Meet the Dramatic Changers
Pip Downes, Co Founder
BA (hons) Acting, Rose Bruford College, London
Cert IV Training & Assessment
Pip left her native Australia in the late 90s to train at Rose Bruford College, London. In addition to working as an actor in Theatre, Film and Television, she has worked extensively as a Facilitator and corporate actor.
A passionate and creative facilitator, Pip has worked for many global organisations delivering Executive Impact, Occupational Health and Safety and Corporate soft skills programmes across the private and public sectors. Pip has also worked as a presentations specialist for Citigroup and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Pip has facilitated programmes for Serco, The Melbourne Business School, Monash Health, Worksafe Victoria, Conoco Philips, DetNorske, TAQA Energy, Swift Global, Herbert Smith Freehills, Barclays Capital, KPMG (various divisions), British Gas, The RAF, Deloitte, Marsh Mercer, Nestle, GlaxoSmithKlein, British Telecom, Vodaphone, The NHS, The Bank of New York, The Metropolitan Police, Norwich Union, Network Rail, Ofsted, The Home Office, Centrica Energy and BP.
Pip is passionate about creating a fun and safe training environment, believing that people learn best when they are engaged and able to be themselves.
Gareth Clarke, Co Founder
BA (hons) Acting, Rose Bruford College, London.
Mental Health First Aider (Accredited)
Gareth graduated with a BA (Hons) in Acting from Rose Bruford College, London in 2002. Following his studies Gareth worked in Theatre and Television as well as corporate drama.
As a facilitator, corporate actor and coach, Gareth has worked on programmes for Serco, Monash Health, Worksafe Victoria, Marsh Mercer, The NHS, The Home Office, Diageo, DetNorske, SMOE and BP.
Between 2012 and 2014 Gareth lead a global team of Project Managers in London & New York, servicing a digital marketing project for the alcoholic drinks giant Diageo - designing and delivering compliance training for marketing teams and creative agencies around the world.
Gareth is passionate about helping people improve their communications skills and believes this forms the building blocks for real, long lasting positive change in organisations and society.
Associates
Rubie Ireson
Cert IV Training & Assessment
Sydney
Rubie is a dynamic, highly skilled and experienced facilitator and is able to draw on her background as a Youth and Community worker, Community Engagement officer and justice advocate to build real connections with people from all walks of life. She is a passionate champion for the marginalised and is able to transfer her awesome people skills to the training room with creativity and flair.
Rubie has a Bachelor of Social Science majoring in Criminology, a Diploma in Youth and Community Work and has a current Mental Health First Aid Certificate. She has extensive experience working with people with complex trauma and is trained in Restorative Justice practice and Accidental Counselling and has considerable experience in the mental health space.
She has designed and delivered training in effective communication, leadership, personal development and conflict resolution.
And as if that wasn't enough, Rubie is also one third of the @sheologypodcast trio, tackling the intersection of faith and feminism. It's a really great podcast with fantastic guests - go have a listen!
Andrew Robb
The Actors Centre, London
Cert IV Training & Assessment
Melbourne
Andrew has worked extensively as an actor in the corporate sector in Australia, the UK, across Europe, New York and the Philippines. He is highly experienced in improvised and scripted role-play, forum theatre, leadership coaching, and communication skills.Andrew has worked in most sectors including banking, finance, insurance, healthcare, local/federal government, manufacturing, telecommunications and transport. Clients include: Worksafe Victoria, Accenture, Allianz, ASDA Supermarkets, AstraZeneca, B.O.C. Gases, Barclays Bank, British American Tobacco, CBA, EY, GlaxoSmithKline, Goldman Sachs, KPMG, KMart, Lloyds Bank, Medibank NAB, Philip Morris International, Royal College of Nurses, Royal Bank of Scotland, Shell, TNT Transport, Telstra, Tesco and Virgin Media.
Andrew is also a Cert IV qualified facilitator and has delivered programmes for CBA, Telstra and EY in a lead facilitator capacity. Andrew also has a bachelor of Electronics Engineering (Hons) and he is also a keen filmmaker.
Andrew has a passion for the power of storytelling in business communications.
Sophie Cleary
Melbourne
As a trained actor, Sophie has spent the last decade working as a performer in theatre, television, film and voice over. A foray into the corporate world opened her eyes to the possibility of facilitating organisational change using drama and story. A facilitator, a business coach and corporate actor, Sophie is passionate about storytelling and creating immersive experiences that transform and unite - we are beyond THRILLED to count Sophie amongst our team of Dramatic Changers.
