We’re delighted to announce the ten talented artists with disability accessing professional mentorships through our 2026 Next Level Creative Mentorship program.

Skye Bee, Ella Buckley, Tarsha Cameron, DEFNE, Ted Duffell, Ryan Enniss, Chelsea Turner, Jess Turner, Bonnie Williams and Bianca Yeung will each receive a mentorship within a leading performing arts organisation and $3000 in project funding to develop an innovative new project.

Each of the selected artists will receive up to 20 hours of one-to-one support through our partnering organisations. This exciting program will involve assessing their ideas, developing concept briefs and drafting detailed project outlines.

We can’t wait to see how each of these talented artists takes their projects to the Next Level!

Next Level Creative Mentorship Participants

Skye Bee – Gravity and Other Myths (SA)

Skye Bee (they/them) is an artist, programmer, director and producer working across live performance, cabaret, circus and interdisciplinary practice. A queer autistic creative, Skye builds bold, intimate spaces where underrepresented voices are centred and celebrated, where sexuality, sensuality, desire and the ‘forbidden’ are explored with care and intent. Their practice is grounded in working with neurodiverse casts, shaping environments that are responsive, collaborative and alive to the needs of each artist.

Their work spans national festivals and independent stages, alongside a boundary-pushing monthly variety show in Adelaide. Skye is the Executive Director of Feast Festival and an advocate for queer, disability-led work that challenges norms, reclaims agency and expands what is possible on stage.

Ella Buckley – Canberra Theatre (ACT)

Ella is a passionate artist and performer, with a particular focus on theatre. She is currently in her fourth year of a Bachelor of Arts at the Australian National University studying English, and in 2022 obtained her Certificate IV in Acting. With over eight years of experience in the theatre community, Ella has had the pleasure of being involved in a variety of productions. Most recently, Ella performed as Antigone in Antigone (Greek Theatre Now, 2025). Ever the literature student, she thoroughly enjoys the process of creating new works, with her current project being her play Saving Face. 

Tarsha Cameron – State Theatre Company of South Australia (SA)

Tarsha is an emerging transdisciplinary artist working across acting, writing, and installation, exploring interpersonal relationships across place, ancestry, and species. Recent works include Hag-ia (2024-), which won Best Visual Arts and Design at Adelaide Fringe 2025, and was runner-up in the Dawn Slade-Faull Award 2025. Hag-ia included installations at Heysen Sculptural Biennial and SALA 2025. Her practice spans performances like ‘Together We Are Apart’ (2019 Adelaide Fringe), interdisciplinary theatre including ‘Have You Seen What I See?’ (2020-22), and installations such as Unseen/seen (2021), shortlisted for a SALA prize. Her debut cabaret ‘Unapologetic’ premiered at Cabaret Fringe 2022.

DEFNE – PYT Fairfield (NSW)

DEFNE is a queer and neurodivergent Turkish-Australian multidisciplinary artist. She is the Creative Director and Host of West Side Poetry Slam in Western Sydney. As a poet, DEFNE has featured at the Sydney Opera House, the Art Gallery of NSW and Riverside Theatres. She performed a poetry-and-song cabaret at Flight Path Theatre, and her play, ‘Stomach It’, through OutLoud. DEFNE holds a Bachelor of Arts (Creative Writing & Theatre) and Fine Arts (Photography & Graphic Design) with distinction from UNSW. Her work explores relationships—romantic, familial, platonic, and with ourselves, mental health, abuse, and culture. A self-reclaimed drama queen, she overruns with shared vulnerability and revolutionary intimacy.

Ted Duffell – Tracks Dance Company (NT)

I love people, my pets, parties, dance and physical theatre. I have recently participated in Theatre Makers, Butoh, Back to Back Theatre Camp, Zen Zen Zo, and a Circus Dust (Star Dust III) Fundraiser.  I love working at Australia Post, playing for the Thorny Devils All Abilities netball team and participating in ‘It Starts with D’ with Incite Arts each week. I was born in Melbourne (I’m a Richmond AFL supporter) but have lived in Alice Springs (Mparntwe) since I was 3. I went to Ross Park Primary School and St Philip’s College with my older brother Max and younger brother Charlie.

