to be returning to the stage in another brilliant Williamson play, and to be encountering Don’s life once again.  She last appeared on stage for Rep in Don’s Party as Susan, a spirited “stripper” with a penchant for gin… and Don. Now tackling the unhinged home-wrecking redhead Roberta, Anne prays that her casting is in no way reflective of her actual personality.

Anne is most often a backstage creature, with a passion of costuming. She has been involved with a number of local productions and has a particular love of period clothing. Most recently, Anne was involved in Canberra Philo’s 2013 production of Les Miserables. This iconic production involved the mammoth task of costuming a large ensemble in a range of items, totalling to around 300 costume pieces.

Anne’s Canberra Rep costuming credits include Assistant Costume Designer for Lend Me a Tenor; and as Costume Designer for Arcadia and Room to Move.  She also contributed to costumes for School for Scandal (2006), Elizabeth Rex (2007), 34^th Old Time Music Hall and Pride and Prejudice. Before joining Rep, Anne was involved backstage as Assistant Costume Designer for Ursula Hall’s (ANU) Dad and Dave and as “Costume and Prop finder” for their production of Competitive Tenderness.

Anne thanks Aarne for giving her the opportunity to bring a new Williamson character to life, and the cast for helping her find her inner diva. She would also like to sincerely thank her partner Nick, for giving her the strength and support to reach for the stars.