Siren Sirens

Dr Angela Hesson is Curator of Australian Painting, Sculpture and Decorative Arts at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). She has curated numerous exhibitions, including Hans and Nora Heysen: Two Generations of Australian Art (2019) and Love: Art of Emotion 1400-1800 (2017). Prior to her appointment at the NGV, she was employed as a lecturer in Art History and Literature at The University of Melbourne and at La Trobe University, and as a curator at The Johnston Collection.  Angela has also worked extensively as a freelance arts writer.

Perhaps best known for her recent critically acclaimed performance as ‘Dot/Marie’ in Sunday In The Park With George (Watch This), Vidya Makan is no stranger to theatre. She is a composer, singer, actor and musician, living in Melbourne, Australia, dedicated to changing the scope of the ‘conventional musical theatre’ scene.

She is currently working with Front and Centre to develop My Home Too, a song cycle about Australia and home. Her debut musical, Woman, inspired by the lives of Gerda Wegener and
Lili Elbe, received a rehearsed reading in July with Watch This. She is a frequent face at Homegrown concerts, which celebrate the best of Australian musical theatre.

As a performer, her credits include Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet (Australian Shakespeare Company), Green Day’s American Idiot (Shake and Stir), Air Race (Arena Theatre Company) and the
lead role Maria Krish in the feature film The Colour of Darkness, currently available on Amazon, to name a few. Vidya is a proud graduate of Griffith University’s Bachelor of Musical Theatre and attributes her love of storytelling to her music- and theatre-obsessed family.

Roj Amedi is senior human rights campaigner at GetUp! and a writer and editor based in Naarm/Melbourne. Roj’s editorial experience has spanned across art, culture and design, editing publications such as Acclaim Magazine and Neue Luxury. She has also written for The Saturday Paper, SBS, Vault, Swampland, Meanjin, amongst others.