Our Board
In 2022 we incorporated as a non-profit entity, a company limited by guarantee. We are building our board and currently seeking expressions of interest to join our board and help to solidify ROOKE for a successful and sustainable next 20 years.
For more information or to chat about joining our board contact either freyja@rooke.org.au
Lewie West - Board Director and Public Officer
Lewie has had a strange and winding path through life. A love of circus and the arts started as a student at Warehouse Youth Circus in Canberra which led on to his first dream career - that of a travelling acrobat, working for some of Australia's biggest and most renowned circus companies, Circa and Gravity and Other Myths. He won a gold medal for his solo act in Paris at the Festival Mondial du Cirque de Demain before moving on to a role teaching at various festivals and being co-program coordinator at Slipstream Circus in Ulverstone.
The final cherry on top of his circus career was being a founding member of ROOKE and helping bring world-class circus to Tasmania.
Lewie has now moved on to a different path and is currently a firefighter at Devonport station, but he continues to love and advocate for the transformative power and beauty of performing art, especially circus.
Hannah Todd - Secretary
Hannah has been the Digital Content Coordinator at Terrapin since 2023. After working in the media industry for seven years with Southern Cross Austereo, Grant Broadcasters and the ABC, Hannah shifted her focus back to the arts in 2019. Since 2020 she’s worked for Ten Days on the Island, at two consecutive festivals, and Launceston’s Theatre North. Hannah is a photographer, graphic designer, audio producer and digital arts marketer with a passion for project delivery.
Hannah serves on the board of ROOKE and actively volunteers at JCP Youth, supporting at-risk and vulnerable youth in Tasmania. During her time at Southern Cross Austereo, Hannah also helped lead the charity Give Me 5 For Kids, where the team raised almost one million dollars for the Royal Hobart Hospital children's ward over two consecutive years.
Jane Longhurst - Board Director
Jane Longhurst is an award-winning actor, theatre maker, producer, broadcaster, voice artist and popular presenter of events big and small based in nipaluna/Hobart. She has worked extensively in theatre, television and radio since graduating from the Victorian College of the Arts.
Recent theatre credits include Bingo! Stay on the ball ladies by Belinda Bradley for Blue Cow Theatre, the first two performances of her Black Bag Trilogy: Happy Days by Samuel Beckett, (Mona Foma 2021) and Request Programme by Franz Xaver Kroetz staged at Detached for Beaker Street Festival (2022) and the Earl Arts Centre in Launceston for Theatre North (2023). Jane was awarded the Best Professional Performance in a Leading Role at the 2023 Tasmanian Theatre Awards for Request Programme,
Jane has worked as Marketing Manager for Flying Fruit Fly Circus, served as the inaugural Executive Officer for Theatre Council of Tasmania and Co-Chair Tasmanian Creative Industries Council.
Adie Delaney - Board Director
Lover of heights, catalyst of parental panic, Adie left home at 18 to travel the world as a circus artist. Alongside her performing career, Adie constantly nurtured a passion for teaching and developed her pedagogical style by taking inspiration from many different physical disciplines, including her more recent work in trauma, social services and allied health. Adie transitioned from performing in 2014, to work in community circus first the UK then in Tasmania where she founded The Circus Studio in 2015.
Since 2017 Adie has been developing and delivering respectful relationship and consent education. She has worked with professional settings, school communities, sports, theatre and medical industries. Adie speaks regularly on sexual harm and child safety both nationwide and globally including her 2020 TED talk which has amassed over 1.5 million views online.
Adie self identifies as a multipotentialite and is still not sure what she wants to be when she grows up.
Conor Wild - Board Director
Conor is one of ROOKE’s founding members. He has a wealth of experience in the industry, having spent the last fourteen years creating and performing with some of the biggest names in the business, all around the world. He understands life as an artist and a maker and cares deeply about vibe; about carving out a space where artists feel safe and secure - physically, emotionally and financially - so they can lean in and create world-class art. He believes ROOKE can lead by example, caring for its people so they can give back to the community, lifting everyone in the process.