Meet the Rebus Theatre Board of Directors

Meet The Board

Simone Penkethman

President

Simone has been a fan of Rebus since attending their first performance in 2013. She joined the Rebus board as Vice President in 2016 and served as President from 2017 – 2019.
Simone is a musician, theatre maker and writer with decades of experience in Canberra arts. She has long-standing, collaborative relationships with the Rebus Executive team.

Since the 1990s she has produced many arts projects with groups of young people, people with mental ill health and disability, mothers and babies and the general public. She has a passion for bringing art and performance to neglected urban spaces.

She is a member of Canberra Critics Circle and has previously served on the boards of Capital Arts Patron Organisation (CAPO) and Community Radio 2XX.

In 2023 she was research assistant for a University of Canberra led evaluation of Rebus’ Alchemy project. She loved using her research and analytical skills to show the value and power of Rebus’ work.

Simone feels honoured to return to the role of Rebus president. Her unique perspective, keen business sense, and knowledge of governance systems and protocol are invaluable to the company. The Rebus management team thank Simone for her stalwart leadership and sage advice and are thrilled to welcome her back.

Daniel Savage

Vice President

Daniel Savage joined the Rebus Board in June 2019. Daniel has been a practicing visual artist based in Canberra for over a decade, exhibiting nationally and has developed a reputation for creating dynamic, engaging, and conceptually rigorous work. His practice is often self-referential, employing his individual experience of disability as a point of difference to engage audiences in exploring and reassessing established ideas and preconceptions that exist within society.

Daniel is also an active advocate for disability access, inclusion and representation in the arts, having worked alongside major arts festivals, organisations and institutions to increase awareness and engagement.

He brings to the board his extensive knowledge of art and disability, his broad connections within both the contemporary art and disability communities, and his passion for developing the skills, reputation and critical discourse of artists with disability.

Louise Bannister

General Board Member

Lou Bannister joined the Board in October 2023. Lou moved to Canberra in 1991. She has been advocating for herself and other people with disabilities most of her life, and has been working in the ACT disability community sector for 25 years.

Lou is passionate about the right for individual choice and control, and creating a fully inclusive community through mentoring, education, advocacy, leadership, and innovative design and solutions. She was awarded the ACT Chief Minister’s Award for Inclusion by an Individual in 2012.

Lou has served on number of Boards and Ministerial Advisory Councils. Lou works closely with ACT Health and ACT Ministers to improve the disability community’s access to health, housing, education, arts and services. Lou is a Professional Associate to the College of Adjuncts at University of Canberra.

Lou loves music and the arts. She uses music and performances to help manage her anxiety and depression.

Harmony Davey

General Board Member

Harmony Davey joined the Board in February 2024. Harmony was born and grew up in Canberra, and couldn’t see herself living anywhere else! She has a deep respect and understanding for anyone who has tried to navigate the health system for a diagnosis with a disability and come out the other side.

Harmony also works as a Senior Policy Officer at the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) and is supporting the Department’s work purpose to build a more innovative, future ready energy system, by thinking on the role of gas to support Australia’s energy transformation to net zero.

She has a background in the Australian Public Service, including supporting work on the 2023-24 Budget for social policy measures (including Medicare and Public Health), management of the National Broadband Network, and supporting the incoming Government in the 2022 Federal Election.

She is currently studying a Bachelor of Economics and Law at the University of New England and is passionate about advocating for every Australian, and ensuring they have a chance to thrive in our economy.

Long Serving Past Board Members

Evelyne Meier

Former President

Evelyne Meier joined the Board unofficially in November 2018 and as an official director in February 2019. Evelyne loves art as a communication medium, be this design, dance or theatre. She has experienced the impact of theatre in changing people’s attitude when she was director of the Australian Institute of Family Centred Care.

She was keen to engage with people who are promoting social change, advocating for people with disability and who are inclusive.

Evelyne has served on several boards. Her background spans nursing, international banking, government, education and the not-for-profit sector. She has a strong governance, grants and policy background and applies these skills for Rebus.

Hanna Cormick

General Board Member

Hanna Cormick joined the Rebus Board in May 2020. She brings with her a history as an international theatre-creator and performer, as well as her lived-experience as a disabled artist with atypical access needs.

Hanna is a performance artist and curator, with a background in physical theatre, dance, circus and interdisciplinary art. She is a graduate of École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq and Charles Sturt University’s Acting degree. Hanna’s practice has spanned many genres and continents over twenty years, including as a founding member of Australian interdisciplinary art-science group Last Man To Die, one half of Parisian cirque-cabaret duo Les Douleurs Exquises, and as a mask artist in France and Indonesia. Her current practice is a reclamation of body through radical visibility.

Michael White

Former Acting Secretary

Michael White joined the Rebus Board in May 2021. Michael has been involved in the arts as a theatre practitioner and advocate for over 40 years. He studied Drama at Flinders University and graduated with a BA (Hons) in Drama (Performance) in 1973. In 1979 he moved to Canberra and worked as an actor with the Jigsaw Theatre in Education Company and Canberra Youth Theatre. In 1981 Michael moved to the UK and found work in theatre-in-education projects in Wales. In 1983 he returned to Canberra and worked here as a freelance actor and then moved to Melbourne where he worked as a freelance Assistant Director with Crawford Television.

