Blake Selmes
Artistic Director | 2023 - Present
In the world of theatre, Blake grew up performing in Shakespeare festivals at the Glen Street Theatre in Sydney (in association with Bell Shakespeare). He went on to be awarded the Contribution To Performing Arts recognition by Mater Maria in 2011. After University, Blake developed a program of performance for the Moresby Arts Theatre in Papua New Guinea, producing and starring in seasons of Shakespeare, and directing adaptations of new works.
Blake currently is a creative leader and the artistic director of Goulburn’s Lieder Theatre Company. With the Goulburn Mulwaree Library’s renowned Mighty Playwrights project, Blake has directed 18 short plays along with lighting design, set design and construction, composing music, and editing the 2020 Mighty Playwrights documentary and its filmed performances. Blake and the Mighty Playwrights executive team received the 2020 Australia Day Event of the Year Award and the Southern Tablelands Arts President’s Award for Creative Merit.
Performing in over 25 Lieder productions, Blake’s most recent credits include the playing role of Winston in George Orwell’s 1984 followed by a series of world premieres, namely as Edward Abel in The Interesting Mrs Abel and Jarvis in the perambulatory outdoor performance of Journey Through Country, and performing as an on-stage A/V technician of Prophecy for which he also created a suite of video projections and practical special effects. Blake’s directorial debut with the Lieder was Pavel Kohout’s Fire in the Basement in 2019.
In 2018 Blake travelled to the United States with the Lieder Theatre Company to perform at the American Association of Community Theatre’s Festival in Paradise, where he was awarded ‘outstanding performance in a central role’, one of 6 industry accolades awarded to the theatre’s original acrobatic narrative performance piece, Monochrome. Blake also performed in the touring company of the 2018 Lieder Youth Theatre Acrobatic Fire Show in Florida. Blake reprised his Monochrome role at the Lieder’s international Festival of Theatre for Social Change, Periphery, for which he was also a musician in Polish theatre company Teatr Brama’s Ghost Dance. His role in Monochrome made a comeback in 2019 at the Bramat Festival in Goleniow, and again for the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts, Poland.
As a musician, Blake is a prolific composer performer and teacher.
Having trained as a children’s entertainer in Sydney, Blake has worked as a magician for children’s theatre festivals as well as corporate events and on Television (Channel 9). Blake brings his skill as an early childhood performer into his music and drama curricula, to ensure that the love of art and performance is fostered at a very early age.
Blake has worked as an Early Childhood Music Specialist on and off at the Hume Conservatorium for 4 years, having taken his brand of edu-tainment to over 400 young musicians in pre-schools and day care centres all across the LGA.
A self-taught musician, Blake cares deeply for the healing power of music, both on a spiritual individual level, and as a means of great connection and collaboration within communities.