Artistic director: Mary Lou Jelbart
Mary Lou had a long career as an arts reviewer and reporter with ABC Radio National and Radio 774. She managed to combine this with several years in local government, as a councillor with the City of St. Kilda, where she founded the St. Kilda Festival (of which she is no longer so fond) and the St. Kilda Film Festival (of which she is very proud).
Apart from being involved in protests against the Grand Prix in Albert Park, she has managed to keep out of trouble most of the time.
Venue Manager and Administrator: Philippa Jelbart
Philippa’s background of 15 years in hospitality has prepared her for the multitude of different events that take place at the venue every year, although there is always something to surprise her! Her managerial experience means that she is equally happy balancing the books, selling tickets and artworks, and doing the housekeeping to boot.
Apart from encouraging Mary Lou to protest in rallies against the Grand Prix, she tries to keep her out of trouble most of the time.
Assistant Venue Manager: Isabella Holding
After some misspent years working in superannuation Isabella completed her Arts Degree at La Trobe University after which she worked as an artist assistant in Italy.
When she’s not working at galleries Isabella is running a project between Nepali weavers and Australian visual Artists, working in costume design and coming to terms with her addiction to The Sartorialist and The Design Files.
Gallery and communications manager: Abby Storey
Abby has been working in the visual arts for the last seven years, from gallery management and curation to marketing, graphic design and website design management. She moved to Melbourne from Auckland in early 2009, starting at fortyfivedownstairs soon after.
Abby came to fortyfivedownstairs as an enthusiastic theatre attendee and is enjoying learning increasingly more about the behind-the-scenes workings of an independent theatre.
Technical coordinator: Ben van Dillen
Beginning his career in regional theatre in Victoria, Ben moved to Melbourne where he undertook work in a range of venues including Crown Casino, Chapel off Chapel, VCA and Melbourne Park.
Ben has spent the last few years working in the U.S.A, as a moving lights programmer for Princess Cruiselines, in the U.K on events including the London Film Critics awards and Princess Royals Animal Health Trust gala dinner and as a lighting operator for Oz Opera’s Madam Butterfly tour. Ben returned to Melbourne in December 2009 where he joined the team at fortyfivedownstairs.
Front of house manager: Andrew Hansen
A man of the theatre, Andrew was a founding member of the groundbreaking, mainly adult, puppet company Handspan. Handspan theatre toured extensively in Europe, the U.S. South America, Japan and Indonesia, with ground breaking productions such as Four Little Girls (Ariette Taylor) Secrets (Nigel Triffitt) Cho Cho San (Daniel Keene).
Andrew is well known to fortyfivedownstairs’ patrons for his enthusiastic and effusive audience welcomes.