Ryan Enniss – Merrigong Theatre Company (NSW)

Ryan grew up in a rural town in the south of Tasmania, and eventually moved to Sydney to become a professional artist. He currently works as a voice-over artist, a playwright, and an actor based on the lands of the Bidjigal and Gadigal people of the Eora nation. His play ‘Drizzle Boy’ won the 2022 – 2023 Queensland Premier’s Drama Award, and was the first mainstage show in Australian history to feature an autistic lead, as well as be written by an autistic playwright. In his spare time, Ryan enjoys drinking tea, listening to heavy metal music, and tending to his garden.

Chelsea Turner – Patch Theatre (SA)

Chelsea Turner is a songwriter, performer, and neurodiversity advocate creating play-based experiences that help families build connection and emotional regulation tools. Raised in a creative family, she was shaped by her mother’s work in puppet theatre and early childhood education. Now, as a parent herself, Chelsea draws on story, song, and imaginative play to create work that is warm, inclusive, and grounded in lived experience. She is a MusicSA People’s Choice Award nominee and winner of the SCALA Festival of Original Music song contest.

Jess Turner – Bell Shakespeare (NSW)

Jess Turner is a writer, actor and emerging theatre-maker based on Gadigal land. Her debut solo work ‘Spectrum’, developed through Brand X’s Ground Zero residency, earned nominations for Best in Theatre and Best Emerging Artist at Sydney Fringe, before going on to win a weekly Best New Artist award at Adelaide Fringe. With a background in songwriting, poetry, improv and comedy, Jess blends spoken word, movement and storytelling to create works that are bold, vulnerable and deeply human. Her practice is grounded in extreme curiosity, and thematically explores neurodivergence, authenticity, and the complexities of human connection.

Bonnie Williams – Australian Dance Theatre (SA)

Bonnie Williams is a proud disabled artist with over 20 years of experience in the disability arts sector. She is the Artistic Director of DOWNPOUR co., an Adelaide-based, disabled-led independent dance theatre company. Bonnie creates work born from the fringes — centring and celebrating disabled, queer, and neurodivergent voices and stories. Her work merges cabaret, dance, and immersive theatre to unravel stereotypes, explore human connection, and create space for new stories to unfold. Through this lens, she dives into the depths of joy, desire, connection, and pleasure, inviting audiences into experiences that are visceral, intimate, and transformative.

Bonnie also works as a producer, dancer, teacher, mentor, and creative facilitator, known for her dynamic presence both onstage and behind the scenes. Her practice champions access, authenticity, and inclusive creative spaces where artists are empowered to be visible, be heard, make noise, and take up space. Bonnie has cultivated a long-standing relationship with Restless Dance Theatre, one of Australia’s leading inclusive dance companies. She works regularly as an educator and facilitator, supporting both emerging and established artists to explore movement, expression, and self-determined practice. In 2024, she joined Restless as a company dancer, performing in PRIVATE VIEW, which premiered at the Adelaide Festival to critical acclaim and toured nationally.

Bianca Yeung – Monkey Baa Theatre Company (NSW)

Bianca is a Cantonese-Australian writer, dancer and producer. In 2025, Bianca created the widely acclaimed dance/theatre play ‘BiPolar Express’ for Sydney Fringe. She has trained and performed with independent dance collectives Young Folks and Future Makers, published essays and poetry, holds a BA in English and Neuroscience and almost completed a Doctor of Medicine before making a break for an arts career. Bianca combines unlikely mediums and perspectives to create works that are surprising, funny and deeply moving. She currently works as a development assistant, notetaker and script coordinator on shows for Netflix, Stan, ABC, SBS and Paramount.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. Accessible Arts Principal Funder: Create NSW. Access2Arts Principal Funder: Government of South Australia.

ENDS

Image Description: A collage featuring the ten selected artists. Clockwise from top left: Bonnie Williams (photo by Suzanne Elliot), DEFNE (photo by Justin Cueno), Ted Duffell, Skye Bee (photo by Suzanne Elliot), Ryan Enniss (photo by Sally Flegg), Ella Buckley (photo by Kurt Sneddon), Jess Turner (photo by Jacquie Manning), Tarsha Cameron (photo by Sam Oster), Chelsea Turner and Bianca Yeung.