Sophie has facilitated programmes around bias and inclusion, coaching, leadership skills and storytelling for clients such as KPMG, Telstra, Energy Australia, Oracle, Porter Davis, Citipower, Allen's, Clayton Utz and WorkSafe Victoria.
Oh, and if you need a Marriage Celebrant check out her work @sophiecelebrant .Word of mouth has seen Sophie become one of the busiest celebrants in Melbourne and one day she plans to say 'No.' She is so proud though to say the words 'A union between two people...' saying 'No' is proving very hard to do!
Tomas Parrish
VCA
Melbourne/Sydney
Tomas studied at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) completing the Music Theatre Foundation Program (2015), and the Bachelor of Fine Arts (Music Theatre) last year. He was the recipient of the Nancye Hayes Scholarship which he used to further his studies in London, with teachers from Guildhall, The Royal Academy of Music and Central School of Speech and Drama.
Credits include The Music of AR Rahman (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Polyphonic Voices, AsiaTOPA, 2017), Vivid White (Ensemble, Melbourne Theatre Company, dir. Dean Bryant, 2017), A Chorus Line (Bobbie and Paul Understudy, VCA, dir. Tyran Parke, 2018), Patti Lupone - Don’t Monkey With Broadway (Hamer Hall, M.D. Joseph Thalken, 2018), Into The Woods (Steward and Baker Understudy, VCA dir. Gary Young, 2018), and made his La Mama debut in When the Light Leaves (dir. Jayde Kirchert, 2019). Tomas is also a composer, and recently won Best Original Score at the Vancouver Island Short Film Festival for his work on Behind Barres, and is currently working on his next score for the short film Endo-Girl.
Veronica Thomas
VCA
Melbourne
A Melbourne local, Veronica has been an avid performer since the age of 7.
An accomplished dancer and cellist from an early age, she then found her calling in acting, performing in various productions and short films, before being accepted into the VCA straight out of school.
Whilst training, Veronica performed in The Melbourne International Comedy Festival and The Adelaide Fringe.
Theatre credits include: Ruth in 'Cosi' (Directed by Greg Stone); Perdita in, 'A Winter's Tale', (Directed by Rhys McConnochie); Alister Smiths 'Hose', and 'Himmelweg' (Theatreworks); and the title role in 'Alice in Wonderland,' (Directed by James Wardlaw). Veronica is currently rehearsing for ‘Thigh Gap’, which will be shown at La Mama (Oct 2019).
Television and Radio commercials include: RACV, iSelect, ANZ, Medibank, and Dennis Family Homes.
TV & Film includes: Neighbours’, a lead role in the international award-winning 'Bruce' Directed by Tony Rogers; 'Sexy Herpes' Directed by Madeleine Mullen Dyer, screened on the 9 Network; and a lead role in, 'The Dr Blake Murder Mysteries' Telemovie on ABC.
Veronica is BEYOND excited to see the release of her first feature film ‘Ride Like A Girl’.
Quentin Yung
Sydney
Quentin is a highly experienced corporate actor and roleplayer and has worked with a wide range of organisations including the WA Police Academy, the Dept. of Corrective Services, the Dept. of Defence, Transport for NSW, NSW Businesslink, Alinta Energy, Dynamic Conversations, WebVine, Westpac, Allianz, COLAS Australia, Konica Minolta,Landcom, Equiem Services, Clayton Utz,Bayer, Legend Corporation, and FreshFood Management Services.
Quentin has also worked with many medical training institutions including hospitals and universities in Queensland and NSW, the Royal ANZ College of Psychiatrists, the Health Education & Training Institute, the Australian Physiotherapy Council and the NSW Ministry of Health.
Simon van der Stap
NIDA,
Cert IV Training & Assessment
Sydney
A graduate of NIDA, Simon has worked extensively in Theatre and Television, most recently touring with The Lion King and How to Train Your Dragon. He has significant corporate training experience and holds current Certificate IV’s in Training and Assessment and Occupational Health and Safety. Simon is also an accredited ESOL teacher, Police Firearms and Weapons Instructor and Boxing Coach! A man of many talents who brings something new and valuable to the table at every session we run.