A Place in the Sultan's Kitchen (or How to Make the Perfect One-Pot Chicken Curry)

Australia’s largest regional theatre company, Merrigong is widely recognised as one of our most progressive and dynamic arts organisations. The company manages one of Australia’s most important regional venues, Illawarra Performing Arts Centre, on unceded Dharawal land in Wollongong.

Since 2005, under Artistic Director Simon Hinton, Merrigong has developed into a vibrant theatre company in its own right, creating 63 new Australian works. Highlights include site-specific works in iconic local settings such as Wollongong Botanic Garden and Port Kembla Pool, and national tours of works like Kay Proudlove’s Dear Diary, and Alana Valentine’s Letters to Lindy.

Joshua Hinton is a Wollongong-based actor, singer/songwriter and theatremaker. For Merrigong Theatre Company he is the co-ordinator and head tutor of Merrigong’s Creativity Camp, their regular holiday program. In 2021 he received Wollongong City Council funding to record a number of his original songs with his duo, Dom and Josh, for the Jam ‘n Bread NewGen Global Project. A Place in the Sultan's Kitchen (Or How to Make the Perfect One-Pot Chicken Curry) is his debut work.

Dominic Hinton is a Wollongong-based singer-songwriter and sound designer. He graduated from SAE Institute with a Bachelor of Audio, where he was able to work on sound design for several short films. Credits include Vision and Sound Realiser for Yandha Djanbay (Go Slowly) by Kirli Saunders, and Sound and Vision Designer A Place in the Sultan's Kitchen (Or How to Make the Perfect One-Pot Chicken Curry).

Leland is the Artistic Development Manager for Merrigong Theatre Company. He has over twenty-five years professional experience as a Director, Producer, Designer, Dramaturg, Curator and Arts Manager. Prior to joining Merrigong in 2015, Leland was the Artistic Director of the Tamarama Rock Surfers Theatre Company. During his decade long tenure with the Rock Surfers he programmed and produced over 100 new Australian works and established both the Old Fitzroy and Bondi Pavilion Theatres. Since graduating from the NIDA director’s course in 1997, his career has been committed to the development and production of new Australian work and artists. He has directed and produced premieres and productions of the work of many of Australia’s most prominent writers including Suzie Miller, Sue Smith, Alana Valentine, Kay Proudlove, Brendan Cowell, Toby Schmitz, Aiden Fennessey, Tim Minchin, Travis Cotton, Stephen Carlton, John AD Fraser, David Williamson, Tim Baker, Lachlan Philpott and Drew Fairley. For Merrigong he has directed productions of Lost Boys in 2018, The Surfer and the Mermaid 2019, Dear Diary and As Luck Would Have It 2022, A Midsummer Nights Dream 2023, A Place in the Sultan’s Kitchen (Or How to Make the Perfect One-Pot Chicken Curry) 2024 and Yandha Djanbay (Go Slowly) 2025. He produced the national tour of Letters to Lindy in 2018 and has driven the development of Merrigong Strangeways Ensemble and Merrigong’s artist development program MerrigongX.