CEO and Artistic Director - Peter Cousens
Peter Cousens is the Founder, CEO and Artistic Director of Kookaburra.
He has been an actor and singer for nearly 30 years and is well known for his starring roles in major musicals including Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, Aspects of Love, Miss Saigon, West Side Story. He is the only Australian to play the Phantom in London’s West End.
As a producer he produced his own one man show, A Life on Earth, which toured extensively around Australia for three years. In 2005 he produced, with Guy Noble, Break a Leg, a series of 8 short films about individual musical theatre performers for Ovation Television and in 2006 produced the sell-out Concert Launch of Kookaburra at the Lyric Theatre, Star City.
Artistic Producer - Peter Ross
Peter Ross is the Artistic Producer of Kookaburra, and produced Pippin and Company, as well as An Audience with Stephen Sondheim and Up Close & Musical.
He has worked in the industry for over twenty years as a director, producer, actor and resident stage manager and has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Musical Theatre from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts.
Before Kookaburra, Peter was the Resident Director on The Boy From Oz which toured nationally with Hugh Jackman.
Peter’s other credits involve; Associate Director on End of the Rainbow at the Theatre Royal, Sydney; Associate Director on the Closing Ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games; Assistant Director on Summer Rain for Sydney Theatre Company; Produced and Directed Debbie Does Dallas – The Musical which had a sellout season in Sydney and toured NSW and Melbourne; Artistic Consultant on the Tribute show Queen, It’s a Kinda Magic; Assistant Director on Sunset Boulevard as part of the Luna Park reopening; and freelance producer / director on My Fair Lady, Jekyll & Hyde, Barnum, Grease, Uncle Vanya, Our Day Out, Jerusalem, Jack the Ripper and Guys & Dolls.
In 2001 Peter directed West Side Story for Opera Hunter which received 'Best Production' and 'Best Professional Director', City of Newcastle Drama Awards.
Peter’s arts company work encompasses four years with the Hunter Valley Theatre Company and three years with Freewheels Theatre.
Paul Robertson recently retired as Macquarie Bank Limited, Executive Director, Global Treasurer. He and his family are big musical theatre fans, and have been for a long time. Paul has a long-term vision to affirm musical theatre’s central role in the cultural and social life of Australia.
Elinor Crossing
Elinor Crossing is an experienced Human Resources and Organisational Development professional with extensive experience working within large corporations globally to drive change. Her primary responsibilities have been to develop and implement organisational development strategies and values-based leadership programs for executive talent and, more recently, to initiate critical workforce planning.
Roger Murray
Roger Murray is a commercial lawyer with more interest in matters within but beyond the law – what makes people better people, how to manage risk and beyond black letter compliance. He has been corporate counsel and adviser to a number of Australia’s leading corporations and is a consultant to the Financial Services Industry.