In 1987 Michael was a co-founder of the Melbourne Workers Theatre, a theatre company that was funded under the Australia Council’s Art in Working Life Policy. In 1989 Michael returned to Canberra where he worked again as a freelance actor and also joined the ACT Arts Council and worked as a Community Arts Officer. Over the years he has worked as a performer with State Theatre Company of SA, Junction Theatre Company (SA), Canberra Theatre Company, People Next Door (ACT) and the ABC. He also worked as a film technician (8 feature films)for the SA Film Corporation.

In 1993 he commenced work in Canberra as an Industrial Officer for the Actors Equity Section of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) the trade union that covers performers and all those who work in the media and entertainment industries. (He had joined Actors Equity in 1974.) In 2000 he became ACT Branch Secretary of the union and he left MEAA in July 2014 after 21 years. During his time at MEAA he also served on the ACT Cultural Council, the ACT Government’s arts advisory body. He is currently the Co-ordinator for The Childers Group, an independent ACT based arts advocacy group.

Paul Marshall

General Board Member

Paul Marshall joined the Rebus Board in October 2021. Paul is a group and experiential coach with a particular interest in coaching and training solutions for neurodiverse teams. Paul’s specialties include team capability development with a focus on trust, accountability, ethics, values and behaviours, culture and mood. Paul has been involved in community theatre for over 30 years - as an actor, director, stage manager, lighting operator and more recently as President of a Queensland theatre that recently celebrated 50 years of continuous operation.

Paul is a Chartered Professional Engineer, has been admitted as a Barrister in the State of Queensland and holds Doctorates from the faculties of Chemical Engineering and Law. Paul has also worked in the areas of risk and compliance with some of Australia’s largest energy companies.

Craig Wallace

Former Vice President

Craig has been involved in Rebus from the very beginning through his work at Nican, a disability information and referral service that acquired the initial funding for the project that led to our development as a company. He joined the Rebus board in October 2016 and took on the role of Vice President in 2017 serving in that role until November 2019.

Craig also works as the Policy Manager at ACT Council of Social Service (ACTCOSS) and has led work on policy, campaigns and advocacy around housing, income support and employment, urban planning, transport, citizen engagement and investments in quality services for the Canberra community. 

With a background in the Australian Public Service including housing policy, leading a community housing association, working in a business chamber and as the President of a national peak disability rights body, Craig is passionate about social justice, human rights and the importance of affordable and accessible housing. Craig has a disability and uses a wheelchair.

Noonee Doronila

Former Treasurer

Noonee Doronila joined the Rebus Board in October 2016 taking up the position of Treasurer. She has served on a number of local boards and committees including the Domestic Violence Prevention Council, the Performing Arts Advisory Committee, the ACT Cultural Council and the Multicultural Women’s Advocacy Committee.

Noonee is a Filipino Australian multicultural artist and has a 30-year career in social work with the Australian Public Service. Since moving to Canberra in 1996, Noonee has been involved in workshops for the development and production of plays, poetry publications and performance poetry focussing on issues of migration and cross-cultural identity.

Noonee has written several plays and edited two community poetry books. She was a recipient of an Asialink Literature Residency in the Philippines. In 2007, she was an International Women’s Day awardee by the ACT Government, for her contribution to multicultural arts. She is also a recipient of the Canberra Critics Circle Award 2007 for Theatre for writing and directing Manila Takeaway. In 2015, she was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for service to the community through social welfare and cultural organisations.

Alana Foster

Former Treasurer

Alana Foster joined the Rebus Board in November 2019 taking up the position of Treasurer. Alana has 30 years’ experience as an accountant, auditor, senior executive and consultant working with public sector agencies and boards, supporting people to deliver quality outcomes that make a difference through strong governance, planning, financial management, legal compliance, transparency and accountability.

She also volunteers her time on the Lids4Kids Australia Board as the founding President and Treasurer of this popular charity that works with Australian families, schools, communities and businesses to rescue plastic and aluminium lids for recycling, that would otherwise end up in landfill and waterways.

She currently mentors students with challenging life circumstances studying drama and humanities at the Australian Catholic University through the St Vincent De Paul’s Clemente Program.

Alana is a passionate supporter of the theatre and advocate for the cast and stories representing the wider community including those with a disability. Alana is helping to build and grow the company and to secure ongoing long-term funding arrangements.

Rebus acknowledges the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people as the traditional custodians of the land on which we live and work, and pays our respect to elders past, present and emerging.

We practice radical empathy through theatre and other arts to stimulate healing and provoke social and environmental change. Together with our donors and friends, Rebus is embarking on a bold new path to reach more of our marginalised than ever before. Play your own part by making a tax deductible donation to support our mission here!

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The Rebus Staff Wellbeing Program is supported by Hands Across Canberra in partnership with the Chief Minister’s Charitable Fund and the Canberra Foundations Collective.